- Joined
- Mar 10, 2019
- Messages
- 13,068
Well after making a mess of my last river session of the season yesterday (sat in the wrong place and fished like a muppet!) my plan was to have another go at closing out the season today. But after a rubbish nights sleep for some reason I woke up shattered to the sound of falling rain and a forecast which said it would be on and off all morning. So I thought sod I’ll just pop down the canal instead when it stops raining which whilst a bit sacrilegious when there’s a fishable river available I thought as I’d had off the top of my head a good three dozen river sessions this season missing one wouldn’t hurt too much!
Last time out on the canal a couple weeks ago I had an amazing session with probably 50lb of big skimmers and perch so whilst that was never likely to be repeatable especially from a much shorter session I thought it at least worth a go. However when I went to have a look at conditions during the mornings rain the boats that held the fish last time had moved and the slightly stronger slightly different direction wind had rendered that swim all but unfishable so was time for a plan b. Another boat had moved as well opening up a swim that I’ve fished once before on the last weekend of the last closed season. On that session I had at least a dozen perch, a handful of skimmers and a couple roach in little over a couple hours so whilst that was a completely different time of year and the swim was narrower today with an extra boat opposite I thought it worth a go still.
Plan was to go get my gear straight after my morning recce and start fishing about 12 but when I got home a roast was in preparation so I thought sod it (for the second time of the day!) I’ll have some of that and go afterwards. Eventually started fishing about 2.15 and for the first half hour not a lot happened as I struggled to keep the float still in the wind. After that the wind dropped a bit though and in the next hour I had 5 perch 3 of which were certainly over the pound mark and the other 2 still comfortable netters whilst I also missed 2 more bites whilst day dreaming. Then the next hour saw the skimmers rock up with 2 relatively small but still netters to start with then 3 big ones ranging from 1-2lb then the last fish (along with 2 more missed bites) was a whopper hybrid of certainly over well over 3lb after which I packed up at about 4.45. Would have fished on a bit longer but a crowd had amassed at the station behind to watch the flying Scotsman go past so thought I’d join in. So all in all not as good a catch rate as the session a couple weeks ago or the other session in this swim last year (partly down to my day dreaming bite missing!) but a cracking average size again with probably a pushing 15lb bag largely down to the big hybrid. Wish I’d skipped the roast and gone earlier tbh but never mind.
Tackle wise last weeks session in the wider swim was perfect for the acolytes as I needed it’s great casting and bite hitting ability given it requires accuracy at a reasonable range plus I had open water to steer the fish into away from the bite zone so didn’t need any power. Today however was very short range fishing so I went for the 13ft Cadence CR10 #1 (paired with a 3000 CS4 loads with 3lb maxima) as I didn’t need to cast or much in the way of bite hitting ability (can’t blame the rod for the 4 shockers I missed!) yet it’s extra power would enable me to land the fish a bit quicker so to theoretically not trash what was a very small swim although not sure it made a huge amount of difference as still had fair waits between bites. Also changed float from my usual drennan loaded crystal inserts to a visiwag as whilst the bands on them are pointless at any sort of range I thought they could be useful for reading lifters at close range although didn’t actually get any lifters. The hook to nylon had also been scaled down a bit from last time’s 18 to 2lb drennan silverfish one to an kamasam b520 18 (more a 20 in reality) to 1.75lb as I expected it to be harder today as it turned out. This was set up slightly overdepth in about 4ft of water and hookbait was single red maggot over loose feed of red maggots and casters over Blake baits bream multi match (formerly strawberries and bream) groundbait.
So all in all whilst not as good as last time out on the canals mega haul (doubt it ever will be again) or even the last session I had in todays swim it was still pretty successful with quality if not quantity. The hybrid in particular was a belter! Was pretty cool seeing the flying Scotsman go past as well. Next session will be next weekend and that’ll either be back on the canal or on a commercial depending on where the winds is coming from and how strong it is although might do a day on each as the forecast looks fairly decent. No idea how it’s ended up such a waffly report for such a short session though so apologies for that!
