RAIN, RAIN AND MORE RAIN
Last weekend saw myself and Sharon driving to Nantwich in Cheshire as Sharon had enrolled in a 2 day dog photography coarse as she keep photographer and would like to try her hand at professional photography one day. I was there primarily as her chauffeur and eye candy for the groups dinner on saturday evening. Seeing as i wasn,t allowed to attend the coarses and sit at the back i decided that a light lure rod and some perch lures would be stowed in the back of the car along with Sharons mountain of camera equipment. Unfortunately the weather forecast for the weekend was to be heavy rain on both days, oh joy.....
After an exhausting 6 hour drive from Essex which included the M1 being closed forcing us to divert through the local towns to miss the closure only to hit standstill traffic further along the journey on the M6 which again resulted in us bypassing the queue and driving through some beautiful scenic countryside, we arrived at our working farm bed and breakfast, our home for the following 2 nights. The view from our window was across some fields with no roads or houses to obscure the view, only cows silently grazing and lots of songbirds singing and going about there business in the hedgerows below. I wish i had taken a picture now, especially as whilst having breakfast each morning we were treated to a visit from 2 woodpeckers, just outside the patio windows, picking peanuts from the bird feeder and taking them back to their young further up the tree that the feeder was hanging from. There was also a multitude of different songbirds as well as a couple of squirrels and a male peacock who also put on a display regularly for us.
Saturday morning after dropping Sharon at the pub where her coarse was being held i programmed the sat nav to take me to a fishery not too far away which i,d been informed held some good pike and off i set. It was raining for the 20 minutes it took to get there, which involved driving through some stunning countryside i might add, but it was only light so i wasn,t really bothered. Arriving through he gates i donned my wet jacket and took a walk along the tree lined banks to see how busy it might be and to get a feel for the place. It was fairly busy but there was enough places for me to throw a lure or two for a few hours. Walking back to the car it started to rain heavier so i jumped in and ate my sandwich, a lovely locally made cheese and pickle offering, and opted to wait out the rain. Unfortunately after waiting for over half an hour the rain had only gotten heavier and the shies had gotten darker. It was obvious that this weather was set in for a while so i decided to take a slow scenic drive back to the bed and breakfast and relax for a couple of hours and see how the weather faired later. Once back in my room with a cup of tea and a few biscuits consumed i promptly fell asleep and only awoke, to sunny skies, due to a rather loud crow outside, just in time too as i had to collect Sharon. Any fishing that day was well and truly scuppered as we had a group meal later that evening. I later found out from our landlady that the weather cleared about an hour or so after i arrived back, shortly after i fell asleep.
Sunday was a different matter as the skies were blue and the sun was blazing all day long. Beautiful weather but crap for fishing. I popped into Stapeley Angling to have a little look round and they pointed me in the direction of a local canal which help a good head of perch. After buying a few bits and pieces to try dropshotting, a technique i have been meaning to try for a while, i set of in the direction of the canal.
I,m not exactly sure what i was expecting to when i pulled into the marina car park as it was just on the outskirts of a busy town, so i grabbed my cap and glasses a took a reconnaissance walk first before getting my kit out. I was pleasantly surprised to find the canal was lined with overhanging trees and bushes and really was an attractive place to be. Quickly i walked back to the car, grabbed my gear and then set back to the first place i fancied fishing. Now this sort of fishing is a bit alien to me as i generally fish quiet, secluded stretches of river and lakes, but here there were families walking their dogs, lovers taking a stroll and lots of narrow boats chugging up and down. Not how i like to spend my day but with the water being a chocolate colour and the sun beating down with temperatures touching mid twenties i decided to give it a go at least for an hour.
Well 4 hours later and a good 5 miles of bankside walked i slumped into the drivers seat of the car and turned the air con to maximum, all hot, sweaty, achey and quite relaxed from my spot of canal fishing. I hadn,t caught anything but i did have an enjoyable afternoons fishing and if i lived locally i could see myself on the towpath of this lovely water way quite often. It was nice to see the narrow boats plodding by each one painted and decorated differently to the owners unique designs, and the owners always gave a nod or a little wave as they passed which i thought was really nice.
