K & A Canal 25 Feb 2007

[mithrandir]

After a grotty day yesterday were I felt so bad I did not leave my bed I was up early this morning
to prepare my kit for a trip to the Kennet and Avon canal with Twiddler and Warmit63.

We met up with Warmit at Devizes and he followed us to my favourite spot on the canal down at
All Cannings on the Allington bend, a spot I like because of the tench I have caught there before.

So we tramped through the mud on the tow path until we found some suitable spots.

I set up a feeder on maggots and a float on maggots ( this was the bait Claudia had left over from
Saturday ), fed a few casters and waited to see what happened.

It was not long before I was seeing a little twitch on the feeder and there was a hand sized Hybrid

This was followed by a series of small skimmers and Hybrids falling to the float.

After a few hours things slowed down and Claudia decided to go try float fishing up by Steve's swim.
The whole swim was quiet and peaceful and I had the feeder right in the middle gully of the canal
when I saw a tentative twitch, then another and I thought that looks like a tench feeling the bait
so I waited a little longer and the third twitch I lifted the rod and gently struck. Then the line
went tight and the rod bent, I noticed a boiling in the water and the rod began to kick, I had a
tench on.
After a fight that the fish buried itself in some sunken branches which I ended up landing as well
I pulled in this fish.

3lb 4oz female tench with a strange black mark.



Later in the day I managed a second tench, the first ones boyfriend I think. This took the feeder
line which was on a baitrunner and ran at quite a pace before I brought it under control.

2lb 4oz male tench



For the points I also managed to get this.

A small roach



And finally I had to go and get a few more points with this little blighter




a 1.6oz Ruffe



Here is a shot of Claudia float fishing with a rod she has borrowed from a fishing friend.

Twiddler with her hands on another man's rod!





So all in all a pleasant day, the rain stayed away, although the towpath was a mudbath, it was
good to see Steve again, and good to collect 4.5 species hunt points on a bait use up trip.

Mike

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Great info and tench in feb !!

[Twiddler]

Well after fishing the Itchen yesterday I couldn't wait to get out again fishing the canal on a float with my new closed face reel and a lovely 'Tri Cast Finess match' rod, which kindly was lent to me by a friend.

I still have problems with shotting the floats correctly so Warmit came to my rescue to show me how it's done.
On the float rod I was fishing a 2.5lb mainline, size 16 hook, on a single bronze maggot.

I also had my feeder rod out with a small fixed spool reel, 4lb line, 1.5lb hook length,size16 hook and a small maggot feeder.

On the float I caught the usual hybreds, skimmers






and after changing from bronze maggot to a couple of red ones....I caught this little fella



YES IAN!!!!!! a 2oz ruffe........'Who's the mummy' ...the 'ruffemistress' lol


I noticed my feeder rod banging like mad while I was in the middle of rebaiting my float rod, so I qickly put it down, run over to my feeder rod, struck and felt very tight as if I was in a snag.....I started to reel in trying to get out of it and before I knew it, I realized that I had a good size fish on the line, which sadly I lost as my clutch was set to tight and I was on low breaking strain hook length.

I lost a good size tench of aprox 2lb......darn!!!!!....That'll teach me to set my clutch!!!!

[Norfolkboy]

Well done you two.

Not 100% sure Mike, but I think that small roach may be a Rudd. Will have to see what the others think...

[mithrandir]

You could be right Dan, I looked at a roach that steve had and the anal fin was what he said made the difference, not the eye colour as I thought, it looks quiet rounded in the picture but that is deceptive, it was a bit to straight bellied to be a rudd from the "in the flesh" view.

i am no expert but I think it was more roach than rudd. I thought it might be a hybrid but after seeing Steve's I was almost certainly a roach.

Let the jury decide, either way it is points!! LOL

mike

[Norfolkboy]

Quite a difficult one to call, it looks like it has an up turned mouth which made me think it was a Rudd.

Like you say, it's points whatever it is!

[robm]

Well done Mike and Claudia it looks like you had a good day despite the mud.
It,s nice to see some Tench also and all the other great pics and 2 cracking reports.

robm

[Greenheart]

Great report guys, and some cracking speciemen Ruffe. It puts your Tench to shame LOL... Looks like you all had a good day. As for the mystery fish, i'd say it was a Rudd as the lower lip appears to protrude further out than the upper lip.

[perch_king]

well done to the both off you

[BaggieRich]

Well done guys, 2 great reports there....