Bonus morning on the Trent & Mersey canal

 

 

I had a day off work due and a visit to Burton on Trent with the wife. She would be busy most of the day so being the chauffeur, I had to find something to pass the time while I waited for her.  The Trent and Mersey canal was only a stones throw away, so a rod was neatly tucked into the boot with some other bits n pieces that I might need for a few hours wandering the towpath.

I started off chucking some lures about and was astonished to see how clear the water was on this canal. Despite the boat traffic coming in waves - almost a boat a chuck at times ! The clarity was probably down to two feet, which is half way to the bottom on most parts of the canal.  The conditions were bright but cold with the gusting wind barrelling down the canal like a mini hurricane, real hold on to your hat stuff.  This of course created an additional flow on the canal that almost turned it into river conditions.

This canal seems to move with a latent steady flow probably from the effect of the Trent system that feeds into it, the wind only added to this.  It effected the action of the lure on the retrieval in the same way that a cast upstream or downstream does in the pace of a rivers current.  It was easier to get a good action retrieving upstream against the flow rather than down - where the line would fall slack as the lure was pushed along.  The fishing was very hard going and I only saw one follow from a small perch all morning.

After a break for lunch back at the car I headed to another stretch a few bridges down and tried a bit of sprat twitching, or better known as sink and draw. The wife text me to update me on pick up times etc and enquired on how I was getting on.   I had nothing to report and texted her so, then as I looked down to my rod lying at my feet and saw braid peeling off the open spool.  I realised that the sprat that had been left to sink across the slack next to a lock run off wear had been picked up by something. The rod arched over as I wound down to the fish and the fight was on !

 

A slender fish was landed in a short time.  A very thin fish that looked more like a draft excluder than a predator at the top of the food chain. I didn't bother to weight it but it was probably between 4 and 5lb.

 

That was to be all for the session as time was against me all too quickly, it was time to go back to chauffeur duties.

Two canals for two fish

I ventured out to the Trent & Mersey Canal to try and locate some of it's Zander.  The result was inconclusive as I failed to find any fish in the stretch I tried, although there are Zander in the canal.  There was quite alot of slimy weed around on the bottom, so I wonder if it put them off this area as it looked perfect otherwise with lots of overhanging vegetation. Either that or they just were not interested in my offerings ?

Lots of cover but where are the Zander?

I packed up early and headed back to the Coventry Canal instead to get my Zander fix for the week. 

I landed two fish in a short 2 hour spell, the first an emaciated fish that I reckon would have been a good four or five pounds had it not had such an empty concaved belly.  Not sure what was wrong with it but I got the feeling it was on its last legs, it seemed very listless, maybe just an old fish?  As it was, it only weighed 2lb 8oz being in such a sorry state.



Only 2lb 8oz but a long fish



The second  fish was a nice 3 pounder that fought well taking a perch head on a single hook rig. In between fish I had a few dropped takes that I put down to hook up issues. I'm not sure if it was the new traces I'd tied over the weekend or the fact I was using single hooks but I must have dropped four or five runs, one small fish dropping off at the net.  Last week I only had one fish spit the bait, but to get four or five drop off is a bit worrying.

3lb

 Fishing from 9 pm the bites dried up at about 11 pm, this was probably the end of the evenings feeding spell as I tried moving the baits around to pick up the shoal again but couldn't induce any further action.

Trent and Mersey Zander session

Thursday 9th April
Before I started fishing, I checked out the back of Branston Water Park to see what the pegs are like. As the daylight photos here show, there are some tasty looking swims to go at for Perch and Zander.

Despite these great looking swims, I still opted to fish the same stretch as last week up from Tilhill bridge, because I wasn't sure if they locked the gates at Branston water park at night or not? As it turns out my Burton Mutual key will work there so I could have stayed ! still, there's a session for another day.











I fished for Perch again, but also had two rods set up for Zander after talking to a chap on my last session here. I had a good run on the perch feeder set up with a large lob worm on the hook, but somehow fluffed it.

Trent & Mersey Canal with Jed the wino

Friday 3rd April 2009
I decided to fish the Trent & Mersey Canal near Branston water Park on a tip off about some large perch. After a bit of research I found the peg that had been described to me and decided to set up the feeder rod first so it could fish for itself while I set the pole up. Soon after the feeder was cast to a small bush on the other side sporting a monster lobworm on a size 6 hook with loiads of juicy lob pieces and red maggots in the feeder. I even used a back lead to stop the many passing barges from causing me too many problems.

I set up the pole with a light bristle float to 2lb main and 1.2lb bottom on an 18 barbless hook. I had been feeding maggots steadily since arriving and so placed the float to this position. It was probably nearly two hours before I finally caught something, but as it was a cracking Dace (for me) of about 4 or 5 oz at a guess, & it was worth the wait.




Not long after the Dace, a chap stopped by to talk (Jed the wino), who turned out to be the local drunk! just my luck as I couldn't get rid of him and he stayed till I packed up.






While he was standing there talking shit at me though, I did manage to catch a clonking fat Chub of about 3.5lb and a nice Roach of about 1/2 a pound
That ended the sport for the evening and there had been no positive takes on the feeder rod. However on the walk back to the car I stopped to talk to another angler who turned out to be Zander fishing using two rods on alarms and deadbaiting a roach head and a headless smelt.

'Lip hooked fatty '

He was quite informative and said that this was his first foray on the T&M canal too, but he had caught a nice Perch of 1lb 8oz earlier on quivertipped lob to a light link legder, fished tight to the far bank under a tree. He said that the Zander reportedly go to about 6 or 7 lb in here and he had seen some pics of one or two fish. He also said the the sea baits do work especially for the smaller schoolie fish ! 

So I will have to give the Zander a try soon , maybe on my next session. I wished him luck and carried on back to the car.



Water temp was around 12.5 deg C