Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.107 (Bread and Zander)

I’ve always wondered why the canals I fish are devoid of anglers because there are some nice fish to catch and there is that mystery in fishing which is lacking in fishing a commercial for example. You have so much of it to explore that there isn’t the issue that if there is a rare example that there is another angler present, solitude is a mere 5-minute walk away.

The local stretches to me are alive at the moment with everything waking up from its slumber. The fish are spawning or have spawned and those bream especially are on the munch and are there to be caught.

The flora and fauna is also growing so fast you can almost see it grow if you stare at in long enough, so that means they are a pleasant place to spend time next to, especially when you are getting bites.

For this early morning roving session, I fancied exploring an area that won’t have ay narrowboats navigating its waters for a good while because of a lock gate is having to replaced. It’s a month away from the new river season and I would be surprised if it’s fixed by then, so time to fill one’s boots.

So a predator rod with a roach deadbait and my small guru pellet waggler set-up where I’d fish some bread tight to some reeds. The float is made from foam so with a large shot anchored a couple of inches from the hook it’s easily castable and the set-up is super sensitive. Some sloppy bread is fed once the bread is in position and that clouds up the water.

Anyway what I didn’t expect was that on-route to the area to fish was another angler who was already fishing !! I was there a 6.30am and he’d been there at dawn. He’d managed some perch and also some bream fishing close in from the bank using maggots. Because of the lack of boats the water is now starting to clear with a good foot or so of visibility.

Whilst I was having a natter the amount of fish activity was quite incredible really with bubbles galore in much of the swim. So I needed to go and catch some fish of my own didn’t I. I headed up to the very top of the area I wanted to fish which was a good 40 minutes walk, and then I’d work my way down.

Anyway, as I was nearing the area, what the hell, yes another angler who had just set-up his gear. Unheard of in these quarters but then the weather was glorious I’m sure that helped. 

He was floating fishing with maggots as well and he also had a sleeper rod out with a pellet for something more likely to put a bend in the rod.

I started off in a winding hole where I’d positioned a deadbait near to some cover and I fished the pellet waggler (fished overdepth) over at the far side of the canal right next to some reeds. It just looked good for a bite and I was correct in that assumption because within 20 minutes or so I managed to catch 3 small bream all of similar stamp.

The last fish gave a good account for itself and disturbed the shallow swim so much the bites dried up which gave me the nudge to get on the move. I fished quite a few areas with not much success with the deadbait having no interest whatsoever. Hmmm….

So in the end I decided to retrace my steps to the start and then go beyond to more familiar waters where I’d had zander from before and also some nice hybrids. Within 5 minutes of the deadbait being positioned in the oxygenated water the float was off on its travels and I’d hooked in to a nice fish.

It gave a good fight and in this area the zander are unusually dark and this one showing that to good effect. As I was getting the fish unhooked, I realised that the pellet waggler rod had now disappeared and upon lifting the rod realised that there was a fish on the end. It was nice hybrid of a couple of pounds and I’m still amazed just how well these fish flight.

With two fish caught in quick succession again the bites dried up, so I headed to bream bay where in the past has produced some nice fish up to 4lb or so. This is a wider bit of the canal and it’s also full of reeds so the fish tend to hang out here.

The amount of fish activity was plainly ridiculous but sadly I only had half an hour before curfew so I had to make the limited time I had caught. I need not have worried though because after a nice bream showing its spawning battle scars I also managed another hybrid soon afterwards both from the same swim.

By this time the sun was high in the sky and blanketing the surface with its rays, so I was surprised the fish were in a feeding mood. Sadly, time called play but it was an enjoyable session I must admit and the weather being good makes a massive difference to that, long may it continue.

Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.106 (Maggots)

Jon Arthur's recent Youtube upload was a painful watch I must admit, a really nice guy and family (His brother Mick is a good mate of mine) but a heat of the moment misjudgement in a FishOMania qualifier has spiralled and you can clearly see it has affected him mentally and it looks like physically too.  

He's properly beaten himself up over it and will probably haunt him for the rest of his match fishing days, especially when no doubt there will be those finger pointers most likely jealous of his success, and it's one of those situations that he would play back differently if he could go back in time.

That's why <----------Mick---------------------------------------------------competitive match fishing---------> because I'd have no qualms about cheating whatsoever 🙈 in-fact I remember fishing Tunnel Barn once for a Shanghai AC match and I'd plumbed up the depth 5 minutes before the match has started, removed the plummet and flicked out the float rig in to the margins and a fish had hooked itself on a bare hook a few minutes afterwards. 

