DAY SESSION FISHING ON THE GRAND WESTERN CANAL 06/05/2013



Welcome back to my blog i planned to do a early morning session today the 6th of may but i slept through my alarm so i didn't get up on the bank until around 8 am the sun was already high in the sky and on the water but with the hottest day of the year forcasted for today i knew the fishing could be very hard going.The stretch i was going to fish a streatch i had been looking along for the last few evenings for signs of blowing or moving fish and on some of the better swims along there i did see a few moving along the far banks i made my way down the tow path to a spot half way down were there was a thick reed bed were i knew there was a lot of fish all year around a lot of fish had been showing along these few pegs for the last few days and evenings so with the swim picked it was time to set my gear up i was going to set up 2 top kits on different spots on about 5 meters out in front of me in the boat channel and the other one at 11 meters to the reed bed on the far bank i started by setting up the match top 3 it was a number 6 elastic through the top 2 section i fished a 0.30g rizor pole float and a 2lb 9oz mainline straight through to a size 16 barbless hook i plumbed this rig up at around 5 and a half meters straight out in front of me in the boat channel which is the deepest part of the canal i was going to fish it at about a inch and a half over depth as i have found when i fish it like this i seem to get a lot more confident bites and a better hook hold i set the other top two up which had a yellow number 8 elastic through the full top 2 sections i fished this rig using a o.06g yellow tip pole float on a 2lb 9 oz mainline to a 16 barbless hook same pattern as the other rig . I plumbed it up at about 11 meters on the far bank tight to the reed bed i feed both swims with the same a small nugget of crumb and some liquidised corn and a pinch of micro pellet to start off with i gave it 10 or so minutes to settle be for i fished over it i started by fishing over it on a double maggot i started on the far bank swim it took about 10 mins before i had my first bite i knew it was a good fish as soon I lifted into it it took elastic i pulled out of it after a few minutes  .I went back out again on a double maggot and i could not get a bite so i decided to feed the far bank again and try fishing the the boat channel were i fed at the beginning of the session i also started on this swim by fishing the double maggot within a few seconds i had a bit it was a small rudd i was catching small rudd and roach most put in on this spot i had a good skimmer as well so i then decided to go out on a bit of bread flake i had a couple better size rudd and some good size skimmers and a (bream pic below)i went back on the far bank and missed a couple bites on the corn i went on to chop and change from my middle swim and my far bank swim  for the rest of the day and I went on to catch a few more small roach rudd and skimmers but at mid day as forecast it was very hot in fact it was the warmest day so far and the and the tow path had got very busy with dog walker bikers ect started to get a lot of boats up and down and at 2 pm the horse drawn barge went through at this time i was struggling to get a bite so i decided it was time top call it a day and head home.Please feel free to comment on this or any of my blogs keep your eyes out for my next one until then
tight lines

lee

                                  (above a  couple of the better size fish that i caught on the day )

FISHING ON THE GRAND WESTERN CANAL

monday 29th april 2013

welcome back to another one of my blogs fishing on the grand western canal in tiverton were i do 95% of all my fishing all year round the canal is fishing the best i have known it for many years with a Lot of big rudd and roach coming out with bags of bream around 30 to 40lb and 3+ tench in a short session i haven't known the tench to show like this on the tiverton end of the canal for many years i was going to fish a spot on a streach of the town end known to local anglers as the dead streach but it is far from dead it is one of my most liked stretches on the whole canal with loads of good fish there to be caught all through the year even good fish to be had in the winter as well. I decided to fish the second peg down on the others side off the green foot bridge also know as wooden bridge buy the local club anglers alot of people feed the ducks swans and wildlife off this bridge i always found the bigger roach and rudd skimmer bream ect always show along the first 2-4 pegs of this streach i set up my gear it was around 4pm i looked at the swim there there were 2 really good looking spots on the peg i was fishing so i decided to fish 2 different areas.One was a match top 3 kit with 4-6 elastic through the top 2 sections i fished with a 0.50g td pole float i find this pattern of float one of the best floats for all round fishing i was using a 2 lb 9oz main line to a size 18 wide gape barbless hook i fished this rig at around 6-7 meters slightly to my left on this spot i feed bread crumb and some liquidsed corn i only

