Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.54

Now there is a little-known lake about 5.5 miles in diameter in Inner Mongolia, China, but it's not the kind that offers prime waterfront properties. You see the lake situated in the Xinguang village in Baotou is toxic and made entirely of black sludge and dangerous chemicals. This artificial lake is a creation of the waste by-products of rare earth mining, which retrieves essential minerals needed to create a lot of our tech gadgets. 

Our lust for things like smartphones, flat-screen televisions and ironically, even green technologies, is what's created this lake which is really disturbing as production creates millions of tons of waste per year. 

The chemicals in the dam have been linked to lower crop yields in surrounding farmlands and serious health problems among local villagers. 

Dozens of pipes line the shore, churning out a torrent of thick, black, chemical waste from the refineries that surround the lake. The smell of sulphur and the roar of the pipes dominate the environment. 

Now rare earth is a misnomer as these minerals are in plentiful supply on the earth, they are just difficult to mine and refine into usable materials. China produces about 95% of these materials because, well China are about the only country that are willing to put up with the aftereffects. Some of Baotou’s main exports are Cerium and Neodymium. 

Cerium is used in making catalytic converters but the extraction process for cerium isn't exactly green. It requires that the minerals be crushed and then dissolved in sulphuric and nitric acid. 

Neodymium is used in making powerful lightweight magnets that are used in consumer electronics like smart phone microphones, and computer hard-drives. They are also a vital component in wind farm turbines and motors that power electric cars.

Out of sight, Out of mind !!!

Bit like our water companies that hundreds of thousands times a year dump raw untreated sewage in to our rivers and seas. 

All apparently legal as when water enters the system during heavy rainfall, which can include sewage obviously and companies then have to release it to relieve the pressure through CSOs (combined storm overflows). The Sewage Map from the Rivers Trust shows it is not just limited to rivers and the sea, because plenty of canals have raw sewage dumped in to them too.

Now anyway back to the fishing, I did think about zander but they have been off of late and someone who fishes more than teachers work (if that was ever possible) has been struggling too. The odd bite here and there and some of those feeding spells I'd be tucked up in bed. So something different again, I'd fish my carp spot by the reeds to dusk and beyond with a float with a chemical light I wanted to try out (Middy Fat Boy Insert Waggler) and then a roving session to try and winkle out one of thee larger chub that (apparently) reside here.

 

I've had two different anglers now mention the bigger chub they have caught on this stretch but apart from small ones I've not got anywhere near the larger specimens. 

I has been given some pointers though and one was to fish the oxygenated areas around the locks. There is quite a few of those here to be fair so before I'd settle in to the reed lined swim I'd give those a go first. 

I've so much untapped canal to fish locally I'm spoilt for choice really and it's always intriguing to see what will turn up. I'm surprised every closed season what these water hold and I've hardly scratched the surface. I've a few days off over Easter so might go for more of an explore to the areas I've neglected over the years. 

Anyway I was 50/50 in getting out because the rain was on and off all day and it was due to ramp up big time as the prime dusk fishing time but it was needs much, you see when you're shackled to the computer much of the week, those opportunities have to be seized. 

Those with young kids and full-times jobs it can be difficult sometimes but if you are like me that fishing fix is needed sometimes you have to seize every single opportunity whenever you can.

I only had 3 or so hours for this session but I managed to fish 4 lock mouths initially before settling down in to the swim where the carp had been spotted. One of the lock pounds was so low I thought a boat might struggling getting through it.

Talking of boats there were two on this session so not too bad. The chub though were having none of it and after a good thirty or forty minutes or so in each one I headed to the reed swim where I'd park the bus.

A good choice well made because there was a nice tree to shelter under because the rain was nonstop and at one point was so heavy the float was difficult to make out.

A missed bite half an hour in on bread and mash as feed at least I knew there was fish in the swim. Dusk came and gone and the float was doing an ok job visually but I only had red glowsticks which are not the brightest so I might stick to the green ones next time, they really are another level.

Fishing this close in and only around 2ft in depth a modern dibber float would have been ideal I suppose but that would be difficult to illuminate this will have to do.

Much heavier than I'd like to use but with canal Tench the target on this set-up in May / June I wanted to give it a trial first. Anyway 5 minutes before the self imposed curfew a confident bite where the float was dragging right to left I hooked in to a fish. Sadly after the first bend of the rod not the carp I hoped for but a bream. Oh well, a blank avoided and to be honest I don't mind catching them, and that was that, on to the next one. 

Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.53 (Bream)

Many anglers seem bream as a bit of a pain really, especially the carp angler that want to catch Bob Big Belly but end up with Slab Senior in the net that has a belly full of spod mix and just pooped out some boilie crumb. On the canal(s) local to me though they can offer a bite from a decent sized fish where the other fish are still cold and not quite ready to take off their onesies just yet.

With the temperatures set to drop again they can often be about the only fish that will be biting. Now experience has taught me that it is possible, by choosing certain swims and fishing them with methods that are designed to catch bream, to catch them more often than if one merely fishes for anything. 

The very fact that one has made a deliberate choice of quarry is of some importance because it means that all one's efforts and knowledge of the water are being directed towards the attainment of a specific aim - and this is always helpful. Vagueness and lack of purpose in angling may not be a crime, but they do reduce one's chances of catching specific fish. 

Observation of bream shoals can also make an important contribution to the total effort. As the angler's knowledge of his chosen water and fish mount, so will his ability to single out and catch his chosen fish increase. Locating bream in canals is not always an easy matter. The shoals tend to roam up and down the boat-road in search of food. 

Very rarely will there be only a few bream in any swim. If one bream is seen or caught, it is a practical certainty that there will be others in the vicinity. In the clearest of water, bream can sometimes be seen browsing slowly along the bottom; and sometimes they can be caught by tossing a bait to them or by laying one in their path. I have caught a few like this while using a small red worm on a weightless cast.

I would not advocate this method as a good way of catching a quantity of bream, however. Indeed, when the water is very clear and the sun is bright, bream are often lethargic or shy and can be most difficult to tempt. 

The dullest days, with low cloud and perhaps a little breeze to ruffle the surface, are better. In general, I prefer not to be able to see my bream. I find they bite more boldly then. They also often bite better at dawn and at dusk.

In fact, if the day is bright and there is little wind on the water, my advice to the would-be bream-catcher is to wait until dusk before commencing to fish, or to rise with the lark and get down to the canal before the banks are crowded with other towpath frequenters and land mine creators. All my experience indicates that one's chances are much higher at these favourable times.

Groundbaiting in the form of prebaiting can help. I have often introduced groundbait into a swim where I had previously observed bream, and then gone back later to find the bream feeding there. Perhaps I was only able to catch a few of them, but that was not important. The bream had been found and caught, progress had been made.

I decided to return to the same swim where I caught the 4lb hybrid and bream from yesterday but also do some double dipping to try and catch a zander or maybe even a pike.

I arrived at 6.45am and hot footed it to the swim where I was surprised that the water had coloured up considerably in 24 hours. It took ages to get the first bite which came when I swapped from bread to a couple of small worms and within minutes a bite came.

What I didn't expect was a tiny ruffe that decided to get in on the bream act. Proper angry it was too, all fin and fluster. Where the heck were the bream ? I had initially fed some supercrush green groundbait and some bread mash so after rebaiting the float with bread I baited up again and decided to give it an hour before moving on to somewhere else.

My hands were starting to get cold at this point as when I tend to rove around that isn't usually an issue but I decided to bring a chair for this session as I fully intended to stay put.

Nearly two hours in though the float buries under and a fish is on !!! It came completely out of the blue and I knew it was a bream as soon as I hooked it. Not a bad one either and where there is one, there is often more to be had.

The next fish was a hybrid though and considering it was only 2lb or so it put up one hell of a fight. I'm still amazed how they fight every time I catch one. Anyway oddly the swim went dead after that. Nic from Avon Angling was fishing not far away and he was struggling for bites as well. 

Anyway after a peloton of MAMIL's went through I upped sticks and on route back to the car decided to drop the deadbait in to a lock mouth for a last gasp Zander. It was even more coloured down here so I didn't expect another hard fighting hybrid that snaffled up the bread fished tight to the reed lined far bank. And that was that, no more fish and I called it a day when the first boat was headed my way. The predator rod, nada, what's going on there, it's usually quite productive here !!!

Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.52 (Roach Bream Hybrid PB)

The wife didn't seem that impressed with the recent capture of a specimen roach from the local canal. It was a PB after all but fell on deaf ears, and ok a 1lb 12 ounce fish ain't all that to some anglers, but especially in this neck of the woods it's not a bad fish at all. 

"Ben's has had bigger dumps 💩💩💩🚽🚽 than that !!!!" 

"Whatever !!, but yeah, good point well made 😛"

She clearly didn't see the significance of the capture but for me seeing a roach that big really did make my week, day, year ? I was back for some more you see, in the same area where I'd managed some small chub as well. Considering the bream usually get in on the act here it's been nice to see a different variety of fish. 

