stevetheangler

Tuesday 22nd September, and I headed off for a spinning/lure/wobble session on the Shropshire Union Canal arriving around 0815 and fishing there until around 1200 when boat traffic started to build up a bit – but not that bad I’d have normally have given up at that time – the main reason really being the breeze that started up a little earlier which started to cover the surface with falling leaves from the trees and which, combined with the water movements caused by the boats, meant that spinning without catching line or hook or both on a leaf became very difficult and so I decided at that point to pop to one of the club pool’s for a short lure session…

So, on the canal, I fished for about three-quarters of a mile up the stretch (the stretch available being a mile and a quarter), and managed one fish, a 2lb 13oz chub, taken on a silver with red/green patterning oval leaf spinner about 45 minutes into the session … I had a few tugs too but nothing else was connected to. On the return journey I thought I’d try out the new wobble traces that I’d made up the other day – and discovered a mistake, the ‘throat weight’ that inserts into the bait’s mouth was connected with braid to the end treble when it should have in fact have been connected to the central hook – however, all was ok as the braid link was long enough to cope as it was and thus I was able to fish on with it… anyway, all seemed to fish ok apart from no response from the fish…

Anyway, arriving back at the car I decided to pop to the pike pool as it was on the way home for a few casts with the wobble tackle and to try out a Savage Gear Soft 4Play lure… which I did spending around 40 minutes there but had no joy with either method.

Finally I decided to pop to another of the club’s pools to see the situation there – it’s a pool of about 1.5 acres that the farmer uses to irrigate his crops in dry weather – and with the dry weather of this year he needed to do so again it seems – and the water level had fallen by around 4’ to 5’ recently looking at photos that have been made available. Anyway, the situation seems slightly improved now after the wetter periods that have been but still the water seems to be 3’ or so shy of full….  The pool level dropped, but maybe not quite as much as this time, in 2011 but was back to normal by December of that year IIRC. In fact, I’ve not fished there for quite a time for a couple of reasons …. 1. a sudden appearance of 6oz carp and tench made fishing a maddening experience by attacking the bait before it settled and nibbling away even boilies within 10 minutes – and not just in ‘areas’, wherever you cast – side, middle, etc. and 2. my main reason, before the pool level dropped so badly in 2011 there was a patch of lily pads that seemed to hold some nice perch but the water level dropped so badly that the lily pad area dried out and the lilies died and even now have not returned – and with the loss of the lilies the perch disappeared too and I never caught even one perch in the two years following…