Coventry Canal Carp & River Bream

10lb of Coventry canal carp took on a single grain of corn

Well it has been a long while since I made an entry to my blog.  I have been away from angling since my last entry-is it 18months or so???? so I'm a bit rusty when it comes to my technical ability of angling.

I decided to get myself back in the groove by way of a visit to my local canal in Coventry, my intended quarry was any of the general coarse fishing species & was happy to not get into a tangle as that was my priority No1!!! never mind catching as that's only the bonus of why I enjoy angling.

 

It was generally uneventful as sessions go, the weather was roasting hot 80+degrees! bright clear sky's & the sun behind me giving away my presence. I tackled up a float rod with 3lb mainline to a 2lb hook link followed by a size 18 hook with a single maggots, brutal tactics compared to a match angler ;) I also tackled up an Avon style rod, 9lb mainline & hook link with a large float well shotted down, 4" of line laid on the bottom of the far shelf with a single grain of corn on the hook.

Avery happy fist day fishing the canal in August 2013 10lb

It was a difficult session!!! I did catch on maggot, some small roach & perch of only a few ounces, little & often with the feed, maybe only 4-5 maggots every 10 minutes, I lost a tench when I tried double red maggot, the hook "pinged" out of its mouth at the net & I was in an almighty birds nest of a tangle so I gave up on that rod as I was nearing the end of my session.

 

But... the best was yet to come, where I had been feeding plain tinned corn on the far shelf every 30 minutes or so over my well laid on hook bait of a single grain of corn (with a little secret home made ingredient) the distinctive sign of bubbles from a feeding carp appeared, not what I expected after the commotion I had with the lost tench.

the float wavered from left to right for a good 2 hours-my anxiety & patience were spinning my mind in circles as you would imagine, will the fish take the bait & fall for my big fish small venue method? another hour passed, still the same thing happening made all the worse by the fact I could see the what I knew to be a carp near the surface so I knew what could potentially be the result if I was lucky/given the chance!

its was getting near 5:30pm, I was hot, hungry, thirsty & in my mind I thought, nothing is going to come of this situation, I packed up my gear leaving the "far shelf rod" until the last, I thought, I'll stick it until 7:00pm then head home, my mind had Bruce lee's voice in my head saying things like "patience my friend, patience" 6:52pm...

!!!!BANG!!!!

THE ROD TIP WENT ROUND, THE REEL SCREAMED, I SWORE IN DISBELIEF

HOLY S£^*" I cant believe it, a blummin canal carp.

I battled with it for a good 12-15minutes, it was a real gem of a fight, took me into lilies, kited a good 25-30 yards to the left & right, finally it went in the net YES YA B$&*"£%

 

I was smiling like a Cheshire cat for sure, I weighed my net, then the fish, 10 pounds of canal carp, superb condition & even had the curtain in its mouth so obviously had either never been caught or very few times indeed-what a first session back!

 

River Stalking for specimens ending up with a nice Bream

I used my usual river setup regardless of what species I'm after I like to use Avon style rod with a 1/14 test curve, high tech very thin abrasive line of 7.9lb test on my float rod & hi tech 9lb test on my ledger rod, the float I use is a small lignum stick float, its allows me to present a bait in a delicate manner if needs be but has enough weight for longer casts/wider glides & long trotting.

 

the ledger rod was a bit of a "cock up" I used a carp fishing lead core leader for a helicopter type setup as I forgot to re-tackle that rod for the river, I put a boilie on that rod of 16mm, 18" hook length in mono ( prefer mono as I like the stretch it has in built into it) I found a nice spot in deep water of about 12ft by an overhanging tree, threw in some hemp seed with my homemade special ingredient, some of my boilies also home made as I'm a bit strapped for cash on the angling funds at present, the whole lot went in the deep hole under the tree on a chuck & chance it/pub chuck type basis.

 

Suffice to say, in the 5 hours fishing until nightfall all I had on the ledger was a screaming take that came to nothing-so what was it???

 

the float rod however I did OK, I was hoping for chub, barbel Tench perch whatever....as I brought various baits such as lob worms, maggots, luncheon meat with a homemade flavouring but the bigger baits had no interest whatsoever-strange as the conditions were good for a river lunker.

 

 

I stalked fish I could see & tried likely looking spots but it availed to nothing ;(

I found my final stretch to fish until nightfall, 7ft deep, lots of streamer weed, steady pace, no trees for me to get in a tangle with as my casting is shocking STILL!

I trotted double maggots on a waggler that was too light for the situation, I could some roach to only 3oz, a baby chub which must have been 4oz at best, I'm not a match man trying to build a weight and I don't really do the I caught more than you thing!!! I do regard myself as a bit of a haphazard specimen angler, angling is largely down to chance after all, I don't mind catching the smaller fish, they save a blank & it show the river has a breeding population of some description. 

As the sun was coming down to the tree top line I decided to keep maggot on the hook & feed tinned sweetcorn, I continued until I could just make out the float top in my swim, the float slid away like a Tench bite, I struck, YES! a decent fish, it stayed deep in the water, I thought it was a Tench the way it fought, but as I brought through the water layers I could see it was a decent bream using its flanks to kite around in the current of the river then, in the net, superb!

lovely condition & colouration, far less slimey than the lake dwelling bream which is a bonus, I'm not a fan of bream generally due to their thick gloopy slime that's gets everywhere & in lakes they don't fight at all, but the river dwellers may change my mind....they may become one of my targets this autumn, I didn't weigh the fish, it was a good fish the same length from tip to tail as the widest part of my landing net at the front & it was 3" thick, what more can I say....

Superb condition river bream, double maggot over a bed of corn

 

When I fish the rivers I always use two rods, I really enjoy river fishing, I spent every Friday with my dad on the river Blythe in my school years & caught chub to 5.5lb, its all I could catch to be honest but I got pretty god at it, I could usually winkle out a few when other local chaps were blanking so I wasn't as stupid or as bad an angler then as I thought I was, stalking is my game.

 

hopefully be able to write about my angling trips a little more often