GRAND WESTERN CANAL PHOTO ALBUM

TIDCOMBE (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)

WELCOME TO A DIFFERENT BLOG FROM ME TODAY INSTEAD IF FISHING ON THE GRAND WESTERN CANAL I TOOK A WALK ALONG THE CANAL WITH MY CAMERA AND TOOK A FEW NICE SHOTS AND THOUGHT I WOULD SHARE THEM ON MY BLOG FOR EVERY ONE THAT REED ABOUT MY FISHING ON THE CANAL SO NOW YOU CAN SEE ALOT OF THE GREAT LANDMARKS WILDLIFE AND OTHER THINGS ALONG THE 11 AND A HALF MILE STRETCH OF THE GRAND WESTERN CANAL IN TIVERTON.

(GRAND WESTERN CANAL)

TIVERTON CANAL BASIN

WARNCOMBE BRIDGE (GRAND WESTERN 
CANAL)

LEFT) HORSE DRAWN BARGE  (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)




(RIGHT) TIDCOMBE BRIDGE                            (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)                                                     









work boat tidcombe woods (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)

male swan GRAND WESTERN CANAL)

TIDCOMBE (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)                                                                                                 

                                                              TIDCOMBE HALL

TIDCOMBE WINTER 2011 (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)

                3 ABOVE PIC OF SWANS ON THE GRAND WESTERN CANAL

(above) LOOKING ACROSS THE GRAND WESTERN CAN TO TIDCOMBE HALL 

                                                         tidcombe area (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)

                                          tidcombe woods (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)

(GRAND WESTERN CANAL)

                                                                    (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)

                                                     TIDCOMBE BRIDGE (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)

                                                           TIDCOMBE LANE

                                                           DEAD STRETCH (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)

                                                            (GRAND WESTERN CANAL) 

                                                                 TIDCOMBE BAY (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)

                 ONE OF THE HORSES PULLING THE HORSE DRAWN WITH TIM BRIND (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)

                                   TIVERTON CANAL HORSE DRAWN BARGE (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)

                            WARNCOMBE BRIDGE  (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)

SNAKE WOODS (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)

                                        MANLEY BRIDGE (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)

                                        MANLEY BRIDGE (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)

                                             EAST MANLEY BRIDGE  (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)

 EAST MANLEY BRIDGE  (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)

                                                    CROWN HILL BRIDGE  EAST (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)

                                          CROWN HILL BRIDGE  (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)

                                                  SNAKE WOODS  (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)




                                                                     KINGFISHER TIDCOMBE BAY    (GRAND WESTERN CANAL)

                                                        EAST MANLEY BRIDGE

                                                        CROWN HILL GRAND WESTERN CANAL

CROWN HILL 

      ABOVE OUTLET PIPE SNAKE WOODS
       RIGHT CROWN HILL

                                                           14TH JUNE 2013

                         A DAYS FISHING AT KIA ORA PONDS  

                                RUN BY EXETER AND DISTRICT ANGLING CLUB



               

