Summer

Thursday 19th December 2019. Llangollen Canal.

A sharp spike in temperature meant this place had to be visited today. As I pulled up, the car thermometer was reading 11 degrees Celsius, which, let’s face it, means it’s basically summer. For a few hours at least.

Summer

I arrived at approx. 13 bells and lo and behold there was another angler present, pole fishing just above my usual position. After the usual exchange of pleasantries, he said it had fished slowly. The canal was noticeably calmer than I had ever seen it, no howling wind, a flat surface, and with it being warm and overcast, it looked spot on.

I carried on up the towpath and settled in approx. 50 yards higher up than I’d normally fish. I opted for a slight change of tactics from the usual. For the ‘downstream’ swim, I fished chopped worm through an open end feeder but for a change tried a small amount of groundbait (betain green) with lobworm, or half a lobworm on the hook. The upstream tactic was the usual large piece of bread, having introduced the equivalent of about half a slice of mashed bread upon arrival.

First cast lobworm, bite, strike, miss. Second cast, bite, strike, miss. Today was going to be good fun. I cast a few feederfuls of chopped worm into the swim, let it rest and went onto the bread line where I had a fish first cast in the shape of an 8oz roach.
Back onto the worm line, bite, thud thud, then a bream is landed. Over to the bread swim, nothing. Next cast on the worm line brings a skimmer. Back onto the breadline, nothing. Back to the worm swim, skimmer. So in the first hour I’ve probably put 5lb of fish in the net.

At 1400, the heavens open, I’m warm and waterproof, but the bites stop. At 1430 it’s still falling, and heavily, so I do something I rarely do, and put brolly up. The wind gets up and I have a further hour with little in the way of a bite, save for the odd tentative pluck.

Eventually the wind drops and the rain subsides but the worm swim has died a death. An upstream cast with bread gives me twitches a plenty and a decent fish is hooked at 1545. It’s kicking hard and a good roach surfaces two metres from the net. A good roach then slipped the hook two metres from the net.
#
Another last cast, another bite, missed. A final last cast and a 6oz’er is in the pan and with the light all but gone I decided to call it a day. Upon emptying the keepnet, one of the bream looked a tad like a roach. Hybrid. 2lb 5oz worth.

Can’t complain about that first hour, regardless of species, but the rain seriously knocked them back in that middle 90 minutes for some reason. However, regardless of that I think that bread swim should have given me a few more fish, big chance missed there today I reckon.

More wind

Sunday 8^th December 2019. Llangollen Canal.

Fresh from yesterday’s successes I went back today hoping for more of the same.  

I made a slight change, opting for a one rod approach, with the plan being to fish worm one side and bread the other, then rotate between both swims.

I arrived at 1315 the wind was very strong, and cold, totally different from yesterday. I don’t know what it is about canals, but even on the big sweeping beds the wind seems to blow right down the canal. As such the light quiver rod was getting bounced all over the place so the upstream swim was abandoned after 2 casts, thereafter I concentrated solely on the downstream line.

The next hour or so was spent fishing lobworm via a chopped worm feeder and after that I alternated with bread. It was, as the old school match anglers would say, an absolute grueller. I didn’t have a hint of a bite for the first 2 and a half hours.

I got my first proper indication at 1545, the wind dropped ever so slightly, the light levels started to drop also and a quick pluck on bread never materialised into anything else. I had 3 more good bites in the next half hour, all on worm, but failed to connect with any of them. The light closed in at 1625 and I called it day.

A very difficult day today. That wind made conditions really tough and there’s no doubt that the much colder temperatures had an impact. It’s never nice getting your backside kicked and with hindsight I probably should have tucked my rod closer into the bank, and lower down, and changed the angle I was seated at. That said hindsight is wonderful when you’re sat in the house.

Despite the adversity, I probably fished better than yesterday and even with the horrid conditions, I still had a few chances late on, so those are the positives I will take from the session.

