Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.101 (Maggots)

Now match angling in canals is a specialized form of angling. The matchman's aim is quite different from that of ordinary anglers. His object is to catch a higher weight of fish than his opponents within a limited time. He cannot prebait his swim, nor will he usually risk angling for big fish. He angles for the kind of fish which will enable him to build up a winning catch quickly. 

Time wasted may mean fish missed. Consequently, everything has to be speeded up. Casting, striking, retrieving the fish, groundbaiting all must be done quickly and efficiently. A few ounces, or even drams, can swing the balance in his favour. To lose is not a disgrace. But to win or to be placed is an achievement. Reputations are at stake. Names can be made overnight. The competitive spirit is paramount.

It seems a great pity that all this effort so often reaps such a poor reward in terms of fish caught. Occasionally, an angler catches some good roach, bream, chub or tench, and the win- ning weight takes a spectacular upward leap. But more often than not, the weights returned are low and seldom give a true reflection of the quality of the canal's fishing. 

Some matches are won with a meagre two pounds or so of roach, or even with a mere ounce or two of small fish. One match fished on the Lancaster Canal, in which no less than 1,300 competitors took part, was won with less than four pounds of fish. In another match, fished in the Worcester Canal, the winner out of 164 competitors weighed in four pounds fourteen ounces of small roach. 

But one of the most fantastic match results of all must be the occasion when 200 sticklebacks earned an angler third place and £34 in prize money. The sticklebacks weighed six and a half ounces and were taken on a bloodworm fished on a size 22 hook. Results of this kind are quite common when the catch is composed of small fish. 

Yet individual anglers often take hefty catches of fish, and sometimes large specimens, from these same waters when fishing alone. I can remember taking over thirty pounds of quality roach during an early morning session in the Alrewas Canal a well-known Midlands match venue. This catch was witnessed by a bailiff and a few of the match anglers. Yet the match that was fished later in the day was won with only two pounds of small roach. Many anglers caught nothing.

It would be unwise to jump to conclusions about experiences such as this, though. Comparisons of the respective results in terms of fish caught can be misleading. I had the advantage of an early start in an undisturbed water. Most match anglers are not prepared to take a chance with different baits but prefer those which have proved themselves over the years: maggots, casters and bread.

Other factors often weigh heavily against them, too. They cannot choose their time or place, but must fish when and where the luck of the draw places them quite often in most unfavourable conditions. To get the best from most canals, it is essential to be quiet and still. 

In this sense, the match angler commences at a disadvantage. The unavoidable amount of noise on the banks, and the fact that he is virtually rubbing shoulders with his fellow-competitors, creates adverse conditions which he must accept and strive to overcome. It is to his credit that he catches fish at all.

You do wonder why those matches on the canals seem to rarely happen these days, especially in these neck of the woods where matches were common places even during the river season. There is always those that would blame the Zander but the fact is many matches anglers have now moved to commercial fisheries instead to apply their trade. Easy pickings isn't it !! and with all the gear the modern match anglers seems to carry these days, often convenient as you can park behind your peg. 

Anyway I was back for more early morning canal fishing where I got off to a flyer with a bite first chuck before even any cloud groundbait went out. I only fished maggots today, three of them on a size 16 hook actually, where as back in the day that would have got a WTF 👀😅.

I was catching steadily till the first boat came through at 7.30am, yes on Sunday, after that sport died off where I only managed to get the odd bite or two. In the end with so much crud on the surface and the two got a pain I decided to venture to where I was yesterday morning but this time fish near some reeds to see if I was missing something.

I forgot just how much I like fishing the centre-pin in this type of fishing where you don't need to cast far even if fishing over at the far margin, but it's playing the fish that is so nice. The control over the fish when using relatively fine tackle is unbeatable I'd say. 

Anyway both areas produced a wide variety of fish with the biggest fish this nice bream that gave a decent fight. So an an enjoyable near 4 hour session and the weather was kind as well and it definitely felt spring in the sun, very pleasant indeed.  

The maggots certainly did the trick today and not the freshest of bait either probably a good 7-8 weeks old and kept in my bait fridge in the garage from turning in to casters. A lovely mornings fishing and as expected I had it all to myself too.

Now I need to try and few more spots methinks to see if I'm missing out on some hot-spots and next time I might just fish bread and also feed bread to try and improve the size of the fish, and also the species, because I fancy some decent roach. I have been feeding fishmeal groundbait and small pellets and that could well dictate what I've been attracting in to the swim. 

