Winter Canal

The canal can seem like a bleak and uninviting place in winter. Gone is the vibrant bankside vegetation, the trees stand as bare bones with only the hint of new buds and the expectant promise of new life. The water is cold and inhospitable seemingly devoid of living things. People hurry by on their bikes or with dogs. Collars turned up, scarves wrapped tightly, walking briskly, pausing only perhaps to throw a few scraps of bread for the ever hungry ducks. Of course as an angler you get  to slow everything down. There's ample time to just sit and watch, to notice the tiny things, the almost imperceptible changes that are going on around us all the time. You may be joined by a friendly robin who will happily eat any tasty morsels of bait you invite him to take. A water vole may scurry past in the undergrowth at the waters edge and if you're really lucky you could just catch the electric blue flash of a kingfisher speeding down the canal. All of this adds to the pleasure of being out fishing, of escaping for a few short hours to pit your wits and skills against the fish you hope you can find.

After an unavoidable absence from the bankside during December and January, February has seen me approach the canal with a renewed enthusiasm. I now have a permit that allows me to fish some 35 miles of the canal although I intend to concentrate on the areas closer to home to begin with.
On a pleasant January afternoon I cycled along the towpath for some six miles or so south of Lancaster to explore an area of the canal that I had never seen before let alone fished.
With the reconnaissance done I have now have a selection suitable areas to target that I can either cycle or walk to. I will be travelling light in much the same way as I did as a boy. Rod, landing net handle and bank sticks tied to the crossbar, a small rucksack with tackle and food and a bag with unhooking mat. landing net and bait hung from the handlebars. The aim is to see what I can catch and build up a picture of the area as a whole.  I know there are roach, bream, perch and pike and I have even heard of tench still being around. Who knows there may even be the odd carp lurking about but generally it is a very under fished waterway, written off by many as only containing small fish if any. Of course I don't believe this is true at all and want to explore and document my findings through the year.
With the plan made and tackle prepared I headed out the other week to an area I liked the look of. As I was passing by the large basin in town I came across another cycling angler. Wielding a battered looking pole he was happily catching bream in mid canal. I stopped for a chat and discovered that the previous week he had been fishing a little further along the canal and had found a large shoal of roach that were eager to feed and claimed fish up to a pound were present. Information duly stored away I carried on to my chosen spot.
After some three hours without a single bite despite moving three times I decided to head back into town. Inner city roach fishing. Maybe it would work and save me from a blank.
By 3pm I was set up in what I thought was roughly the area the pole fisher had told me about. Behind me is the college and in front of me a block of flats. The towpath here is wide with a tarmacked path and enough grassy edge to sit on allowing you to stay out of the way of passers by.
I began fishing a single maggot on a size 20 hook roughly two thirds of the way across the canal trying to place the bait just off the edge of the shelf. Within ten minutes my first fish was in my hand.

Small but beautiful. Bites continued for the next hour and a half with the fish, all roach, varying in size up to around two or three ounces. It became apparent that the fish were all over the swim and I could virtually drop the float in anywhere and get a bite. They seemed happy to take either maggots or tiny pieces of punched bread with equal enthusiasm. I finished with 25 roach before my hands had lost all feeling. The wind chill gets you every time.


I finished work at 2pm the next day and despite having been up since 4am I was back on the bank by 3pm. This time I only had bread with me and decided to use a size 14 hook with either discs of bread or small pinches of flake. It was very windy so I fished just off the near shelf a few yards down from where I sat. Bites began straight away and roach of two ounces plus were duly caught. I managed 10 roach before dusk with the best being a good six ounces. The were a lot of bites that I failed to connect with but I put this down to the bread being attacked by the really small ones so it was a case of ignoring a lot of the little dips and waiting for a positive float sailing away bite before striking.



