Tempted by Perch

A phone call from Allan in the afternoon revealed his intentions on fishing the canal later that evening. I wasn't for going fishing today as the night before (Foolishly) I'd promised to stay in and watch tele with 'Her in doors' But just knowing that Allan would be out there fishing became all too tempting. So, I decided to risk the wrath of the Mrs and join him.

I had other commitments which meant I could only get there from around 8pm, so I decided it wasn't worth the effort in setting up on the pole, for what would be only two hours fishing maximum. Catching Perch by design though was a different matter.

I dropped my bait into the water and with 3 seconds it was away, I was stunned - So quick! Unbelievable! Sometimes you can be there all day and not so much as a bite, I must have plonked it right on the nose of a Perch. No Hollywood ending here though as the blighter fell off.

Thankfully there wasn't long to wait before I landed my first of the evening. I didn't bother weighing it, but it was easily over a pound. Minutes later and I was in again, a small one by comparison but all customers are welcome on my new rig.

The next and final fish delivered to me another Perch PB. A hard fighting 'Had to use the clutch' fish of 1lb 9oz, bringing me all the more closer to my canal target of 2lb, not quite there yet but I'm getting closer. I must add that I'm not in a rush to achieve this as I'm having lots of fun looking for it.

As for Allan, well there is just no stopping him with this Pole fishing malarkey, consider that he only fished for 3 hours he had a very impressive net full of 30 odd fish to 4 and a half pound. All I can say, and believe me I keep saying it to him is that "He had a good teacher" ;)

They get bigger

and biggerand bigger - 1lb 9oz

Hot days, some Tench and a PB Perch

Thursday:

Too lazy to start fishing at first light today, I meandered down the the Sluice in the afternoon. I set up fishing in the blistering heat and sat it out until Dusk. My main quarry today was to be Tench (I'll wait for some dull overcast days before I target Pike).

I fished to ledger rods under feet and the tip on the far bank, of which produced me my first Tench of the session and a few Perch for my efforts. The fishing as predicted in the heat was a little slow. Two tench fell to the method bringing my days total to 3 the biggest of which weighed in at 3lb 15oz.


Allan has his day:

Went Pole fishing on the canal with Allan, he beat me. The End......


In search of a slightly bigger Perch:

Whilst I've been out and about Pole fishing on the canal of late, I have seen one or two big(ish) Perch hanging about in the margin, one of which took it upon itself to attack Allan's keep net, a sight that I have never seen before, Pike maybe but never perch.

Inspired then by the obviously ravenous Perch, it was once again time to target old stripey.

It didn't take me too long to hook into a decent sized Perch either, and it also didn't take me long to lose it. I was gutted. Never mind! It was back to the drawing board and a rethink on the rig that I was using. A couple of days later and finally, and after a little effort I landed my first Perch by design. OK so at 1lb 6oz it was no monster, but it was a new PB for me. I shall target Perch on the canal over the coming weeks, fingers crossed I'll catch some good fish while I'm at it.

June the 16th and a couple more trips

The Opening Day:

The long awaited June 16th and the opening day of the iver season had finally arrived, and myself Allan and JP descended upon the Sluice at day break. It was to be a long day for me as I intended to stay until dusk. In the winter these long summer days are the days that I long for, so I decided to make the most of it.


The fishing wasn't exactly at it's best. Is it ever on the opening day of the season? It never seems to live up to it's much billed name. I mustn't moan though as I did land 2 Tench, both of which came to the method on corn. Allan and JP also got in to some Tench action.

The First Tench of the new season

Stifling heat, but the Tench still fedAllan's first of the season

Allan's first bash on the Pole:

It's been on Allan's wish list to own his own Pole for some time now, and last week he finally managed to part with some of his hard earned and buy a Maver Genesis 13 metre Pole.

It was time to try it out then and put some fish on the bank. I must admit for his first attempt he did rather well, and in four hours fishing I caught 26 fish and Al landed 18, good fishing that mate, I'll have to up my game next time we're out. I can see myself and Allan becoming a little competitive when we're Pole fishing, it makes it a little more exciting so you won't hear me complaining, until he starts to beat me that is. My catch of the session was a 1lb 4oz Eel, and another PB for me to add to my list.

