A Slippery Customer

Flushed with the success, albeit very brief, of Saturday's personal best bream - it can only have been a matter of hours before James trumped me with his new canal bream best of 7lb 2oz - I thought I'd better get back down the basin and see what I could do to earn a few more points.
For a change I took two rods with me, one to float fish for roach, bream and perch and another as a sleeper ledger rod to fish meat close to the stern of a boat moored to my right. I was hoping there may be a carp grubbing about in the margins that would take a fancy to a chunk of  Ye Olde Oak's finest.
Two hours later and I couldn't buy a bite on the float despite trying bread, then worms followed by corn.
 I was keeping half an eye on my bobbin indicator on the ledger rod when it suddenly started to move. I let it rise about six inches and struck. The clutch on the Ambidex started to slip and the cane of the old carp rod fought back against the power of the fish. It was only a matter of seconds before I knew what I'd hooked. It's movements were familiar and remembered from years of experience. There was an element of dread, almost fear all mixed up with a sense of excitement. Eels are undoubtedly remarkable creatures but I have to be honest I'm not particularly keen on them. Over the years I've caught a few and have worked out how to deal with them. Getting a photo and a weight just added a couple of extra steps although it seemed wise to keep it in the net.

slippery...

 

This took the scales around to 1lb 10oz and is my best from the canal.

The next couple of hours were quiet with just a couple of half-hearted touches on the float. Once again the swallows gave a stunning display and the proud swans came along to show off their brood of five cygnets. It was impossible to get a decent photo of them due to the position of the sun but they're incredibly cute.
Around 8.30pm I finally had a decent bite on float fished bread. This was a 3lb 12oz bream and that was it for the evening.





I'm planning a dawn trip later this week. Apparently there's a stretch close by that has some tench so it's got to be worth a try.