My Autumns Done Come

Here's my September tale, complete with Lee Hazelwood song title appropriated for this latest update.
It's been a strange month for fishing. I have to confess I had high hopes for the beginning of Autumn and foolishly even thought a big roach would figure somewhere along the way. Alas it was a month of blustery showers, cold winds and limited opportunities. Like many people I had been hoping for an Indian summer but that seems to have passed us by in much the same way as the summer did.
 As both of my children are now at school- Iris has just started in reception- my weekdays off are once again free for me between nine o'clock at two thirty in the afternoon. As a consequence of spending most of the week in the south Lakes area most of my fishing this month has been on the Lancaster Canal at Carnforth  with one trip to a small commercial fishery just south of Kendal.
Gatebeck Tarn is situated in the village of Endmoor and I had no idea it was there until I happened upon it one night whilst searching through a website devoted to fishing in the Lake District. It bills itself as a mixed coarse fishery and is a bargain £5 a day to fish. I liked the fact that it didn't seem too carp centric and I thought it might just promise a roach surprise.

Perch Corner

I had a Monday off so duly picked up my day ticket in the tackle shop in Kendal, had a quick chat with the guy there about which swims to fish and headed off. Unfortunately it was one of those showery
days where it goes from not raining to absolutely belting it down in about two seconds. This combined with a freshening south easterly wind didn't really produce the most conducive conditions. I'd also neglected to take any maggots with me so was relying on bread, sweetcorn and worms to get me amongst the fish. In retrospect a mistake but these baits had served me well throughout the summer so I had no reason to believe they would fail me. Of course they did and after trying three of the supposedly 'hot pegs' I ended up in what I have now named Perch Corner. At least it was sheltered and finally after four blank hours I managed to catch six small perch on float fished worm. It's a pleasant place to spend a day and once they sort out the weed problem I can see myself returning to have a go at the tench next summer.
The canal on the other hand has been a bit of a revelation. As a member of Kendal Angling club I can fish a decent length of the Lancaster Canal up to its end at Stainton. Recently an agreement with Carnforth Anglers has allowed us to fish one of their stretches in the Carnforth area. As this is closer to where I stay in the week I have been making the most of this opportunity. Although this is still a navigable stretch there are no locks and you only get maybe four or five boats a day come through. Consequently it has not silted up and you have around five foot or so of water in the boat channel and the water is for the best part quite coloured. A couple of evening sessions in the summer produced roach/bream hybrids up to 2lbs on sweetcorn as well as a smattering of smaller roach.
One of the things I enjoy about fishing on canals is the conversations you have with folk out walking the towpath. In the Wigan area I seem to have numerous comments about the rods and reels I'm using. Roach poles are very much the order of the day so I tend to stand out a bit with my vintage tackle.
I was having a quiet morning with just a few dog walkers for company and a couple of canoeists passing by. My first bite came as I was throwing a ball for a friendly boxer dog that seemed to like me. Of course I missed it- the bite that is and after a couple of hours with only a small eel to show for my efforts I fell into conversation with an older couple out walking their Border terrier. This chap seemed to know a lot about the stretch of canal I was fishing and about 30 minutes later on their way back past me he asked how I was getting on and suggested a spot further along that he had heard was good.  After a short rain shower I gathered up my gear and went off to find it.

As you can see from the photograph there is a large concrete run off contraption on the far bank that keeps a constant stream of water running into the canal. First cast I picked up a skimmer on bread flake and that was me set for the next couple of hours with fish coming regularly to give me a nice mixed bag of roach, bream and hybrids. Nothing big but roach to nine ounces are pleasant to catch and it fuels the belief that there may be bigger ones lurking below that little island just off the far bank.
I've been back several times since and always catch but the impossible fish remain just that. Still as they say you'll catch nothing sat at home by the fire so I look forward to the rest of autumn and the winter to see if I can get a roach of more than a pound.

Short Sessions, Summer Holidays and Children Fishing.

