A Canal Quickie

 As I had to collect something from the land of the Goolies and I'd also got reports of some nice catches of perch coming from the canal I thought I'd give it a go. The report was that the perch were shoaled up and once you found them a good number could be had. Texas rigs seemed to be the killer method, so that's what I started with. A 2½" crayfish was soon been twitched along the bottom. I worked may way along quite quickly to cover as much water as possible.

Eventually I arrived at the locks. As the crayfish hadn't worked I changed to a tube lure and worked it along close to the walls. I'd just about worked my way round the lock complex when a little jack followed the tube. I wiggled it about in front of it's nose but got no interest. Changing back to the crayfish got similar results. Shock tactics were called for so on went a Salmo Rattlin Hornet in firetiger. First run through and the jack was on, but I hadn't thought about the strike and and was unable to set the hook properly due to lack of room. Nor had I set the net up and I was too high above there water to chin it. As I dragged it along to a lower section it came adrift. A couple of perch appeared as I lifted the lure from the water. Another run through and the smallest of three perch hit the lure and was swung in. A fish around 25cm which made the other two over 30cm.

I gave it another 20 minutes with various lures but to no avail. Not wanting to be late for my appointment I set of back towards the car trolling a lure along the edge. This only produced a couple of twigs. Another lure angler had turned up but wasn't having any luck. A couple of blokes were getting the odd little roach on pole. A chap on the bridge informed me that somebody had been getting quite a few out yesterday and the day before. To emphasise how tight the shoals had been he said that the previous week 5 people were fishing but only one was catching.