Five AM

Dawn was clear, cloudless and cool, and because the day would be another scorching hot one, I thought I'd give the canal a try on a very early start, hoping that the roach could be relocated and perhaps even caught. I was out of the house by first light
, on the way to the stretch where the roach had been just a week ago. On route I saw the ripples and dimples of a shoal of surface fish and beyond that a whole hundred yard stretch where bubbles were rising from the bed. I thought I'd try that place on the way back, if where I was bound turned out to be lame.


Post Industrial Dawn



First rays of the sun

It was so quiet that the M6 motorway over three miles distant was the loudest sound in the air. The water was absolutely still and the surface blank, not a rise or dimple to be seen anywhere, and because of this dearth of activity I guessed it would not be good. I had just the one bite in an hour and pulled in a small bream, so packed up and moved back to the place where the bubbles were seen.

I put some maggots over a particularly dense patch of pin prick bubbles, bubbles that I thought must have been made by a tench, a fish I'd dearly like to catch from the cut but have not, as yet. The float slid under almost immediately but I missed the bite, then next cast it did the same and I connected to a determined fish, but unfortunately just another bream. Then I had a small perch, a big machine just beyond the hedge at my back started crushing things, heaven knows what, making the most horrendous rumbling crashing din, and so I decided to move again.

The next spot was absolutely lifeless. The only thing worth casting to was the big perch chasing fry into the air to my right, so I put a worm out, had an immediate interest but nothing developed. That was that, the sun came up and I knew it was time to go home for breakfast. On the way home I saw what is now a familiar sight on the canal - hundreds of small fish basking in the rays of the sun.