It must be the summer holidays if I've thrown caution to the wind and decided to take the children fishing.With the normal routine of school and nursery suspended for six weeks my wife and I are working extra Sundays so that we are available during the week. It cuts down the cost of holiday club and gives the grandparents a bit of a break too.I've been fitting in a few short early morning sessions on the canal but it's starting to feel a bit like groundhog day as each one seems to produce almost identical fish- a chub followed by a couple of roach being the usual pattern.I tried a couple of evening sessions as well but the results were similar to the mornings except for one evening when I connected with a decent fish that took of really quickly and powerfully before it seemed to get caught around a snag mid canal. I applied pressure from both sides but couldn't move it at which point I was thinking that I had become attached to a shopping trolley or similar large item. In retrospect I should have eased off and hoped that it would move of its own accord. Instead the hook obviously lost its hold and suddenly the fish was gone. At least it shows that there are some large fish present.
I've taken the children to the Figure of Eight a couple of times which has been entertaining if a little stressful at times. James is great if the fish are biting and the action is quick enough to hold his attention but when things slow down he would rather use a bankstick as a sword and run around fighting imaginary foes.Iris bless her is only four and is a bundle of energy so finds it hard to sit still for long. She likes to look at the fish we catch and play with the bait- she's fascinated by 'magnets' as she calls them. For me I seem to spend a lot of time sorting out tangles, tackling up and unhooking James' fish leaving less time for me to fish. At least it gets them out in the fresh air and they do seem to actually enjoy it for the best part.
On the first trip James managed to catch 30 fish- a nice mixed bag of skimmers, roach and perch- so he was well chuffed and really showed signs of becoming an angler. Also, thanks to Iris, he's now not afraid to touch maggots. You can't allow yourself to be outdone by your four year old sister when you're a seven year old boy.



First fish of the summer!


On our second trip James managed to catch his biggest fish ever, a nice little carp of just over 2lbs.




James' biggest fish!

The last ten days of August were spent on holiday in Kent. Luckily there was just enough room in the Focus to pack some rods and tackle so we spent a couple of days on some Kent commercials. The first port of call was Longshaw Farm near Canterbury which I'd chosen because of its reputation for roach fishing.It was a rare gloriously sunny day and we took our friends Andy and Jack both of whom had never fished before. Once again my role was to tackle up, feed and give help.
We fished the match lake and straight away James was into fish. The skimmers seemed positively suicidal so it was frantic fish a cast action until I slowed things down by changing bait from maggots to sweetcorn. This had the effect of improving the size of the fish and numerous bream in the half a pound to one pound class followed along with a smattering of small carp and some roach up to half a pound. As the temperature rose the fish showed no signs of stopping feeding and around midday we started to pick up common carp up to four pounds on breadflake. Andy and Jack got their fair share of fish too with a few sizable bream as well as some carp.By 1pm the lads had had enough and so I got the chance to fish on for an hour. I picked up a few roach and a couple more carp and then finished the day with a personal best crucian of 1lb 10oz caught on the last cast of the day.





James and Jack sneak into the photo whilst Andy gets his finger in too!

James and I had a second day out a week later at the Sandwich lakes fishery.It was a blustery day with a few heavy showers and we had only five hours to fish from 7am as we had a date with a Roman fort in the afternoon.Our chosen lake that promised tench and crucians was unfortunately undergoing extensive maintenance work so once again we chose a match lake to fish. There's no point sitting it out on a carp lake with such a short time to fish and of course to keep James engaged we need the promise of speedy results. A chat with the friendly fellow in the tackle shop on site soon had us armed with maggots and heading off for the far end of the lake to fish in the margins with the promise of roach and possibly some decent perch. I'd cooked up some pearl barley the night before so we gave that a try first and it wasn't long until James was into a carp. Sadly he lost it as his line snapped near the float so we tackled up again and switched to maggots.
This proved the best move for James as he was soon picking up small roach and perch.I decided to give breadflake a go and got straight into some small carp of around two pounds which give great sport on 3lb line and float tackle. I lost my first one at the net as the hook pulled out but got the second one safely in. It looks to me as though it is a koi given the colouring of the fins and overall pale colour. Whatever it is for its size it gave a tremendous fight.





Are you a koi?

We were joined by endless carp rooting about in the reeds and no matter what bait we used, whether a single red maggot or bread we kept hooking them. However, our success rate at landing them was really poor and James lost at least five mainly due to the hooks pulling out and the odd breakage. I switched bait regularly and eventually hooked a decent perch of just over half a pound.