The best of the day

The following week I popped down for another short late afternoon session. This time I upped the hook size to a 12 with a larger piece of flake. Once again I fished just off the near shelf as the wind was whipping up quite a swell. With plenty of bites again mainly from roach of around two to three ounces I managed another 10 fish including a roach/bream hybrid or around a quarter of a pound. On my last cast, as dusk drew in, I hooked something much bigger. For a few minutes it dragged me around the canal in a very slow, ponderous yet powerful way before the line finally parted company with the fish. I did get a glimpse of a golden flank as I raised the fish up in the water but I couldn't say for definite what it was. It could have been a big bream or maybe a carp but maybe that's just wishful thinking.
All evening I couldn't help but wonder what is was as well as feeling a definite sense of excitement about the fact that larger fish do still exist in the canal.
The next morning the weather was fine so I went down for a couple of hours again. Once again I fished bread flake on a size 12 hook but also took a few worms I'd managed to find in the garden before leaving.
The first bite of the day and I'm into something decent as the cane hoops over. I'm glad I've upped the line to 3.2lb from the finer one I was using yesterday and I slowly bring the fish up in the water. I can't believe what I'm seeing. It's a pike of around a couple of pounds that has taken a piece of flake.

'I'll eat anything me'

Now I've read of Jeff Hatt catching both a perch and a pike on bread but he attributed that to the fact that blood had got onto the bread from a cut he had. I wasn't bleeding so either the pike tried to take a roach that was taking the bread or it took the bread itself. It was nicely hooked in the scissors so maybe it took the bread itself. I will never know for sure.
I caught a few more roach before giving a worm a try just on the off chance that a nice perch might be lurking about. The float sat still for at least five minutes before diving under. Once again the cane bent over nicely and I carefully played the fish up to the surface. Another pike. I slipped the net under her and lifted it on to the bank. This one was a bit heavier, probably pushing three pounds. So far three roach and two pike. I went back to fishing flake and managed a couple more roach before heading home to get ready for work.
I'm hoping to get out again later this week once the snow and hail showers stop and the temperature rises a few degrees. Who knows what I will catch next.

Wild Canal

Inspired by my Father's Day gift of Dominic Garnett's Canal Fishing I thought it was time to search out pastures new on the Lancaster Canal. Most of my recent canal trips have been in the Carnforth area but lately it's been very tough with little reward for a lot of effort. Roach have been scarce and it's only really been a few hybrids and skimmers that have graced the bank.
This time I decided to head further North to the wild stretches where the canal is no longer navigable and is chopped into sections by the M6.
It's a completely different canal here with overgrown banks, trees creeping across from the opposite bank, lilies in abundance and weed seemingly growing everywhere on the bottom. The water is clear and due to the years without any boat traffic the silt has accumulated leaving around three feet or so of water in the deepest parts.

There's a canal here somewhere...

On my first trip I had a couple of false starts until I eventually settled in an area that seemed full of promise. There's a strong flow from left to right here as it's not far from a stream that feeds the canal. I created a space to sit in by battering down the five feet high nettles and other assorted grasses and foliage. A tricky job as it's hard to be sure where the vegetation finishes and the canal begins. I always find it's best not to fall in where you intend to fish. Once settled I began with a float but despite hooking and losing a small roach I found it difficult to control the float with both the flow and the clumps of weed on the bottom affecting every cast. Luckily I had my Hatton's Wye rod with me so I quickly made up a two swan shot link and started to explore the swim by ledgering. For bite indication I just watched the tip and found it remarkably easy to spot the bites.
Three little tremors of the tip and I'm attached to a very sprightly fish which pulls off downstream a few yards. A little careful playing and he's soon in the net. It's a perch which I weigh as I think he may be over a pound. He's just under at 15 ounces and is a splendid looking chap.