  Welcome back to my blog today for a change i was not on the grand western canal i was going to fish a exeter club water called kia ora pond which is in cullompton in devon it is run by exeter and district angling association you can get a day or season ticket which run from January to January you can get them from exeter angling centre or exe valley angling in tiverton at westexe. So we left home at around 5:15am and loaded my gear in the car and headed off to the pond it was not far from us about a 20 minute drive we arrived at the gate and parked up it was now 5:45am it was very over cast with spots of rain in the air but very light winds i unloaded my gear strapped in on the trolley and headed down toward the ponds it was a 15 minutes walk to the pond from the car park it was a long steep hill it was ok on the way down but was not looking forward to walking back up with all the gear .any way i got down to the ponds the first pond i came to was a silver fish pond but i was going to fish on the main pond which is the carp pond i left my gear on peg 1 and decided to have a walk around the main lake and have a good look as it was the first time i had been here  i was told pegs 4 and 5 were the hot 2 peg on the main carp pond after we had walked around the main lake we both decided to try down the other end of the pond i fished peg 30 on a corner swim with a inlet on my left hand side and Steve fished on peg 34 were he had a gap between 2 islands were he could fish the method feeder into open water i set my gear up and other bits and i was going to fish on one pole line with a carp power top right out in front of me right in line with the island at around 10 meters just 2 metres off  the island i plumbed up and found it was only about 1 and a half feet deep i cupped out 4 medium cups of damp pellet and some corn on this line i was fishing the paste the rig was a long bristle preston pb 1.00gr pole float on a 5lb guru mainline to a sise 12 Preston hook a size 12 which i find is a right size and the preston pr range is very good for the paste i had a number 8 to 12 orange hollow elastic fitted with a pulla bung and a Dacron connector i also set up an 11ft drennan puddle chucker series 7 feeder rod with a dawia x5 match feeder reel with a 5lb maver main line on this i was fishing a method feeder with a 5lb short method hook length tied to a size 14 hook.I started off on the pole at 10 meters i started on a bit of paste the size of a fifty pence piece.I shipped out and started fishing over the feed i had feed earlier it was about 15 minutes before i had my first bite on the paste it was a carp but after about 3 or 4 minutes of playing the fish it shot off around to my left and headed behind the island and snaped me off i went back out on the paste again after putting another size 12 hook on within about 5 minutes i was into another carp but this time after 3 minutes it was in the net it was a chunky carp of around 9lb or maybe a bit more i fished the pole for another 40 minutes and was not getting a bite or anything so i decided to change over to the feeder rod i had been feeding a few 6 and 8 mm pellets on and off since i got to my peg i packed the method feeder with fish meal ground bait and pellet with a 6 mm pellet on the hook and i cast it out to the tree on the island slightly to my right but again i had to wait about 45 minutes for my first bite on the feeder i kept chopping and changing from corn and hard pellet on the feeder fishing it on the same spot off the tree but by 1:30pm i only had 3 fish in the net it was very hard fishing today i was trying the pole in between but could not seem to get a bite or anything on the pole line i then changed back to the feeder and fished a 6mm sounbaits pink dumbell pellet shaped boilie and i decided to cast a bit further as we were the only 2 on the pond i cast to open water down in front of peg 28 were there was a lot of fish showing i caught 2 more fish both was on the pink pellet shaped boilie we packed up at around 3 pm i ended up with 5 carp biggest was 9lb and the smallest was 2lb steve ended up with 7 fish inc a ghost koi it was not the best days fishing but i still enjoyed it and i packed up happy with the gear packed up and loaded on the trolley it was now time to to do the thing i was not looking forward to and that was walking back up the steep sloap with my gear but i managed to get from the pond to the car at the top and it was not as bad as i was expecting and then we loaded the gear in the car and headed off home until my next blog if your out on the bank fishing tight lines

lee

                           FISHING ON THE GRAND WESTERN CANAL                     4TH JUNE 2013


         Welcome back to another fishing blog from me fishing on the grand western canal in tiverton.I was fishing just a evening session this time so i decided to fish in the bay down in the basin this area is a well know area on the tiverton canal as it holds a large head of bream from around 2lb up to 8lb or even more already this year i has been fishing very well with a lot of good bags of bream and tench with the bream averaging from 3lb to about 6lb 8oz but there is bigger in there and the tench are around 3lb to 5lb with the odd bigger one with a possible bag of 10 or more bream ion a short 3 or 4 hour session for total weights of any thing between 30lb up to 60lb if u get them on the feed and continue to keep catching.Any way back to the session i got on the canal at around 3:45pm on a Monday i got to a spot that looked good and i knew it had turned up a couple good bags of bream and the odd tench over the last 2 weeks i set up in the right hand side of the turning bay in the basin at the tiverton end of the grand western canal  i was going to fish at 11.5 meters in a shadow of a house on the far bank i was going to fish a power top 2 with a orange middy 6 to 8 elastic fitted through both the top 2 sections i fished a 0.050g rizor pole float on a 3lb2oz mainline to a 2lb hook length on a size 18 animal barbless spade end hook i plumbed up the rig at 11.5 meters straight out in front of me i was about 3ft deep i plumbed up so it was 1 inch over depth as it was Windy and wanted the bait to be just on bottom so there was min amount of movement on the bait.I started off by feeding 2 small cups of micro pellet that i had soaked in a small amount of water when i set up just to soften them a bit also with the micro pellet i fed 15 to 20 grains of sweet corn i left the feed for about 10 minutes while i sorted self out be for i started fishing i started off by fishing a med size bit of bread flake i shipped out their were a few blows showing on the area i had cupped my pellet to just 10 mins earlier i didn't have any bites or and kind of touches on the bread flake i fish it for the first half hour be for i decided to try a small bit of corn again i waited another half hour be for i had a bite on the corn it was a very slow bite but i some how managed to miss it i went back out on the corn and after 10 minutes or so i was into my first fish of the evening session it was a bream of around the 3lb mark so i decided to stay on the corn within a few minutes i was in to my second fish which was another bream again around the 3lb mark so 2 in the net the session was looking good i decided to try fishing on the flake again and within a few minutes i was into another bream of 4lb for the rest of the session i was chopping and changing form sweet corn and the bread flake and went on to catch another 6 bream it was a really good session i ended up with 10 bream with a total weight of 33lb the biggest was 6lb 1oz another of 5lb + i packed up at 9 pm after a very good catch so until the next blog tight lines