Bag

Saturday 7^th December 2019. Llangollen Canal.

Bag

Back to the same swim as Thursday evening, arrived 1315 or thereabouts. I decided to go with 2 rods, chopped worm hemp feeder and lob worm hookbait on 1 rod, with a large piece of bread cast to various parts of the swim on the other.

Grey

A bite came first cast on the worm rod, which I missed. A roach of about 6oz came a cast or so later. There was then a blank period for about 30 minutes, but then I landed a 2lb bream on the bread rod and a good roach of about a pound on the worm rod. Both fish within a few minutes of each other. At that point I decided to put the keepnet in.

Here we go. Bites then came steadily throughout the day. Several more roach to both rods and a 12oz perch on the worm rod. I missed loads of bites with the rod literally coming off the rest at times, such were the ferocity of the takes on the worm rod especially. I lost a few good fish on the worm rod too, both times the hook coming back and the worm had folded over, masking the point.

Two rods worked well, but there were times when it was more of a hindrance. I missed several bites whilst messing around with the other rod. Now is the time to think about fine tuning the methods am thinking it might be better to use one rod but vary between the bread and the worm, in effect feeding 2 swims? Food for thought.

So at the end of the day, 1 bream, 1 perch, with the scores on the doors for roach being 6 fish of which the best three were 14 oz, 15 oz and 1lb 2oz. Very interesting fishing.

Blow

Thursday Dec 5^th 2019. Llangollen Canal.

A quick after work session this afternoon. 

King

This place is 10 minutes more driving than the closest canal venue, about a 20 minute drive and a 300 yard walk to the pegs. Not far in the grand scheme of things, but at this time of year with the light closing in earlier each day I had to be Johnny on the spot with my organisation.

The word in the ‘hood was that a few roach had shown before the cold snap the previous weekend. The original trip should have been Tuesday, but given that today (Thursday) was forecast to be far warmer, I stalled for 48 hours.

First cast @ 15.25 and a small block end containing chopped worm and lobworm on the hook is flicked towards a small boat. The idea was to fish 2 rods, with the other rod straightforward ‘bread on the lead’ but it was really blowy and very exposed. Two rods would have been a right pain in the hoop so I put my eggs in one basket.

Second cast I scaled down a little, smaller hook, 0.10 hooklength, the wind was playing hell with the tip and it would have been impossible to see small indications. Then out of the blue at 15.45 the tip flew round, strike, miss, bait gone. That was unexpected.

Next cast, another big pull round and another missed bite. This was getting interesting. Back out, half a lob this time, another fast pull round which I left, but a minute later a slower deliberate pull and I’m into a fish. No drama, into the net and it’s a roach, only about 6oz, but that’s why we’re here.

I quickly flicked a new bait back across, then 5 minutes later, a slower bite, leading to a proper pull and it’s fish on, and, it actually pulled back. Easy does it, no dramas please, it’s under my feet, I reach for the net, out pops the hook.. oh you **** ******. Didn’t see it, so no point speculating.

One more cast, the light was all but gone and, sadly, so where the fish. All told it was an interesting 75 minutes.

Chilly.

19th November SU Canal
Very short session after work on some wides this evening. Got a flyer out of work and had my first cast at 15.10 from a proper armchair peg where the car is 5m away.

I cast across with a liquidised bread feeder, probably 25m or so to a boat, which is permanently resident but empty. I gave this 3 or 4 casts before going onto the straight lead. Also fed a swim down the track too, and alternated between worm and bread in both swims, more in hope than expectation it has to be said.

Nil, nada. Not even a hint of a bite. Gave it ‘til 1700 and bailed. It was chilly. Very chilly.

Stick or twist

17^th Nov 2019 SU Canal.

Returned to the stretch from the previous day, arrived 1300 and initially sat down in an armchair near to the bridge where I’d parked.  I decided to float fish today, try a few new swims, then finish in the same swim as the day before.

