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.

Brown

Sunday 1^st December 2019. River Weaver.

Brown

Well what a day that was. Arrived 1330, decided to take 2 rods (thereby totally contradicting myself from yesterday) if only so that I could fish on after dark, and tbh, after a recce in the a.m. I had decided to stay put in one swim as it looked spot on, despite a more severe frost than the previous day.

Bright sunlight on arrival, I fed the centre of the river, hoping to pull fish away from far bank trees and snags. Mashed bread and hemp were plopped in regularly, with the float doing its thing, except that is, actually going under.

1515 often signals the first bite when float fishing in winter, but today was one of those exceptions. I had a drop with the leger rod, to see if they wanted it still, but couldn’t get a bite there either. I took the faithful Fuji out for a few dusk shots, but the battery was dead, hasn’t been the same since I got back from ‘Nam, literally, so a new camera is now on the list.

Back onto the float for dusk, and during the half-light everything seemed to slow down, it was one of those weird dusks, where everything turned to be monochrome brown, not light but not dark, just eerie brown. Still, the float was running through perfectly, so surely it was just a matter of time?

Sadly not.

With the light ‘gone’ it was time to touch leger for the last half hour or so. Pointing my rod skywards enabled me to also pick out the silhouette of the tip against the darkening sky, but still it refused to budge.

1700 hours and I was wishing I’d put the Skeetex boots on, my feet were very cold. I fumbled around looking for the head torch, nope. Double checked all pockets, still couldn’t find it. Something else to go on the list, I usually have a spare, not tonight.

Wrapping up 2 rods in sub-zero temps using my phone for light was a laugh, but the job got done and back at the car I found my head torch, in one of the pockets I’d checked twice. So, that's saved me the cost of a new head torch.

This river hasn't fished well for me, so far, this winter. Perhaps the frosts were too sudden? Perhaps the recent floods have moved the fish? Maybe I'm just crap? Probably a combination of all three and more besides. Whatever, the sessions in previous seasons whereby consistent weather brought consistent fishing with chub queuing up at last light seem a long time ago. But then the weather hasn't really been consistent, so I've probably answered my own question. Perhaps the question should be 'what should I do when the weather is inconsistent?' 

Crack

Saturday 30^th November. River Weaver.

River looked ace during the morning dog walk and with a hard frost the night before, a trip to the canal didn’t particularly inspire me. Whatever, I rocked up at 1330, sorted myself out, screwed on the landing net to the handle (last used in April when I landed a tench) and ’cccrrrrunch’. I’d cracked the end of the handle near the thread last time out, wrapped it with gorilla tape thinking it would be sound, anyway, it wasn’t. Screwing the net in made the crack worse, and the thread was just a tad wobbly. 

I persevered trotting swim one, nada after 15 runs through. Swim two, after a dozen runs I hooked an average chub a long way down, got it to the net, lifted it out, bog standard 2lb8oz, however the net was now even more wobbly, the thread was ready to pop out. Gahhh.

Home is only 5 mins away, so I made THE call, and, thanks to the fortunate one, within 20 minutes a spare landing net pole and handle were at my disposal. Although, strictly speaking, given the time of day, good weather, driving conditions and lack of traffic, it should have been with me within 10 minutes, so clearly some improvement needed on her behalf, but I’ll let it slide… this time.

Back to another swim, I had several runs down, lost a few hooklinks to new underwater snags that have arrived since the recent floods, and basically just couldn’t get a rhythm or pattern going. Fed the line well, varied the depth and shotting, but couldn’t hook anything on striking those odd times when the float did dip. Then another hooklength loss just on dark saw me off, I simply couldn't be arsed to tie another for the sake of a few minutes more fishing.

I’d have loved to have stayed on watching a tip for an hour as the frost and mist descended, but taking 2 rods when roving never feels right, suffice to say today was one of them days. Maybe next time.

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..

A Year in Provence...

.. well not quite, but I may as well have been considering the number of times I've been out this last year!

Hot air

Work issues put paid to any sort of autumnal campaign and the usual winter chub foray on my local was a bit of a non event with the ridiculously fluctuating levels, which, also made trips further afield a lot less viable than normal. So apart from a few sessions with the pest, I pretty much decided to vote with my feet and stay put. 

Pest

Into the new year and a dabble into the world of ultralight fishing gave me something a little different and I managed to scrape a few perch out of the canal in Stoke. On the rivers, aside from one decent severn chub of 5.2 there was next to nothing to write home about. 

March, April and May were virtual non events angling wise, indeed it became nigh on unbearable, what with the media love in of a certain team who were apparently entitled to win the league and thus celebrated their achievements for months beforehand! 

Thankfully the "This does not ****ing slip" comment became something of a prophecy, as whilst someone was indeed slipping, I was pole fishing on a local stillwater where I happened to hook a lump on a 4 elastic.  A 10 minute battle saw a lump of a common carp hit the net at precisely the same time as my text messages started flooding in from fellow blues! It was a sign.

This does not ***ing slip

Aside from the odd dabble on that small club water, the rods by and large stayed put and I couldn't really muster much enthusiasm.

Meh

So, into June, new season, new beginnings and all that, a trip to a large Shropshire stillwater gave me my first proper angling session in quite some time, and my first dabble for tench for nigh on 12 months. 

I'd love to say I put in all sorts of effort and planning into practice and got a just reward, but I didn't. I cobbled some gear together, arrived on the bank, spread it out as far and in as a disorganised fashion as I could, fed the swim, raked the swim, and landed a 4 pounder early in the afternoon. 

Come tea time I fed some more, raked some more, then somehow managed to nail a float caught PB, in the shape a 6.12 which was taken early evening.

A float caught 6.12

And that was my year!