Canals + Bread = Roach

I've been fishing the canal for the last few days and as the weather has got colder, the roach have started coming onto the bread.

I was down at Sollom on Wednesday and there were plenty of people practising for the Xmas match.  I went down to the bottom of the gallops and was surprised to find that the bites got more frequent the bigger the punch I used.  I even managed a few net roach on 8mm punch at one point.  Jacko and normal liquidised bread were the feed of choice and I was well chuffed with a net of between three & a half and four pounds.  The bank hadn't faired well after all the recent rain and pulling a trolley through the quagmire was a bit of a test - worth it in the end though.

On Friday morning, I went down the side of Runnel Brow bridge at the top of the Rufford Canal.  There's a lot of work going on at the top end of this canal at the moment - additional ladders being installed in all the locks.  Quite how all the boatmen have coped with the single ladder for the last 200 years escapes me - I'm sure a Health & Safety officer will tell me how lucky they've all been...

It was frosty when I got there, but very bright, so I was feeling pretty optimistic.  Same tactics as at Sollom two days previously - feeding two lines from the off.  Straight away - on the far line at 11m, I was into a decent roach on 4mm punch.  It was a good net specimen (for the canal) around 8oz.  After quickly rebaiting and going back in on the same line I was rewarded with another (almost identical example.  Another half dozen roach of the same proportions followed in very quick succession had me feeling quite pleased with myself.  Not wishing to push too far on the same line, I came back to mid-canal and fished big punch.  more roach followed (eyes bigger than their bellies, by & large).  The trees on that little section of bank certainly bugger-up sighting your float - they're right in the track of the sun at this time of year.  I fished on until around 2 o'clock and must've put 5lb of roach back at the end of the session - very satisfying.

Yesterday, I went for a look at Sparks Bridge and was less than certain about whether it was the right place to fish when I first arrived.  I opted for a slow & controlled slide down the steep slope (rather than stumbling down the uneven steps on the other side of the bridge).  I decided to give it a go just past the boats on the Rufford side and was pleasantly surprised by the outcome.  Roach of varying sizes, on different baits from different depths - excellent pleasure fishing.  It'd been a while since I'd caught roach on maggot on the canal, but these were taking red, white, bronze - anything.  I decided to start a hemp line after an hour and was  rewarded with three or four plump speciments around 10oz - worth the effort.

Today proved to be an outing too many on the Bob Taberner match at Burscough.  With the canal sporting it's first proper lid of the winter, I was drawn at the first gable-end.  A few minutes spent scooping out cat-ice gave me a line down the track and thanks to a boatman who'd been down to Top Locks and back, there was plenty of free ice to be pushed away.  The sudden drop in temperature made it very hard going and I only managed around ten small roach on the punch from three different lines, but struggled with the shadows of the houses in Mill Lane which didn't let the sun onto the water.

Two pegs to my left, Chris Birchall had managed to get clear water all the way across and was catching late on.   The Adder also struggled today, but it didn't stop him ransacking my holdall and scrutinising all my bait.  Casters were crap, bread was wrong, liquidised bread had been done in a food processor and it had got too hot; my hemp was alright though - I was chuffed with that if nowt else.  After all that, he was off to the Spar shop for a hot pie - I hope their microwave was working Gazza...

Captain Cock had drawn down on the new houses and managed to get a big gap down his right side.  He called me later - in a state of utter jubilation.  As well as an envelope for his section win of 1lb 2oz, he'd also bagged a bottle of Scotch!!  Don't drink it too quick John - you might spill it down your new hoody...

It sounds like there was a mini ice-war going on up at the Slipway, with Capt. Strap-on doing his best to fill Jimmy Jeffers' peg in with ice as fast as Jimmy could clear it.  Jimmy said "It was solid" - I'm presuming he meant the ice & not the fishing after seeing who finished where...

Onwards & upwards - Ring O' Bells & Martland Mill next weekend if we all survive the Arctic blasts (predicted windchill of -11 Thursday & Friday)