Oh and I forgot to mention I had a carp sleeper rod put for the first part of the session, where sadly nothing was doing whatsoever up snag alley. I might stick to the Zander sleeper rod next time and wait until it warms up nicely where hopefully the carp will get off their lazy backsides and start moving about. 

That's when the bike will come out to play to try and do some carp spotting because that's what worked last time. The best way to catch them is to find out where they are hiding first.

Canal Roach - The Sisyphean Task ? Pt.3

I was back at Wild Garlic Way to see if I could pick up a roach from these moody turbid waters, and to also forage some more leaves for some pesto I'm going to make.

The mushroom and wild garlic cream sauce with some vermouth went down rather well I must admit so I needed to replenish the reserves whilst the leaves were still young and pungent. 

The wind was due to drop a little verses the last few days which is why I decided to head down for a couple of hours early doors, where hopefully after the overactive tiller twisters would be way off from having their fun. So fingers crossed that meant I could get some float fishing in without any tow on the water. 

Now in Greek mythology, Sisyphus or Sisyphos was the founder and king of Ephyra (now known as Corinth). He was a devious tyrant who killed visitors to show off his power. This violation of the sacred hospitality tradition greatly angered the gods. 

They punished him for trickery of others, including his cheating death twice. The gods forced him to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down every time it neared the top, repeating this action for eternity. Through the classical influence on modern culture, tasks that are both laborious and futile are therefore described as Sisyphean.

The Double Figure Canal Zander Quest was concluded after 6 years of towpath trudging but oddly especially with fellow Blogger and WBAS syndicate member George Burtons success for roach over 2lb on the local canals, I'm hoping this won't be as challenging but just as rewarding. There is one big problem and that is the amount of sessions that may lead to success, you see I was head down Zander, Zander and Zander previously however I'm not sure this new quest will be of the same vigour. 

These sessions will be little but not often, because I've other fish that I want to target as well, such as canal Tench, Carp and even Big Rudd, and when the rivers are back open again, that's where my allegiances are if I'm honest with myself. The closed season for me however is a blessing really, as it does force me in to doing some different which is good for the mind, body and soul I'd say. Talking of which after losing a carp here last time, I'd have a carp sleeper rod out with a yellow pop-up tipped with a tigernut. 

Now as anglers we are lucky up these parts though, we shouldn't forget that, other areas of the country don't have the canals that we have and have to fish commercial lakes dread the thought, learn to knit or join the local bridge club as their distraction from not being able to fish all things flowing. Where the heck are all the other anglers though ? the canals I fish it's rare to see another angler and those that I do see are the like-minded I often already know anyway. 

 

With the success on maggots on another stretch I was going to stick to the maggot approach but fish time to time with bread if bites were forthcoming, to hopefully home on in to a bigger fish ( a roach hopefully). 

Groundbait as before Supercrush Green from Sonubaits with a few micro pellets and a handful of hemp to try and get the fish grubbing around. Another change was to fish an antenna float and the trigger shot method. 

The insert waggler actually worked pretty well last time but the bite registration was a little cumbersome I fancied something with a little more finesse. (Yes alien to me I know ) 

Nothing new in this but I first read about it when Jeff Hatt off of Idlers Quest wrote and article about it....

...Back in 2013 apparently it certainly doesn't seem that long mind you because I've used the method in my canal fishing ever since (Have a look at George's YouTube vlog here too). Get the set-up right and it works very well indeed. Go and have a look at Jeff's article above, essentially the bulk BB are pinched on 12-18 inches from the hook depending on depth, but the trigger shot just an inch from the knot. 

'The (antenna) float is held on the line by a couple of float stops so depth variations can be quickly and accurately adjusted to. The object is to have the trigger shot anchor the buoyant bread at dead depth and bring the antennae down in the water till just the red tip shows above. 

Over-depth there's too much showing, under-depth there's too little or none at all. It is absolutely depth-critical, takes a lot of work to get perfectly balanced and is no method for the lazy. Then, as a fish picks up the bait the weight of the trigger shot is subtracted when the antennae lifts registering the bite in the most dramatic fashion'. (Jeff's words)

Sometimes you need to play about with the bulk shotting as well to get the trigger shot to work so sometimes those 5bb needed for this float could mean 4 initially. Thankfully the canals are pretty uniform which helps however if you find it's difficult to achieve then move all the bulk shot near the hook and then fish it overdepth by tightening down to the float so a small amount is showing, that works very well too. 

I didn't expect to be scraping a thin layer of frost off the car when I left the house at a cup of tea past 5.30am but wow what a lovely morning and it got better and better. I was expecting it to be a big fish day because when I got to the swim two big fish showed themselves quite early on.

