stevetheangler

Before I deal with the fishing …. I went to look at the rucksacks as I said and, although they didn’t have one of those 110 litre Daiwa rucksacks on display, they did have a Trakker one of 90 litres – and it was *MASSIVE*! I reckon it would have been great for a camping trip – not as the equipment carrier but as the tent itself!! So… I have now decided against that Daiwa one obviously…. and looking at other various, and smaller, options although a bit bigger than my current Wychwood (which I calculated at 40 litres) … current favourites are the Korum Roving Rucksack (54 litres) or the NGT XPR Multi-Compartment Rucksack (60 litres) … the Korum is available from TackleUK and I’ve a £50 voucher for them I could use towards the £54 cost but its currently ‘out of stock’, whereas the NGT is available from Go Outdoors on ‘special offer’ at £29 currently. I think I need to have a look at the NGT really before deciding one way or the other…. BUT I don’t really need anything else anywhere near the value of the voucher so would prefer, at the moment, to get the Korum if it comes back into stock….

Right – the fishing…

It was the 10th January 2017 and I set off for the Shropshire Union Canal for a day’s deadbait piking at around 0745… and never again! I’ll either set out pre-0715 or post-0900! With works and school traffic it took me 45 mins to travel what would normally take me 10 minutes maximum….

Anyway, I arrived at the canal at 0915 on a calm and mild day and had made my first cast at 0930…

The stretch of canal fished has substantial far bank overhanging vegetation which forms holding place for chub and perch and obviously other species including pike … and over the day I fished several spots, spending generally 30-45 mins in each spot before moving on to the next … and some spots were fished twice – on the way up the canal and again on the return journey.

Tactics used were floatfished deadbaits – sprat and smelt were the baits – fished at varying depths from 12” deep to effectively float-ledgered. I also put a lure rod in action for spells using a Midi-S lure and a Fladen ‘banana’ floating plug…

Anyway, all to no avail as I was unable to elicit any form of attention to either baits or lures for my entire session.

I fished until 1430 – packing in that time as the forecast had reckoned on rain starting at midday – as it happened the sun appeared at that time but around 1400 a few grey clouds appeared and a fine misty sort of drizzle was apparent and so I decided due to lack of action it wasn’t worth chancing getting a wetting for another hour’s fishing…. and hence packed in a little earlier than planned…

Plans … well, Liz and I were hoping to have a few hours lure fishing on the canal and then a pub visit but I keep getting ‘bad weather’ warnings for snow on that day so we’ll have to see….

I’ve also received the new ‘pike’ rods I ordered – actually they’re Diem carp rods (12’, 3lb TC) bought from Dragon Carp for £8.75 each! Look good and now I need to get them set up for their intended use as river pike rods – 20lb mono on each with one set up as a fast-change float<->ledger rod, the other as a running paternoster with John Roberts pike paternoster booms fitted with polystyrene balls/eggs on the arms which will alleviate the need for a on-the-line float. So next week I might try them out depending on river conditions – if not good then I might try them on a pool.