Christmas is coming and the Jacks are getting fat

I started the morning on the canal in the same swim as last week to see if I could tempt the same fish that followed my lure in, the one I've been thinking about all week while at work. It's not massive, possibly not even a double but I so badly want to catch it now I've seen it.
Lure fishing gets you like that I have found. It has a habit of creating these little unexpected challenges and you're teased by them for a while until you either succeed or forget them and move onto the next one.   This week it was a different ball game though, where as last week I could have expected plenty of takes had my time allowed. This week all hopes of a string of taking fish were quickly quashed due to the sharp drop in temperature overnight taking the air down to minus 2 deg C.  So I arrived to a severely frosty towpath but I didn't let it deter me and tried my very best to cause something to stir from its lair. The canal water is very clear at the moment, it would be nice to think that this clarity will last throughout the winter so that I can take full advantage.

I can see clearly now...

 

 Several swims later and still no sign of a fish, I gave it up as a bad idea and moved venues to a river, although the first stretch I chose was clearly going to be a challenge too.

What the feck are they doing out in  -2 !!

Arrrggghhhh !!

Finally I found somewhere else that I knew held fish and where I wouldn't have to share the stretch. I had a flick around a favourite spot expecting a take within a few casts, when this didn't happen I started to think a blank was on the cards. I eventually moved downstream and a few casts later finally had a hit from a fish.

It was then almost a fish a chuck as I went on to land 4 fish in about half an hour, all fat little jacks like peas in a pod that have obviously been feeding up hard for the cold winter ahead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I tried a new spot up stream that I had found a little while ago. It really looks the part and I hear on the grapevine (from the match lads) that there are some larger fish to be found there.  There was nothing at home for me except for a large perch that followed the lip lure in. I tried to tempt it with a kopyto and a little size 3 spinner after but it was not seen again.

 

Earlier I managed to lose one of my favourite lures on a snag in mid river. The snag, an old tyre or car wheel, I managed to move slightly and felt the distinctive thud of it landing back down transmitted up the braid to my fingers.  I have hauled a couple of these in on the canal in the past and managed to get them out and retrieve my lure no problem. However on this occasion as I lifted the weight of the tyre I must have ground the braid across some rock or concrete on the bottom which sliced it through like cotton. Damn I liked that lure too - still I might be able to get it out with a tench rake next time I'm there?