A Kentish perch


With time running out and another heavy shower starting we finally packed away. Not a bad mornings fishing and we got to do the 'dad and lad' deal too.
There's a distinct sense of autumn in the air as I write this and I'm looking forward to the next month or so as I continue to pursue the roach in the canal and also visit a small lake I have found that looks very promising.

Favourite Floats

The other night I lost my favourite float. I'd gone to fish on the Lancaster Canal in Carnforth for a few hours on Monday evening and was making my first cast when this awful event happened. I'd set up at what I guessed to be about the correct depth and had attached an extra BB shot to plumb the depth. I was aiming for the far bank but completely misjudged the distance and sent the float straight in to a large tree opposite me. I tried pulling it back but predictably the 3lb line snapped the wrong side of the float. So my once prized vintage cork and cane antenna float that I had lovingly restored now hangs forlornly from a tree. I'm upset because it was the float I had been using when I caught both my personal best roach and tench in the last couple of weeks.
 If I had mass produced modern plastic floats in my collection it wouldn't have bothered me at all. But this was a piece of angling history- a float almost as old as me and crafted to be both aesthetically pleasing as well as functional and by its very nature completely irreplaceable. Therin lies the dilema of using vintage tackle. It may break or get lost and if this happens it is bound to hurt. Last year I snapped the last few inches off my Sealey Octopus Cane float rod. Luckily I have managed to repair the rod so it is once again usable but a float left hanging from a completely inaccessible tree is gone forever.
I shouldn't despair so much as after all I have a plenty more floats to use and love. In the 19070s I was totally in thrall to Denton floats mainly because my local tackle shop in the Forest of Dean sold them. I still have plenty left in my collection and with a few other Winfield ones probably have more than enough to last my lifetime.



A few of my favourite Denton floats

Of course there are also a wealth of handmade traditional style floats to be bought on auction sites and I often fall  for these too. There is something quite special about a lovingly produced goose quill tench float that I just can't resist. Porcupine quills are another fascination for me and these too can be sourced easily from the internet and even at car boot sales.




Goose quill Tench flots

Like anglers from years ago I probably have too many floats but I have always loved them. Nowadays I make some myself. It's cheap and relatively easy to do and you find that you improve with every one you make. I make them in a vintage style that owes much to the Denton floats I always liked. If I lose one of these then there are no tears as I can replace it within a week.
 As for that cane and cork antenna I'll have to search the auction sites for a possible substitute. In my heart I know I will never replace a float that I caught a near 2lb roach on but I may find a usuable alternative.






Bridge 45B and more canal treasures

It's Thursday morning, first light, and I'm back on the canal just up from bridge 45B in the Gathurst area. Dawn was a slight affair that seemed to just creep up around me rather than break. The sky was grey and it looked like rain but the air was still and warm. Sticking to my now standard baits of either bread or sweetcorn with a little hemp thrown in as an attractor I began float fishing as close to the reeds on the far bank as it was possible to get. Immediately the float was dipping or sliding from side to side as small fish grabbed at the bread. My first fish of the day was a small roach. This was followed by a bream of 1lb 5oz and another of around a half pound. I'm not sure how I feel about bream. On one hand I'm happy to catch them but they don't really put up a great fight at this size. Maybe I need to get into a 5lb plus fish to really appreciate them. Roach/bream hybrids on the other hand seem to be much better fighters.
By 7am it had begun to rain and I was sat holding a tiny umbrella - the sort a commuter uses - that I'd grabbed out of the car just in case there was a shower. As the rain got heavier I missed a bite so reeled in and put on a new bit of bread. Balancing the brolly against my shoulder I cast out again. I tend to sit with the rod in my right hand and it resting on just one rod rest as I find this helps when hitting bites on bread. Suddenly the float shot away and I lifted the rod to strike and it was almost pulled out of hand by the first powerful run of a fish, This was no bream. I managed to turn the fish away from the reeds and was sure I'd hooked a carp. The fish was tremendously powerful and although in mid canal, it shot to the left then the right at alarming speed before boring down to the bottom. After a couple of minutes I got it up to the surface and as it rolled I realised it was a tench. I reached for the landing net and got it in the water in front of me. The tench continued to change direction rapidly which I found quite disorientating and that combined with the pouring rain had me on the edge of panic. I couldn't lose this fish. I instinctively knew it was a personal best and I had to land it. Another roll at the surface and I took my chance and slid the net under it.