Obviously me being me I'd tightened up the clutch and let the fish take some line, where upon the sound of the horn 30 seconds later I'd scooped the 3lb manky F1 in the landing net. 💪

Fish with two rods, yeah I'm sure I've done that too, if I think about it, but then I did 'accidently' leave the bomb and pellet rod in after going back to the float again. No issues fishing the canal this way though because I was back up Wild Garlic Way where I'd have a sleeper rod out for the carp and a float rod with maggots for anything that came along. I fancied catching a fish this time though because I had a nightmare here the other evening when I couldn't buy a bite. 

I intended to give it another go here before trying elsewhere because the carp was on patrol and Nic from Avon Angling had spotted it too when he was here as well, so the big roach didn't seem to be showing but at least I might get a chance to catch the carp because I wanted to see if it was the same one I caught here almost a year to the day. 

I'd hooked it recently on the roach gear so could do nought about it and that took bread that day like it did when I caught it off the surface, but I literally dropped it on its nose last time because it was spooky as hell when it was out in the middle of the canal, where if you flicked bread towards it, it would skoot off the other way. 

On-route to the area to fish there was a hype of activity in the reeds because yes fish were spawning again. A load of them too so that could well make the fishing a little tricky but I didn't take long to get the first bite to be honest so at least I'd not blanked,

The first spot produced a few small roach, a perch and small hybrid but as expected the bream were not showing. The carp rod had gone out next to some reeds with some bream mash and some pellets over the top but that remained silent throughout the session. I was fully expecting to see it or them during the morning as it was glorious but they were suspicious in their absence.  

The bites dried up in the first swim and being the inpatient me I decided to try a few other spots. The first next to a oxygenated lock but despite a couple of fish topping the float remained motionless. So the next port of call was tight to some near margin reeds where it's no more than a couple of foot deep. Eventually the bigger fish started to show themselves but nothing to write home about really with the 5 or so bream caught the biggest shown below.

As the morning went on the bites were hard to come by really but with the sun blazing down on a relatively clear canal, for here anyway where there was a least a foot of visibility, not entirely unexpected. 

Sometimes it's just nice to be out at this time of year when everything has woken up from the winter slumber. The fish I bet must be feeding on these tadpoles because there was thousands of them in one particular spot.  

A slightly disappointing session really considering the amount of fish that were here the other evening but I still enjoyed myself and that's the main thing. I spotted a few mayfly too so I'm hoping to give the trout a go on the lure soon because I bet they are on the munch at the moment.  

Canal Roach - The Sisyphean Task ? Pt.9

The deluge of rain the weekend during some thunder and lightning showed up my hatred of DIY and the like, you see ones gutters were full to the brim and were spilling over the side nearly tainting next door neighbour David's ornamental bush. A bush that I'm sure will be in his will someway or another.

The only thing for it was to get the ladders out, unroll the hosepipe and actually get down to some the neglected maintenance whilst the weather was nice.

What I didn't expect was a whole bucket full of gunk was retrieved from the gutters that must have been under some considerable strain judging just how heavy it was. The front gutters gunk had almost knitted itself together where a foot long weed was growing out of it to raise the red flag and the cul-de-sac covenant pointers at the Newey's lack of 'keeping the house in good order'.

 

A quick test of the gutters draining post clearing showed that it was working effectively and should suffice for another 5 years or so (joke), well until there was another risk to David's bush buddy, we wouldn't want that to happen now would we.

Anyway with some roach to catch I decided to go for a couple of hours down the canal where my best roach to date is 1lb and 12 ounces. 

I'm sure I've lot a bigger one as well that came off 10 seconds or so in to the fight, and it certainly felt like a roach on the end of the line.

I've been concentrating on bread as it tends to bring the bigger fish but maggots will be used from time to time for a more conventional approach.

A lovely evening indeed where the water actually felt warm when I had a dropped run on the deadbait within 5 minutes and felt the deadbait.

Yes of course I had a sleeper rod out as well because there are Zander here to be caught, so a roach went out over at the far side tight to some reeds.

Anyway a quick water temperature check it was 17.3 degrees 🌞 so positively tropical and the swim was like fish soup. 

I've never seen such activity on the canal before a proper eyeopener it was. The first to show where rolling bream and as the evening progressed some small fish were jumping out and also some roach I assume were breaching the surface, presumingly to feast on the insects that were in huge numbers skimming the water.

The amount of activity really was quite ridiculous but wow what a session of ultimate frustration, I just couldn't connect to any of the bites on the float set-up I used effectively the weekend. They shot under really fast, or that classic lift bite would play out in 3x the usual motion where I'd connect in to nothing.