To be honest this fish has made my day. A stunning fish from any water and it just goes to show that you really can't know what to expect when you set out to fish a water like this. The sun climbs higher, the birds continue to sing their hearts out and a white duck comes along with her brood of golden chicks. She has 11 golden ones and one stray mallard chick. I'd seen a mallard on a visit to check out this stretch that had 7 mallard chicks and one golden one. Is this a genetic anomaly or do ducks do chick swap?
I miss a few bites and eventually get another perch of around three ounces before I have to call it a day and head back to Lancaster to pick the children up from school. As I'm driving back I realise just how much I've enjoyed today. My soul feels nourished by the experience and I relax with a rare feeling of contentment with the world.
The next day all is still good with the world and I can't forget the pleasure I felt so I plan another trip for the following day.

By 5am I'm in my swim with the Wye set up for ledgering. Bait is two maggots on a size 14 hook though I have brought a few slices of bread along too in the hope that it may sort out a better roach ( if they are present ). I start off fishing in the gap between the lilies and the clump of reeds over towards the far bank. As I'm adjusting my fishing stool I notice the tip tremor. My strike is far too late and the greedy culprit has removed both maggots from the hook. The next cast I concentrate and a little roach is soon in my hand.

Bites continue throughout the hours that I fish and by searching around the swim, sometimes close in to my bank other times further down to where a tree covers over half of the water's surface, and I finish the session with 10 fish in total. It's mainly been roach today, nothing more than a couple of ounces, but they are game little fish and I even had one that took a small piece of flake and did a fair impression of a chub in the way it savagely pulled the rod tip round. There's a couple of perch too with the best around four ounces.

These two days have been so enjoyable and I feel that they somehow encapsulate all that I hold dear about fishing. It's not about size or quantity but more about the experience, the time away from the stresses and strains of modern life and a chance to enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the countryside. Of course it's a bonus to catch some fish too and to use my old rods and reels and simple methods. Sometimes it feels as though I could be here at any time in the last 50 years - just like I've stepped through a door into another time.

Thanks for reading. Why not have a look at the extra pages I have added and continue to expand.

Dream River

Way back in September I decided that I would go to the National Vintage Fishing Tackle Fair held in the home of British tackle manufacture, Redditch on Sunday 17th November. It's the best part of 200 miles to Redditch so I thought I'd make a whole weekend of it with a couple of days fishing thrown in for good measure.
As I spend most of my time fishing on the canal or stillwaters I really fancied a complete change with some river action. But where to go? I duly consulted the Wye and Usk Foundation website and found a stretch of the river Lugg that appealed to me. It's been some 35 years since I last fished the Lugg and part of me wanted that 'Coming Up for Air' experience of returning to an area you once knew well. I wasn't going to fish the exact same stretch, it was only a matter of a few miles away, but I wanted to get lost in the sights, sounds and smells of the Herefordshire countryside that this diminutive tributary of the Wye cuts its way through.
I left Lancaster at 5.30am on the Friday morning and arrived at the river just after 9.30am. For once the motorways were clear and in the company of Bill Callahan's Dream River the journey passed by in a flash. On the road between Worcester and Hereford I stopped at one of those lay-by snack vans and had the best bacon and sausage roll ever. I say roll it was more like half of a freshly baked loaf really. Just the ticket to set you up for a days fishing.

The lovely River Lugg in its Winter clothes.

As I had a one mile stretch of the river to myself for the two days I planned to wander the length on the first day and drop baits into likely looking spots in the hope of finding a chub or two. I would also look for a suitable spot to do some trotting on the second day. The river level was slowly dropping and judging by the muddy banks it had been up very high recently.
I tried a few spots without any luck before finding myself on a wide bend that had a large area of slack water behind some dying reeds. My set up was a very simple leger with a bomb stopped by a BB shot around 12" from a size 8 hook, an Ambidex Mark Six reel with 6lb line and an Avon style cane rod, The Wye, made somewhat suitably by Hatton's of Hereford. I had a variety of baits with me including bread and luncheon meat.
It felt a little strange, but at the same time exciting, to be fishing moving water again. The flow seemed quite strong and I wasn't really sure how well my bomb was holding the bottom but I thought it wouldn't really hurt if it rolled around until it found a suitable resting place as that could be the exact spot a chub was lying in wait for a tasty morsel of bread flake.
 I think I had been expecting the rod tip to show a violent tug when I got a bite but I was wrong. The first touch I had was the merest of twitches but I struck anyway and felt what I thought was only a small fish. As I tightened up I realised the fish was in fact swimming straight towards me and it wasn't little anymore as the cane hooped over and I was suddenly struggling to pull a decent fish out of the dying weed bed in front of me. The battle probably lasted no more than 45 seconds as the soft strength of the Wye steered the fish to my waiting net.
Now I was truly excited. Not only had I caught a fish but I was pretty convinced it was my biggest chub ever.
The scales put the fish at 3lb 2oz beating my previous best that came from the Lugg some 35 years ago by 6oz.



