BAD WEATHER GOOD FISHING ON THE CANAL

4TH FEB 2014

welcome back to my blog again we are now into February and with no let up in the bad weather with heavy rain and strong gale force winds which there as been no let up in since before Christmas with all the rivers un-fisherble and in flood and most of the UK are on a red high risk to life weather warning so i am still on the grand western canal fishing for the silvers it was forecast to be a showery day with light wind but with another strong storm forecast for the south west to arrive late this afternoon i headed off at about 9 am and made my way up toward tidcombe bridge were i was meeting colin at around 9:30 i only had to wait 5 minutes before he arrived at the gate at tidcombe bridge . 

grand western canal tidcombe

We started to walk up through we decided we would fish on the first corner at tidcombe which is know as tidcombe bends as it was slightly more sheltered then most places along the town end of  the canal we both chose were we were going to fish and started to set up today i was only going to set one top kit up  which would be a match top 3 kit i was only going to use a clip on pole cup not a cupping kit i was using a number 3 white latex elastic through just the one top section i was setting up this top and using a 0.25gr rizor long fine tip pole float on a 2.4oz mainline to a 1.7 hook length to a size 20 fox silver hook i plumbed this up slight to my  left hand side in a shadow of a v shaped tree branch it was deeper here then most spots along the canal i was fishing in the boat channel  after getting plumbed up i fed 3 small cups of liquidised bread and i left it for a while i sorted the rest of my bits out and went up and had a chat with my mate and after a chat and a coffee i went back and started fishing it was no 10:15 am and i was about to have my first  put in on a 4mm bread punch   

tidcombe on the grand western canal 

Before the bait had hit the bottom i had a bite right away it was a good fish and i slipped the net under it it was a bream of about 2lb 12oz it was a great start i went straight back out on the same spot on a 4mm bread punch and again within less then 40 seconds i was into another fish it was alot smaller a roach of about 4 oz i then had another bream which was a bit bigger at 3lb it was now raining and the wind was up so after a heavy shower and holding in tight to my brolly with the strong wind i went back out a a bigger 6mm bread punch and pulled out of a good fish which was most likley another skimmer or a bream i went on to catch a few more small roach and skimmers a rudd of about 4-6 oz and a smaller rudd i decided to pack up at 2 pm as i was frozen to the bone with the wind now getting stronger i was glad to be heading home with more storms forecast for the next couple days i don't know when i will be getting back out fishing any way until the next time if you on the banks in the stormy weather be safe and tight line 

lee 

GOOD FISHING SESSION ON THE GRAND WESTERN CANAL

22RD JANUARY 2014  

DEAD STRETCH

               Welcome back to my latest blog in my last few blogs i have wrote about the weather ect as well as the fishing so this blog is not going to have very much talk about the weather today just the fishing on the canal.So here we go fellow readers it was Wednesday the 22rd of January 2014 the forecast was not bad for today light winds and a chance of a light shower or 2 later on in the day Colin and my self had agreed to fish the dead stretch which is a really good part of the canal at the tiverton end we were going to fish the top end which was only a couple of pegs before the turning bay (tidcombe bay) so it was about 9 am when i left home and headed up there i made my way down towards the turning bay were we were going to fish.

 

As i walked from the opening up to were we were going to fish i did not See any fish or sign of a fish move all along the dead stretch the water had now started to go clear which i see as a good think as we have now had weeks and weeks of wind rain and very bad storms so when i arrived at the end of the dead stretch were we had agreed to fish i decided to wait for Colin as i knew he would not be long as he text me to say he was just loading the gear in the car and he could park close anyway then we could decide were we were going to fish.With in 10 minutes my mate turned up i decided  to fish 2 pegs back from the turning bay (tidcombe bay) and he fished just one peg back from me so we had both picked were we were going to fish and were both happy with the area we were fishing it was now time to get started and set up and get some fishing done we both took our time setting up i was only going to set up one top kit which was a match top 3 kit this would be with a number 3 browning latex elastic through just the top 1 section with a Dacron connector i was going to fish a 0.30gr pole float with a long tip it was on a 1.12oz mainline to a 1.5oz bottom to a size 20 Preston pr311 hook 