              ANOTHER SESSION ON THE GRAND WESTERN CANAL                    8TH JUNE 2013

Welcome back to another blog on the grand western canal in tiverton this was only a short session i fished the basin again were i fish the last session were i had a good bag of bream.I left home around 4:15 in the morning and headed down along the canal to the basin end when i got to the turning bay in the basin i left my gear at the top of the slip and had a look around i saw a few fish feeding in the bay and also a few fish showed on the trees at the far bank i decided to fish in the bay were the barge turns around i was going to fish at 11.5 meters to a shadow of a window in the water were i Had seen a few fish feeding.I set my gear up and i was using a power top 2 kit with middy hi-viz 6 to 8 elastic through the top 2 sections i used a 0.40g low vis pole float on a 3lb mainline to 2lb 4oz hook length to a size 18 barbless hook i plumbed this rig up the same a i fished the last session on this swim at 11.5 meters were it was between 3 and 4 foot deep i started off by feeding 2 cups of micro pellet wit half a dozen grains of sweet corn on the spot i left it for 10 minutes then i had my first put in i started off on a soft pellet for the first half and hour i didn't get a bite so i changed and went out on the sweet corn within about 20 minutes i was into my first bream i was a fish of about 3lb i went straight back out again on a small bit of sweet corn and straight away i was into another fish again it was a bream of about the same size as the last one i then bumped a good fish so i feed another cup of micro pellet and decided to try fishing a 6mm hard pellet on a mossella micro pellet band it took another half an hour be for i had another bite on the pellet it was another bream about 4lb so a bit bigger then the last  2   i went on to fish the next hour on the hard pellet were i went and missed a bite and also bumped  a good fish i went on to fish the rest of the session on the bread punch i ended my session at around 10am i had a good net of 9 bream between 3lb up to around 5lb 4oz it was a very enjoyable session until my next blog if ur out wetting a line good luck and tight lines


             
                  SHORT EVENING SESSION ON THE LOCAL CANAL                   9TH JUNE 2013


       welcome back to another blog after yesterday fishing in the basin i thought i would come out for another short evening session i was only going to fish the bread punch ove a bed of bread crumb i got up there at around 4 pm it was very hot and i had the feeling i was going to straggle for the first couple hours until the sun started to go down and it got a little cooler .I fished a swim just out of the canal basin to the left hand side of the broken bridge i set up and plumbed up at 8 meters straight out in front of me a section past the middle were the boat channel is i was using a top 2 pole kit with a number 6-8 elastic with a 2lb straight through to a b714 size 18 micro barbed match hook be for i could feed my swim and start fishing i had to wait for the horse drawn barge to come back from its afternoon trip after the barge returned i left it for about 20mins for the water to settle  then i feed 2 small cups of bread crumb on the spot at 8 meters i was going to fish i started off by fishing on a 4mm bread punch it was not that long be for i had my first bite it was a small roach of around 4 oz i had a few more roach and a couple skimmers then the next fish felt bigger but i pulled out of it while playing it in to the net i was still catching a few small fish i also had 2 bream of around 3 lb i lost a tench on the inside along the thick weed bed as i was trying to net it and then i went on and fished the flake for the rest of the night and i lost another 3 good fish on the flake i think it was bream as they had been blowing over my feed for the last few hours i packed up at 9pm i really enjoyed this session and was very pleased with my catch which ended up as 2 bream and a nice net of silvers all on the bread punch and flake the best way of fishing any were along this canal through the winter and as well it works great through the summer hope u enjoying the blogs feel Free to share or comment until next time if ur on the bank tight lines

lee

         