My first Lugg chub in 35 years

With the fish safely returned I sat back and relaxed with a coffee and a roll up. Prior to the trip I had read most of the catch reports submitted by previous visitors to this stretch and there were quite a few reports of no fish caught so I was now basking in the warm Autumn glow of not blanking for the trip. After all you don't want to blank after a 400 mile round trip. I also had a new found confidence in my old fashioned simple approach plus maybe my river watercraft skills weren't quite as rusty as I'd thought.
After around 10 minutes I dropped out the bomb again just on the edge of the main flow and allowed the bait, a cube of meat this time, to settle on the edge of the slack. The bite when it came was much more what I'd expected, a real wallop and I struck and connected with another fish. I was wise to the trick of heading towards the dead weeds and soon the next chub was in the net. This one took the scales to 3lb 4oz, a new personal best again. Now I know that by modern standards these aren't enormous fish but they are fine ones to catch and I was enjoying myself which is surely the point.




Old white lips

I tried a couple more casts and ended up missing another bite before deciding to move on from the field to the wooded area further downstream.
On the Foundation's website I had read of people losing their children in the 8 foot high nettles and I was glad I'd waited until November to come as they'd at least died back. I left my gear in a clearing in the woods near a large old and gnarled oak tree and headed off to explore the river bank. 
To be alone wandering in the woods next to a lovely river was a wonderful experience. The sun even came out just as I found the secret lake, lighting the spectacular Autumn colours of the trees that surrounded it. Foolishly I'd left my camera in my bag so that sight remains only as a picture in my mind.
A lot of the bank was high above the river with trees and bushes making it too difficult to fish from. There were chubby looking spots but I seriously doubted whether I would be able to get a fish safely on the bank if I hooked one. I kept looking until I came across an area that just had dying nettles on a slope that led down to a 30 yard stretch of smooth but relatively fast water. I slid down the bank and found myself on soggy area where it was possible to stand on clumps of mud and dying reeds. I clambered back up the slope and searched in the woods for some cut pieces of tree trunk. There were lots to choose from and in no time at all I had fashioned a small wooden platform to stand on so that I would be able to fish without slowly sinking into the mud. My plan was to return the next day and try a bit of trotting. I had a feeling that there may be grayling and dace just waiting to be caught.
I left the woods and wandered slowly back up the field looking for another spot to fish. Beneath a willow on the outside of a bend seemed to be a strange area where the flow almost went backwards as the surface showed eddy after eddy curling around underneath the branches. I tried a worm for a change but after 30 minutes or so and numerous casts there hadn't been a touch. Time was getting on now so I decided to call it a day and head off to Much Birch and find my accommodation.

The next morning my host had graciously agreed to get my full English breakfast ready for 7.30am so that I could be on the riverbank by 8.30am. As I went to get a glass of orange juice I noticed a signed card from Bob James on the shelf above.
Apparently he'd stayed a few times, probably fishing the nearby stretches of the Wye. Was this going to be a good omen for the day?
After a delicious breakfast and a very comfortable night I set off for Luggsbridge.

