A Trip Down The Canal, Literally

For this session on a canal I decided to concentrate on fishing around some of the stone structures with small jigs in the hope of some perch. There are plenty of features, like reeds, etc, along the rest of the canal but these just seemed to produce pike. Because of the bankside vegetation some stretches have very few swims that accessible. While one end of the canal is like most canals with hard banks a foot or two above the water, as you getting further along it changes. Instead of building locks they simply dug deeper, so it looks more like a spate river with steep high banks. These have become overgrown with bramble and hawthorn in the main hiding the stone bank.

The first bridge  produced a perch after a couple of casts immediately followed by a little jack to a Fox Rage Spikey Shad. Then another little perch. Despite trying several different lures nothing else was forthcoming. On the way back to the car I spotted an adder as it disappeared into the undergrowth. I also saw a Greater White Throat, apparently. This information was given me by a couple of bird spotters ornithologists, A couple of youngsters who really didn't like the former term, I told them about the Adder. They had seen a few about in recent weeks and like me were surprised no dogs had been bitten by one as it's a popular dog-walking spot.

The next spot has a couple of stone structures and a bridge so I had high hopes for it. At the stone landing I hooked and lost a reasonable pike. The hook coming adrift after a couple of fearsome runs. Another was lost thrashing about under the rod tip where I'd hooked it. On the way back to the bridge I spotted a jack cruising along the edge of the reeds near an accessible spot. It ignored the jig three times before I put on a Salmo Minnow, One twitch as I brought it past it's nose and it was hit hard. Thankfully it kited out into the middle rather than dive into the reeds,  After a bit of acrobatics it was in the net. It had quite a deep scar in front of it's anal fin. This was probably from the otter that had been seen heading the way previously. Otherwise it seemed to be fighting fit.

The stone work round the bridge produced a little jack to the Fox Rage Spikey Shad first cast. There then followed  half a dozen perch in quick succession. Bouncing the jig along the bottom close to the wall produce the goods. A barge then passed under the bridge and the bites dried up. It then started to rain.

There had been a bit of drizzle in among the sunshine but his was reasonable heavy. I sheltered under the bridge tossing the lure out towards the reeds on the other side. At first I thought I'd snagged a branch until it got half way back. Another reasonable jack then suddenly woke up and careered about before giving up and coming to the net. This too had what looked like an otter bite near it's tail.

On the way to the next bit of structure I decided try a rather nice looking reed fringed swim. The damp grass and a misstep had me lose my balance as I headed down the steep bank. I wasn't quick enough to throw the rod away and came down on it. Remarkably the rod was OK but I'd broken the stem of the reel. So that was that.

Apart from the broken reel it wasn't a bad session. This isn't the first time I've broken the stem on a reel. The other two times I'd simply dropped them. One was a Mitchell 410 and the other Shimano. Unlike this one they were both metal.