A tough road trip

Scott and I hit the road on Friday for a few days fishing. The first target was the addition of the Bitterling to Scott’s species crusade and then onwards to the Gloucester & Sharpness canal for some Zander.

First stop on Friday morning was a lake near Wigan using waggler tactics with size 22’s and pinkies. After 2 hours we’d not had a bite and boredom got the better of Scott.  He sat his rod down and walked ten feet to investigate something he’d spotted hanging from a nearby branch.  Just as he got there his rod lurched across the ground as a fish picked up his offering and shot off. He managed to get to the rod and played the fish for a few seconds till the hook pulled, probably a Carp, typical after spending two hours looking at his float. Five hours later we had moved a couple of times and I spotted a fish turn over on the surface about 20ft away. As we both looked over my float must have disappeared as the line came tight to my hand and then hook length snapped, being 1 ½ pounds BS it didn’t take much, probably a Carp again, happy days.

The elusive target fish



A few small fish started to become active as the light went and I ended the day on a personal worst Perch and a tiny Roach, Scott dropped a few fish. It was a really poor start to the trip.

 

The intention on Saturday was to pre fish the Gloucester end of the canal ahead of the TLF food and Zander meet organised be Kev Pugh. It’s a notoriously difficult venue but has the potential to through up some big Zeds. It’s not a typical canal in that it’s wider, deeper and could be described as lacking in obvious features. We hit the canal at first light and spent 3 hours throwing jigs at likely spots with only a couple of half-hearted knocks we phoned Kev for some advice. On the call it was decided to head to his for a coffee and then hit the GU canal and leave the G & S canal till Sunday.

 

The GUC has been good to me so I was confident we would get some fish. On arrival at the chosen stretch I hooked a Zed on my third cast, things were looking up till just as quickly it came off. Hours passed and the canal appeared devoid of life, we thought the Perch may have started to spawn due to the lack of action. Kev did manage a Zed which he weighed at 2 pound 6 oz and then sometime later Scott had a fish.

I walked for miles and caught nothing but sticks and branches and mixed this up with the occasional poly bag. As darkness fell Kev ended the evening hooking a specimen skip hat, what a day….

 

Sunday morning arrived and we meet the TLF crew in the car park at Sainsbury’s. I guess there were around 25 guys in total. Keven and his mates had organised the bacon rolls and coffee and we had a chat before heading off to a stretch of the canal to kick off the morning session. The weather was glorious and we got to work in the sunshine.

It wasn’t long before I felt a strong thump which I didn’t hook up with, given how hard things had been I was well pissed off. I was using a double drop shot rig so continued to cover the same area for ten minutes in the hope that the fish was still there.

 

And it was, not the intended Zander but a much appreciated jack

 

It was a friendly atmosphere as we walked the banks in the sunshine talking to the guys and a few small fish came out including the first Zed. The plan was to break for lunch around 12.30 and go back to cark pack to stock up on pizza and pasta. I had a chat with Scott and we decided to cut or losses and head back home via the GUC for a few hours, surely it couldn’t fish as bad as Saturday afternoon? We said our goodbyes and just over an hour later we were fishing one of my favourite parts of the canal. Two hours in and we were still fishless.

 

 

We walked and came across some structure; I put the drop shot rig accurately for once along the side of a barge length wise, tight in to the shadow. I decided as it was a likely spot I would just leave it there and shake it gently with just enough tension on the line to keep in touch with the lure. Ten seconds passed before it was hammered, the fish briefly came to the surface before it zig zagged across the canal giving a decent account of itself.

 

The bright conditions made for a difficult photo  but at

                                    60cm and probably 5 pounds and my best from the canal so far.

We fished on for another hour or so but no matter where we tried the Perch were absent and there were no more Zander hiding in the shadows.

Not the most productive of trips, we hit the long road home on what was a hard three days fishing. We discussed some potential trips as we drove north including a trip to Holland maybe later this year or possibly next year. There are two big Zeds’ somewhere with our names on them but I’m just not sure where they are for the moment.