I headed for the wood again taking with me my Bacchus and Rhone Matchman's Peg and an old Strikeright centre pin that I had loaded with 4lb line plus my ledgering outfit. The river had dropped another six inches or so overnight and platform was now well placed for a trotting the stream. I set up with a homemade Avon style float that took 5AAA and a size 14 hook and began with a couple of maggots as bait. For the next couple of hours I did my best to learn the fine art of trotting with a centre pin. I have to say it wasn't anywhere as easy as John Wilson makes it look in one of my favourite programmes of his where he long trots for grayling. There were tangles around the reel, rubbish attempts at casts, a lost float and not the slightest hint of a bite. Frustrated with my performance I finally knocked it on the head and set up my ledger outfit.

 I put a large piece of meat on a size 8 hook and dropped it out a few yards downstream and felt the bomb settle a yard or so out from the bankside rushes. It didn't take long for the first knock to come and after a short but spirited fight, that put a great bend in the cane, a good looking chub of 2lb 9oz was safely in the net. It resolutely refused to stay still for a photograph hence a rather grubby looking fish was recorded for posterity.
I might not be any good at trotting but I seem to know how to ledger. I fished on for another hour or so with a few more knocks that I failed to connect with before deciding to move upstream.

A slightly dirty chub.

I fancied trying the spot under the willow on the bend again so duly trekked back through the woods and out onto the field.
I thought I would try the float again and see if I could at least get a bite. Alas, I failed miserably and soon found myself ledgering a bunch of maggots which a small dace rather obligingly decided to take. As I sat savouring the delights of a scotch egg and a cup of tea a small chub was the next fish to grab the maggots and was quickly on the bank. I carried on for another hour or so but without another bite. It was time to move again so I headed on up to the wide bend that had given me the best action on Friday.
Despite staying on until near darkness and touch ledgering I could only manage one more small chub before finally having to call it a day. I slowly wandered back across the muddy field to my car feeling somewhat pleased with the two days.
I had broken my personal best for a chub twice in a day and had actually managed to fish a river with some overall degree of success. Sure I still have some work to do on my trotting technique but that will improve with practice. It was good to see the Lugg again and it brought back many memories of my early days of fishing.
Ultimately the trip has inspired me to get river fishing again. I'm lucky enough to live close to both the Ribble and the Wyre and can get access to these rivers by joining Wigan Anglers again. I've never caught a barbel so that I think will be a target for me for the Summer and Autumn on the Ribble. There's also some decent roach and chub as well so two more reasons to get to know this river.
 The Wyre is much smaller and less scary so I'm looking forwards to seeing what it has to offer come June 16th. I think it may be the place to improve my trotting skills as well as stalking some summer chub.
Thanks for reading.

Winterlong

The Winter seems to have blown itself away with extremes of rain and wind and now we find ourselves on the cusp of Spring with the traditional season's end imminent. For the last few months I seem to have found more joy in reading other people's fishing blogs than in writing my own. I've discovered new favourites like By Jayz and continued to enjoy the likes of the Sweetcorn Kid. I've stolen their ideas for baits and approaches, marvelled at their ability to catch out of season carp and tench and become enamoured with prawns as a bait for large perch.
 Of course I have fished a bit myself with some degree of success. In November and December I tried a few times on the canal at my favourite spots but there seemed to be a complete absence of fish. It's rare not to see at least one small fish break the surface, but alas there were no such signs of life. With my club membership having expired at the end of December and no available funds to re-new it at the moment I have turned my attention to Lake 2, the day ticket water that offers the chance of a good roach plus a decent head of chub and some bigger perch.
In fact chub have given me the best sport in the last few months. They have been my target species along with the roach and perch and I have generally split the sessions into two distinct approaches.
For the chub I have been ledgering luncheon meat close in to a bank side bush and for the roach and perch I have float fished either bread, worms or pieces of prawn.
 My ledger set up is a simple swan shot link with a size 10 hook and 5lb line straight through. To fish this I use an Ambidex Mk6 or a Mitchell 300A and my favourite cane rod, The Wye by Hatton's of Hereford. This is a 10 and a half foot Avon style rod that has been refurbished using Hardy salmon blanks and is a joy to use and great for the hard fighting chub that head straight for the underwater branches of the bank side bush the moment they feel the hook.

