2020 - Wigston canal August 30th

 With the Trent match being cancelled due to potential flooding Mick and i had nowhere to fish except locally so the canal appeared to be a good idea as its been a long time since we last fished there . The County Arms section was the target area as easy parking and good chance of some bream and Big Perch.

We arrived at 7 and ready for 8 fishing in Permanent pegs 75 and 76 . Water was clear as was expected with all the cold rain we have had recently plus last night the temperature went down to 5 degrees ! However the first 2 hours there was plenty of action with Rudd , Roach and Perch all the same size and no bonus . Mick faired better with a nice skimmer and a few dog roach  but no bonus in the Perch department. 

After that the boats came for a good hour and the water got coloured and took ages for the colour to settle down however the last hour proved fruitful as i took many roach and rudd on the caster and maggot drop but then the last 15 minutes it died so we gave it best at 12 .

The surprise for us today was the catching of Big bleak ......... three of them , proper sardines ! In the last 6 years of fishing the Wigston AC canal i have never caught Bleak before .....Where did they come from ?

Shade over 4lb

Proper sardines 

You see a few sights over the years on river and canal but today was a big surprise . Last 5 minutes of the day on my last cast an image caught my eye and thinking there was a large Briard / St Bernard without really looking but it caught the eye of Mick - i then turned round and a guy was taking his miniature pony for a walk .........now would he have to pick it up ??? (poo) Dog owners are supposed to ?

Peg 76 ..........first time i have sat on this 

Good session but shame the rain and cold affected the days sport 

2020 - Practice day on the RiverSoar on the Greens section at Barrow - Aug16th

 Back on the Greens today with Mick Carr this time he fished peg4 on the corner and i fished peg3 . Great pegs to set your box on and with early morning rain we managed to start fishing about 08:30am with trolleys up as the expected weather throughout the day was to be rain on and off.

Again our tactic was the usual bait dropping dead-reds/casters/chop and fishing over and only adding more when bites start to become infrequent . I started well with a string of skimmers (mostly bottle-tops) and the odd decent fish with an odd Perch . I tried to get the Perch on the chop line however they never weighed more than 6oz . The skimmer kept coming in and any change to big baits never really increased the catch rate and weight in the net. 

Mick was getting pestered by Pike and ended the day with at least a dozen hits losing good size Perch to the nuisance predators. I also had three hits by Pike taking yet again better Perch on the strike !? Later in the day i was hit 5 times what i thought i was hooking large Perch of size only to find out very large Pike 3-6lb size were taking my lobs / worms on the flat float rig .

It was last hour of the day when unbelievably i caught my first ROACH !!! The day had been dominated by skimmer / Hybrid yet again these silvers are taking over the stretches and the Pike are still active but the skimmers are in such large quantities the Roach are becoming the lesser silver ? I had two dacelettes and one chublette and no Bleak plus the one roach and one Rudd - now that is strange !?

Mick over on peg 4 on the corner 

Me on peg 3 

The days scores on the doors - 11lb

Mick would have more but for the Pike  - a great 8.5lb catch

2020 - Practice day on the DEEPS (Pillings end) Sunday August 9th

Mick and i decided we wanted to fish the rivers and because previous week the DEEPS was booked. This Sunday it was free so we headed for there , early , to get closest and hopefully the best pegs?

We decided to fish the pegs just to the left of the footbridge you come over as the pegs were quite clear due to the excellent work by the Browning Bennetts lads on work party days .

Mick went for the flier and i had the second flier 😏

xx

 

'Clowns to the left of me '

Plenty of potting in markers to use   😂😂😂

'Jokers to the right'

We started about 08:30 am and Mick was on pole at 10m with an awkward a facing North wind and a clammy , misty morning with a little rain in the air. 

I set up 3 rigs ;

At 11m a Maurizio Schiepattie Regolo 1.5gr SENSAS 3405 16

At 8m a MAS-SM2 0.8gr with spaced shot for hemp/tare.

At 5-6m at 10 o clock i went for a SENSAS 'LUIS' 1.5 gr SENSAS 3405 14 for the perch line 

Started by bait dropping dead-reds / chop / caster on the 6 and 11m lines but more worm on the Perch line. I went over the worm line and had immediate indication with fast bites .......umm ......Ruffe or Crays ? . Then took a 6oz Perch followed by another half dozen over 20 minutes from wasp size to 8-9oz . 

Dedcided to get the 11m line going and a steady return of all sizes of hybrids/skimmers for the next hour including a few decent ones in the 6-10oz bracket. 

Over the next few hours i tried different things and had my first roach of the day on hemp  , followed by another then changed to tare but they didn't last long .

Back on the Perch line and a run of 4 skimmers/ hybrids taking whole worms really surprised  so i carried on took many more skimmers from see-through's to 8oz . Later i changed back to the 11m line and took more Roach on double maggot and sometimes double caster which got me the largest fish a 1-12-ish. Hooked a Bream then lost a big fella , never seen it but pinged the hook , shame !

What a cracking day it was , fishing 6 hours. 

Mick sporting a new hair cut with a cracking 10lb net including a lumpy bruiser Tench of about just under 4lb.

This one looked like it had been caught before a few times 

Really loved the day and took easily 80-90 fish approx for estimated 17lb  - so many species except i had no Tench and Ruffe like Mick ........but for me there was;  Bream/Skimmer/Hybrid/Roach/Dace/Chublette/Bleak/Gudgeon/Perch and Ruffe and Tench - what a river system this is. 

Wild hair man (getting cut Wednesday)

Not one Pike attack !!

2020 - Practice day on the Greens - 2nd August

Mick and i decided to fish the Greens for a practice plus he was desperate to fish the river being in lockdown for the last 3 weeks in Leicester . Mick had peg 9 and i took on peg 11 .

My set up was;
Pole at 11m using SM2 0.6gr.
Whip at 8m using 1.0gr SENSAS Alberto
Waggler 14' using 3gr Maurizio Schiepattie Viper .

Started bait dropper on the pole /whip line with dead reds , hemp and caster . Immediately started to catch see-thou skimmer and hybrid on maggot . Tried caster to get better fish but double maggot was favourite . I keep flicking hemp over the area ready to fish the hemp and tare but nothing in the first 2 hours . Had a spell on the waggler only to get my first contact with the ambush Pike especially anytime i had a decent fish on .
About half way through our 5 hour session i switched to Tare and got immediate results with some nice plump Roach and Hybrids however presentation became difficult with stronger downstream wind and more boat activity.

As the sun got higher the bites receded as the heat of the day had the fish hiding for cover . Mick did brilliant on peg 9 taking 5 good Bream , some good Perch and Roach .

Moorings pub other side of the bridge was very active

Weigh in (without scales ) but Mick had 15-16lb of quality fish. Mick lost 0-3 to the Pike

Not so good for me , more fish but smaller and no bonus . I lost 0-8 to the Pike .

Approx. 12-13lb

The River Soar is FAT with Silvers - get some !!