After the weighing scales fiasco with the roach a couple of weeks ago I have gone against my vintage principles and bought a set of digital scales so I can say for definite that this beauty of summer weighed in at 2lb 10oz beating my previous personal best tench by almost a pound. I can't begin to tell you how pleased I am with this fish, It was totally unexpected and frankly has made my week. To be honest I could have packed up at that moment and gone home completely satisfied. I didn't of course and with a 9oz roach falling for a single grain of corn around ten minutes later plus a roach/bream hybrid of a pound following it I was glad I stayed.
My final fish of the day was another surprise. I'd just had another small roach on sweetcorn and was beginning to think it was time to call it a day when the float shot under again. A short dogged fight and I was slipping the net under a rudd of around 6oz. I can't remember the last tine I caught a rudd.

I have to say that in the daylight it looked a lot more golden than it does in the photograph. However, there does seem to be a similarity in the lack on colour in the fins as there was in the roach I caught a couple of weeks ago. This stretch of canal just doesn't seem to produce fish with particularly bright fins. A lovely fish regardless and yet another treasure from the canal. I can't believe that I have caught two personal best fish in the space of two weeks and three visits to the canal
This really does epitomise what fishing is to me. Simple methods, simple cheap bait and a local water that is close to home and a constant revelation. It's thrilling, surprising, relaxing and above all hugely enjoyable. Today was a great day. The fish may not be monsters but they are beautiful and sometimes just being there and catching one or two is enough.

Early Sunday Morning - A Quick Visit to the Canal

I had a small window of opportunity yesterday so headed down to the industrial section of the canal just along from Wigan Pier. With only a couple of hours to fish from first light I thought I would give float fished bread a try on the spot that had produced roach to half a pound on previous visits. I threw in a couple of handfuls of mashed bread and tackled up my old Sealey Octopus cane rod with a trusty Mitchell 300A and 3lb line straight through to a size 12 hook under an old cane and cork antenna.
A couple of swift bites came in the first few casts but I failed to hit them. The third bite came and I connected with a feisty fish which turned out to be a chub of around 8 ounces. My first canal chub and a splendid looking fellow he was too.

All was quiet for an hour or so before the next bite produced a roach of 6 ounces.

By now I was playing the last cast game. I was on the fourth last cast when my final bite came. A bigger and stronger fish gave a couple of spirited dashes around mid canal before finally coming to the net. My first roach/bream hybrid and it tipped the scales at 12 ounces and refused to lie still for a photograph.

It was a shame to leave as I think the swim was coming to life. However, it's yet more proof that the 

canal really is a water with potential and contains fish in excellent condition. With luck I will be back later in the week

Along the Towpath to Wigan Pier ( Part Two)

One of my favourite stretches of the Leeds Liverpool canal is between Gathurst and Appley Bridge. My son and I had gone out to fish the River Douglas last Autumn and had ended up trying the canal as the river was high and fast. That day we only managed a small bream between us but subsequent trips have been more fruitful.
There are two spots that I particularly like. The first is a straight stretch just above the locks and the lock keeper's cottage. Part of it lies beneath the high crossing of the M6 where the canal, railway and the River Douglas all converge. It's like a potted history of transport in the last 150 plus years.

I have fished this stretch a couple of times during the early part of the year, once for pike and once on a windy day in February where I was just happy to pick up any fish I could on float fished maggots.It looks a bit bleak in the photograph and is indeed a strange spot mainly due to the noise from the motorway. You don't really feel as though you've got away from it all when there are articulated lorries roaring overhead. Of course the wind direction can help reduce the noise but when you are concentrating on the fishing it is still possible to tune out almost everything else.