You can see that my bite indicator is a homemade climber type affair which was made by a school friend of mine more years ago than I care to remember. It's a plastic tube with a paperclip forced into it and you slide a hair grip through the one end - this is what the line passes through and tie the string to the other end and attach that to the rod rest. Simples! 
Very Heath Robinson but it works.
I tend to start the sessions ledgering for a couple of hours and then switch to float fishing through the middle part of the day and then go back to the ledger for the last hour or so before dusk.

 I adopted this much heavier ledgering approach as I was finding that on each visit I would get pulled into the bushes and broken by what I thought was either chub or carp. With float tackle and 3lb line it was I suppose, inevitable that there would be some fish that I just couldn't stop. Of course there were exceptions and I have managed a few chub up to around 2lb with my lighter float set-up.
For my float fishing I've been using my 11 foot Sealey split-cane Octofloat with either an Intrepid Elite or the 300A. I like the Elite a lot and have a couple of them that I let see the light of day when the mood strikes me. A classic piece of British fishing tackle engineering to my mind and perfectly adequate for close in roach fishing with bread plus it matches the rod well both in terms of look and balance.

January 23rd:
This was the first time I'd switched to the heavier ledgering approach. A showery day with temperatures around 9 degrees. There was a massive hail storm in the middle of the afternoon.
These are the three fish that fell to ledgered meat.

Not  a bad day all told- 7lb common carp, 3lb 1oz chub and 7lb 4oz mirror. The last fish being caught after the hailstorm. You can see the hail stones on the grass in the photo.

February 19th:
 Ten fish caught today, a mix of roach up to 6oz, three chub including another 3lb one plus  a completely rocket powered mirror of 4lb 11oz. The ledgered meat again taking the chub and carp.
It was a very mild day with little wind plus some spells of sunshine making it warm enough to take off my coat at last. I caught the mirror on the last cast just as the light was starting to go hence the flash photo.

February 24th:
Another mild day with a gentle breeze and the first time that I tried prawns as a bait with the hope of tempting a big perch. Of course the first perch I caught was only around 2oz. Much to my surprise I then began to catch roach on the prawns and this approach finally brought me a splendid 1lb 2oz specimen. My first over the pound mark this year and a very plump fish.

 

March 8th:
A whole Saturday to myself to fish as the children had gone to their grandparents. It was meant to reach around 13 degrees today but there was a sharp and blustery Southerly wind blowing straight at me all day making it feel a lot colder. The fish didn't want to play either and it turned into a very slow day. I couldn't buy a bite on ledgered meat so spent most of the day float fishing either prawn or bread. Only six fish caught all day with three roach up to 10oz and three perch, two tiny ones and the best fish of the day a 1lb 5oz sergeant. At last the prawns caught what they were supposed to. My biggest perch for some time.

 

So there you have it, the edited highlights of the last few months. There have been some beautiful sunny Spring days this week, the daffodils are out and a magnolia tree I watch is very slowly coming in to flower. I've been thinking about tench fishing a lot recently and wondering if I will finally manage to tempt one from the beautiful tarn that draws me back each year but ultimately never gives up any of her special fish. The tench seem too difficult to catch in June and July and the days can be frustrating when the perch that are also present snap up any maggot or worm baits. This year I plan to try in April and May with hope that they will be less cautious prior to spawning. Of course even if you do manage to hook one the lily pads that adorn the lake may still be your downfall, but you can live in hope...

