Fish From The Beck

Yesterday I was to talking to a friends brother who had been for a wander along the canal in the hope of photographing deer. He told me that he'd seen several pike attacks with fish scattering all over. One attack by at least two, possibly three, pike had resulted on three small roach leaping on to the bank. While two had flipped back in one had landed in a puddle. He'd returned it to the canal just as another attack took place. He didn't manage to see any deer though.

I should know that following up reports like this usually results in disappointment, but with nothing better to do I thought I'd give it a go. As he'd said the weed was dying away and the canal was fishable. I started with a Salmo Slick Stick in Real Bleak as the water was clear and a natural colour would probably better. This proved to be the case as after a couple of casts I got a take from a small jack. Sadly it shook the hooks. A few casts later some bait fish scattered close to the far bank. Firsts cast in the area and I was in after a bit of violent head shaking and zooming about I had it heading towards the net. With great aplomb it managed to avoid the net and dive into the bankside vegetation. After a bit of heaving and poking with the landing net I just ended up with a clump of weed.

I had a natter with a chap fly fishing for pike. He'd had one hit and lost a fish under his feet  as well. After a cuppa I had a wander in the opposite direction. With nothing to show from the canal I decided to have a chuck in the flooded beck. Due to recent dredging it was rather coloured so I tried a Rattlin Hornet. After a few casts I got a good solid hit and was connected to a very angry jack. After a great deal of acrobatics and hurtling about like a lunatic I had it in the net. Not very big at 60cm or so but it had put up a great struggle in the narrow confines of the Beck. It even managed to keep it's angry pose for the photo.

I spent a little while longer fishing the Beck to no avail. Back on the canal things weren't much better. I'd changed the lure to a small Salmo Butcher as the waster was a bit deeper here. I had a couple of follows from some wasps but that was that for the day. I did, however, spot some deer dashing form thicket to thicket.

As the weed growth is dying back on  some stretches it may be worth spending a bit more time on them now.

It Was A Reconnaissance Trip Really

 Yesterday, after returning from my fishing trip, I got a call from a friend I'd not fished with for a while. He suggested a canal neither of us had fished this century. He'd been in the vicinity of the canal and had a look round. He reckoned it looked quite good and there were a few anglers about. Some silvers were been caught but the pike anglers weren't doing too well.

This morning I headed out there with his directions and a thick fog.  By the time I got to where the directions were needed the fog had lifted, but this didn't stop me heading down a dead end road. It wasn't the correct next turn on the right. Back in the right direction I stated to recognise places, but then began to wonder where I was again. Narrow roads with no obvious landmarks. The last instruction was "down to the end of Main Lane, left at the T-Junction down to the parking spot". The problem with this was that Main Lane didn't reach the T-Junction. It veered to the right at a fork in the road. This road turned in to a farm track. A helpful dog walker pointed me in the right direction. Apparently the Parish Council had helpfully put a street sign up at the junction and more than a few people had ended up turning down there instead of continuing down the more obvious left fork.

Eventually I arrived at the parking where there was only one other car, my mates. He was surprised it was empty as yesterday there was half a dozen cars there. A look at the canal didn't inspire me. It looked a bit coloured and bits of weed were drifting along. The plan was simple. I would fish perch size lure and my mate would fish pike sized ones. After two hours with nothing to show but a foul hooked roach we found ourselves back at the cars. After a cuppa we decided to head in the other direction. By now, though, the amount of weed drifting down made fishing near impossible. A natter with a dog walker convinced us that maybe we should give up. He told us there was a lot more coming down from higher up as they were clearing the drainage channels. That's probably why there were no other anglers about.

We had a look at a lower section but it was far too weedy for lures. By now we reckoned a pub lunch was the order of the day. Not the best of sessions, but I now knew where to go for a return session. A few frost would probably help. One annoying thing, though, was the magic disappearing photos on my phone. Only three survived. The rest were not to be seen even scanning with file recovery software. Oh well. We'll try again later.

Good Grief, A Blog Post

 Had a my first fishing trip since I suffered a Glenoid Fracture at the end of July. The fracture repaired pretty quickly but the soft tissue damage is still under repair.  Plenty of physio have given me back plenty of movement and for most everyday things the shoulder is OK. Winding a fishing reel is well with in my capabilities. I'd decided on a short trip to a local canal despite the dodgy weather forecast. I'd be sticking to the nice level areas and descending any of the high slippery banks. Despite the recent rain and frost the canal looked clear and in good nick.

I started with a brown sparkly cannibal shad that was already on the line  and with in a couple of casts had a solid hit from a very athletic 35cm perch. A couple of cast later a somewhat smaller perch gave a solid hit. Then the alarm sounded and the sluice opened washing leaves and foam into the canal. This rendered the area unfishable unless you wanted to catch leaves.

 

On to the next feature. After a couple of casts I was getting hits but not hooking up. Instead of my usual two or three turns of the reel, let the lure flutter to the bottom, repeat, I tried a more violent retrieve. I flicked the lure off the bottom with the rod tip each time it hit bottom. This resulted in very solid hits but still no hook ups. A change to a smaller cannibal shad resulted in me contacting with one in three of the hits. Over the next half hour I had a dozen perch up to 28cm before every thing went quiet. One problem I did have was using the landing net as I was getting on for six foot above the water. It put a bit of a strain on the left arm. Changing hands solved this, sort of. I'm not used to using a landing net with my right arm and lost a couple of fish at the net due to my clumsiness. Still a dozen perch wasn't bad.

The next level feature was a lot closer to the water, but not somewhere I'd ever had perch from, only little jacks. This time proved different. In ten casts I had eight perch to 28cm. I kept them in the landing net as returning them can scare the shoal away and it was pretty close to the bank. As the expected rain started all hell broke loose. Perch and little silvers scattered out of the water around the area I was catching the perch. As the rain had turned to a downpour I retreated under a tree. I'd forgot my waterproof and my shower proof jacket doesn't cope with that amount of rain. 

As the rain eased off after five minutes or so I thought I'd head back to the car. I'd had a good couple of hours. Obviously I had to have one last cast. This resulted in a very acrobatic killer cucumber. The next five casts produced three more of the little horrors. Great fun on light tackle, leaping about all over the place. The last one had also deigned to remove the tail of my lure. This should have been a taken as a hint to go home, but I'd seen a large jack cruising along the edge just beyond where I was catching the others. I grabbed the first ready rigged lure, a cream and pepper thing. I cast about a foot in front of the pike and it hit it straight away. Unfortunately it dived into the weed and it was just a case of cranking in a mass of weed and pike.   Another half dozen casts produced nothing, but the drizzle was now turning to rain. I decided not to push my luck and headed back to the car. I'd just made a cuppa when the heavens opened. It continued like that while I had my cuppa and all the way home.

Not a bad return at all. I'll have to avoid high banks where I can for now. I'm meeting somebody for another go tomorrow. This is on a canal I haven't fished since last century so should be interesting.