Crucian a plenty !!

I bumped in to Anthony Simmons from LAA at Snitterfield reservoir this morning, he was partaking in a little R&D project which will likely feature in the newsletter so I won't spoil it for him, but I was glad I was of some assistance. It involved Crucians and there are already plenty in here. Thing is you can go days without catching a single one but when they are on the feed they are mad for it. Today they were mad for it. My best at this venue is 1lb 12oz's but I've lost bigger one that was well over that.

I used two rods, a sensitive float set-up with Lone Angler paste on the hook and the other a sleeper rod with a korum grub feeder filled with red maggot and alternating between fake corn and maggot. Snitterfield has a great variety of fish and today's catch consisted of Perch, Roach, Rudd, Tench, Skimmers and luckily for me mainly Crucians. When they are feeding mood though you can catch quite a few within a small space of time and they seem to feed in waves.

Avoid using lots of feed especially pellets because the large head of greedy bream soon home in on the bait, as soon as you catch one you will likely catch plenty, great if you're a match fisherman wanting to bag-up but not so great if you're specifically targeting the lovely little crocks of gold. The old warriors are still here but it's a big expanse of water so it's needle in the haystack stuff. A couple a three years ago some more were introduced and by the condition of the ones I caught today they are certainly doing well. Fish close in as the marginal shelf drops away. I've found the summer evening a great time to target the bigger ones so as I'm only 5 minutes away I'll be back to try for them again.

Both the float and mini bolt-rig set-up worked equally as well and I managed 15 or so, the biggest was just over a pound ,not a bad return for a short mornings session.

http://leamingtonangling.wordpress.com/2014/04/16/leamington-angling-newsletter-april-2014/

Zed deadbait success !!!!

Despite having plenty of runs from fishing small deadbaits for Zander I never managed to land one. Jeff Hatt of Idlers Quest who has experimented with many hook patterns on his quest for Zeds on the cut recommended I try the hook that made a big difference to his hook ups. So the new rig I tested yesterday evening was a Mustard Ultimate Bass hook tied to a 50lb Korda arma-kord leader on a running rig set-up. Bait was the tried and tested small headless Roach.

I found using a longer rod can be cumbersome and sometime hazardous when fishing the canal so I bought a second hand 6ft Wychwood Extricator (£20) which seems to be just the ticket. Simon tagged along again and he commandeered the lure rod. He hooked a Zed on his first or second cast but it managed to lose the hook when it got near the net. It would have been his first too.

Get this !!! in two hours and probably 30 minutes when they were on the feed, 6 runs and 5 Zander banked and all but one in the scissors too. Unless you’re a skilled dental surgeon don’t let the bite to develop, just strike as soon as the bobbin rises. I crushed the barb on the hook so hook removal was a piece of cake. What a difference :). The biggest was only 1lb 14oz but it was the method that proved a worthy exercise. I’ve caught plenty of schoolies now but I want a big canal Zed, I’ve a couple of locations shared with me where a bigg’un may reside, so watch this space........

Today’s Canal and Rivers Trust moonlighting was

Simon, 1 slipper, 1 size 12 boot, 1 can and various branches

Mick, a small picnic table top and an extremely large mussel shell

A pounding !!!!!

It's a canal swim like no other, largely hidden from view, unaffected by towpath dawdlers and boats. It's a 'pound', a stretch of level water impounded by two locks. In order to accommodate traders with heavy cargos of coal, sugar, tea and spices up the flight, the locks at this stretch of the Grand Union were widened to 14 feet allowing navigation by industrial boats or two single narrowboats. For the canal angler it's a backwater haven.

I decided to try and catch something other than a predator, a roach would be nice, even a bream or two. Not having fished the canal that many times,liquidised bread as feed with maggot on the hook. To hedge my bets and to use some lobworms I had left over I also had a sleeper rod out. Before setting up I fed the swim with a couple of handfuls of bread and a few maggots. Plumbing the depth I found it far shallower than I thought it would be, 3 and half foot or so.

A pole would have been ideal here,a far sensitive set-up with far better bait positioning and feeding accuracy. I fished a 13ft float rod with a  Drennan Glow Tip Antenna and a 2lb hook length with a size 18 hook. I always thought about investing in a pole but it wouldn't get used, especially when the flowing water is back on the agenda. Within 10 minutes or so I had a few pulls on the sleeper rod but it didn't amount to anything, the float remained motionless, in-fact for nearly 4 hours, I couldn't even muster up a bite. Bugg*er. Maybe I need to be shown how it's done.

A change of tactics was in order and with the lure rod already set-up (11cm) I switched from the Roach to it's nightmare, the Zander. With an hour of fishing left before I had to leave to go to Warwick Races I packed up got back in the spam chariot and returned to my Zander banker swim.

The overlow area of the swim produced some decent Perch recently too so I also set-up the sleeper rod to maximise my blank avoidance. I'm glad I made the change because in an hour I managed 3 Zander the biggest 1lb 15oz, 3 half decent Perch (2 on the lure one and the worm) and also a 3lb Carp that looked it had escaped from Tunnel Barn. By the way this sessions moonlighting was a load of electrical cable.

Have I the canal bug ?, the cult of the cut, quite possibly.