Fishing worm and bread I got nil indications and learned absolutely nothing, subsequently ending in the final swim somewhat earlier that planned. The rain was incessant, the mud had gotten worse and a few swims I fancied trying were either simply too muddy to contemplate, or due to bankside hawthorns, they were too tight to squeeze into without leaving zero space for the dog walkers.

Feeding a bit of bread and hemp mash, I started to get to grips with the swim, well, perhaps ‘get to grips’ is a bit of an exaggeration. The pull was going one way then another, the float was lifting and dipping, I knew the reason why, and sure enough within 10 minutes the first boat came through.

The water didn’t really settle for a fair while after, however I did start to get a few bites by letting my float run with the tow. Proper indications, sharp bobs and dips with the float sailing away on occasion, but still no cigar. I decided to drop right down from a 12 to a 16, with a smaller bread hook bait to match. Sure enough shortly after I connected with a small roach which took a bait that was effectively being trotted towards the narrower section under the bridge.

One of several dog walkers came along, pleasant enough, he then boomed “Is this your favourite spot then?” I gestured for him to get down and he smiled and left, then the float dipped, strike, fish on, slightly better fish too, bend in the rod, but came off 10 seconds later. Gahh..ffs.

Shortly after the water settled, a lot of the leaves had drifted away and I managed to get the float to stay put, however no more fish came my way. I did however see lots of fish topping in my area, mainly blades it has to be said. I had one final proper sail away on a big piece of bread as the darkness properly descended but missed in spectacularly style.

So, stick or twist? Move on to pastures new? Float or leger? In view of the location of the swim, next to a narrowing, there is always going to be stronger pull so I think getting a float to behave will always be a bit tricky unless I’m there at sparrow’s fart before the locks open and boats start to move, but even that’s no guarantee.

The swim is full of small fish so a larger bait is probably the way forward, I suspect big pieces of bread and whole lobworms might help, 2 of my biggest roach came to lobs. Gut feeling tells me to give it another session or two, may even go for 2 rods?

Canal pastures new

16^th Nov 2019 SU Canal.

Arrived 1330. First go at this length today, 8 min drive from home, reasonable parking, although parts of the towpath are a bit dodgy and the mud is ankle deep in places. The plan was to fish it like I would a river, in that I would be 20-30 mins in each swim until I got a bite. 

As I made my way down the canal I put in a few handfuls of hemp down the track at certain points, the plan was to fish over these on the way back to the car.

Google Earth tells me I walked approx. 800m to my first swim/s. A long bleak open length with no cover. However ‘the word’ says these are decent match pegs. Anyway I fished bread and worm with no pre-feed to accompany. Five or 6 casts later, I was on my bike, ditto swim 2, which was part of the same length.

Now working my way back to the car, swim 3 was quite a tempting. Nice and dark, although this would bite me on the arse later. It was just beyond a bridge and there was lots of high, far bank cover. I fished down the track where I’d thrown in some seed an hour earlier and within 15 minutes I’d had my first rap on 2 pieces of dendra that I missed. 

I swapped to bread, another missed bite, back to the worm, ditto. This was the pattern for the next 30 minutes or so. To me it was clear there were small fish present, but where there are small fish….

I then decided to swap from the straight bomb to small feeder and feed liquidised bread and grains of hemp, same result, a bite a cast but no cigar.

At 1545 I decided to change my rig, I’d had a few mini tangles with the fine hooklength, nothing horrendous but it was bugging me, so thought I’d quickly change a few bits. It should have taken 5 minutes tops. Bad move. I underestimated how poor my eyes are now, even with glasses. LstoryS it was 20 minutes before I was fishing again. Then the second boat of the day came through, gahh. It was now dark and the next cast gave me an absolute horrible tangle and that was that. Frustrating last 45mins, but at least I found a few fish, even if I didn’t catch any..