Canal Perch — Signal Success

There's a popular stretch of canal way beyond walking distance from home where I'd heard a few independant reports of decent perch fishing. Lots of them available apparently. And the occasional specimen in the net, so I heard. Local news I always take with a hefty pinch of salt. But large perch reports are not like large roach reports which are invariably about hybrids mistaken for roach. I thought them strong enough to make it worthwhile biking out a few extra miles to investigate. 

Chopped worm is mucky stuff!

Glad I made the effort because the short session was to become rather fascinating...

Choosing a likely spot I sat down on the grass with whip in hand. Nipped on a worm and dropped it on the near shelf. And then proceeded to make chopped worm. I don't move a bait so very often with a rod and reel once in place but for some reason with a pole or whip I find myself jerking it about constantly. 

Frequently I'd snag upon something. And I was frequently snagging upon something all over the place. The hook always came back clean, but often the worm had gone. Curious. Very curious...

I kept twitching the bait about. Then I did snag a large twig so I thought I had a rotten branch out front and should probably move along elsewhere. 

But then one of these 'twigs' moved off at the 'brisk' pace of a very big and determined specimen of that carapaced pest that I'm seeing far too much of lately. Heavy is what it was. And deliberate. I could not easily shift it against the elastic but anyhow, the hook pinged out before I could try harder. 

No great loss there. A large 'signal' is hardly that!

A River Blythe signal crayfish with a claw span of about a foot

However. Despite having not only a branch in my swim but possibly a horde of crustaceans too, I couldn't help feeling that something was not quite right. Often these sensations of 'snagging' felt much like hits from predatory fish. And besides that, I've yet to see a canal crayfish anywhere near the scale of the lobster-like beasts of the River Blythe who grow twice the size of the average canal specimen and who would be resistant to being hauled off the deck on a whip.

So I stuck around a while just to see what might occur should I...

Introducing the chop and fishing straight over with a still bait, the response was instant. The float dragged under very slowly and I struck into another of those 'crayfish'. Only this one seemed just a tad faster than before and when it began swimming mid-water, pulled out a yard of elastic, and then fought back hard and fast I wondered what the hell I'd hooked because it sure didn't feel like a perch... 

But it was! 

Two-pounds and six-ounces of perch to be precise. Easily the largest I've ever caught from a canal. And I have no doubt whatsoever now that that first 'crayfish' was none other than the self-same fish or more likely its like-sized shoal companion. 

Clearly I'd sat down right on top of them. Of course I hoped for more and better but in hindsight I should never have put in the chop because I truly believe you should never feed over the lucky find of a shoal of already feeding fish till they won't bite again without it. If only I'd known better, All it achieved was the undesirable effect of drawing hordes of small perchlets, tiny zanderlings, and later lovely little yellow ruffes, of whom I had four specimens on the trot around dusk.

Nevertheless. A more than satisfactory result. A new personal best for the canal. An interesting and valuable lesson learned.

And no red signal to halt me on the track when I go back! 

Canal Roach — Kinda

After testing things out near home and satisfied that things would work having hooked and banked a roach/bream hydrid at the lower end of the size range of roach I hope to catch, I went to the venue earmarked for my winter roach campaign to see what trouble would lay in store when two helicopter rigs were cast into the tricky place.

I've started out fishing these rigs wrongly on purpose and for good reason. I do know how is best. They should be fished on a very tight line to the rod and the heavy bobbins clipped on high to register only drop backs. I used them the first afternoon mid-way, so that I could view more of the truth of the matter. That this might make them less effective meanwhile is not the point. Seeing what happens during the bite is. Clipped up tight it's all or nothing. I want to see rises and falls and drops and lurches. All good information to my mind

Secondly my hook links are currently at six inches length and set to hang from the mainline at about 7 inches up from the feeder. They should be 4 inches or less and set just half an inch higher up the line than that so the hook cannot snag the top of the feeder. However, having them work perfectly all the time every time from the outset is not how I learn things. I want to see how they work when set up incorrectly.

And I soon learned something that demands that I must change things to suit this venue.

Boats passed by without problem. Fishing the inside of a long and very wide right-angled bend meant the track was way off. Those that came all took this line and missed my near shelf casts by miles. No rewinds necessary then. However, then came along a convoy of three genuine working boats with professionals at the helm.

I'm always happy to watch this kinda craft pass through. Their skippers are expert!

Strangely, I was just thinking about why I'd not caught perch... and then one appeared!

These fellas don't tiptoe round the corner afraid of what's out of sight. They really gun it hard to get their very long and fully laden vessels round in a smooth clean arc. You should see one towing a butty of equal length round the sharp 360 degree hairpin outside the Greyhound Pub. The missus pumping that great big rudder to not only steer but power it round. It's very impressive stuff. All in a day's work. But this show of gumption churns up the bed no end and chucks all the rubbish about. A lot of which was found festooned around the rigs on retrieval.

The second and more serious problem was that the long hook lengths were twice found tangled in looped knots around the mainline and itself. Turbulence on a tight line had caused them to do the propeller motion they were designed for, but the long supple link had been able to turn in on itself.

However, I did not shorten them. There was more to learn. 

First fish I had was fish in name only. A crayfish. And recasting to the same place I received more bites from them so I cast elsewhere. Then there were a few short pulls of the tip that never shifted the bobbins.  These were from fish. The maggots were expertly skinned so probably from roach, but I was not to discover which species actually caused them. I suspect the incorrectly set up 6 inch rigs had failed to prick as they always should when tied up 'right'.

Big roach don't need to be given nearly an inch to take a mile out of an angler! An inch or two will be subtracted next time... 

What a two and half-pound canal roach kinda looks like...

I left the place satisfied that I'd identified what needed to be sorted at home and then tracked back down the towpath and set up for the last hour of daylight in a banker swim. A fish topped that I fancied was a very good roach indeed so I cast to it And then the heavens opened and I was caught in a long, heavy  and persistent downpour of rain. Of course, the bobbin dropped to the floor during the worst of it when I found myself attached to a strong fish that I wondered might be a small tench.

When I saw it in the water I then had the thought it might be a very large silver bream indeed and one to smash my personal best. But at the net I knew it was another hybrid. But I wasn't complaining. At 2lb 7oz it was a new personal best for roach x bream. And was slap in middle of the size range that I predict for true roach at the venue where I'd just been instructed in advance of wintertime pursuit by boats, crayfish, and purposely ill-tied rigs.

'Time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted'. 

The rain wasn't easing any time soon so I attempted a quick shot of the fish straight off the ground.

Kinda worked...

But room for improvement.