At least the Zander were playing ball, I caught a tiny schoolie but also missed a couple of bites and also had one that looked about 4lb that dropped off in the fight.

I fished for a couple of hours until I couldn't see the float and left with my tail between one's legs because I left fishless on the main float attack. I dread to think how many bites I failed to connect to, I can only assume they were small fish that and I'm a rubbish angler.

We all have those sessions from time to time though I suppose but I was kicking myself I didn't bring any maggots because I'm sure that would have been the answer to connecting to some of these fish. Oh well at least I know for next time. There wasn't one boat either because of a lock gate having to be replaced above here limiting movement, hopefully that will stay till the closed season ends, because it was rather nice I must admit. 

Update:// Nic went the following morning and cleaned up on maggots !!

Canal Roach - The Sisyphean Task ? Pt.8

So I was back on the roach hunt this time on a stretch of canal I've fished plenty of time but never for the smaller species. I've only fished it for Zander but it has the 'Hallowed' green tinge to the water and I fancied trying to see if I was missing anything.

Naturally I'd have a deadbait rod out as well it would be rude not to wouldn't it !!

Again another early start to hopefully avoid the boats because I switched the float again to a 3BB Drennan Antenna float where I'd over shotted it by 1BB where I'd bulk all those shot a inch and a bit before the fine wire size 12 hook.

On route to the spot to fish there was fish spawning all over the gaff. I've never seen such activity like this before, they were properly on it. 

These were quite clearly bream though and after mashing some bread in the mild water I actually decided to measure the temperature and it had shot up to 15 degrees, which does explain them being on it so to speak.

I decided to leave them to it and fish around 30 yards away that looked perfect for a bite.I wasn't wrong either because after chucking out the sleeper rod with a partly frozen roach on, within around 10 seconds the float is getting some interest where after a few seconds of not doing much it confidently goes off an run. 

This was no Zander as expected though it was a small pike that had snaffled the bait almost on the drop. So with the predators on it I decided to fish for those instead leapfrogging sections and sections of cover, with to be honest no more bites.

With a few boats now moving I decided to fish the session as planned because to be honest the tow wasn't that bad and because it's quite a wide bit of canal here the boats don't tend to be that much of an issue.

So bread for the hook and bread slop as feeder a wallace cast distance out. The float I must admit worked perfectly where after 10 minutes or so there were some bubbles around the float which can only mean one thing, that there were fish feeding in the swim.

Sure enough the float acted out the classic lift bite where it almost seem to rise in slow-motion leaving me plenty of time to strike. I knew it was a bream straight away rather than a roach I fancied but at least I knew the method worked as intended.

It almost seems a little cumbersome with the 4 bb shot pinched on the line near the hook but like I said it worked perfectly. The next fish was a hard fighting roach bream hybrid where if it was just the former it would have ended the quest right there and then.

A side by side comparison shows just how slender the bream are and how built like brick outhouses the hybrids are. Anyway with a busy day ahead in the end I called the session slightly early because the boat traffic was becoming annoying and the Zander didn't seem up for a feed anyway to be honest. An enjoyable few hours though and the new float set-up worked perfectly. 👌 I just need to stumble on to some big roach now, fingers crossed for the next session in a couple of days time. 

Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.105 (Maggots)

With such a disappointing session yesterday I was back for some more of the same !! this time however I was back to an area of canal that did plenty of bites recently on maggots over groundbait.

A lovely morning it was too, albeit a little chilly when I got bankside for 6.00am. I don't tend to set an alarm because I naturally wake around that time anyway. The day only got better and better and actually led to the first BBQ of the year. 

Let's hope things improve because the weather has been pretty terrible hasn't it. Anyway it took a while to get the first bite but then after that the sport was steady but not exactly as good as it was last time here.

The insert waggler float I was using wasn't really registering the bites as well as I hoped so much so for the next session back after the roach again, I'd switch back to the drennan antenna float that has served me so well. 

During this session I actually lost two of the biggest fish where the first one felt really heavy and I didn't get to see it.

It was hugging bottom in the fight and after a 10 seconds or so the hook pulled and the float nearly wacked me in the face as it catapulted towards me.

Shame really as it felt a decent fish I must admit. It could well have been a roach bream hybrid because the next fish I lost I knew was a decent slab.

I rarely lose fish in this manner but maybe the tentative bites I mentioned before could well have been an influencing factor.

I don't mind catching bream to be honest despite their slime and I had a fair few in this short session.

I'm still let to see another angler on this stretch and that didn't change today, where the heck is everybody ?

I know the closed season it not everyones cup of tea, but to get that fishing fix there are plenty of fish to catch in canals like this.

