Tuesday 26th April - 5th visit to the Bristol Feeder Canal

Decided to fish on Tuesday this week instead of my usual Wednesday. As usual I was up early in order to beat the rush hour and get parked in Feeder Rd. It was a brisk morning withe the car temperature gauge showing 4 degrees. Parking was no problem at all in a lay by quite close to the Central Bay just upstream of Albert Rd Bridge.

A short walk down the Canal Towpath and I could see the peg I wanted was vacant. In all of my visits I have fished a different location but the Central Bay is recorded as having some good form.

It did not take long to set up my two rigs for the track both on top 4's and I had some ground bait already mixed up.

I was actually fishing by 07:40 and as I cupped in my second ball of caster and hemp an kingfisher flew past on the far side heading towards Bristol City Centre.

The water was not as clear as last week and was only just moving right to left.

Due to the light reflecting of the industrial building on the far bank I started off with a yellow bristle float.

Double red on the 18 saw a bite the 3rd trot down the track and I missed it (was watching the pigeons feeding their chicks in a broken piece of wall on the far side!

Next trot down I was on it and again the float buried resulting in a connection with a roach of around 4 ozs. A couple more followed before the dace moved in and started taking it on the drop so I move all three No. 10's together which worked a lot better.

Around 09:30 when I was using double caster I hit a solid bite and about 12 inches of the No.4 elastic came out straight away and the fish hugged the bottom. Perch I thought but then soon realised it was a bream. it did feel bigger that was it actually was but was very satisfied to catch my first Feeder Canal bream (about 1 lb 10 ozs fish). 

Shipping out again and after a trot of about 2 meters the float slowly went under and I hit something solid but bumped it!

The weather took a change for the worst with big lumps of hail coming down and it did feel very cold but I continued to catch.

A break in the weather around 13:15 saw me packing up in the dry.

A guy out on his bike and sheltering from the weather kindly took the pick below for me, he was amazed seeing the fish coming out of the Feeder Canal.

Spring balance showed 12lbs 10ozs

So the question is have the bream started to arrive? Not sure one swallow doesn't make a summer.

Having a go at the Bristol City Docks Evening Match on Thursday (a first for me).

Sunday 24th April - Durleigh Reservoir.

I could have booked in for the Clevedon v Shiplate match down at Shiplate Farm Fishery but preferred to go somewhere more natural. Team mate Sam Johnson was interested in going somewhere as well but couldn't due to other commitments. I had already suggested Durleigh Reservoir just outside Bridgwater for some skimmer fishing and decided to stick to my plan. A quick check with the Ranger and it was confirmed no matches were on and keep nets permitted.
The gates open at 08:00 and I got there about 08:30. The car park had about 10 cars and vans already parked up so I thought there would be plenty of room on this 80 acre water. Pushing my gear up to the Lodge to purchase a day ticket (£7.50) I could already see anglers dotted across on the opposite bank and it did appear to be busy so decided on the Lodge bank. I was surprised to see so many carp anglers on this bank as well and although there was plenty of room at the top of the lake I did not fancy it as it's quite shallow. I took a chance and headed across the dam wall, it's a bit of a hike but from my limited knowledge of the reservoir the weights tend to be a lot better from the far bank.
I believe I was the only angler there who was not looking fishing for carp.
Once across the dam I stopped for a quick chat with the first carpy (and to catch my breath) to see what the score was in terms of depth etc on this side of the reservoir. He informed me that the next peg along (about 50 yards away due to the brambles) was vacant and there was a bar about 40 meters out and that he had seen some good bream catches over the years there. Encouraged by this I moved on and stopped at the peg. It had a nice low bank and I could set up in the water.

Spot on and I guess the closest to an Irish Lough from where I live.

I only brought two tip rods for the session, a 12' and my 13' 8'' dutch master. 

The 12' was set up with a 20 grm open ender with a 14 hook to 0.13. Plumbing up with a lead suggested there was indeed a bar about 40 yards out where it was about 4' and just over it I thought it was around 6'.

The dutch master was set up with a straight lead and a 0.15 hook length to a 14 with a hair rig for fishing a small white pop up boilie. I tried it a few times as the bream can respond to this set up but never had a bite.

Ground bait was a mix of Lake and Black Crumb along with a little Fishmeal to which I added the traditional caster, hemp and dead reds before casting.

It started off as T Shirt weather so the sun lotion came out along with the shades.

I cast out around 10:30 with a small red worm and dead red on the hook (class). i left it no more than 5 minutes and cast out again. On my 4th cast the 2oz tip went around very gentle and a positive thud was felt on the other end I knew it was a skimmer.