As you can see this spot is a lot more inviting in Summer. I took this photograph on Sunday 15th July at around 6am. With a brief lull in the incessant rain promised I thought I'd make the most of it and try an early morning and maybe get myself a canal tench. As is often the way things don't turn out at all as planned. I set up two rods- one with ledgered sweetcorn and the other with float fished bread. On the far bank is a patch of lillies and a reasonable growth of reeds so I cast the sweetcorn to the left hand end of the lillies and the bread to the right. Within a few minutes I picked up a bream of around half a pound on the bread. This was a good start. I find it really important when using bread that you get a quick result otherwise your confidence in it as a bait can wane quite quickly. Another bite on the bread and another bream of a similar size. I got a couple of little twitchy pulls on the corn but nothing that developed into a full blooded run so I concentrated solely on the float.
Just after 6.30am the float plunged under and I connected with a sprightly fish that definitely wasn't a bream. A brief foray into mid canal followed and as I brought the fish to the surface for netting I could see it was a roach. Not just any roach but one that looked to be well in excess of a pound. With it safely in the net I scrabbled about to find my scales.

1lb 14oz. A new personal best roach and almost a fish of a life-time. It had a nasty looking gash on it's left flank so I returned it as quickly as possible. It's quite a pale looking specimen and quite different in appearance to smaller roach I've caught on the same stretch. Of course this then led me into a panic as to whether it was a true roach or a possible hybrid. Luckily I know a man who knows another who is an expert at identification and he has verified it as a roach.
Not quite what I had in mind when I set out just before dawn but that's the beauty of fishing. I'm so chuffed with this fish and it's got me thinking about what else may lurk unseen in this lovely old waterway. I'll definitely be back to explore some more.

Tricky Tench

Last year I was lucky enough to find a tarn in Cumbria that promises to become my tench paradise. I had a  visit on a day ticket basis and although not really successful- one hooked and lost fish followed by tentative bites that seemed impossible to hit- I found myself smitten with the water and the potential that it promised. Another angler visiting from North Wales was luckier (or more skillful) that day and managed five fish in the morning session. Two of these were over 6lbs and the other three around 4lbs. The biggest fish caught so far is a 10lb specimen and the consensus amongst anglers I've chatted with suggests that there may be fish as big as 15lb. However, as I have found out this lake does not give up it's fish easily.
Throughout the close season I meticulously planned a 24 hour plus visit to this lake with the hope of starting my season off with a possible personal best tench.

I arrived at around 7pm on the evening of June 18th. It had been a rare beautiful day with plenty of sunshine and no rain. The first sight of bubbles in the swim around 8.30pm had me on the edge of my seat. I had decided to float fish even though the lake is around 11 feet deep straight in front of you. I should probably have used a sliding float but as I was only fishing around a rod length out casting wasn't a problem. As you can see from the photograph the margins have an abundant growth of lillies so I used 6.6lb line on one of my trusty Mitchell 300As. To begin with I tried feeding a small amount of hemp and a few pieces of corn into the swim and fished a single grain on a size 14 hook. Bubbles continued to appear sporadically through the evening but aside from a couple of little touches that didn't really develop there was no sign of tench. I switched to double red maggot for a while and caught a couple of the lake's other inhabitants some splendidly striped perch. With darkness falling I switched to a leger outfit and set up my light and got myself organised for the night. A few minutes after my first cast the heavens opened and it poured with rain for an hour or more.By midnight I still hadn't had any sign of interest so I headed back to the car to get a few hours sleep.
It's not easy sleeping in the front passenger seat of a Ford Focus and after four hours of sliding around the seat and wedging my feet in strange places I gave up on sleep and went back down to the lake. I made some coffee and a bacon sandwich and by 4.30am I was fishing again. It had been a bit chilly in the night and I was certainly up before the tench as it was sometime before any bubbles began to surface in the swim. I persevered with sweetcorn, both natural and sometimes homemade red strawberry flavour but any signs of interest were few and far between.There were a couple of definite bites later in the morning but unlike the classic rising, dithering and finally sailing away type bites these were fast like a dace attacking a maggot and consequently almost impossible to hit. I tried all manner of baits from worm to prawn in an attempt to get a really positive bite but all to no avail. By lunchtime I was fishing for perch with maggots for a bit of light relief. I caught a few and have to say the perch in this lake give such a spirited fight that I almost forgot why I'd come here.
It's a wonderfully peaceful setting and the day drifted by in a very pleasant way. I watched a mother duck supervise her 10 little ducklings as they cruised around the lake time and time again, chirping and running across lily pads.. All it was really lacking was a tench.
 Around 7pm I finally saw one. It was a splendid fish of maybe four or five pounds and it swam slowly past me in the tiny shallow area in front of the platform I was fishing from.To tease me even more by 8pm my float was surrounded by bubbles and I was clutching the rod ready to strike at the slightest movement. Of course the bite never came and as 10pm approached I finally decided to head home.
Although it wasn't quite the trip I had planned throughout the close season I learnt a lot about the lake and it's inhabitants during the time I was there and it has left me eager for more. There is something fascinating and challenging about such a water and I'm sure that in the next couple of months I will finally get one of those tricky tench in the net.

