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