Now In most canals, the efforts of the Canal and Rivers Trust cover removers keep large areas of water comparatively free from reeds. Such areas will be easily accessible but hard-fished, and the fish will be more difficult to catch. Canal anglers who aspire to catch the better fish should learn not to always seek the easiest places but to think instead where the fish might be, taking into account the nature of the water and the conditions prevailing at the time.

Fish in canals especially roach, which at one time were the most prolific and most sought-after fish move about a great deal and will not always be found in the same place. This fact goes part of the way towards explaining why it is that a spot which produces good roach one day will not necessarily produce them the next. The roach might still be there, but not feeding. Alternatively, they may have been scared away or have moved off. Where they go is a puzzle to which the canal angler may seldom find a satisfactory answer unless he can see them.

It is possible, however, to go part way towards finding a solution. We can often determine where the fish will not be, in view of the conditions. Basking fish can usually be ignored. They are not likely to feed. But if the fish cannot be seen and the sun is on the water, they are most likely to be found in the deepest part of the canal or hidden in the reeds, where they can shelter from the sun. They will not usually be in the shallows or close to the tow-path, where the concentration of anglers and noise is at its peak.

The discerning angler will recognize this and fish his bait at the edge of the reeds in the deep water of the centre channel or, in the case of the clear-water canal, across under the far bank, where he expects the fish to be lying. And he will be right, more often than not, if he does this. A bait fished in the shallow water, close to the tow-path, is not likely to tempt many fish.

On the other hand, an overcast sky and a stiff inshore breeze may bring the fish close to the angler - even close in to the bank from which he is fishing, if there is a sufficient depth of water there. When the surface mirror is broken by the wind, the angler is not as conspicuous. The fish often move in to feed on the shelf, where the water begins to shallow off and there is a gently sloping bank upon which natural food can be found.

If the fish can be kept there, they can probably be caught. The intervening beds of reeds, where they exist, should not be regarded as a handicap. They provide cover for the angler. A long rod will enable him to reach out over them. He may catch more fish than he would if the water were completely reed less.

The angler has to think about the condition of the canal bottom, too, if he hopes to get the best results possible from his water. 

Is it composed of clay or gravel? Or is it composed of mud? Is there reed or no reed? 

These questions need to be answered before he can rig up his tackle efficiently. 

A mud bottom will make orthodox bottom fishing difficult a waste of time, even for it will probably obscure his bait from the fish; and if they have to dig for it, they will probably pass it by. So the thoughtful angler will first find out about the nature of the canal bottom. 

If it is muddy or thick with reeds, then he will not fish his bait hard on the bottom. Acting on the premise that a visible bait is ten times more likely to catch fish than one that is hidden, he will arrange his tackle so that the bait does not fall right on to the bottom but just skims it at maximum fall. Or he will use a bait which he knows will remain visible to the fish, a piece of crust or flake, perhaps.

Lots of think about isn't there !!!

Or do what I do and don't check the depth, chuck out the float and a large piece of bread flake and hope for the best. There could be method in ones madness though because a rather cobbled together set-up actually worked rather well for all manner of species on the canal.

I tend to fish it over depth and the float shape not only deals well with the turbulent water within a lock body and overflow but also when the canal surface is choppy. The swim I caught it from is on a bend and it is us subjected to the worse of the wind. It's certainly not sheltered lets put it that way. The lift method certainly works well but using this set-up of late, the float sails away with confidence and bites are largely unmissable.

With a rather heavy head after a visit from friends where the food was plentiful as was the wine I headed to the area where I caught the chub and roach from recently. After two hours with nothing to show for it, well a bob on the float and a bream that rolled I decided to head to another area I've done ok in the past.

Again bread mash as feed and a large piece of bread flake on the hook it didn't talk long to get the first bite. Ahhhhhhh Haaaaaaahh that's where the bream have been hiding !!!

What I didn't expect was after keeping the bream in the landing net so I could get a couple of pics, that the lackadaisical underarm flick of the float back in the swim had it tearing off at a rate of knots almost taking the rod with it !!!

At the first bend of the rod when I lifted in to the fish I knew it was a better fish, hey maybe even one of the bigger chub that reside here !!!

One hell of a battle on light tackle and what I didn't expect when I teased it in to the landing net that it was a roach bream hybrid.

The biggest I'd ever caught too going 4lb on the nose. A cracking fish no wonder it put up one hell of a scrap. I didn't expect that, well worth coming out in the mud fest. And that was that, no more fish and I fished another couple of swims too. Around 10.00am the tow path turned in to Piccadilly Circus and with 3 or 4 boats going through it was time for the off !!!

It's throwing up nice nice surprises of late this stretch, long may it continue !!!