First Day

It's 4.15am on Sunday 17th June and I'm on the bank at last. The first surprise of the day is that the lake is around two feet above its normal level. The endless rain that is blighting June means that all the fishing platforms are submerged and to fish my favourite spot in the channel I'm left balancing on my stool on the slope that leads down to the peg. At least I had the foresight to wear my wellies.




With the water level high I'm forced back up the bank.

 

I set up two outfits. On the Anon Shaw cane rod with a Mitchell 300A loaded with 6lb line I'm legering a chunk of meat near to the reeds on the far side of the channel. to the left of the bush.  I float fish in the margin to my right with my favourite float rod an old Bacchus and Rhone Matchman's Peg. This has 3lb line on my other Michell 300A. On this outfit I have a homemade balsa and cane tench float and a size 14 hook and I alternate baits (worm, bread,sweetcorn and maggots), until I find the one that works best today.

At 5.20am I get my first run on the legered meat as a carp takes off like a train. It's not big. just under 3lb but it gets the cane creaking for a few minutes before it's safely in the net. My first fish of the new season. I quickly photograph it and slide it back into the water. I have a celebratory cup of coffee and a roll-up - it's a good start.

A few minutes later I pick up a half pound bream on the float outfit and another similar sized one on the legered meat. It's a calm morning and there is a short shower that has me sheltering under my brolley for ten minutes or so. A procession of small perch and a little dace fall to my float fished maggots. In all of last season I think I only caught a single perch so it is good to see them thriving in the lake. Eventually I get one that's a good quarter of a pound,
I'm enjoying myself now as it is always good to catch. However, it's summer and I have been dreaming of tench for weeks now, and so far the new stocking have been conspicuous by their absence. I decide to be a bit more Mr Crabtree in my approach and stick a big worm on the float tackle.Of course I catch another perch but I'm determined ( or desparate ) to stick it out for a tench. At just after 10.30am my dreams come true and finally get my first tench of the season. It's one of the new stocking and is a pristine fish of around ten inches long. I'm ecstatic. It also reminds me of the first one I ever caught back when I was just starting on my fishing adventure. That one also fell to a worm float fished in the margins. It doesn't seem to matter how old you get there is still that same thrill and excitement when you catch a tench. It's a fish that somehow seems to represent everything about fishing in the summer.The mist rising from the lake, the eerie silence of early morning, broken only by birdsong as the natural world wakes up and human kind sleeps in. This one fish makes the opening day for me.


I fish on for an hour or so and catch another carp on the meat. It's been a really good first trip out and I'm pleased with the mixed bag that I have caught. As it's Father's Day I promised to be back around noon so I pack up. I walk back to the car and I'm already thinking about the next trip out to my favourite tench lake.

Ready For The Off

So the waiting is almost over and the anticipation is reaching a  feverish high. My tackle is ready and I've just some bait to purchase on Saturday. I aim to be up around 3.30am and on the bank by 4am on Sunday morning.The only worry now is the weather. It doesn't look as though it will be the idyllic summers morning I'd hoped for so waterproofs and wellies will be the order of the day. You can't let a bit of unsettled weather get in the way of your opening day and the first chance to fish in three months. With any luck I'll get a fish or two. A tench and a crucian carp would be the perfect start.
If you are heading out this weekend I wish you the best of luck and my all your fishy dreams come true.