Little Jack Under the Bridge

The blustery and showery weather continues and I've been seized by the desire to go spinning for pike and perch on the canal. It's been a couple of years since I last did this but my enthusiasm for this is suddenly back again. I like the wandering, roving nature of this type of fishing which frankly becomes more appealing as the temperature drops. It's also a great way to practice some watercraft. Can you think like a pike or a perch? Where would you be if you were the top predators in the canal?
Of course this being the 21st Century you can find the answers to all these questions and more on the internet and even watch a short film giving you all the hints and tips you need to make your trip a success.
However, it's much more fun to just head out armed with a small rod, a net and a selection of lures and use your instincts. I tackled up at the car and briskly walked the three quarters of a mile to bridge 129A. I thought I would start here and slowly work my way back to the car over the next couple of hours.
Conventional wisdom suggests that you should cover the area in front of you with a series of maybe six to eight casts and then move on. I like to try different lures and so tend to linger much longer in one spot. I started with three inch long plastic plug that does a good impression of a wounded fish as you retrieve it. After maybe 20 minutes a cyclist came along and at the precise moment he asked me had I caught anything a pike hit the lure. I gave an expert performance and promptly lost the fish as it leapt out of the water two yards in front of me. It was a small jack of maybe a pound or so. Although I failed to land the fish it at least gave me a taste of the excitement of a take.

I switched to a different lure and moved out from under the bridge. My next take was from a perch that was only marginally bigger than the lure it took. You have to admire their predatory instincts but he definitely bit off more than he could chew. Back under the bridge and I tried casting around 20 yards to my left and then retrieving the lure parallel to the towpath. Low and behold this worked and I got a savage take on my third cast. A quick spirited fight and I had the pike on the bank.

Saucy Jack...

This fine specimen was pushing half a pound and believe it or not this is not the smallest pike I've ever caught. Last year I took one that was around four ounces on a float fished worm. Irrespective of size they are still great fun to catch. ( Please note the blood on the towel is mine not the pike's - I cut my finger the night before and it chose this moment to start bleeding again ).
I'll be back for more soon as I really enjoyed this trip and maybe I'll find a bigger much scarier specimen.

Autumn Roach Diary Week #2: Mad ducks and leaves

This week's first session was at Lake 2. The wind from the previous few days had brought down copious amounts of leaves which seemed to have collected almost exclusively in the area in front of peg 12. As I didn't want to sit there all day picking leaves off the hook I decided to give peg 3 on the motorway side a try.
 My set up for the day was a Mitchell 300A with 2.6lb line, a homemade antenna float, size 12 hook with either bread flake or small discs as bait and a Hardy Match Roach 11 foot cane rod. This rod is a recent acquisition and has whole cane butt and middle sections with a spliced in split cane tip. I believe it was made around 1949 and has been refurbished by one of the country's master rod builders. It is a thing of rare beauty and using it reminds me in many ways of the fibreglass Sportex Mamba match rod that I used for many years when I first began fishing in the 1970s. It's probably a bit heavier than the Sportex but it has the same tippy action which I hoped would help when trying to hit some of the lightening fast bites I seem to get.

Hardy Match Roach

My first bite of the day comes after two or three casts. It's a positive take and soon I'm connected to something resembling a speedboat. I can do little but let it take line from me. After a few minutes it slows down and I gradually bring it back from the middle of the lake. I had hoped it would be one of the decent chub that are in the lake but I now know it's a carp. With only light line all I can do is to slowly and gently try and bring it my way. I succeed in getting it within a rods length of the bank after around 10 minutes. It's a real battle now and the big question is who's going to get tired first. My arm feels like it's about to drop off but the fish, although it's slowed down a bit, is resolutely refusing
 to come to the surface. Eventually I get it in close enough to almost reach it with the net. I can see that it's a common of around 6-7lbs but try as I do it's impossible to get him up to the surface without risking breaking the line. We reach an impasse so I decide to try and force the issue. The line doesn't break. It's the hook that pulls out and so ends the fight.
I re-bait and cast back out. The swim is quiet for around 15 minutes so I pass the time with a coffee and a roll-up. Another bite and I'm reeling in what resembles a wet sack. It's a bream of around one and a half pounds that fights more once I have it on the bank than it did in the water. After much flapping I get the hook out and slip it back into the water.