Fishing on the grand western canal

                                                        31st may 2013 

 welcome back to my blog i decided to do a session early morning on a very good well know stretch of the grand western canal in tiverton which holds a good head of bream and tench.I fished a spot were i had some very big weights of bream last year the weather has not been good so far this year but this weekend is looking good i haven't fished this stretch of water since mid September last year so i decided it was time to get up there and give it a go.I left home at around 4.45 in the morning and headed down along the canal to the spot i was going to fish i am not going to name the stretch i fished as i made e that mistake on a social network site and as soon as i uploaded the pictures and name the stretch i was fishing on there was people fishing the area all though the year and since then it has not fished the same since so i wont be making that mistake again i got to the spot At around 5am it did look really good as it used to years ago with fish blowing and moving every were u looked the fish were getting there heads down and i was hoping this meant i was in for a good session.I set my gear up and i was going to fish the pole lined up with a Fletcher on the far bank at 11.5 meters it was only about 3 and a half foot deep but i knew if i stood a chance of a good catch this was the most likely spot i would get it.I was going to fish with a power top 2 kit with a 8 to 10 elastic straight through both top sections i was using a 0.50g razor pole float on a 3lb main line to a size 18 barbless animal hook.After plumbing up at around 11.5 meters i fed 2  medium cups of soaked micro pellet and corn and left it for about 10 minutes befor i fished over it i then put on a 6mm ringers hooker pellet as i thought it would the best way to start off fishing it as i only fed pellet in the swim half an hour went by bite less or any sign of fish in the swim so i decided to change to a double maggot hook bait i shipped back out and after about 10mins i had my first bite on the maggot it was a small perch but by this time i had started to see a few blows coming up over the are i had been feeding on this time i thought i would try a mini bit of sweetcorn i just nicked the hook through the skin of the corn and shipped it out were they were blowing my float was dipping and moving to the left and within a couple minutes the float slowly went away and i was into my first bream of the session it was around the 3lb mark i went back out on the corn and within a few minutes i was into another bream this one was a bit smaller around 2 to 2 and a half pound again it was on the corn i then had a tench about 4lb . i went on to feed another cup of micro pellet and a bit of corn i fished the rest of the session by chopping and charging from the sweet corn and the bread flake both baits were getting the fish i went on to catch the rest of the session i ended the session after about 3 hours with a cracking net of fish i had 8 bream ranging from 1lb 5 oz up the the biggest which was 6lb 1 0z and a tench of around 4lb with a total of 9 fish for a over all weight of 29lb7oz i look forward to the next session soon 
tight lines 

lee 

FISHING ON THE GRAND WESTERN CANAL

                                                                     26/03/2013

                                    FISHING ON THE GRAND WESTERN CANAL 

              WELCOME BACK TO MY BLOG IT BEEN A WHILE SINCE MY LAST BLOG ON HERE HAVEN'T HAD MUCH TIME TO GET OUT AND THE WEATHER AS BE CRAP I HAVE DONE A COUPLE EVENING SESSION BUT IT AS BEEN VERY HARD FISHING ON THE CANAL THAT IS THE REASON I HAVEN'T DONE ANY BLOGS AS IT HAS NOT BEEN WORTH WRITING ABOUT.I DECIDED TO DO A MORNING ON ONE OF MY MOST LOVED STRETCHES ON THE GRAND WESTERN CANAL I LEFT HOME AT AROUND 6 AM AND HEADED UP TO THE CANAL WITH MY GEAR I WENT UNDER THE FIRST FOOT BRIDGE AN HEADED DOWN ALONG THE DEAD STRETCH .I FISHED HALF WAY DOWN THE DEAD STRETCH A I LIKED THE LOOK OF THE PEG I WAS GOING TO FISH.

  THERE WAS A LARGE WEED BED ON THE INSIDE AND REEDS ON THE FAR BANK AND IT LOOKED REALLY GOOD I STARTED TO SET MY GEAR UP I WAS GOING TO SET UP A MATCH TOP 3 KIT WITH A NUMBER 6 ELASTIC WITH A O.40GR RIZOR POLE FLOAT ON A 3LB MAIN LINE TO A 2LB HOOK LENGTH TO A SIZE 18 ANIMAL BARBLESS HOOK I PLUMBED THIS RIG OUT AT AROUND 6 METERS OUT IN FRONT OF ME JUST PAST THE BOAT CHANNEL.I WAS GOING TO FISH THIS RIG ABOUT 1 INCH OVER DEPTH THE.THE OTHER TOP KIT WAS A POWER TOP 2 IT WAS ELASTICATED WITH A NUMBER 8-10 ELASTIC THROUGH BOTH SECTIONS ON THIS TOP I WAS USING A 0.30GR RAZOR POLE FLOAT ON A 3 LB MAINLINE TO A 2.1LB HOOK LENGTH TO A SIZE 18 ANIMAL HOOK

