stevetheangler

Tuesday 25th November and I’m back on the banks of the Staffs-Worcs canal…

I arrived on the canal bank and was setting up by 0800 with a heavy frost underfoot – and one which had not budged one iota as I left at 1245… although air temps over that time had risen from the -1.2C on arrival to +10C on leaving…

My swim – the same one as the previous session on this     stretch – was towards overhanging vegetation on the far bank…

The swim was baited with worm and small luncheon meat cubes (ca 3-4mm) that had been marinated in ‘Liquid Worm’ – and also an area in mid-canal (the boat channel) was also similarly baited as a fallback option.

Fishing set up consisted of a running 1/4oz lead on a 4” link stopped about 12” from the size 12 barbless Kamasan Animal hook – 6lb line straight through – Grandeslam Des Taylor System 3 Avon rod. Bait for the day was worm, worm/maggot cocktail and luncheon meat as fed. First cast made at 0840.

For the first three hours there was little action on all baits that were swapped around from time to time and bush and channel areas were tried – just one quick tug on maggot/worm around 0930 a few minutes after the first of two passing boats during the morning went by from the far bank swim. Following this boat’s passage a slight drop of water temp was noted (from 7.7 to 7.3) probably due to the water disturbance.

Over the next hour (0930-1030) the air temps rose quickly to 2.3C – not steadily but it rose by over 1C over the course of 10 minutes at one point and then remained steady only to have another period of 5 minutes when another 1C rise was noted.

The second boat passed by around 1200 … and I was starting to have small nudges on my worm and maggot cocktail baits … and 1230 I had a fish!! A tiny Daddy Ruffe (aka Pope)…

Not the biggest of fishes but I do have a soft spot for these not exactly pretty little critters – and more especially so when they save a blank! :D

Anyway, I fished on for another 15 minutes without further action and was packing up when the third boat of the day passed by…

TEMPS:

Time                                       Air                                          Water

0840                                                  0.5                                                         7.7
0900                                                -1.2                                                          7.7
0930                                                -0.1                                                          7.3
1030                                                  2.3                                                          7.6
1130                                                   6.3                                                          7.6
1230                                                 10.3                                                         7.9
1245                                                 10.8                                                         7.9

TEMP TRENDS: