I hadn't been down the cut all summer so decided to take the walk down there in the late September sun still in my shorts and T shirt, I must admit it felt good despite the usual strange looks from those in the high street. I was looking forward to getting a bite a chuck and I had come armed with plenty of maggots to get through the bleak and chublets for a bit of wag n' mag, on the drop fishing.
On arrival at the waters edge I saw a brown murky coloured canal, I had forgotten it had gone this colour a few weeks back instead of murky green, also it was covered in leaves freshly blown in on the breeze which was quite strong in places but eerily sheltered in others.
I set up further down on the first leafless spot where the wind ripped across, sitting there in the shade it dawned on me that the hoodie needed to come on and shorts weren't the best idea. Summer was changing to Autumn for sure and I decided this wasn't the best place to spend the day, although I did get a couple of small perch there in the five minutes I tried.
I moved to sunnier climes out of the wind at a swim I did well in winter and settled down to get through the initial surge of small stuff, off came the hoodie once more and I was raring to go, however the fish weren't, bites in fact were hard to come by and I struggled for the first hour before eventually picking up a couple of roach.
A rustle in the undergrowth next to me kept me alert as did the endless fall of conkers from the tree behind before a lady in a full sari come running right up to me really fast, I thought oh god here we go, is it ever dull down here? She proceeded to ask in broken English what was the most common fish in the canal, at least I think that's what she wanted to know, either way she was now repeating a new word - Gudgeon, before bizarrely sprinting off in the opposite direction to which she came. I spent the next half hour working out whether gudgeon or roach were the most common, before deciding it may be neither as my float remained pretty motionless.
The sun then went in and it got a bit chilly again, so the hoodie was back on, there was a bit of noise this time from workers building something in the field behind, a young mum stopped with a toddler to collect the fresh crop of conkers and a couple of boats passed through. A nice lady asked me if I was catching before mentioning her husband was fishing too, but at a trout lake up the road.
I started getting more bites, a few nice roach turned up along with some gudgeon of course, they just had to show really. Then the rustle alongside me became a plop as a rat proceeded to swim under my rod tip bold as brass, it was clear I was between their commute between bushes but they didn't 'give a rats' so to speak, cheeky little blighters.
In a good spell of fishing the bites came frequently and I was alternating between roach and perch which had now showed up as if to point out their stake in the popularity contest, it was also due to me trying for them in a spot where I knew they sat close in, some of the perch were nice ones, not huge but these canal perch sure have some strength and I love catching them.
Then some bread drifted down on the surface and rats either side of me took turns scurrying out to grab a feast. This time a man came walking quickly right up to where I was fishing, took of his headphones and said "Did you see that?" once again in broken English, after a pleasant conversation I kind of shattered his enthusiasm by pointing out it was a rat and not the water vole he first thought.
All this seemed oblivious to the rest of the towpath traffic who went by in a mix of clothing from big winter coats to bra tops and hotpants, even the women wore them too. I then caught another stripey as the sun re-emerged to warm my bare legs a bit (I had normal shorts on behave) It was a bit battle scarred and had seen better days, the perch I mean, not my legs.
Meanwhile rat No2 was now there in the open just watching, clearly fresh from the water sporting a spiky hair do, how Headphone Guy thought it was a water vole I don't know as this thing was massive, the size of a rabbit just sitting there twitching it's nose at me. I don't know why but I threw some maggots at it, one hit it flush on the head but it continued in it's motionless stance observing my every move, not caring much for reds dusted in turmeric.
A loud clap of the hands saw the rat off as the lady from before returned from her shopping trip in town, she asked again how I had got on and it turned out her old man had a trout so happy days, she was laden with shopping bags despite saying she was only going to look around, "I've heard that one before" I joked.
Well it didn't fish too well after and another slow spell became a biteless one which signaled it was time to call it a day as the workers had finished whatever they were making. I hardly had that bite a chuck I envisaged and had to work for it, but it was rewarding with the roach and perch to a decent size and around 30 in total, with roach just edging the contest this time 16-14, there was also a few compulsory gudgeon, chublets and bleak but not as many as expected.
As I walked home I imagined a vast shoal of gudgeon stretching down the entire cut, staying deep on the bottom away from the swimming rats, joggers and shoppers, I then saw what was erected in the field, as if a reminder of the circus that is the Grand Union Canal.