Happy days the first fish.

I had another the very next cast and then it went quiet for about 30 minutes. I still kept putting in the bait in and a real wrap around bite came more or less as the bait hit the bottom, felt a much better fish and put up a nice nodding fight closer to the net, a nice bream of around 3 lbs.

The 5 hour session was not hectic and the fish did back off from time to time but I believe I hit 90% of the bites ending up with just over 34 lbs according to the spring balance.

I walked up to the next peg and asked one of the carp lads to take the picture below.

A cracking venue but check with the Ranger whether or not there are any matches on prior to planning a trip.

Contact

Ranger: Paul Martin.

Bridgwater, Somerset TA5 2AW.

01278 424786

fishing@wessexwater.co.uk

Plan to fish the Bristol Feeder Canal on Tuesday and possibly the Docks evening match on Thursday.

Wednesday 20th April - 4th visit to the Bristol Feeder Canal

Another early start in order to get parked in Feeder Rd. I was planning to fish the Central Bay approximately 50 yards downstream from where I had been the previous week. I have heard so many good reports about this spot plus Will Gibson had a nice 15 lb plus net of quality roach from the bay last week (his report is on the Bristol Feeder Canal Facebook site).
I was parked up by 06:40 and loaded the barrow heading down to my planned spot when I saw an angler already there, bugger. it was none other than Will. We introduced ourselves and had a chat. Will has only been fishing the Canal for about a year and said he had some good bream last year but none this year to date. He pointed me in the direction of Albert Rd bridge and a bay backing on to Feeder Rd Commercial Vehicles.
I was soon in place and set up my usual two top 4 rigs. I had a short Feeder Rod with me but did not set it up.
My ground bait today was a mix of Lake, Black Crumb and a helping of Mole Hill soil with a generous helping of caster and hemp. 5 balls went in down the track and 2 about 7 meters out.
It was a bit of a sharp morning and the canal was very clear.
I started down the track with maggot and had a small roach straight away followed my more bites every trot down but could not connect with the fish. A change to double caster solved this problem and I was soon swinging in small dace.
Mike Endicott an old pal turned up to watch me for 30 minutes after his night shift and is keen to get back to fishing after a long lay off bringing up a family. While Mike was there i had a couple of decent dace and another roach.
it was hard going and the sun came out as well which was nice but did not help.
Will came down after he had packed up and reported an equally hard day, he had 7 lb odd. I fished on until just after 13:00 and packed up as the lock gates where opened and there was a rush of strong dirty water coming down the Canal.
Spring balance recorded 7 lb 6 ozs and thanks to Barry another angler who just turned up to fish for taking the photo below.

I also managed to get Angling Times to give the venue a mention in this weeks paper (page 16).

Will give it another go next week.

hope to fish Durleigh Reservoir on Sunday.

Sunday 17th April - Gloucester Canal Spring League Teams of 4

This was the second match in a series of 4 on the Gloucester Canal. I missed the first match due to my daughters wedding and I will miss the next one on the 8th May due to other commitments but should be OK for the final one.
16 Teams have entered this League and although the Gloucester Canal is a difficult venue it just shows you the support that there is for this type of fishing as opposed to Commercials.
The Section used for todays match was Rea to Pilot, only two access points and with every other peg being used there was going to be a few long walks.
Team today was Chris, Sam, myself and we had Brian Pollard guesting for us today from Diana Gordon League due to a couple of other Team mates unavailable. I knew Brian from the old Post Office and Telecoms League about 30 years ago. It was good to catch up with him and he gave me a couple of tips for the day.
Draw was at the Gordon League Rugby Club and as we were last to attend and pay our money we were last to draw. Chris came back with the pegging for us and we had peg 1. Sam had A Section so first peg below Rea Bridge, I had B section peg 189 plus the scales, Chris and Brian were down by Pilot. I passed Sam as he was setting up and his peg looked as if it was in a garden just below the Bridge Keepers cottage with cut grass and yellow and purple iris growing. Wish I had taken a picture, his peg did look nice.
When I got to my peg it did not look all that special, there was a little bit of cover on the far bank but there was also a gap directly opposite me alongside a footpath and you could see that people had fished there.

Set up today was a small cage feeder for the far side, top 5 deep at 13 meters and top 4 deep at 11 meters. Usual chopped worm and caster for the pole lines with a little hemp and dead maggot.

Fishing was 11:00 to 16:00 and I was ready with 30 minutes to go.

Pole lines were fed on the all in with a good helping and I started off on the bread in the feeder with double 8 mm punch on an 18 about 3 meters from the far bank.

