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.