A bream in very nice condition

The next bite produces a tidy roach of 12 ounces. Some days it seems to take forever to catch what I came for. Around this time 10 ducks decide to invade my swim. They're taking off, landing again, chasing each other and generally being a complete nuisance that I consider moving to another peg.

So common, yet sometimes so hard to catch

Finally the ducks move away and I switch to maggots as bait. I've added turmeric to them in the hope that it may prove to be the miracle ingredient. It is! However, it's small perch that they seem to be the killer bait for. I catch at least 10 of them plus a totally unexpected trout. Only a little chap but I suppose with the lake being stream fed not a complete surprise.

I tried a short session of three hours or so on the canal later in the week but the strong wind whipping down the canal in the same direction as the flow made my usual approach very difficult. I have four spots that tend to produce fish but even these were only giving up one or two small roach and the odd skimmer. A change of approach may be the best way to deal with the canal. I've experimented recently at Lake 2 with legering with a swing tip and it would perhaps be the way to go on the canal as it is generally quite exposed and affected by wind.

My roach fishing has taken a backseat recently as the need to earn a living, poor weather conditions and an exciting trip to Dubai have dominated the last few weeks.

Leaving on a jet plane

The view from one of the fronds of the palm

October in Dubai- 34 degrees, bright sunshine, snorkelling and lazy days on the beach. Would you miss the canal?

Autumn Roach Diary Week #1

It's the last week of September, the horse chestnut trees are starting to lose their leaves and misty mornings announce that Autumn has arrived. However, there has been a definite hint of Indian summer about the days with periods of pleasant sunshine and only a gentle breeze ruffling the water's surface. My pursuit of roach this week has taken me out on two sessions, one to Lake 2 and the other  on the Lancaster canal in the Carnforth area.
My first session was a bottom numbing 9 hours at Lake 2. As I take the children to school each day I didn't arrive until around 9.30am and found that my favourite spot (peg 12) was free. Lake 2 is a roughly rectangular lake of between one and two acres. It lies parallel to the M6 northbound carriageway which is the other side of a row of trees and bushes. Only around two thirds of the lake is accessible to fish. If peg 1 is in the bottom right hand corner of the lake peg 12 is about half way down the opposite bank away from the motorway.
The depth varies around the lake. A couple of rod lengths out from the motorway side on pegs 1-6 you have around 6-7 feet of water. I've only fished pegs 1 and 3 on this side but have found roach to be plentiful. Peg 12 is a little different as you have around 10-11 feet of water within a rod length of the bank. This deep water also has a very definite flow that moves from left to right across the swim as a result of the lake being stream fed via a pipe on the northern bank.



Looking across Lake 2 from peg 12 (M6 behind the trees)

 

I have tried fishing at all sorts of depths on this swim and have found the best way to produce consistent bites and pick up decent fish is to fish around six inches or so over depth. If I cast to the left of the swim and allow the float to drift left to right across as the bread slowly sinks it will find a spot where it settles and stops moving. Bites can come at any time during this movement across the swim. The most successful bait is bread, either as pinches of flake or compressed discs but I have also discovered that the roach here will go mad for luncheon meat. It doesn't happen all the time but there have been odd hours where they will bite very freely on it.

So here's the results for this first session:

Roach x13 with the best 13 ounces
Bream x4 up to 2lbs
Bonus unexpected crucian carp of 12 ounces





You never catch more than one of these beauties.
 

Canal session results:

Roach x3 up to10 ounces
Skimmers x 4
Perch x2 ( caught on worms)

I'll give more details about my canal methods and favourite swims in the next update.
The canal roach is my favourite fish this week. A scale perfect, pristine fish that is unlikely to have ever been caught before.



Pristine canal roach of 10oz

Another update in a couple of days. Enjoy your Autumn fishing.