As mentioned i didn,t catch anything, in fact i don,t think i even got a knock on any of the small lures i was casting. I did try dropshotting most of the time and have to say i can see the appeal of this technique but i do need to do a lot of research into the techniques used to catch. I didn,t have all the components to rig myself up properly for this style so maybe this was why i didn,t catch. As mentioned the water was a thick choclate colour so that definately didn,t help chances, and with the sun beating down as well it was far from perfect conditions. I reckon that first thing in the morning or last thing at night would be the best times to fish these waters as there would be less boat traffic and the sun wouldn,t be so strong.
I,d like to fish canals a bit more as i they have a certain appeal which i can,t quite put my finger on. I think i,ll start to research the Lea Navigational canal and see how that fairs as its not too far from home.
Whether it was due to the previous days heavy rain or maybe the recent temperatures i did come across a dead bream of about 3lb and a big dead eel floating along with the current. The eel was a size that i would of loved to off caught, the picture doesn,t really show how large it actually was.
After an exhausting 6 hour drive from Essex which included the M1 being closed forcing us to divert through the local towns to miss the closure only to hit standstill traffic further along the journey on the M6 which again resulted in us bypassing the queue and driving through some beautiful scenic countryside, we arrived at our working farm bed and breakfast, our home for the following 2 nights. The view from our window was across some fields with no roads or houses to obscure the view, only cows silently grazing and lots of songbirds singing and going about there business in the hedgerows below. I wish i had taken a picture now, especially as whilst having breakfast each morning we were treated to a visit from 2 woodpeckers, just outside the patio windows, picking peanuts from the bird feeder and taking them back to their young further up the tree that the feeder was hanging from. There was also a multitude of different songbirds as well as a couple of squirrels and a male peacock who also put on a display regularly for us.
Saturday morning after dropping Sharon at the pub where her coarse was being held i programmed the sat nav to take me to a fishery not too far away which i,d been informed held some good pike and off i set. It was raining for the 20 minutes it took to get there, which involved driving through some stunning countryside i might add, but it was only light so i wasn,t really bothered. Arriving through he gates i donned my wet jacket and took a walk along the tree lined banks to see how busy it might be and to get a feel for the place. It was fairly busy but there was enough places for me to throw a lure or two for a few hours. Walking back to the car it started to rain heavier so i jumped in and ate my sandwich, a lovely locally made cheese and pickle offering, and opted to wait out the rain. Unfortunately after waiting for over half an hour the rain had only gotten heavier and the shies had gotten darker. It was obvious that this weather was set in for a while so i decided to take a slow scenic drive back to the bed and breakfast and relax for a couple of hours and see how the weather faired later. Once back in my room with a cup of tea and a few biscuits consumed i promptly fell asleep and only awoke, to sunny skies, due to a rather loud crow outside, just in time too as i had to collect Sharon. Any fishing that day was well and truly scuppered as we had a group meal later that evening. I later found out from our landlady that the weather cleared about an hour or so after i arrived back, shortly after i fell asleep.
Sunday was a different matter as the skies were blue and the sun was blazing all day long. Beautiful weather but crap for fishing. I popped into Stapeley Angling to have a little look round and they pointed me in the direction of a local canal which help a good head of perch. After buying a few bits and pieces to try dropshotting, a technique i have been meaning to try for a while, i set of in the direction of the canal.
Well 4 hours later and a good 5 miles of bankside walked i slumped into the drivers seat of the car and turned the air con to maximum, all hot, sweaty, achey and quite relaxed from my spot of canal fishing. I hadn,t caught anything but i did have an enjoyable afternoons fishing and if i lived locally i could see myself on the towpath of this lovely water way quite often. It was nice to see the narrow boats plodding by each one painted and decorated differently to the owners unique designs, and the owners always gave a nod or a little wave as they passed which i thought was really nice.
As mentioned i didn,t catch anything, in fact i don,t think i even got a knock on any of the small lures i was casting. I did try dropshotting most of the time and have to say i can see the appeal of this technique but i do need to do a lot of research into the techniques used to catch. I didn,t have all the components to rig myself up properly for this style so maybe this was why i didn,t catch. As mentioned the water was a thick choclate colour so that definately didn,t help chances, and with the sun beating down as well it was far from perfect conditions. I reckon that first thing in the morning or last thing at night would be the best times to fish these waters as there would be less boat traffic and the sun wouldn,t be so strong.
Whether it was due to the previous days heavy rain or maybe the recent temperatures i did come across a dead bream of about 3lb and a big dead eel floating along with the current. The eel was a size that i would of loved to off caught, the picture doesn,t really show how large it actually was.
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