Pic of the swim, a couple perch, a couple skimmers, the hybrid which was a sod to get a pic of and of course the flying Scotsman.
Last time out on the canal a couple weeks ago I had an amazing session with probably 50lb of big skimmers and perch so whilst that was never likely to be repeatable especially from a much shorter session I thought it at least worth a go. However when I went to have a look at conditions during the mornings rain the boats that held the fish last time had moved and the slightly stronger slightly different direction wind had rendered that swim all but unfishable so was time for a plan b. Another boat had moved as well opening up a swim that I’ve fished once before on the last weekend of the last closed season. On that session I had at least a dozen perch, a handful of skimmers and a couple roach in little over a couple hours so whilst that was a completely different time of year and the swim was narrower today with an extra boat opposite I thought it worth a go still.
Plan was to go get my gear straight after my morning recce and start fishing about 12 but when I got home a roast was in preparation so I thought sod it (for the second time of the day!) I’ll have some of that and go afterwards. Eventually started fishing about 2.15 and for the first half hour not a lot happened as I struggled to keep the float still in the wind. After that the wind dropped a bit though and in the next hour I had 5 perch 3 of which were certainly over the pound mark and the other 2 still comfortable netters whilst I also missed 2 more bites whilst day dreaming. Then the next hour saw the skimmers rock up with 2 relatively small but still netters to start with then 3 big ones ranging from 1-2lb then the last fish (along with 2 more missed bites) was a whopper hybrid of certainly over well over 3lb after which I packed up at about 4.45. Would have fished on a bit longer but a crowd had amassed at the station behind to watch the flying Scotsman go past so thought I’d join in. So all in all not as good a catch rate as the session a couple weeks ago or the other session in this swim last year (partly down to my day dreaming bite missing!) but a cracking average size again with probably a pushing 15lb bag largely down to the big hybrid. Wish I’d skipped the roast and gone earlier tbh but never mind.
Tackle wise last weeks session in the wider swim was perfect for the acolytes as I needed it’s great casting and bite hitting ability given it requires accuracy at a reasonable range plus I had open water to steer the fish into away from the bite zone so didn’t need any power. Today however was very short range fishing so I went for the 13ft Cadence CR10 #1 (paired with a 3000 CS4 loads with 3lb maxima) as I didn’t need to cast or much in the way of bite hitting ability (can’t blame the rod for the 4 shockers I missed!) yet it’s extra power would enable me to land the fish a bit quicker so to theoretically not trash what was a very small swim although not sure it made a huge amount of difference as still had fair waits between bites. Also changed float from my usual drennan loaded crystal inserts to a visiwag as whilst the bands on them are pointless at any sort of range I thought they could be useful for reading lifters at close range although didn’t actually get any lifters. The hook to nylon had also been scaled down a bit from last time’s 18 to 2lb drennan silverfish one to an kamasam b520 18 (more a 20 in reality) to 1.75lb as I expected it to be harder today as it turned out. This was set up slightly overdepth in about 4ft of water and hookbait was single red maggot over loose feed of red maggots and casters over Blake baits bream multi match (formerly strawberries and bream) groundbait.
So all in all whilst not as good as last time out on the canals mega haul (doubt it ever will be again) or even the last session I had in todays swim it was still pretty successful with quality if not quantity. The hybrid in particular was a belter! Was pretty cool seeing the flying Scotsman go past as well. Next session will be next weekend and that’ll either be back on the canal or on a commercial depending on where the winds is coming from and how strong it is although might do a day on each as the forecast looks fairly decent. No idea how it’s ended up such a waffly report for such a short session though so apologies for that!
Pic of the swim, a couple perch, a couple skimmers, the hybrid which was a sod to get a pic of and of course the flying Scotsman.