20 minutes in I had a rattle on the tip and did not hit the bite. Next cast the tip rattled again and I hit it this time connecting with a fish. it was a roach of around 4 oz so at least I had a point.

I did not leave the feeder out for too long retrieving it after about 10 minutes each time. it was almost on the hour at 12:00 when I had a good positive bite and had no trouble hitting it, i thought it was a skimmer but when I got it up in the water I could see it was a decent dog roach of around 10 ozs lovely job. I knew the angler above me had not caught yet as I heard him speaking to a colleague on the phone. i couldn't see below me because of brambles. 

At this point I topped up both pole lines and fed a few loose casters on the 11 meter line.

Cannot say for sure but around 12:45 the tip went straight round and i connected with what i knew had to be a bream. These Gloucester Canal Bream fight hard in the deep water and I took it steady and happily slipped the net under a nice fish of around 4 lbs, mega points!

I continued to use the bread feeder for another 30 minutes but there were no more indications.

Both pole lines were investigated without any success what so ever, not a bite. you had to be careful shipping back as there were so many walkers and cyclists due to it being a nice day. Boat traffic was not too bad but look at the size of this mother that came past me.

I continued to swap lines during the rest of the match and picked up a few more roach on the bread, the pole lines were dead and word up and down the bank was a lot were struggling.

When the all out was shouted a loud cheer could be heard so I kinda knew i had done OK.

Packed up and walked 32 pegs to weigh in 16 anglers. There had been a match the previous week on the same stretch and 30 lb had come out from the pegs in the 220's. 

As I weighed in there was a real mixed bag of results, see my section weigh board below.

I was happy with my 5lb 11oz and only just missed out on some coin as they pay top 3 in a Section.

My catch which was worth 4th in the Section of 16 anglers, not bad as i had not fished the venue for a year.

I saw Sam back at the car, he had weighed 1 lb 8 ozs for about halfway in his Section and was heading home. I met up with Chris back at the Rugby Club, he had won his Section with 7 lb odd from a peg just outside Tanker Bay, Brian was on the halfway mark in his Section.

I had to head home as family were coming for Sunday Dinner but Chris text me to say we were 4th on the day and are 7th overall in the League so not a bad result. I believe there were two 30 lb weights on the day.

Hope to fish the Feeder Canal in Bristol on Wednesday and then possibly pleasure fish with Sam on Sunday.

Tuesday 12th April - Return to the Bristol Feeder Canal

This was to be my 3rd visit to the Bristol Feeder Canal in as many weeks. An early start again in order to get parked saw me leaving home around 06:30. I approached the Feeder Canal from the bottom end this time instead of the middle and found a nice parking spot outside a car dealers. opposite where I parked there was a walkway onto the canal bank approximately 100 yards from where I was last Wednesday. Feeder Road was busy but not as busy compared to where I had been before so crossed the road quite easily.
I walked downstream with the gear for about 50 yards finding a slightly wider piece of bank to settle and set up on.
Angling Times are giving the Feeder Canal a mention in the 'where to fish' section next week and asked me to take a photo of the venue. Thank you to the gentleman this morning who took the picture below just after I set up.

I had my usual caster, hemp and maggot along with a few red worms from the compost heap but my ground bait mix today was slightly different. I mixed up some fish meal, Lake and Black Crumb, about 3 kilo and intended to use it all to try and bring the bream on if they were around (they have got to show soon).

I had my usual 1.5 gram set up and had another rig with a 3.0 gram in case the flow quickened up too much.

Four big balls were cupped in at the start down the track and double red went on the 18 drennan maggot hook just to start with. The Canal was still without any tow either way but after approx 10 minutes the float sailed under and I had a dace of around 6 ozs. More bites soon came but the direction of the tow kept changing. For 10 minutes it would flow toward the docks, they stay still, then flow upstream toward the river.

I had the more positive bites when it was flowing toward the docks. 

I kept topping up wth ground bait and around 11:00 I bumped a good fish and wondered if it was a bream. back out with double caster and the float buried again and I connected with the fish. Quite a bit of no.4 elastic came out and the fish stayed deep. Even when I broke down to the top 4 it still stayed deep and i did think it was a small bream. I got it up in the water and could see it was a perch of around 8 ozs. It did feel bigger due to the 10 feet of water. 

I slipped on a red worm in the hope of a few more but it did not happen. 

Up until this point I had been catching dace but the roach came on and they were very rough getting ready to spawn.

I did have a good 5 hours fishing but not quite as much as last week, the spring balance registered 13lb   6ozs but not complaining.

I managed to get a young lad to take a picture of me and my catch a he was walking home.

