stevetheangler

Thursday, January 11th, I set off at 0750 for a local stretch of the Staffs-Worcs Canal at Wombourne (near Wolverhampton) administered by the Wolverhampton AA who have a fair few canal stretches, on both the Staffs-Worcs and Shropshire Union canals between Stafford and Wolverhampton. The stretch chosen was based on distance/time to travel as I needed to get the car back to Liz by midday for her to travel to work and actually three stretches of the Wombourne area stretch were considered – Awbridge, Bratch Locks and Ounsdale – and it was the latter that become the destination of the day. One other factor figured in my decision – my feet – as recently due to my diabetes I have developed neuropathy in my feet which at times makes walking *VERY* painful but (touches wood) since Christmas it seems to have improved a lot. So, car parking is very close to the canal in case I needed to return home but also allowed me to do what I wanted to do – lure fish whilst strolling gently. BTW Wombourne is a good place for me to visit travelwise – 10 minutes from the house PLUS I can travel most of the way there with the car in neutral as there’s a steep decline and so save on fuel LOL!

So, arriving there at the canal at around 0800, with rod already tackled up with a black backed/luminous bellied shad on a jig hook, wire trace, 30lb braid – the net made up – and just needing to get my rucksack with spares/extra lures/flask on my back – I wandered over to the towpath to start my session….

Air temps 3’C-4’C, canal water relatively clear given the recent rains we’d had…

I wish I could recount tales of the numerous 4lb perch, double figure pike and an 8lb zander that graced the bank but, in fact, I didn’t even get a follow from anything – and ANY zander would have been a miracle as I’ve not heard of a single one around here like forever (literally forever that is)…

I wandered about 1/3 mile along the bank (and same back) over an hour and a half or so casting at likely ‘Mr Crabtree’ looking areas plus a few less likely – and changed the lure twice, firstly to a slow sinking ‘Midi S’ plug and finally to a small floating/diving plug…

I would have gone on a bit longer ideally but two factors came in to play – my right foot was fine but the bottom of my left heel was starting to feel a little bruised so playing it safe I felt it was best to return rather than continue onwards than to have to struggle back a larger distance with it even more painful. The other factor was tackle related… usually when I load my reel spools with line I use backing line to bulk up the spool so that 130-150 yards of main line fills the spool up perfectly and I load the backing by making a loop in the end, pulling another loop of line through and placing over the spool and pulling tight (simple lasso), and then I wind on sufficient backing and terminate it by making a loop … and then wrap that with plastic insulation tape leaving the loop protruding and I tie the main line to that loop (to fit new line is a simple matter then of cutting off at the loop knot, tying on new line, and winding until spool is full… HOWEVER with 30lb braid on a 2500/3000 size spinning reel there is no need for backing and so I’d simply lasso’ed the braid directly to the spool – and neglected the insulation tape – result was the braid got wetted through the layers and the spool’s drum got wet and lubricated and lasso was slipping meaning the whole wrapping of line just rotated around when under pressure – not a good thing to happen with a decent fish on. Anyway, once home I stripped off the line down to the lasso and wrapped around with tape to prevent the rotation and rewound line back on.

And so that was my day, nice to get out and get some exercise but not productive really.

PLANS

I’ve just obtained a new rucksack – the old one was getting threadbare and seethrough in places – so I’ve just swapped contents between the two.

Fishing is not possible for me until Thursday 18th now due to a physio appointment for me on the Monday and Liz needs car for hair appointment on Tuesday. Still thinking about two alternatives – a visit to the club’s stretch of the Shrops Union Canal where it seems the perch and pike are active (bait fish or rove with a lure, wobble a sprat) – or visit my usual club pool pike fishing with dead baits and a possible wander round with a lure…