I plumbed up the pole rig at about 5 to 6 meters slightly to my left hand side i plumbed it so that there was only a very small bit of the pole float tip showing this meant the bait would be just touching the bottom after plumbing up it was time to get my bait sorted out i put half a bag of liquidised bread into a bait tub and kept adding water until it was turned from a crumb into a sloppy mixture of bread which when i feed it will leave a nice white cloud as it falls to the bottom so i got my cupping kit and fed the swim but i only started off by feeding a medium cup of the sloppy mix on the swim were i had just plumbed up i then left it a while while i sorted the rest of my gear out i also had a coffee and a chat with my mate before returning to my box . so now it was time to start fishing i started off by using a 4mm bread punch i shipped out and let the bait and float settle on the area were i had just fed and placed the pole in the pole rest normally when using the bread punch over bread crumb you get a bite very quick in fact some time it before you have chance to put the pole in the rest but today was a bit different i had to wait about 30 to maybe 45 minutes before i had my first bite but i missed it so after putting on another 4 mm bread punch i shipped back out on the same spot.

After shipping back out i had another bite about 2 minutes later but i was taking a phone call i did strike and i had the fish on for a few seconds but the hook pulled out so that was 2 bites no fish but it was looking good as it was a better fish that i had just pulled out of so i stuck to the same and carried on fishing the 4 mm bread punch i started catching or getting bites every cast which was great and was catching skimmers up to about a pound and a half and i also had a nice size roach of about half a pound the bites did the stop and between half past 1 and 3 pm i only had 2 bites it got very hard but i ended the session at around 3 30 pm with a net of fish that i was very happy about and was good for this time of the year i took my net out and i had 9 skimmers between half a pound up to about a pound and a half  and i also had that good roach of about half a pound it was a good days fishing and shows all you need to cackle you local canal is bread punch so with all the gear packed away that was the session over so until my next blog if you on the banks be safe and tight lines if you have any question of feed back for the blogs i write please feel free to comment on this page bellow would be great to hear from the readers 

