Following last weeks visit to the canal and the lack of rain to bring any kind of life to the rivers we decided that the canal was the best option for a few fish. Now I have to admit to being a real fan of the Grand Union Canal in Leicestershire having spent quite a bit of time on it over the last 6 winters. Most times this has been due to the rivers being flooded but this year it is the opposite with low flows and a lack of colour and little in the way of rain. The trouble is that when we do get extra water in the rivers the window of opportunity to fish them is so small because the E.A run them off in 2 or 3 days.
Today didn't quite go to plan because we wanted to try a stretch that we had looked at many times but never actually fished, the whole far bank was feature packed and looked very fishy but when got there we found 2 anglers already in the pegs we wanted to fish. I did try to talk to one of them but he clearly didn't want to talk to me, anyway I will not dwell on his ignorance. After a quick discussion we decided to head for Theddingworth near Market Harborough as there are a few mile of the canal that's not controlled by any angling club.
On arrival we noticed a few cars parked with seats folded down indicating that there were some anglers about so before getting the gear out we had a quick walk and had a chat with a couple of local anglers and after seeing a few fish caught decided we would have a go about 40 yard beyond them as there was a few peg with some nice cover overhanging the far bank.
My chosen peg was only 9m across to the overhanging bushes and on plumbing up I had just over 3 1/2 ft of water at the bottom of the far slope at 7m and 2 1/2 ft at 9 meters .
I decided as time was getting on and we had wasted a lot of time looking around that It would be 2 rigs only and 2 main lines of attack with a view a third line put in 3 meters to the left of my far line if needed.
 |
| This is my peg and the 3 area's I fished |
My initial feed was pretty standard for me with 2 balls of Dynamite Baits Canal and Lake with some Black Roach groundbait on line 1, a hand full of Casters on line 2 and later in the session I fed chopped maggot on line 3.
My float choice was a Fox MP1 in 4x8 with a bulk and 2 droppers and a size 20 hook for fishing big maggot down the slope and a MAP6 4x10 for fishing caster up to the features again with a size 20 hook. I went in at 7m with a fluro pinkie on to see if anything was in front of me and it was a good 15 minutes before my float went under and I promptly missed the bite. I dropped the rig in again and within a minute my second bite resulted in a Roach of about an ounce and I followed this with another 7 similar fish and a Perch of 6 oz. As is often the case when things are starting to knit together nicely it often goes quiet and so after 10 minutes without a bite I fed another small ball of groundbait. I caught a few more Roach and a few Gudgeon and then a boat came through. I cupped in another ball at 7m and fed a few more Casters on the far line before trying a Caster across at 9m. Well after 5 minutes I hadn't had a bite on Caster so I put on a Red Maggot and again after 5 minutes not a sniff which I must say surprised me a little as I had been feeding Casters across to the bush for over 2 hours.
In desperation I put 2 White Squatts on the hook to see if I could tempt any excuse of a fish to bite and as if by magic the float disappeared towards the bushes, I struck into something lumpy and a few feet of No 3 elastic came out of the pole tip and the elastic connector shot off under the overhanging bushes. After a few minutes and a bit of swearing I had a pound and a half Perch laying in the landing net. I went straight back over almost expecting to catch another similar fish straight away as is often the case with bigger Perch but I sat there without any further signs of fish. With this I decide to open up table 3 for dinner and served up a starter of chopped maggot soup just to try something different as I hadn't tried this for some time but remember that the last time I did I had about 12lb just up the canal from here. I gave it 10 minutes to stew and then tried a Red maggot over the top and after missing a couple of bites I caught a small Perch and then an odd small Roach, this hadn't really worked as well as I had hoped but had allowed me to rest my groundbait line for a while. I cupped in a final ball of groundbait and decided to finish the last half hour at 7m with maggot on the hook, I had 3 more Gudgeon, 2 Roach and a Perch for a total of 30 fish.
 |
| A catch of just over 3lb that hadn't just climbed up my line |
Although you may think it is a lot of effort for little reward there is something quite satisfying about working hard to catch fish on canals that I can't really explain.
Anyway my friend Graham had a couple of pounds from 2 lines on Bread and maggots and the 2 anglers sitting just up from us had 2 1/2 and 1 1/2lb respectively. There were also 3 more angler about 100yrds further along the canal and they had all had between 2 and 4lb each, interestingly they told us that they had caught double figure the week before so the stretch has plenty of potential if you are willing to invest a little time and effort.
 |
| Again notice how sheltered it is from the wind |
Contact: riverangler@hotmail.com or http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/River-Angler/169525093065200
No comments:
Post a Comment