I had two really contrasting sessions this weekend with the river Ouse being a big deep sluggish river and the Grand Union Canal being quite narrow and shallow.
Great Ouse:
Sunday saw me back on the Ouse on the same peg as I had feeder fished the week before but as I had caught Roach on the drop on the feeder I fancied a go on the float this week.
On arriving at the peg I was pleased to see plenty of Roach topping so I fancied my chances with them coming up in the water and hurriedly set up a 15ft float rod and a bodied waggler at about 13ft as a starting point. I know the river in this area is a good 18ft deep but thought that I would be ok without fishing at full depth, I had chosen to fish 1/3 of the way across as this was the area most of the fish were topping in.
The Great Ouse towards Danby Drove
I started off with a couple of Red maggots on a size 18 hook and loose feeding maggots and hemp every few minutes and almost expecting an immediate response, funny how things don't always go to plan though isn't it. After 1/2 an hour I adjusted the float to fish at 15ft but still no response and I was beginning to wish that I had gone with the Slider so that I could have covered the whole depth. Anyway I was confident that I would catch at some point as there were still fish topping but it was another hour and 15 minutes before I had my first bite which I promptly missed. I then continued to miss the next 5 bites before connecting with my first fish which turned out to be a pristine Roach of about 4oz. I carried on missing bites and catching a few fish for the next half an hour or so before deciding to come up in the water, having re set the float back to 13ft I found that I was hitting a higher percentage of the bites and proceeded to catch Roach of 2oz to 4oz at a leisurely pace.
Most of the Roach wer in perfect condition just like this one
This continued for the next couple of hours until the rain clouds rolled in and I decided to pack up before heavens opened, after the initial quiet spell I ended up with 8lb of Roach all taken in a couple of hours. Its a shame I couldn't have got it sorted earlier as I am sure double the weight could have been achieved but hey ho you live and learn. Next time I will start on the slider so that I can cover the whole depth of the swim not just
15ft of it.
Grand Union Canal:
I had booked the Monday off work and had decided to have visit to the canal which is quite unusual as I don't normally fish it until the winter arrives. Anyway I headed for Theddingworth near Market Harborough and set up a couple of rigs, the first one for fishing at the bottom of the far shelf was a 1/2gr Tubertini float and the up the slope rig was a 4x8 Drennan Pinkie.
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| Float used for the bottom of the far shelf |
The depth was pretty average for this section of the canal with 4ft at the bottom of the shelf and just over 2ft up the shelf towards some Brambles. I started things off with a couple of small balls of groundbait on the first line and just a few Casters cupped in on the far line, starting off at the bottom of the shelf it was a few minutes before I got my first bite from a tiny Gudgeon. This was followed by a few more of the same and an odd small Roach, although I was missing a few bite it was probably due to the fact that I was fishing big maggot on the hook and the smaller Roach couldn't get the bait in their mouths.
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| You need a few of these to the pound |
I had a couple of boats come through but this didn't really make a lot of difference to what was already a slow start. Over the next few hours the catch rate didn't really improve but remained steady with small Roach, Gudgeon and Rudd with a Ruff even putting in an appearance which was nice as you don't see many of them these days.
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Small but perfectly formed
A Ruff put in a rare appearance |
The far line didn't really produce much and so I concentrated on the deeper line for most of my fish and in the last half an hour I had a couple of better Roach and a run of 4oz Perch to boost my low weight but I only managed about 4lb. It had been a bit of a slow session but I had spent most of the day fishing big maggot to try and avoid the smallest of the fish but I was a little surprised not to have caught any Skimmers as there are loads of them in this section of the canal.
But it was nice to be back on the cut and I am looking forward to my winter fishing on the canal later in the year.
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