Christening A New Rod

As I was doing my famed impression of an Uber today (Sunday) I was able to try out my new rod, while I loitered about waiting for the return journey. A Spro Freestyle baitcaster Matched with a Quantum Exo PT that I'd just given a clean up and service for the first time in the ten years I'd owned it. The rod casts 3-14g, I intended to use it with 5-10g jigs and the like. I few practice casts with a 7g jig and some twiddling of the brakes soon had it cast pretty well. Not that any of this impressed the fish as all I seemed to be able to catch were twigs.

I then had a wander along the canal casting across to the boats as close as I could get with out hitting them. It's surprising how much noise a 7g jig head makes when hitting the steel hull of a narrow boat. With little interest I tried a light jig head to see if a slower fall would pick up a fish from under the boats. This did the trick. A 63cm jack grabbed the bait on the fall as it dropped between two boats. The rod coped very nicely with the lively little beast. Although landing it was a bit of a problem. I hadn't realised how high I was above the water and had to lie down on the bank to reach the fish with my landing net as I couldn't get past the trees to a lower point. At least the rod was now christened.

Nothing more fell to this tactic and by the time I'd got to the bridge there were no more moored boats. Heading back to the car for a cuppa I tried a couple of crank baits on the way. These were at the lower end of the weight scale and proved a bit trick to cast initially but a slight change in timing soon brought the accuracy back. At the car I decided to have a chuck in the river. Something I'd not tried before as there appeared to be very little access down the very steep banks. The river was more coloured and flowing faster than I'd seen recently. Not the most pleasant of surrounding either with all manner of litter dangling from the tree branches.

Third cast with a Salmo Minnow and something hit the lure very hard. I suspected a large chub, but was very surprised to find a good sized trout on the end when it finally surfaced. I'd heard it had been quite good for trout years ago but they seemed to have disappeared recently, along with the barbel. The bank was too soft to unhook the trout in the water so on to the mat it went. A pale specimen with some strange black marks on it that a suspect may be from bad handling in the past. Despite trying few other spots it was the only thing that showed any interest.

fter a cuppa I had another short wander along the canal with a cheb rigged craw. Jigging it about close to edge produced a rather tentative bite. A strike hit something solid. As I lifted the rod a jack about the size of the previous one rose to the surface before diving and pilfering one of the claws of my bait. I tried a couple of different baits but it didn't return.

By now I'd been summoned for the return journey. At least the rod had been christened with a couple of hard fighting fish and coped admirably. I talked to three different anglers who all bemoaned the lack of fish. They all reckoned the area had deteriorated since the drought last year. Although one did wonder if the lack of perch was down to their habit of disappearing through disease or whatever.