 AS THE OTHER RIG.THIS RIG WAS PLUMBED UP ON THE FAR BANK AT 11.5 METERS I WAS ALSO GOING TO FISH THE SAME RIG ON THE WEED BED ON THE INSIDE IN THE MARGINS AS IT WAS THE SAME DEPTH AS THE FAR BANK.I STARTED BY FEEDING A BALL OF CRUMB ON THE MARGIN SWIM AND THE SAME ON THE FAR BANK SWIM OFF THE REEDS THEN I FED 2 BALLS OF THE SAME CRUMB AND A FEW BITS OF CORN ON THE 6 METER LINE STARTED OFF BAY FISHING ON THE FAR BANK ON A DOUBLE MAGGOT FISHED IT FOR ABOUT 30 TO 40 MINUTES AND DIDN'T HAVE A BITE I THEN FISHED THEN FISHED ON THE DOUBLE MAGGOT ON THE INSIDE SWIM TIGHT TO THE WEED BED I HAD A FEW DIPS ON THE FLOAT A ONE PROPER BITE IN WHICH I MISSED I THE CUPED OUT SOME MORE BAIT ON THE FAR BANK AND THE INSIDE AGAIN AND WENT AND FISHED THE MIDDLE SWIM ON DOUBLE MAGGOT ON RED AND WHITE I SAW A FEW FISH BLOWING AROUND ON MY MIDDLE SWIM.WITHIN ABOUT 10 MINS I WAS INTO A FISH IT WAS A BREAM OF AROUND THE 3LB MARK I CARRIED ON AND HAD 3 MORE BREAM WITHIN ABOUT 15 TO 20 MINUTES 2 OF THEM WAS AROUND THE 3LB MARK AND THE OTHER WAS A BETTER FISH OF ABOUT THE 5LB MARK OR MAYBE EVEN A BIT MORE THE OTHER 3 WAS ON THE BREAD FLAKE WHICH I THING IS THE BEST WAS AND ALSO A GREAT WAY OF FISHING ON THIS CANAL AND MOST OTHER WATERS I WENT BACK OUT ON THE MIDDLE SWIM ON THE FLAKE AND BUMPED ANOTHER GOOD FISH IT WAS MOST LIKELY A BREAM I THEN HOOKED INTO A BREAM AGAIN ON THE FLAKE WHICH I PULLED OUT OF IN MY SWIM AFTER LOSING THIS FISH IT WENT VERY QUITE I ONLY CAUGHT A FEW MORE ROACH AND A RUDD I CHOPPED AND CHANGED FROM THE MIDDLE SWIM AND THE FAR BANK BUT AT AROUND 11 AM I DECIDED TO CALL IT A DAY AS IT WAS SLOWING DOWN AND IT WAS VERY BUSY I ENDED UP WITH 4 GOOD BREAM AND A FEW ROACH AND RUDD IT WAS A GOOD SESSION I PACKED UP AND HEADED HOME.PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COMMENT ON THIS OR ANY OF MY BLOGS WITH COMMENT GOOD OR BAD UNTIL THE NEXT BLOG. 

TIGHT LINES 

LEE

EVENING SESSION FISHING ON THE GRAND WESTERN CANAL

                                                                     
                                                                   7th May 2013                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                     


Welcome back to my latest fishing blog this blog is just a short 5 hour evening session on the grand western canal i got on the   bank at around 5 pm on a warm evening there was a light south    west wind and slightly cloudy in the sky but still warm i looked really good for a fish or two i walked down

toward the basin was looking at     fishing a couple pegs before the    broken bridge as i got there i look really good so i fished along the   left side of the broken bridge i set up my gear i decided to fish one top 3 on a number 8 elastic at around 8- 9 meters using a 0.03 razor pole     float on a 3lb mainline to a size 16 barbless hook i started by feeding a small nugget of crumb and a pinch of pellet i also set up a top 3 kit on the margins to my left i plumbed it tight to the inside reed bed i used a number 6 elastic with a 0.60g     sensas pole float to a 3lb mainline  to a size 16 micro barbed hook on    this swim i feed 2 medium size cups  of crumb and micro pellet i was only going to fish the inside if i was to see fish come in on the feed i started by fishing the line i fed in the middle i started of on a double maggot and had my first bite within a few minutes it was a Rudd of around 8 to 10 oz which was a good sign i carried on    fishing the maggot i had a small shimmer of about a pound i       hooded another fish and  pulled out of it after a few minutes  i  think it was foul hooked as it was a dead weight after removing   all the slime left on my hook length i had another fish on the    maggot a bream of around 3 and a half pound i then fished the     rest of the evening on the bread flake i was catching skimmers    every put in after i had changed top the flake from about 6 to    about the pound mark i also had another bream of around 2lb (pic  above) it started to get dark and the wind picked up so i decided to start packing up it was a very good evening session and the    canal still counties to fish very well and lets hope it stays     that way until my next blog tight lies                              
                                                                  
                        lee