Along the Towpath to Wigan Pier (Part One)

I have little experience of canal fishing as my formative fishing years were spent on the ponds and lakes of the Forest of Dean. When my wife and I first moved to Lancashire we lived in the pretty little village of Parbold which has the Leeds Liverpool canal running through it. At that time I was quite obsessed with playing golf and so my free time was consumed by it. With the arrival of our son I had a new responsibility and free time became parent-time. It was then that I started regularly walking along the canal. I would talk to my son about canals and how the locks worked, point out the wildlife that we saw and tell him of the mysterious creatures that lived below the surface.I loved being by the canal. The soothing power that water seems to have on me was still there and I suppose it began to remind me of what I didn't know I missed.

Seven years later and my son is my occasional fishing partner. He's a bit short on patience so we need full on exciting fish a cast fishing- which we all know doesn't happen that much so I often go alone.
With roach in mind I thought I would give some of the often overlooked industrial sections of the canal a try When I say industrial sections I mean the stretch that leads up to Wigan Pier. Of course it's a post industrial landscape of retail parks and small industrial units now. The days when the canal was a vital artery for the transport of coal from the Wigan coalfields are long gone and what remains is a quiet corridor that allows the wildness of nature to sit close to the everyday trials and tribulations of a northern town fighting to keep it's head above the economic gloom of our current times.

The towpath to Wigan Pier

On a mild February afternoon I managed to snatch a couple of hours and find out what this stretch of canal had to offer. I found an inviting spot where the canal narrows with some overhanging trees on the far bank. I fed a few handfuls of hemp and loose maggots into the swim and set up a simple rig with a aged cork body antenna through to a size 20 hook on 2lb line. There was a bit of a swell due to a westerly wind and to be honest I didn't see the first bite. I picked up the rod to reel in and a roach of a few ounces was attached to my hook. Over the next two hours I caught 10 roach. All in prime condition with four of them pushing the half pound mark.
A week later I had another two hour session in the same stretch. However, in the intervening time someone had cleared the far bank of all the trees and bushes. I'm not sure why or what benefit it is supposed to bring. Thankfully I could still find the the same swim and I followed the same approach as before with nigh on identical results. Another 10 roach but this time only three pushing the half pound mark
I'm convinced that there are some bigger specimens lurking in this stretch so I intend to invest some time later in the summer and in to Autumn this season. Then I will try larger baits such as bread flake or sweetcorn on a larger hook and see if that produces a larger fish.
In the meantime I'm beginning to wonder about the opportunities for tench on the canal so I will be heading out to the Gathurst area once the season starts as there's an inviting looking spot that I've found.

Away from Wigan Pier where  the DW stadium dominates the landscape

Broadcasting Again

After numerous interruptions to the service Between Two Rivers is back.
It's been a long closed season but finally we are within weeks of opening day. Tackle has been cleaned, rods re-varnished, new floats constructed and detailed plans made for the first trip of the season.I shall be missing opening day due to work commitments but will be up before dawn on Father's Day and heading to the Figure of Eight. The lake was stocked with more fish at the start of December following the pollution incident in the previous season. This included some 500 tench  of around 8"-10" so I can think of no better first trip than giving myself a chance to catch a few of  those olive beauties.

In the meantime it's time to finish a few more bits of tackle preparation and to dream of a perfect June morning ,when if I'm lucky.....

Winter Blues

At the end of December I was thinking about how much I have enjoyed this season's fishing. I had caught by far and away more fish than ever before including an all time personal best biggest fish- a lovely common carp of 11.5lbs. Not huge, but a beautiful fish nonetheless and it certainly had my heart racing.
 As the year drew to a close I felt like setting myself a new challenge for the rest of the season. I suddenly had the urge to catch a big roach. Many years ago I caught a splendid one of just over one pound. Could I catch one of that size,or bigger, between the first of January and the end of the season in March?
My first trip out was on New Year's Day. As I arrived at the Figure of Eight the heavens opened. This was not how it was supposed to be. The next two and a half hours were bite less as I occupied myself solely with keeping dry and moving backwards away from the water as the level rose. With two streams running into the lake and the overflow stream running out into an already high River Douglas it was no surprise that the level of the lake rose around 18 inches in just a couple of hours. By 3 o'clock the rain had finally stopped and I needed to move to a new spot as I was now backed up against a steep slope and sat with my feet in couple of inches of water. About 30 yards down the channel there was a peg that was still above the water level so I collected my gear together and moved.
I threw in a handful of hemp next to some overhanging tree branches to my left and swung my float out into position. In the sky to the west the faintest glimmer of sunshine broke through. This was more like it. Ten minutes later the float dipped, I struck and brought in a small roach of around an ounce. I re-baited with a single white maggot and cast out again. At least I wasn't going to blank.As the light was fading I caught my final fish, the best of the day - a 3ounce roach.
So not really the day I had in mind but at least I had caught some roach albeit ones that were at least a pound smaller than I'd hoped for.
Two weeks later I had the chance to try again. However, conditions were not ideal. It was a bright sunny day but the temperature had dropped to around five degrees with overnight frosts. The water was so clear that I knew it was likely to be a bad day. I persevered for a couple of hours trying a range of baits and a couple of different spots all to no avail. My first blank of the season.





