Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.23

Sam's Angling Direct Freebie whip was due for an upgrade, so I punted for a 75g Drennan Acolyte Pro 350 which to be honest, is like chalk and cheese.

To be fair Sam still loves his other whip but this one looks engineered to perfection and being lighter much easier to hold for any length of time. I've rigged it with some hook keepers which sit on the blank and you almost using it like a pole float winder so you can get fishing with the rig already attached and ready to go.

With a peacock watching over us as we were making our way to the chosen area to fish, Sam spotted in the distance a series of bubbles that were heading towards us, that can only mean one thing and that's not supersonic bream, but yes one of the resident otters.

After a mooch about in boat track and in near and far margins, it headed back where it came from and eventually popped itself back up the bank. A decent size one as well, so not a great start to the session with the fish likely to be in hiding from the furry intruder.

With Sam in situ I had a Zander sleeper rod out and allowed Sam to get grips to his new whip whilst I feed some groundbait and some disco maggot freebies. 

"Wow it's as light as a feather, you barely know you're holding it !!! "

And indeed it is, ridiculously light to be honest, the first bite took a good half an hour though and after missing a couple of bites Sam's chosen float was probably a little bit cumbersome so we'd change that for next time.  

Eventually he hooked in to a fish but was probably a bit bullish with it and the size 18 hook pulled, still at least there was fish in the swim. The zander rod was having more action where in the space of an hour and a half 3 very small dark schoolies took a liking to the small whole roach dedbaits.

A good sign for the future #SAVETHEZEDS but not the stamp I'm used to catching. In-fact these were some of the smallest stamp of Zander I've seen over the years I have been fishing for them and the Midlands canals. 

With footfall boarding on the ridiculous eventually after moving swims with ten minutes to go before we needed to be making tracks Sam's float bobbed a couple of times and then vanished out of sight. He struck in to something decent which as first I thought was a bream, but no, a bootlace eel was to christen his new set-up.

The blank was almost bent double but did a cracking job of resisting its lunges, Sam on the other hand having caught his first eel, didn't want to go anywhere near it for some reason. It was lip hooked thankfully and quickly returned to where it came from. And that was a wrap.  Next outing hopefully up the hallowed where hopefully more bites will be forthcoming so he can test it out properly. 

Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.22 (PB Content)

There is reason why this more 'urban' stretch of the canal has been largely off my radar because this isn't one of those stretches where as a solitude seeker I can get my fix.

You see a dawn assault for this session I thought I'd have the banks to myself but a couple of joggers and a dog walker had beaten me to it, and adjacent to the chub swim where I'd fish to start things off a rough sleeper was in earshot despite being cocooned in his sleeping bag. 

Considering the vasty majority of the overly expensive council tax goes to housing benefit I'd be knocking on the council house front door rather loudly if I was him. 

It's walkable from town you see and all with all manner of new builds also close if you want peace and quiet for your fishing this stretch ain't it. To be fair the people that I have spoken to have been really pleasant but maybe dusk is when the weed smokers and waifs and strays start to surface. 

A busy A road is also in the vicinity and also dog walkers and land mines in abundance you need to tread carefully here because certain dog owners basically couldn't car less, but don't worry a well place stick with sort out the ocular toxocariasis. 

But these sort of venues have surprises to be had and after the capture of the chub recently this visit I was back to see what I could be missing.

The Zander sleeper rod was confined to the garage and I decided to fish one rod with simple tactics of a float and bread flake. The Aldi bread was fed to the ducks it was that bad for fishing bait so it was back to the Warburtons Blue at least I had chance of that staying on the hook. 

45 minutes in the tramp swim the chub were nowhere to be seen so I went on the rove before the masses woke from their slumber and decided to join me for their morning walk.

One of the pounds was very low indeed but I'd imagine just about navigable by one of the narrowboats. It's by far the shallowest canal I fish and when you see it revealed in all its muddy glory you realise that fish that reside here must have pulled out that short straw.  

This canal though has only been open since the 1960's after being restored by a huge amount of volunteers and revolutionised attitudes to the future of British waterways.  

Being shallow though every bream burp or carp fart can give the game away to where fish may be holding up and this session was a clear demonstration of that. 

You see after fishing two similar lock mouths similar to where I caught the chub from I decided to retrace my steps and a decent fish topped tight to some far bank reeds.

Bread is such a good bait for coloured canals like this because not only is it a food stuff they are used but being white its visible as it flutters through the water column.

Anyway a large piece of breadflake went on the hook and a short underarm flick the bread was perfectly positioned an inch of the reeds.

I fish the float overdepth and within seconds of the bait settling on the bottom the float moved slowly to the left and then to the right and a bite developed.

It was clearly a fish on the end so a sharp strike I hit a solid fish. Initially I thought it was bream or even a hybrid as it was fighting well and leaving a decent boil on the surface.

When it popped to the top though it was a decent roach and in-fact probably the biggest I'd hooked. The hook hold was clearly good though and shortly after the plump silver fish was in the landing net.

Now my PB roach is only 1lb 4 ounces prior to this having caught that on the River Ise but this was clearly bigger and after wetting the plastic bag and zeroing the scales the indicator went round to 1lb and 8 ounces.

So a roach PB and well worth dragging myself out of bed to go and fish a stretch that is well down my list of local places to fish.

A lovely plump roach and in pretty good condition considering that there are predators here that wouldn't think twice about adding it to their menu for the morning. 

Ok not massive in the scheme of things but for me one of those memorable captures that I'm sure I will look back at the blog post in years to come.

No more bites in that swim I headed back to the car and again as I was watching the water I saw a fish top close to some reeds, this time close to the bank.

A missed bite the bread went back out and five minutes later the float bobbed a couple of times and buried straight under.

Again a solid fish and after it made a mess of the swim a small bream was in the net. What a lovely way to fish this is. Simple tactics and the most basic of bait. I leapfrogged the length of reeds hoping for another fish but that was it. I could have stayed longer I suppose as the footfall wasn't 'that' bad, but I decided to call it a day and head home a happy man with another PB to add to the list. 

Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.21

The intended early canal chub / carp session didn't happen because after a rather late movie night with the Wife there was no way I'd have made it bankside for the crack of dawn.

So a simple roving session at a stretch of canal that is generally clearer than most of the local waters I fish where there is not only a chance of a decent Zander but Pike too. 

So snack sized whole roach as bait and two deadbait rods to try and find some fish. There is not only cover but also some oxygenated swims where over the years I've caught some of the best looking canal Zander you are ever likely to come across. 

Because the water clarity is much better than where I usually target them they have much darker colouration and some of them almost black in colour. 

There is one issue though and that is bites can be very hard to come by. Boat traffic can improve bites because often the Zander are laid up waiting for that time to pounce but fishing the various locks can often bring a quick bite from fish holding up in the containment.

An hour in though things were not looking good despite fishing some tasty looking cover and also one of the locks that often offers a bite when others swims don't.

It was one of those mornings where I knew what the outcome would be quite soon in to the session. But I stuck with it and fished swim after swim until I got bored. 

So a blank and one of those sessions where I almost knew I should have stayed in bed instead. Still 10k steps covered and for someone sat in front of the CAD screen 24/7, some much needed escape from the diary makers.