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.