Following lockdown I went fishing for the first time in months down my local canal in Apsley, determined to make a good fist of it I got four pints of maggots online and tried to get down for little a bit of fishing each day, I tried to stay away from the crowds and find some fish, here's how I got on.
Day 1
First off a trial session to get the rustiness out the system, no doubt I would forget something and no doubt it would be hard work. I eagerly walked from my house to the closest bit of canal just for a couple of hours with the usual one rod, rucksack and stool with a pint of maggots. However I took the wrong landing net, the sun came out and my new thermal trousers were too hot over my combats and my jacket was also cooking me, I didn't want to be cold but I had got a good sweat up walking there despite the temperature still being in single figures.
Although there was now some fine February sunshine I wasn't expecting to see a shoal of chub sunning themselves in the clear water, weirder still they were in a spot that's always rubbish. Whilst I wanted to be more stealthy (a new years resolution) I didn't envisage crouching down stalking fish on the cut this time of year. I pinged out some maggots to these sun loving chevins, saw what I thought was some interest and flicked out a light waggler set on the drop, first cast it goes under and a chub was on, it sure felt good playing the first fish in ages, I applied sidestrain to keep it away from the overhanging bushes and slipped the net under one of the smaller fish in the shoal, but a really welcome one and a cracking start.
Strangely it turned out to be the only fish of this short session, I tried down the track deep and also for more of the cruising chub on the drop but they seemed to have vanished. The busying towpath didn't help and I didn't wan't to walk anywhere else in my clunky gear so had to settle for one bite one fish. In the grand scheme of things it was a result and a moral sapping blank was avoided, it sure felt good to get out.
Day 2
Today was cloudy and cold but not freezing and it was to be more of a proper session, the maggots had been riddled and flavoured and I planned to walk down to one of the running pounds where the River Gade flows through, following all the rains I hoped for some good current and colour on this stretch, I found the former but it was still pretty clear and I struggled again getting just one perch in each spot. I had a theory that in the clear water the fish were scarpering when one was hooked on this featureless part so moved to a spot where I knew there was some cover.
I get to a spot where the Gade enters with all the might a chalk stream that's already been in and out of a canal a number of times can, it was just like fishing a wider deeper version of the river and gravel could be seen on the bottom even under the boats, the water even seemed clearer although it was canal water a few minutes ago, bypassing the lock upstream in an old mill stream that is now lined with flats. I was to fish where the waters rejoined.
I anticipated moving to this spot so had already set up a small 4no4 wire stick, the clear water rippled through on the nearside and I held the float back getting bites from the off, a nice mix of roach, perch, gudgeon and dace. Not many canals offer good dace sport but this one does in places where there's flow, I caught a tonker too, a fine dace, I held it low to the camera but it flipped in the sun and returned to the clear water, the camera shy dace thwarting my attempts at photography. I didn't know at the time it would be the largest fish of the day but I caught plenty so was happy.
Day 3
Next day I'm off in the opposite direction having fed an area in the morning on my way back from the post office after posting my art, pre baiting a spot with my fantastic flavoured maggots and hoping no one would be there come the afternoon. I also hoped the water would have warmed up as the previous night had a frost. Sure enough the spot was vacant so I set up a waggler in the midday sunshine, knowing the fish had already had a banquet and would be feeding well, at least that was the plan.
Following the cold morning it now felt warmer in the sunshine and I hoped the fish weren't feeling as lazy as the winter sun was making me feel. This is not usually great weather for chub but they were on it from the off with some nice fish too - prebaiting rules! I love it when a plan comes together. It reminded me of the rivers at this time of year where the chub just suddenly go mad and whilst I miss the rivers I am lucky to have this canal on my doorstep.
Perch also got in on the action, all good ones too, I love catching them a pound or over as they pull well and in the sun they just look gorgeous. For a few hours it was a mix of good chub and pound perch with the odd roach thrown in and a few bleak risking their lives with all the stripeys about. I even managed a small tatty golden rudd, the canal really can throw up anything but it was mainly chub and perch today. It was a cracking day's fishing, well I say 'day' but four hours in the afternoon was all that was needed to get around 15lb of fish.
Day 4
This was a walk along a couple of miles of canal with the missus, not fishing just looking. There's so much to see when the water is so clear, all the contours of the bottom, the gravel bits, the shallows and of course the deep holes where the bottom disappears. I pointed out to the missus a house where a lady feeds the swans and geese with sacks of grain from her garden, in the sun we saw not fish but rats swimming round in circles on the far bank under a For Sale sign, six of them, big ones too. The house next door was selling up and I wonder if the potential new owners know of the rat problem, I bet the previous ones did.
We walked along miles of clear water and sometimes you wonder where all the fish are, but on one part of the cut I saw two huge shoals sunning themselves once more in the warm February sunshine. They were small, looked to be a mix of roach, bleak and chublets but the shoals were huge and there was the odd bigger fish below. It was on a pound I had never fancied before, but I do now.
Day 5
It was a Sunday so the missus wanted to come fishing with me but the day didn't get off to the best start, despite setting up furthest away from any path and on the opposite side to the towpath I get two dogs walk over my gear as I was setting up, one dog is tolerable but two is just ignorant, a confrontation ensued with the owner who had the whole moor to walk them and decides it's ok for them to go where they choose in my tiny corner. I made my point well and I got the gist he'll be more careful in the future.