feed one medium cup and a few loose maggots and pinkies.The other top was a power top 2 kit with a number 8 yellow elastic through both sections on this top i fished a 0.50g td pole float with a 3lb line to a 2.6lb hook length to a barber size 18 wide gape spade end hook i plumbed this rig straight out in front of me at 11 and a half meters to a over hanging bramble bush on the far bank i was quite shallow but fish was showing i fed this swim the same as i did on the short line so the rigs set bait out it was time to start fishing i started of by fishing a double maggot 1 red and 1 white i started off by fishing on the 11.5 meter line straight out on the far bank i had a bit within less the 2 minutes and started off with a good rudd and went on to catch a few good rudd and roach and small skimmers on this line for around the first 45 minuets after this i decided to fish on the 7 meter line in deeper water which is straight in the centre of the boat channel i started fishing this line the same with red and a white maggot i didn't wait very long for my first bite which turned out to be another big rudd which was bigger then the first one i had on the far bank swim i carried on catching every put in and most of the fish were rudd roach and skimmers of around the 6oz to 1.lb mark  after around a hour and half i feed both swims again and went out to fish the far bank swim for the second time of the session and fished with a chopped worm tipped with a red maggot the first fish was another rudd of around 12oz as soon as i shipped back out i was into another fish within a few seconds of the bait dropping through the water to the bottom i lifted into the bite and it shot off to my left side taking loads of elastic with it but when i got it under control and got it a bit closer and i swirled on the surface at around 4 meter i then saw it was a pike of about 4lb as it turned and shot to my right it bit me off i carried on to fish the rest of the session by chopping and changing from my middle swim to my left and my far bank swim i caught a few bigger skimmers and also the same sort of size roach and rudd i pulled out of around 5 good fish which was on my middle line which i believe were skimmers but it was a very enjoyable session with a nice bag of of fish (as shown in the pic below this blog)i will be doing 3 session this weekend as its bank holiday so keep an eye out for my next blog hope u enjoyed Reading this one feel free to leave comments as feed back would be great until the next blog tight lines

lee

EVENING SESSION ON THE CANAL FISHING FOR BREAM AND TENCH

friday 26th april 2013

       


                 

TODAY I PLANED TO FISH A STREACH WHICH I KNOW A FEW TENCH HAVE BEEN GETTING CAUGHT AND I HAVE BEEN WALKING ALONG FOR THE PAST WEEK AND LOOKING AROUND FOR SIGNS OF FISH AND ALONG THIS STRETCH IS WERE I HAVE SEEN THE MOST BLOWS AND FISH MOVEMENTS I CHOSE TO FISH A PEG WERE I HAD A GOOD FEW TENCH IN A COUPLE SESSIONS LAST YEAR .SO I SET MY BOX SORTED ALL MY BAIT OUT MIXED MY GROUND BAIT AND CRUMB RIDDLED IT AND LEFT IT WHILE I SORTED THE REST OF MY GEAR I ONLY SET UP ONE POLE TOP THIS EVENING AS I ONLT PLANED TO FISH ONE SPOT AT 11.5 METERS I USED A POWER TOP 2 WITH A NUMBER 8 ELASTIC THROUGH TOP 2 SECTIONS TO A 3LB MAINLINE WITH A 0.50G TD POLE FLOAT STRAIGHT THROUGH TO A SIZE 18 WIDE GAPE MICRO BARBED SPADE END HOOK.I PLUMBED UP AT 11 AND A HALF METERS TO A TREE ON MY LEFT HAD SIDE OF MY SWIM IT WAS JUST PAST THE BOAT CHANNEL WHICH MEANT IT STARTED TO SHALLOW OFF IT WAS ABOUT 2 FOOT DEEP I STARTED OFF BY FEEDING A BALL OF GROUND BAIT AND ABOUT 10 GRAINS OF SWEET CORN I STARTED OFF BY FISHING ON A DOUBLE WHITE MAGGOT AND HOOKED INTO A RUDD OF AROUND 12OZ WITHIN A FEW MINS OF FISHING I SHIPPED BACK OUT AND CARRIED ON CATCHING SMALL RUDD AND ROACH. I DECIDED TO FEED A BIT OF MICRO PELLET OVER THE TOP OF THE FEED I HAD ALL READY PUT IN I WENT BACK OUT WITH A GRAIN OF CORN ON THE HOOK WITH THE BAIT JUST TOUCHING BOTTOM I MISSED THE FIRST BITE THAT I HAD ON THE CORN BUT THERE WERE FISHING STARTING TO SHOW ON THE MICRO PELLET IF HAD FED BOUT HALF AN HOUT AGO WITHIN AROUND 10 MINETS I HAD MY SECOND BITE OPN THE CORN AND WAS INTO MY FIRST TENCH OF THE SESSION AROUND 2 AND A HALF POUND I FISHED CORN FOR THE REST OF THE EVENING I MISSED 2 BITES STRAIGHT AFTER CATCHING THE TENCH AND THEN HAD A BREAM OF AROUND 2 LB THEN I WENT 2 HOURS WITH OUT EVEN A DIP ON THE FLOAT I THINK THE REASON WAS THAT THERE WAS A PIKE MOVED IN THE SWIM AS THE FRY WERE SCATTERING EVERY WERE AS IT STARTED TO GET DARK I STARTED TO SEE A FEW FISH BLOWING OF THE FEED I HAD PUT IN I WENT BACK OVER IT ON THE CORN I WENT ON TO HAVE ANOTHER BREAM OF AROUND 3LB IT WAS DARK AND I WAS STRUGGLING TO SEE MY FLOAT SO THAT WAS TIME TO PACK UP AND GO HOME I WAS PLEASED WITH HAVING MY FIRST TENCH OF THE SEASON I ENDED THE SESSION WITH 1 TENCH 2 BREAM 1 BIG RUDD AND 5 SMALLER RUDD AND A FEW ROACH UNTIL THE NEXT BLOG TIGHT LINES

