Well another trip to the K&A canal in my challenge to
fish every stretch that is run by Pewsey & District Angling Association.
Today I fancied the crab apple stretch which sits back the opposite way from
Wilcot Road and a short walk from Pewsey Wharf.
The stretch does hold some bigger fish in the way of bream
and tench and the plan was to target those species and also see if I could
catch a bigger stamp of roach from the stretch. Having arrived early to avoid the
boat traffic I settled on a swim as the canal bends round to the left, with a
bed of reeds far over with a small bay and overhanging trees it looked like it
would hold a few of the bigger fish I was after.
The plan was a 3 pronged attack with a line going in down
the track and would be fished whilst the other 2 far bank swims were left to
settle. Having found 4 ½ ft 5 meters out down the track I set up a Richard
Lattimer 4x12 squatt float. Mainline of choice was Browning Cenex 0.08m to a 4 inch
0.08mm hooklength finished off with a B511 size 20 hook, Shotting consisted of
a simple bulk of no11 shot and 2 droppers. Elastic choice was a latex no3.
My far bank swims were both identical in their setups with both of them robust enough to land and
get a tench away from the far bank before it made a run for it. Float choice
was a 0.1 Hillbilly Oliver (a similar shape and design to a Preston Chanti) to
a 0.14mm mainline finished off with a 0.12mm 6inch hooklength. Hook choice was
a B911 size 16. Shotting was kept positive with the depth only being 1 1/12ft
deep I wanted the bait to hit the bottom soonest so everything was placed just
above the hooklenth loop. Elastic was a Browning Cenex 6-8 hollow set on a
pulla bung. Now looking at the setups for the far bank they seem like over kill
and slightly heavy for the canal but with me looking for tench the gear needs
to be robust and once caught will scrap until the very end and will make a
lunge for any form of cover they can find or in this case snags from over
hanging trees. With the setup I had today it give me time to get them away from
the far bank play them and hopefully land them but at the same time the elastic
is soft enough to land smaller fish.
Bait for the day consisted of Corn, hemp, caster, pinkie and
a kilo of Browning Champion’s Choice canal groundbait. Down the track would be
fed with caster and Groundbait only with double pinkie on the hook with a
change to caster to try and pick out the bigger fish.
Across on the far bank swims I fed groundbait with hemp,
caster and corn mixed in, 2 golf sized balls went in on each line and were left
to settle. Having fed all my lines it was onto the track line which started to
produce straight away on a pinkie hook bait and a switch to caster brought a
few of the better stamp of fish before baits started to slow down and a top up
was required. By now I had had a boat move by straight over my track line yet
the fishing picked up once again and I was catching well switching between double
pinkie and caster. Then disaster! Whilst most boats were happy to pass closer
to me or down the track I noticed 1 boat that was holding tight to the far bank
a quick shout to ask him to shift closer to me and the near bank brought no
response as I watched him brush the reeds on the far bank and motor through
both my far bank swims (if there were tench and bream feeding there, they weren’t
going to be there now) With the realisation that both swims had been trashed it
was a quick top up and back to my track line hopping I could salvage something
from the far bank later on but had my doubts.
With the bites still coming down the track and a better
stamp of fish coming to the net than at the 2 previous stretches I had fished I
was happy. The fish seemed to be on the feed so I upped the feed and added a
few grains of corn to the next top up of groundbait and caster as I believed there
were bigger fish moving into the swim. This was confirmed after 15 minutes of
the top up going in when my float shot under and my number 3 elastic came
shooting out and off down the canal it went. Having managed to control it and
tunrn it back towards me it wasn’t long before I had 8 meters of pole in the
air trying to land a tench I had been playing for about 15 minutes. With the
net out ready to land it, it made another run for safety which my elastic
bottom out and a rig coming back at me at mach 10 with no hook length Dammm! It
had managed to snap me. Regaining my composure of the last 20 minute battle
with the tench I gingerly went back onto the track line to see what damage it
had done due to it swimming all over the shop through my track lines and both
far bank swims. The peg seemed quiet and the tell tale signs of fish feeding
had disappeared. Still perseverance saw more groundbait and caster go in and it
wasn’t long before another run of fish were in the net. With the clicker
hitting 130 fish and with half being a better stamp to what I have been
catching it was time to call it a day.
Looking back its
always going to be one of them “it got away” never the less another good days
fishing on the canal. With 3 stretches down the question is where will I end up
next ?
No comments:
Post a Comment