I was due to forget something again and this time it was my stool, I always have a black bin bag or two in my bag as they weigh nothing and are handy so I sat on this whilst the missus looked the epitomy of luxury in her camping chair. The fishing was hard so we moved after a chap from the next peg walked past saying he'd had nothing in three hours, so I gave it twenty minutes before trying somewhere else.
Moving to a busier spot I used my binbag to clear up the litter there so I crouched like a creaky ninja cursing my dodgy knees, plus lazy litter leavers, my bag now in the public bin that was just round the corner.Although my crouching soon turned to standing. The place was rammed with anglers, cyclists, joggers, dog walkers et al and the fishing was still hard, but I caught a whopping four fish here in the sun. They were good ones though with two good perch and a cracking chub that drew an audience of the curious which was all in good spirits unlike earlier.
Looking at the photo the chub looks like one of the ones I caught a few days previously from a different spot (note the scale pattern near the dorsal) although I would swear this one was the biggest of the week, maybe the mind was playing tricks or because it was the only chub on a day where I had to work for it. The missus was starting to get cold so there was just time for one last perch, and it certainly was a good one, I ended up with around 6lb from four fish, not a bad result at all.
Day 6
A couple of days later it had just rolled into March - How time flies when you are fishing. I really had to get rid of my maggots as they were turning big time after only a week which was really disappointing, It's also pretty hard to get through four pints this time of year even when half turn. After riddling the casters and deads I had about half a pint of poor quality maggots left, plenty enough for a few hours down the canal.
Sun was forecast for the afternoon but it was pretty cold and damp when I got down there at around 10am, I exchanged pleasantries with an old boy who was piloting the only boat of the day and set up the waggler again in a quiet spot before walking further down.
I trekked quite a way along the cut looking at the clear bottom and couldn't see much until focusing on a white bit of debris and saw a fish ghost over it. I think it was a plastic garden chair so didn't want to hook it, I went dead shallow and caught a nice roach about two feet deep, this week has taught me how shallow the fish can be even in winter and another nice roach followed. I could have persisted but I wanted to go further down to try and get that big dace again so I was once more on the move.
I got down to the dace swim and was into fish from the off despite it being much colder, mainly roach and dace although there was many more gudgeon this time, I don't count gudgeon in my records as sometimes you can't get through them, much like bleak. The big dace eluded me this time but it was nice to catch some scale perfect ones to a decent size.
With barely a handful of maggots left I went back to where I caught the shallow roach in the plastic white chair swim (there has to be better names for a swim), it was a much more comfortable spot to chill for the last hour or so. Despite having the stool I sat on a bin bag and got many a funny look from the succession of delivery guys visiting the flats opposite. I'm not sure what the collective for a group of delivery drivers is but they were there in numbers as was the old bill, perhaps looking for the guy who jumped over the fence into the offices behind me, another typical day on the canal.
I knew fish were there from earlier and fishing deeper bought quite a few roach and perch close in, it was fun fishing under the rod tip and another good spot found. I've learned so much this week from just looking into the seemingly lifeless clear water and almost feel like I can avoid a blank by moving to a new spot I know, whether I'll be saying that next time remains to be seen though.
It then began to rain and stayed raining, so the last two handfuls of maggots fed those wise fish that hadn't been caught. I set off for home cursing the misleading weather forecast taking the long walk back, getting a good soaking in the process and feeling cold as I didn't want to take a heavy coat and get hot, yeah thanks weatherman.
The only good thing about the rain is everyone disappears it was like a normal pre lockdown winters day on the canal. I saw the same boat I saw earlier going through a lock on it's way back. You know when a boater is a regular when they can single handedly get through the lock without mooring. "Nicely done sir" I quipped from the bridge " I usually see carnage but there'a man who knows what he's doing" "Thank you sir" he beamed with a massive smile, I think it made his day and whilst it went a bit Compleat Angler for a minute it lifted the damp spirits as we both made off in different directions. A nice end to a nice week on the canal.
Over these short sessions on the canal I sampled more or less what it's all about, and on the whole everyone got along apart from one arrogant dog walker and an elderly dog walker who told me how a cyclist wanted to fight him. Guys went by with dogs they called 'Bruv' and women passed by talking about lady problems, a cyclist went by playing Coldplay full volume twice (although he played Queen today) drowning out the kids with their gangsta rap or whatever it's called now, you name it I heard it from passers by. A strong smell of something potent graced the air in the afternoons and there were people everywhere, probably too many but you'd get a smile off a pretty girl and everything seemed ok, especially those joggers with the ponytails, there's one on every canal it seems.
Despite all this mayhem the fish did their own thing, the birds flew by ignoring all our nonsense and the rats, well they did what rats do. I didn't smash it but did ok, probably better than I expected which is always good, avoiding a blank and getting some nice fish, on the five trips in total I caught 32 roach, 17 perch to 2lb, 13 dace, 7 good chub to 4lb, 2 bream, 1 golden rudd and loads of gudgeon and bleak, not bad for late February given the weather on a crisp clear canal.