LEE

                            EARLY MORNING SESSION ON THE CANAL                           20-4-2013

Saturday morning was the first early morning session i have done on the canal this year Friday had been the warmest day of the year so far but Friday night into Saturday was a hard frost when i left home on the Saturday morning at 5:30am it was around -1 and the car and the grass was white first frost. I didn't know how it was going to fish after the card hard frost night befor i got to the bank at 5:30am i decided to fish 2 pegs down from were i did a evening a few evenings ago as i have seen a lot of fish moving around this area i started fishing on the waggler and fished it three quarters of the way across were there is a weed bed starting to show i fished a 4bb self weighted waggle on a 3.4lb main line to a 2.4lb hooklength to a size 18 wide gape micro barbed hook .The ground bait i was using was sensas 3000 bream mix with a hand full of crushed hemp then i riddled it before putting in a hand full of maggots and mixed pinkies and a couple hand fulls of micro pellet and half a hand full of sweetcorn i went on to fed 4 to 5 balls on the spot were i was fishing the waggler . For the first 2 hours there were no sign of fish on the feed i had a couple of hard fast bites which i missed and a couple of slight lift bites but had no fish . I decided at around 7:30am to go onto the pole i set up a top 2 with a blue 5-6 elastic whist is a maver hollow core i used a td 0.50g pole float on a 3.2lb main line to a 2.6lb hooklength to a size 18 barbless hook i plumbed this rig up at 7 to 8 meters were there was a slight drop off just off the boat channel i fed 2 small cups of crumb and fished over it on  double white maggot and it took around half and hour before i had a bit in which i missed i thing it was a small fish but who knows i shipped back out on a double red maggot and had another bite which was a bream of around 2 and a half pound mark i went on to have one more bream on the maggot but to be fair it was foul hooked in the tail so it wouldn't have mattered what bait i was using on the hook this time of the day the tow path was getting busy with bikers and dog walkers runners boats ect up and down every 5 minutes i decided that was enough and decided to pack up it was around 12pm anyway so i had a good 5 to 6 hour session i started on bad picked up bit later on but was very slow i ended up with 2 bream and one roach also i pulled out of 2 good fish which i thought maybe could have been bream but he always next time keep an eye out on my blog page for new up dates and tight lines

lee

15-04-2013

 
         AFTERNOON/EARLY EVENING SESSION ON THE CANAL





best roach of the year so far

welcome back to my new blog i left home at around 1pm to do a short afternoon evening session on a stretch on the local canal headed towards the basin i wanted to fish a streach i have been looking at the last couple off evening while walking along there the peg was the first peg befor u get into the basin just befor what is known as the broken bridge.on the school bay side i had been seeing a lot of fish showing alot there over the last 3 to 4 days when i been walking it.I was hoping for a good session as it had got a bit warmer then it as been for a long time .I started by setting up 2 tops  one was a top 3 kit with a number 4-5 elastic through the top 2 sections the rig on this top was a 0.50 td daiwa pole float with 2.9 main line to a 1.8 hooklength weighted with 5 number 8 preston stozs and a couple dropped shots  to a size 20 wide gape micro barbed hook this rig was plumbed up at 6 to 7 meters in the channel were i would feed punch crumb and fished bread punch over the top of it . The second rig i would be using would be on a power top 2 this top had a blue hollow 5-7 ellastic throuht both sections i fished a sensas 0.8 pole float on this one with a 2.9 mainlin stright through to a quite large sz 18 hook which i have found perfect for fishing the worm this rig was plumbed on the same line at 6-7 meters.I started the session by feeding 2 small nuggets of bread crumb and a few pinkies and red maggots and started off on the bread punch on the light elasticwithin in a few minites i had my first bite and i missed it i started getting a few bites the first fish i hooked was a small skimmer on a single red maggot so i stuck to the maggots and carried on catching a few more roach and skimmers and a good size rudd which is noce to see from this streach of the canal as the normaly show along crownhill and further out of town and alond to the far end of the canal . I then decided to go back on the punch and hooked into a good bream about 2lb + mark so i decided to then give the choiped worm a go i cliped on a med size fox toss pot onto my power top kit and put around 6-8 medium worms in and choped the into very small bits and feed on the mid range swim i put a small section of worm on the hook and tiped it with a red maggot i stayed on the worm and red maggot for the rest of the session were i went on to catch another skimmer bream ropund the 2.
lb mark and a very large roach of arounf 1 lb 4oz had a few more bites on the worm but pulled out of a couple fish which felt a good size fish i will be on the canal weekend hopefully for a few more of tth bream and big roach and rudd that are showing so keep looking for my next upday and blog in the mean time get on the bank and tight lines