 The cold snap had well and truly arrived with parts of the country plunged into that all familiar winter chaos. Luckily for me the North West didn't suffer too much to begin with so I got the chance of a few hours pike fishing on the Lancaster canal. It was a bitterly cold day with much of the canal frozen over but I found a spot where a feeder stream ran in and this seemed to have created just enough movement in the water to stop it from icing up. Fishing my usual sprat dead bait I tried the slow retrieve next to every bit of dead weed bed I could find without the slightest bit of interest. With numb fingers and freezing toes I gave up after a couple of hours.
My only other trip out in January was to a Cumbrian tarn renowned for its perch. I had high hopes but the thermometer dipped sharply the night before and the bright day that followed left me feeling that it may be another difficult trip. I wasn't wrong. Three hours in the afternoon up until dusk without the slightest hint of a bite. The water holds some big tench so I spent a bit of time exploring the lake  looking for some suitable swims that I can fish come June 16th.
Not a great month but there's still another six weeks until the end of the season. Hope springs eternal.

The Wonder of Woolies

As a fishing mad 13 year old boy Woolworths was a fishing mecca for me. Most Saturdays I would be dragged off to some local town or city with my parents and brother for a shopping expedition. This was the mid 1970's a pre personal computer age with no internet or even cash machines. If you wanted to buy something it was the shops or the Empire stores catalogue.
Like many other children of the 'winfield age' I bought my first record from them, gorged myself on pick and mix and chose my Christmas presents from their shelves. However, what really fired my imagination, and became almost as big an obsession as fishing itself was the fishing tackle they sold. I even had my own favourite branch of Woolies. Monmouth didn't have the biggest shop but I loved its polished wooden floor and the range of tackle was sufficient for my  meagre purse. After all my paper round only paid £1.40 a week but it was enough for those essential odds and ends you always need and floats of course!
I loved the way the floats were packaged in the trademark winfield plastic wrapping and hung in a tantalising way from the hooks. In fact the uniform packaging seemed to be part of the appeal. I still have some of their 'River' floats and some wire traces knocking around in my tackle bag to this day.

The orange tipped balsa float on the left was a favourite of mine when we fished the River Lugg at Marden in Herefordshire. A pinch of bread flake trotted down the far bank under some over-hanging bushes produced numerous dace and small greedy chub on almost every occasion I fished. But it wasn't just the floats that I coveted. They made rods and reels too.
My first ever fishing outfit came form Woolies. A 6 foot solid fibreglass rod finished in white with green whippings and beautiful cork handle with an integrated reel seat, The reel itself - also green -was a winfield Newcomer, a neat little fixed-spool reel ideal for a beginner . However, it wasn't long before I had my eye on a new rod. The object of my affections was a winfield Roach Fisher. I longed for this rod. It was an 11 foot green hollow glass rod that I was sure would improve my fishing no end.  I would go as often as possible to look at it and if I was feeling daring actually hold it. Of course I never bought one. It was too expensive for me at the time and then as so often happens events took over and I really didn't need it anymore as my great uncle Jack gave me a Sportex Mambo 12 foot match rod.

I still have the Gone Fishing book that was part of the Winfield Leisure series of publications. Chapter 8 is two  pages of the Winfield rods and reels. To be honest the photo of the coarse rods does little justice to the splendour that was the Roach Fisher but it's there as a reminder to me of that whole era.