stevetheangler

Monday, 29th December 2014,I arrived on the banks of the Shropshire Union Canal at around 0930.

A beautiful morning albeit cool – the car’s thermometer registering temperatures of 0C to -2.5C on the trip across – with the sun rising on the frosty canal banks.

The nearside half of the canal was virtually ‘clear’ water, free of ice – ‘clear’ indicating that although ice free there was a lot of floating debris – mainly dead leaves – and it was also evident after spinning for a while with a 19g silver bladed spinner that the sub-surface also had a lot of the debris down there too… which, of course, meant picking it up on the lure. And, as is common knowledge, although lures may be made of metal, plastic, rubber, wool and catch fish, you only need to get the tiniest scrap of vegetation caught on that lure to ensure that until it is removed you could fish until the apocalypse and you’d not get a single take – and can almost hear the fish laughing their heads off as the lures passes by. And so, after an hour, even with the ice breaking up as the sun rose, I gave it up as a bad job as even more debris was released from that thawing ice and decided to head to the pool.

Again, glorious and picturesque,…. and ice free…

And so I had another couple of hours here with the spinner and with 19cm/52g Savage Gear Soft 4Play bodied lures in scull lips… result not a touch… but lost 3 Savage Gears and the spinner on trees and snags… Savage Gears now replenished via eBay for £20.

Anyway, got home eventually albeit with a frozen soggy bottom  – a result of having to sit on the frosted grass to drink my cuppas of coffee and re-tackle when the the lures were lost as no suitable seating was available.… I must get Liz to sort my extension straps for my ‘ruckbag with seat’…. Perfect size bag for my lure roving sessions with a fold-out stool attached but only problem is that the shoulder straps would be tight on a bare chested 3 year old never mind a 46+” chested male wearing several thermal layers under a combat jacket and fishing waistcoat! But easily resolved as Liz is going to make me some straps that with fit between the fasteners of originals and effectively lengthen.

I’ve ordered – and they are in transit so hopefully arrive tomorrow – the Water Wolf HD underwater camera and its full accessory pack that I was saving for – and, at £150, it was £10 cheaper than expected.  See: http://www.waterwolfhd.com/en/. Also ordered a 32GB SDHD card for it – will give 8 hours continous recording in HD – although battery only lasts 4 hours so I’ll need to take a battery pack/charger to top it up. Will have to learn to cast too – too many snag ups yesterday and don’t want to lose it at that price!! :D

Anyway, hoping to get out Friday – changing from my usual piking for a bit although I’ll take the spinning rod in case I get a pike in the swim – and will be float fishing for roach, etc with worm, dead maggot and intending to bake some soda bread on Thursday to take too… and I need to locate a recipe for that now :)