lee

last peg befor broken bridge

                     

Sunday 7th April 2013

                 On the punch on the local canal                       

        So its been a while since i got on the banks because of the bad weather with all the snow cold day and nights and the bitter easterly wind i just haven't wanted to get out there but its spring now so they are saying . So i decided to go on my local stretch of canal for a short session on the bread punch i got on the canal tow path with my gear loaded onto my barrow around 6:50pm there had been a hard frost the night before and the temp at 7am was still at - 3.5 all the banks were white with frost but that bitter wind we have had for the last 10 days had Finlay droped and the canal was flat calm.I walked down towards the basin i was planning on fishing on the 1st peg to the left of the broken bridge on the basin side so when i got to the peg i wanted to fish i had a look along that stretch of the canal before i set my gear up it looked good all along the basin but i stuck to the first peg were i stoped on . I started to set my gear up and get my bait sorted i riddled my liquidised bread as its something i always do.I decided to set up 2 top kits  the 1st one was a top 3 kit with 3-4 purple elastic through the top 2 sections i set this top up with a light 0.3g fine tip float on a 2.5lb main line to a 1.4lb hook length to a size 22 micro barbed hook i plumbed this rig a about 5 meters out this is were the barge goes thought so it the deepest channel on the canal i know this streatch were i am fishing hold roach and skimmers all year around . The other top kit was a power top 2 with blue hollow elastic sz 5-7 i was going to fish this rig along the far banks so i set it up using a 0.5g maver carbon stem pole float with a bright orange thick tip  with 2lb main line tied to a sz 18 small barbless hook i plumbed this rig at the far Bank plumbed up at 11.5 meters  this was around half a meter off or the reed bed along the far bank the deapth was only about 1 and a half feet i was hoping that maybe a tench of a few bream willl show on this far bank line or maybe a better stamp of roach.I fed a small nugget of liquidised bread on my 5 meter line and 2 larger nuggets on the 11.5 meter line i started off fishing this line with a 2 or 4 mm bread punch after shipping out i only waited a min or 2 for my first bite which was about a 2oz roach for around the 1st hour i was getting fish every put in most of the fish was roach with a few skimmers ranging between 2 and 8 oz.I then fed another ball of liquidised over my 5 meter line and fish the 11.5 meter line on the far bank i started off a small bread punch after a few mins i had a small fish ad had bite and fish every put in but all the fish were all between 2 and 4oz so i decided to feed and fish over my 5 meter line because i was getting the same size fish or larger fish then i was at 11.5 meters with catching the same size fish on the 5 meter line i could catch a lot quicker on the 5 meter swim the i could on the 11.5 meter line for the rest of the session i stayed on my 5 meter line on the light rig with 3-5 elastic. I carried on fishing on a 4 mm and 6 mm bread punch i was still catching a fish or getting bites most put ins .By mid day the cold east wind was starting to get up so i decided to pack up i packed up my gear and loaded it onto the barrow i had around 30-40 small roach and skimmers raging from 3-10ozs .this was the 1st session since 20th January 2013 and i really enjoyed it and am looking foward to get out again soon i am look at doing a lot more fishing over the spring and summer i started using a company for my bait as i want to try to give the worm a go on the canal as not a lot of people fish the chopped worm on the streach i fish so i thing if u fish it right it will all kick off on the worm i now order my bait from anglingbaitclub.co.uk . hope u enjoyed this latest blog i am hoping to have a short session end of the week and the week end so if i get out i will have my next blog up on Friday thanks for reading and

tight lines

lee