Mon & Brecon Canal / Spytty Pond 24 March

Pross · #1 03-26-2007, 12:13 PM

Managed a few hours out on Saturday and, needing some points, I decided to go after the perch on the canal. Tried a spot I've had some decent fish in the past and fished a freelined lobworm but there was nothing playing and as my fishing time is limited and I didn't fancy a blank I decided to up sticks and try Spytty Pond on the other side of town where I know there are small perch and eels which I also need and, if they weren't playing ball, loads of roach to keep me occupied.

I set up with a quiver tip baited with corn which I left out on the off chance of the decent carp and bream that are (supposedly) in the pond but concentrated my efforts on float fishing on the edges of the reed beds for perch. Bait was a bunch of maggots with plenty of loose maggots fed in regularly and it wasn't long before I connected with a bite and had my usual roach of about 4 or 5 inches.

This carried on with a bite every cast and after landing about 5 or 6 identical fish and losing a bigger one of about half a pound at the edge I decided to switch to worm to try to tempt the perch or eels out. Again, I was registering bites within seconds of the bait hitting the water but couldn't connect and assumed it was just the small roach plucking at the worms tail and occassionally stripping the worm from the hook. After a while I saw a large black tip of fin near my float which promptly disappeared. A few minutes later I got a more positive bite and struck into it expecting yet another missed bite but this time I felt a bit of resistance before my float came flying back at me. This time however there was no longer a hook attached and Ithink it may have been the big fish I'd seen shortly before (probably a carp) with my strike and the weight of the fish being too much for my 3lb line!

With no success on the worm I went back to roach bashing and carried on where I left off with a steady stream of roach to a maximum of 6 inches, some were even hooked when tightening my line up straight from the cast. Having yet another "last cast" my float dipped positively and I hooked into something a little better and when I netted it I had a lovely roach of just over a pound (new pb) in fantastic condition. That seemed a suitable place to call it a day and although I didn't get any points I had a very enjoyable few hours, the perch can wait for a while.