The first haul off the new Pole

1lb 4oz Eel

Back to the Drain and looking for Tench:

Another early start for myself and I headed down to the Sluice to fish for Tench, I fished two method rods and I also fished the tip. I was inspired by a rig on the tip that a friend of mine had recently shown me, and I have to admit the results were very good. I caught a lot of Perch and when the fish were feeding it literally was a bite a chuck, the best catch of the lot was a cracking Ruffe of 3oz + I don't have any scales that measure in ounces so I guess I'll never know just how close I was to the UK record ;)

As for the Tench. I landed four in total, one of them though has to be the smallest Tench that I have ever landed, I wonder if this is one is from a recent stocking programme that was undertaken? I also caught a few Hybrids on the method.

3lb + Tench

Smallest Tench I've ever caught?
Not quite a new Ruffe record
Iphone photography madness+

Suddenly it's getting a little competitive:

Back to the canal and a chance for Al to have another session on the Pole. We fished from 8pm until dusk, not a long session by our standards, but two hours at the right time of the day is better than many hours at the wrong time of day.

It was literally a fish a chuck, and at the weigh in, Allan landed 18 fish to 1lb 10oz, but he was left scratching his head wondering how I'd managed to land 39 fish to 2lb 10oz. I can see that Allan is going to beat me soon, and it's only a matter of time - I have to confess though that I fished pretty hard and I shall continue doing so :)

Still Tenching!

Once again, I'm finding myself behind on my blog posts, I'll grab this spare half hour that I have to catch up with reports and catches...

A session on the Canal on Saturday morning with Allan and a 4 am start was arranged. I chose to fish on the pole and if I'm honest with starting so early I expected a bumper session but by the time I packed up at 10.30am I'd only caught 20 fish, not too bad I suppose but they weren't really a very good stamp, apart from a token Bronze Bream of around 2 and a half pounds the rest of the net consisted of small Roach a couple of skimmers and 4 Eels.

Monday:

To the next session which was another bash on the canal on the Pole. This time I fished from late afternoon until dusk. I caught 19 fish on this outing, the pick of the bunch was a decent sized Perch of around 12oz and a Bream of around three pounds which fell to the method.

Wednesday:

Back to fishing for Tench with Johnny Panto, and a visit to the lake that holds Tench of decent proportions was to be our venue. We fished from 3pm until dark.

The fishing was a little slow and only really got going for me at dusk. Panto had caught a decent Bream and Tench early on in the day, but strangely his swim went quiet and he didn't catch another fish the whole session.

I fished both rods on the method and once again double hair rigged sweetcorn, this really has become my first approach in Tench fishing. I finished the session with 4 Tench, the biggest that I landed was 6lb and this is yet another PB Tench for me. This year I think I've broken my Tench PB around 4 times so far

Interestingly after uploading the photographs of my catches I noticed that all of the Tench that I caught yesterday were infact females, there is a theory about working out how big Tench can get to in a lake, apparently a female will grow to double the size of a male, so if you catch a male of say 5lb the females in the water could grow to 10lb's, so catching a male of 7lb's this will point the finger of producing a female at least 14lb's, now that is enough to whet any fisherman's appetite isn't it?

A tempting Pole swim if there ever was one

5lb + Tench

6 lb Tench, look at the size of the tail

Night feeders

Carpers, they're missing a trick

Bank Holiday Monday and this could mean only one thing, another excuse to go fishing. I opted for the...Hmmmmmm now what should I refer to this water as in future? OK got it, I'm going to refer to it as 'Hard Water' for it is just that, it's hardly a 'Runs Water' but like I've said before there are some specimen fish in residence so it's worth putting a little time on there.

I set out for Tench, one rod on ledger Sweetcorn and I also fished the tip. A few hours in and I was catching a few and I mean only a few Perch, the fishing was a little slow but my patience was rewarded when I caught sight of my tip rod arching around to the right, I lifted into the take and felt the weight of a Tench, and at 5lb 2oz this was my biggest from this water so far.

An hour or so later and my alarm was screeching from the sound of another Tench that had stumbled upon my ledgered sweetcorn offerings, a bit smaller this time though the scales indicating 3lb 10oz. It wasn't until dusk and a change in tactics until my next and last Tench of the session, I switched my tip rod from single maggot to the method and corn, a good idea as around 20 minutes later my tip rod was nearly ripped out of the rod rest , a Tench of 4lb 13oz had hooked itself on my hair rig. What a fight this one put up, these are the moments that I go fishing for.

I keep saying this and I'll say it again, pound for pound and on the right gear the fight you get off a Tench is absolutely fabulous, I hear many a Carper cursing their luck from catching Tench and indeed even referring to them as nuisance fish. In my eyes they're missing a trick, and long they continue doing so.

A Canada Goose and her Goslings

Tench 5lb 2oz male

3lb 10oz4lb 13oz

Kicking back, relaxing and enjoying the view