Session 2 – Seems Nothing Has Changed From 2015 – At All…

Thursday 7th January 2016 saw me head off to the wonderful Shropshire Union Canal at a location somewhere between its confluence with the Staffs-Worcs Canal at Autherley Junction and its confluence with the River Mersey at Ellesmere Port….

And the first thing that hadn’t changed was ‘the weather thing’…. which is that whenever I go fishing and there is any chance of rain at all then it will … and will continue to do so until after eventually looking at the endless grey skies and seeing no remit in sight and then admitting defeat and packing up and heading to the car, within 10 minutes the skies will have cleared to become cloudless and blue with the sun breaking out and the rest of the day being nothing less than glorious – and Liz will verify that this happens FAR FAR too often (ie EVERY time) for it to be coincidence…

So… the forecast had said rain stopping at 0800 – so I set out at 0730 with a few spots still in the air and with even that having ceased upon parking the car I headed about 400 yards up the canal to my first chosen area for the day… and, having barely set the rod up, a heavy drizzle started which continued without pause until 1100 by which time I was drowned (didn’t take the brolly – forecast being ‘no rain’ after 0800??) and cold… I admitted defeat, tackled down and headed back to the car arriving there at 1120 to see, yep sireeee, blue sky appearing in the distance… and whilst driving home by 1145 there was no rain, just golden sun and blue sky… yep, as per usual!!

Anyway, the fishing itself… the session was a floatfished deadbait one – 40lb braid mainline, 30lb wire trace equipped with a single size 2 hook which was placed under the dorsal fin of the jack/sprat/smelt deadbaits I used and a small pencil float as indicator and the bait weighted down with a small (1/8oz) bullet lead attached just above the trace…. baits were also injected with a water based emulsion of  lamprey oil and cod liver oil

Two swims were fished – the first with length of bramble/bush overhung far bank for 2 hours trying with the bait held static on the bottom, drifted along the bank and drifted down the centre boat channel…

The final swim, tried for an hour, was one about 100 yards further up the canal with a far bank featuring an overhanging bush and some exposed underwater roots….

However, as per the norm, neither swim elicited any form of action at all….

In the end I did acquire a few items from Go Outdoors though on my way home – a 1.80 metre 2g-20g Ron Thompson spinning rod which, I think, should be excellent for a bit of drop-shotting/light jig fishing on the canal – and a couple of medium sized ‘Fishing Gazette’ style pike bungs, useful devices if you are ledgering and want to try out/test a floatfished bait for a while….a ‘quick fix’ that saves having to de- and re-tackle or set up another rod…

Next session, possibly Sunday, I could be fishing with others to try out a pool that my club is considering taking control of …. and Liz is off work next week so we’re hoping to have at least one session together somewhere…