One was definitely a bream because I saw it roll, a nice one too. Anyway I fed some hemp and corn next to some reeds and placed the carp rig over the top and then left that to do its own thing.

I started off on maggots and it took a while to get the first bite and it was a roach. I missed a clear bite or two before that which were really fast bites which I missed.

The bites started to come thick and fast when I started to feed maggots and that was the key.

Assume there were fish competing in the swim because a few of them grabbed with maggots as soon as the float hit the surface.

I wish I had my Zander sleeper rod with me because I bet the Zander were not far away with the amount of small roach in the swim, which I reckon there was because all of a sudden the bites stopped so much so I went for a move.

The next swim I was getting a few nibble quite quick but after half an hour without the sun to warm me up, I went back to the original swim where again the roach seemed to be on to the maggots.

I did try bread from time to time but not even a bobble, so maggots it was. When I did switch swims I placed the carp rig on the spot again and after half an hour a huge wake right next to the reeds where I assume the carp had been spooked on something.

It's barely even 2 foot deep there and it's surprising carp even venture there but it's exactly the spot where I managed to catch one from this stretch before. 

So a few roach caught, but nothing big showed at all. Once the first boat went through at 8.30am and it turned in to a river I decided to call it a day. What amazes me about this moody canal it is more hit than miss, but one day if you get one of the rare good one's it's bream all the way, and then only small fish, and then if you're lucky a decent roach. Looking back at the picture one of the fish might have even been a small dace, not 100% but there is chub in here as well so you never know. I should pay more attention next time shouldn't I 😀

Oh and the water temp has been given a hot, only 11.2 degrees this morning

Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.100 (Canal Zander)

To be honest I was lacking in motivation for this post work afternoon session but it would keep me out the pub where they have a decent selection on at the minute, and I'd not managed to get out sadly this week with the weather being pants and obviously work and life getting in the way. 

So it was needs must really, I only had a few hours though but the diary makers would get involved but more than enough to try and winkle out a canal Zander.

It wasn't the best conditions for fishing really as it was very windy and with blue skies and often some warming suns rays, however because of the frequency of the boats at this time of day the waters colour up nicely and it's just a matter of leapfrogging cover to try and find the fish.

Simple tactics as shown below with fluoro as the hook-link because there are rarely pike here, so rare in fact I've only ever had a small jack from this stretch where Zander dominate.

Now the usual spots were not doing it whatsoever, even by the boats where I had a near 7'ber from recently. It didn't help the whole area I was fishing was open to the wind and these foam floats I have been using trying out are superb for registering bites, however they are very susceptible to the wind sadly, so much so they are a pain to watch effectively as they can move a foot in a split second as they are so light. 

In the end I decided to hot foot it back to the car and drive to another stretch where the banks are elevated which provides some much needed shelter from the wind. 

So a 5 minutes drive and a 10 minute walk I was back fishing again and it didn't take long for the first bite. When I tightened up to the circle hook the fish felt decent and was staying low and I was teasing it nearer the landing net where it spat out the bait right near my feet, goddamnit.

I didn't get to see the fish which probably wasn't a bad thing as I'd probably be more gutted if I did. Was it a monster ?, unlikely but you never know with Zander, especially when they stay low like big pike do often they are one of the good'uns.

I failed to hook-up after getting two more bites pretty quick but both of these I could feel the bait being pulled from the small pincers. At least I knew there was fish in the area though so spent the rest of the session concentrating on this 100 yard area. 

The next fish came after a short pull of the float went dead, so a twitch of the deadbait brought an instant reaction from the Zander and finally a fish was on.

It gave a spirited fight but was soon in the net where it looked like it might nudge towards the 4lb mark. I've caught hundreds and hundreds of these fish now and still love catching them because they are such a nice looking fish. They can be quite aggressive too, all jaw and protruding sharp fins but this one was pretty chilled to be honest, probably enjoying the sun like I was.

The boats by now were every 10 minutes or so and were becoming a pain especially when a boat came round the corner and I'm playing a fish in plain view but the narrowboat still came tanking through, with no let up with the throttle.

Yes I managed to catch another fish which again took the deadbait on the retrieve when I had to reel in because the narrrowboat was coming my way. A lovely dark Zed this and this one didn't like being caught at all.

After things went quiet I decided to call the session half an hour early with a couple of fish caught and a welcome top-up on the Vit D. I assume the Zander have spawned by now as I did see them the other day at it 😀 and they could no be harder to locate with so much water to go at, but we will see. On to the next one.