Zander obviously get finger of blame as one of the reasons why the canals are not fished much in these quarters but I'm sure it is the commercial fishery that have had the biggest influence. 

 Now the Zander rod has been out for a good hour before I had the first bite which I missed and also the bite afterwards where I pulled the bait out of the fishes mouth. 

If there are Zander in the swim though often you will get another chance and sure enough after a couple of bobs of the float, it confidently heads towards some thick cover.

I knew it wasn't a big fish from the first bend of the rod but it gave a spirited fight and was safely in the landing, where the circle hooks was proudly displayed in the scissors.

That was the only Zander I had and after a few boats went thought scuppering anymore maggot fishing I decided to go back the canal, dump some gear and fish an area I'd been doing ok recently for them. After one missed bite after 5 minutes another hour or so was fruitless. Still a fine morning and a few bites I wasn't complaining.

Canal Roach - The Sisyphean Task ? Pt.7

Rigid rules have little application to any kind of angling, but experience does indicate that the angler who adopts certain procedures will catch more big roach than the angler who fishes haphazardly for anything that might come along. The guides to catching big canal roach from my limited experience 👀 can be summarised thus:

• Find a secluded spot in which you can fish quietly and alone.
• Stay alert for any visible evidence of big roach.
• Refrain from using fine groundbait, which only serves to attract too many small fish.
• Prebait your chosen swim with the bait you intend to use.
• Persist in the chosen swim if success does not come quickly (and be sure it will not, on most occasions).
• Keep well away from favourite hard-fished, reed-free swims unless you can fish them alone at an early or late hour.
• Find out what times are most favourable to the catching of big roach in your own water.

The last point is of some importance. Roach do not feed for twenty-four hours a day; and although it might be difficult to pinpoint the exact time when feeding is likely to commence, experience indicates that early morning is a great time, especially when the swim has been prebaited and the day promises to be hot and bright.

During the winter months, when the reeds have died away and the water may be very clear, dusk is the best time. One hour of fishing then might be worth all the other hours together, in terms of bites.

Obviously, then, a lot of time can be wasted by playing the waiting game. The angler who times his visit to coincide with what experience has taught him to be the best time to catch big roach can reduce the time spent at the water side to a mere hour or so.

This also means that he will be fishing more alertly, more expectantly. Too much time spent sitting and watching an unmoving float can result in tiredness, both mental and physical, and this is bad. When the chance does come, it may be missed.

A suitable analogy might be found in the case of the game hunter. 

He could spend many exhausting hours seeking his quarry over a wide area of countryside, but if he knew along which routes his game travelled, and at what times they came down to the water to drink, he could achieve his aim in the minimum of time simply by positioning himself at the water-hole when the game were due.

Unfortunately, anglers cannot always see their quarry or keep track of their movements, so it may sometimes be necessary to lure the roach to an appointed spot by careful and thoughtful prebaiting of the swim. Then the bait can be laid out with some degree of expectation that a good roach may soon find it and accept it. 

The fast-water swims below lock gates and the stretches of water immediately downstream are often worth trying during the summer. So are heavily reeded swims. Big roach are seldom far away from reeds during hot weather. A cunningly flicked bait might catch one of them unawares, but it is better to prebait the swim if possible. I often do this if I can be bothered 😅

Now talking about rigid rules, well I decided to something a little different for this session and try a new set-up on the sleeper rod. I'd fish a small inline feeder that would be filled with roach goundbait and then I'd use a short hooklink with a hairstop where I'd bait up with a few small compressed bread disks. 

A bit heathen like you might say, but I was an avid reader of Jeff Hatt and his antics on Idlers Quest where he was using lobworms for roach, it's always good to experiment I say especially when I lost a carp here recently fishing in the track with some bread. So yeah, almost commercial F1 tactics (I'll wash my mouth out later) with slightly beefed up tackle than I'd usually use, just in-case the carp was around and fancy getting in on the act. 

On the main rod It would be my usual centre-pin and insert waggler with either bread or maggots for bait. This time though I'd feed roach groundbait with some hemp rather than the bread just because really. I don't think there are a huge amount of smaller roach to be caught and I was hoping that a single hookbait would be something for a big roach to home in on. 

Anyway enough of the waffle, I better get fishing....

To cut a long story short 🙈 best laid plans and all that, because after arriving at 6.00am where I fished for 3 hours not one single bite FFS !!! I fished two areas and nothing was doing on either rod at all. Not even a sucked maggot or a bobble of the float. The only welcome distraction was the tree above me was determined to shed its leaves right on top of my noggin. 