tight lines 

lee  

HARD FISHING ON THE CANAL

11TH JANUARY 2014



             WELCOME TO ANOTHER BLOG AGAIN ON THE GRAND WESTERN CANAL IN TIVERTON DEVON TODAY THE FORECAST IS THE BEST IT AS BEEN FOR OVER 6 WEEKS WITH BRIGHT CLEAR SKY'S WHICH IS NOT GOING TO BE VERY GOOD BUT THE WEATHER WAS DRY AND WITH LIGHT WINDS I WAS JUST LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING OUT FISHING ON A NICE CALM DAY SO I MADE MY WAY UP TO THE CANAL I WAS GOING TO BE FISHING WITH ON OF MY MATES TODAY COLIN WE DID NOT ARRANGE A TIME WHEN WE WERE GOING TO MEET WE BOTH SAID THAT WHO EVER WAS UP THERE FIRST WOULD PICK WERE WE FISH.I WAS UP THERE FIRST SO I PICKED TO FISH THE BASIN END I FOUND A PEG THAT LOOKED GOOD AND THAT I THOUGHT WAS GOING TO FISH WELL IT WAS IN THE CANAL BASIN WHICH WAS JUST TO THE LEFT OF THE TURNING BAY WHICH WAS THE DEEPEST PART ON THE TOWN END OF THE CANAL SET MY GEAR UP AND GOT ONE MATCH TOP 3 KIT OUT ALSO I WAS GOING TO FISH THE SHORT 4 METER WHIP TO MY LEFT HAND SIDE I PLUMBED UP MY POLE LINE FIRST AT ABOUT 8 METERS AT DEAD DEPTH ON THIS LINE I FED A CUP OF LIQUIDISED BREAD AND LEFT IT WHILE I STARTED SETTING UP MY WHIP AT 4 METER TO MY LEFT I ALSO PLUMBED THIS RIG UP AT DEAD DEPTH THEN I WENT ON TO HAVE A CHAT WITH MY MATE HE WAS STILL SETTING UP SO AFTER A CATCH UP I WAS GOING TO GET BACK AND START FISHING I WAS EXPECTING IT TO BE HARD FISHING AS THE TEMP HAD FELL OVER NIGHT I SHIPPED OUT USING A 4MM BREAD PUNCH BUT I DID HAVE A BITE STRAIGHT AWAY SO IT WAS LOOKING GOOD BUT I MISSED THE 1ST BITE AND THE THE NEXT 6 BITS SO I WAS A BIT P****d OFF SO I CHANGED THE WHICH WAS A SIZE 22 HOOK TO A SIZE 20 WIDE GAPE HOPING THIS WOULD MAKE A DEFERENCE I STUCK TO THE 4MM BREAD PUNCH AND HAD A BITE STRAIGHT AWAY AFTER CHANGING TO A WIDE GAPE HOOK THIS TIME I DIDN'T MISS THE BITE BUT IT WAS A VERY SMALL ROACH I HAD 4 OR MAYBE 5 MORE OF THESE REALLY SMALL FISH BEFORE I DECIDED TO FEED ANOTHER CUP OF BAIT AFTER FEEDING THE 8 METER SWIM AGAIN I WENT OUT AND FISHED THE WHIP BUT I DIDN'T GET ANYTHING I HAD A COUPLE OF BITES BUT I THINK IT WAS THE REALLY SMALL MOTHERLESS MINNOWS I FEED SOME SLOP ON THIS WHIP LINE AS THE WATER IS NOW STARTING TO BECOME VERY CLEAR AS IT DOSE THIS TIME OF THE YEAR I WAS HOPING THE SLOP WOULD LEAVE A NICE COULD IN THE WATER AND THAT THE COULD MAT ATTRACT A FISH OR 2 ON THE WHIP LINE I LEFT THE WHIP LINE AND WENT BACK ON THE POLE AT 8 METERS BUT BY NOW I WAS REALLY STRUGGLING TO GET ANY BITES AT ALL WITH THE BRIGHT SUN ON THE VERY CLEAR WATER I THINK WITH THIS YOU HAVE TO EXPECT THE FISHING TO BE VERY HARD BUT I WAS GOING TO KEEP TRYING I STARTED GETTING A FEW BITES NOW BUT THEY WERE VERY SENSITIVE BITES WHEN I WAS LIFTING INTO THEM THERE WAS NOTHING THERE AS THEY ARE VERY VERY SMALL FISH . SO AFTER ABOUT HALF AN HOUR TO 45 MINUTES OF STRUGGLING ON THE POLE I TRIED THE WHIP OVER THE SLOP I FED ABOUT HALF A HOUR AGO I WAS GOING TO FISH THE WHIP FOR THE REST OF THE SESSION AS I WAS ONLY GOING TO FISH UNTIL HALF PAST 3 SO WITH A HOUR OF FISHING TIME LEFT THE SUN HAD STARTED GOING DOWN AND IT HAD GOT VERY COLD THE TEMP HAD DROPED FROM 9oC DOWN TO ABOUT 1oC OR EVEN LOWER WITHIN A SHORT TIME OF ABOUT 45 MINUTES BUT THE FISHING WAS NO BETTER IN THE LAST HOUR ON THE WHIP AS IT HAD BEEN FOR THE DAY I HAD 4 MORE ROACH WITH THE BIGGEST SO FAR OF THE DAY WHICH WAS ONLY 4OZ SO AFTER HAVING A CHAT WITH MY MATE WE BOTH DECIDED IT HAD BEEN A HARD DAY AND AS IT HAD GOT VERY COLD AND WE WOULD CALL IT A DAY HE HAD 8 SMALL FISH BIGGEST OF MAYBE 8-9 OZ WHICH WAS A  ROACH AND I ENDED UP WITH 10-12 VERY SMALL FISH BIGGEST OF ABOUT 4OZ SO WE PACKED UP AND HEADED OFF OUR OWN WAYS ME ALONG THE TOWPATH AND ME MATE DOWN TOWARDS THE CAR PARK WERE HE PARKED THIS MORNING HOPE YOU ARE ENJOYING THE BLOGS MORE COMING SOON PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COMMENT OR PLEASE LEAVE FEED BACK BE GOOD TO HEAR FROM SOME OF MY READERS UNTIL NEXT TIME TIGHT LINE AND BE SAFE 

THANKS FOR READING 

LEE