Grand Union Canal, 10/04/13

Its been unbelievably long since the last bit of nice weather, so the wind dropping and temperatures rising was always going to produce a good days fishing. 

With the river close season in place, obviously I would be hitting the canal. Fishing along the Bishop's Meadow and Swingbridge sections with mixed maggots and worm produced a good mix of silver bream, perch, roach, dace and bleak. Boat traffic was a major major issue, with everyone in the East Midlands who owns a boat deciding it was a nice day to go for a jolly through my nicely baited up swims, but I suppose it will have to be early morning or evening sessions from now on to avoid this. 

I have been watching ebay recently for great deals on Rapala lures, which are supposed to be the creme de la creme of the lure fishing world. I recently picked up a Husky Jerk (HJ-10) for about 3 pounds, and thought I'd give it a try out for some pike. 

Husky Jerk Rapala lure

The picture above was taken when I got home, those observant might have noticed some quite large teeth marks and scratches on it. Literally using this lure for half an hour before going home I hooked 3 pike, getting 2 on the bank.

4 pound jack pike

Moi and pike

The first pike was measured at about 4 pounds and the second was a bit smaller. The last one I hooked was a beast but unfortunately threw the hook. I do flatten all the barbs down on my lures - it may mean I lose occasional fish but I'd rather that than damage a good fish or snag up and lose the lure. I use 30 pound braid so I can bend the hooks straight on a snag for this eventuality. I certainly don't want to lose my new Husky Jerk lure!

Anyway, it was a good day, could have been much better without the barges barging through all day long but never mind.

As a side note - paid £27 for my new rod licence - why no discount for students? I am the only student who goes in the local tackle shop, which is less than a mile from the University, and I am sure people would give it a try if it was cheaper for beginners. Looking forward to reaching the OAP concession, in 44 years and £1188 time, assuming no price raise, which would be silly. 

First canal trip ever

The weather is rubbish and I have loads of University work to do, so I won't be going fishing for a week or so, and to keep this blog interesting I thought I'd do a new post about the first time I went fishing in Loughborough. 

I had ran along much of the canal around Loughborough before, so I had a reasonable idea of where some fish holding features may be. It was mid-October, and it was very bright. I decided to fish in the shadow of bishops meadow bridge - the first bridge beyond the conversion of river to canal. My thinking was that with temperatures dropping fish would be moving from the river to canal, and with it being bright they would take shelter under the bridge. 

Venue - next to bishops meadow bridge

I fished maggot on the float, in an attempt to just catch something. It was the first time I had ever fished any canal, and was much more used to commercial fisheries where bites would come every cast. I scaled my tackle down to a size 22 hook on 1lb 8oz line, which I would never have dared use before. However, the setup paid off and I soon caught my first canal fish, which turned out to be a perch. 

First canal fish - a small perch

I caught around 10 fish - perch and roach - in the space of a couple of hours, including a quite large perch of around one pound.

Largest fish of the day

I also caught a surprise fish - a ruffe - which I had never caught before, and have never caught since. I'm not sure how common/rare these are in the canal and river around here but it was nice to get a new species on the board. 

Ruffe

All in all it was a very good trip, and was a lot better than I expected. It definitely motivated me to go back and try fishing the canal again, and I had a go at the river soon after, which I will write about at some point soon. 

If you're reading this unsure whether to try fishing around here - do it! You will be surprised at the quality and quantity of the fish, I certainly was.