Wednesday 1 June 2016

Wednesday 1st June - Pleasure session Gloucester Canal Purton

I only decided to return to the Gloucester Canal at Purton on the Tuesday morning after a quick call to Toby in Cadbury Angling who confirmed he had some caster. Tuesday afternoon saw me making the short trip down to Congressbury to pick up 1 pint caster, 1/2 pint of pinkie, 1/2 pint of red maggot and 2kg of fishmeal ground bait. I raided the wormery at home for hook bait and also had a tin of hemp and sweetcorn.
This morning I was up early and out the door by 06:45 arriving in Purton by 07:20. It did not take long to load the barrow and I only took 2 ready made up Feeder Rods. The weather looked perfect for bream fishing, an overcast sky, light wind and about 15 degree's. There was a small chance of rain but nothing serious.
Again I was the only angler on the bank and settled into the same swim as last week opposite the first log pond on the far bank. The fishmeal ground bait was mixed up on the bank and left to settle while putting the rest of the tackle together.
I was ready by 08:30 including giving the ground bait another wetting and riddle. The reel line was already clipped up at the correct distance.


A good selection of baits for the session.

i knew from the previous weeks session that it was not that deep on the far side so mixed up the fishmeal fairly dry but moist enough to hold in the 25 grm cage feeder along with a mix of caster hemp and pinkie. 
Given the quality of the fish I caught last week a 14 hook to 0.15 hook length was the starting point and I loaded the hook with a dendra of about 4 inches tipped with a red maggot. No indication on the first cast after 5 minutes so re-cast and had what looked like a liner. On the third cast the tip flew around and a small perch was the result. Next cast the tip started to rattle no sooner had the feeder hit the bottom and I knew it was small fish. This went on for about 90 minutes and I was not adding anything of any quality and began to get frustrated. 
I took a couple of phone calls and around 09:45 put two big pieces of worm on and was prepared to sit it out and added more corn in the feeder. It was if someone flicked a switch, the tip slowing went around and I hit a solid fish which I knew to be a bream. It was a nice dark fish of around 4lbs and very clean indicating spawning was at an end. 
I had to wait another 20 minutes for the next bite and it was another good bream, a right bin lid of almost 5lbs.
At this point another angler turned up and settled two swims above me. I had a quick chat with him as I am alway keen to gain more info on the canal. He confirmed it was a good area all year round and the stretch in-between the two Log Ponds fishes well. He walked back up to his swim and I hot another good bite and bream number 3 was netted.
The next 3 hours saw me get a steady run of good fish, like I said they were all very clean and with no hook marks on them at all.
Looking up an down the canal at the wild life occasionally it made me realise what a vast expanse of water the Gloucester Canal is and there is so much of it virtually unfished on a regular basis, the walks are worth it.
Just after 14:00 I decided to call it a day in order to give me enough time to pack up, walk to the car and head back down the M5.
I asked the other angler to take a quick photo of my catch. 


21 bream in all plus a few bits, well over 70lbs


This is how close the Severn Estuary is to the canal, picture taken from the tow path.


Bristol City Docks 'knock up' Thursday night and back on the Gloucester Canal on Sunday for a SW Super League practice match.


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