It was only when to counteract the boredom I went for a rove when the next set of reeds around 100 yards to my right there was fishing spawning, and a decent group of fish too. Hmmm that wouldn't have helped now would it.

The didn't seem like Zander though so maybe bream ? they looked a decent size whatever they were as they were certainly moving the reeds a lot, and almost the whole length of them too. So after seeing that I decided to go and have a nose at an area I've not fished for a while where blog reader Richard Clapp said it was worth a nose.

I have fished up here a few times in years gone by, but I've filmed and also seen otters on this stretch so I've never been that desperate to fish it. I thought I'd go and have a nose though because it might be giving it a go to see if I'm missing anything.

A good distance covered and with the sun out I wanted to see if I could spot some carp and also to scope out some potential wild trout spots and also to see if Severn Trent were dumping effluent in the canal after the rain yesterday.  . 

To be honest I didn't spot much, in-fact I didn't even see many fish top. There was one particular turning bay that looked great for a bite, some nice reed cover but also some bream bubbles right slap bang in the middle of it.

I did feed some nuggets of bread in and amongst the reeds but no carp showed when I watched for a while and they were still there when I returned after heading much further up the stretch. Still what a lovely morning where I covered just shy of 14k steps.

Everything seems to waking up at the minute which is nice to see but with the fish spawning on this stretch I might return in a few days and give it another go. I'm sure no matter what I did today would have brought a bite, but that's canals for you, they after often more miss than hit.

I can luckily get out again tomorrow and also Bank Holiday morning, so I'll take stock and decide what to do later. As I walked back there were a couple just about to sit down with a pint of beer at 11.15am on the canal side pub, that I'm sure would have been the better option I'm sure. !!!

It was that black cat I saw first thing, that certainly wouldn't have helped !!!.

Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.104 (Canal Zander)

I was working from home looking out the window expecting the rain to start anytime because that's what the weather report had predicted, but nada, nothing zilch.

To be fair the rain would be due to the thunderstorms that had been threatened were because of the muggy weather and not because a band of rain was coming through.

Now I'm lucky that 5 mins away I can be on this canal towpath that contains Zander. I've fished it for quite a few years now with my biggest going 9lb on the nose, and the next best fish 8lb 10. When those fish were caught though you could easily have 6-10 fish in a few hours, however now you are often scratching around for bites.

The numbers are definitely down however this closed season I've done ok, with a 6'lber being caught and also some back up 4lber's and schoolies.

It sees so much boat traffic this canal and as you can see from the picture below when a boat goes past this is what you are left with. Fishing a maggot over a bed of groundbait is a waste of time but the Zander seemed to thrive in this turd'ib waters.

I fished the usual banker straight for nearly two hours though without even an enquiry so I decided to get on the move and walk up the stretch and end up in Nora Batty's Marina after fishing some of the cover on-route.

It's a mile and a half to the marina from where I started so some most welcome steps covered to try and track down a few Zander but cover after cover those float just weren't moving. 

If I look back at my blog when the water warms up those Zander that are usually laying up conserving energy are now often on the move rather than parking their backsides up waiting for food to come to them. 

I fished the Struggs (@buffaloSi) as well and some tasty looking snaggy swims never produced as expected so the next port of call was the entrance to the marina. It's a shame we cannot fish here because like most  marinas I bet there are some gems to be had.

When I arrived a swan had made a beeline to me probably hoping I had some bread, but after getting bored knowing that he was unlikely to get any, it swam to my right by my feet where it's dangling feet disturbed a fish that bolted and produced a wake on the canal like I'd never seen before.  

It really was huge, a carp or a big Zander I assume, he knows but it certainly was a decent sized fish I know that for certain. 

Anyway a good half an hour in the marina entrance without a bob, pull or a jerk of the float it was time to head to the marina where the last time I fished it I blanked I believe. 

It was the perfect day for fishing with it being mild and overcast but the fish were not playing ball because another hour in there tight to boats and also in the track, those fish were nowhere to be seen.

The high air pressure wouldn't have helped I know that because they are sensitive to that sort of thing and it doesn't take much to put them off feeding. I did think about nipping in to the pub for a pint but I know I'd only regret it handing over my hard earned cash. 

The key to a bite was to retrace my steps and fish the banker straight on the way back to my car where after fishing one of the swims I fished at the start of the session, a jerk of the bait the float started to move and then it stopped.

Another jerk of the bait the float then tears off down the canal and I tightened up in to a fish. It was nodding it's head trying to free the hook but was soon landed. A small schoolie with some damage by the looks of it, but at least I hadn't blanked. So 11k steps covered in 3.5 hour for 1 fish, not as easy as you think this Zander lark.