13lb 6oz brilliant little fishery

This Sunday I am on the Gloucester Canal in the teams of 4 League, fishing hard at the moment.

Wednesday 6th April - Feeder Canal City of Bristol

My family from N Ireland went back home yesterday morning after coming over for my daughters wedding, they were meant to fly back on Sunday afternoon but Easyjet cancelled the flight and the next available one was on the Tuesday (how can they just do that, so compensation claim will be on it's way). I have an old navy mate and his wife coming up to see us this weekend so will not get the chance Saturday or Sunday hence today's session.
I was quite impressed with the Feeder Canal last week after having nearly 9 lbs of Dace, my first visit for 30 years so called into Cadbury Angling Monday afternoon to see if Toby had any caster. he did and they were top quality. Also picked up half a pint of red and some hemp along with a bag of Lake.
I was up just before 06:00 and heading into Bristol (20 minutes away) at 06:45 in order to park. I planned to try a bit further down from where I was last week and was hoping to park fairly near.
No chance of that, I ended up parking up by the old Electricity Building as everywhere else was full. I had my Barrow in the car so loaded that up and took my chance crossing the busy Feeder Rd with all the commuters heading into work as well as the Industrial Estate traffic.
I have been obtaining information on the Feeder Canal, one good source is a Facebook Page dedicated to the water, just google Bristol Feeder Canal Facebook.
After a short walk down towards Temple Meads Railway Station I stopped directly opposite Clarks Wood, there is a small bay here but decided to go just down from it as some of the workers were leaning over the railings having a chat. The Canal is a bit narrower here compared to where I was last week.

The conditions looked spot on when I was set up at around 08:30

Apart from a few tree's on my bank it was all industrial buildings on the far side.

Two rigs today, one 1.5 gramme for down the middle, about 3 inches over depth, just two number 10 below the Olivetti, 18 maggot hook fine wire to 0.10. The other was more or less the same but for fishing 13 meters where the depth was about a foot shallower and at around 9 feet.

Three big balls were cupped in down the middle at the start and tightly packed with hemp and caster. I left the 13 meter line alone at the start. Double red went on the hook and the presentation due to the conditions was perfect but not a sign of a fish after several torts through in the steady flow. after 30 minutes I was still without a bite and started to consider moving back up to were I had been a week ago.

Now you know what they say about birds shitting on you! Well a huge piece of gull crap landed on my arm just as I had fully shipped out into the middle so left it there and would wipe it off when I brought the rig back in. After a short run down the float dipped and a roach of about 6 ozs came to the  net! Happy days, gull shit removed and back out again ( I had not fed anything else since my initial three balls). The float buried again and this time a small dace. More dace followed and after 15 minutes fed another ball as well as some caster through the catty. I put double caster on the hook and just after the float settled it disappeared at speed, I struck and the no. 4 elastic came out of the tip by about 2 foot. Thought it might have been a perch but no it was a roach of around 10 ozs. A guy who was standing behind me and also an angler (Commercial Angler) but not fishing couldn't believe it. He remained and watched as I put a few more roach in the net between 4 ozs and 6 ozs all on either single or double caster.

Around 10:30 the wind really started to get stronger and the pole at times was like a banana. I put a few more inched on the depth and loosed fed some caster and hemp through the pole pot as well as the odd little nugget. Even though the presentation was not great they were still having it. 

I decided to call it a day around 13:30 as the wind was just getting stronger and did not want to get the pole smashed. 

Three young lads came up from the bottom end, they had pretty crude gear but told me they had been catching the odd dace and roach down by the old Post Office. 

I gave them my left over maggot and caster and showed them my catch, they had not seen that many fish come out of the Feeder before. The spring balance registered 17 lbs 6 ozs. The lads kindly took a picture for me.

Quality bag of fish 17 lbs 6 ozs

Not bad for a free venue that flows and fishable in the Close Season.

Friday 1st April - Pleasure Session Feeder Canal Bristol

The Feeder Canal in the heart of Bristol is approximately 1.5 miles long and is the link between the Bristol Avon and the City Docks. It does flow and is affected by the lock by the Bristol Avon and a couple within the Docks.
I had tried to fish the Feeder Canal last week but could not park as the majority of it's length is surrounded by Industrial Estates and a lot of double yellow lines so parking is at a premium. I was up early this morning (06:00) and on the road into Bristol at around 06;45 which also meant I beat the morning rush period. I had been given a few tips where to fish on Facebook and in the end decided to fish in the middle up by the old South West Electricity Building. There is some far bank cover in this area so at least the view in front of me would be OK.

Directly behind me was the busy Feeder Road and Hills Distribution which meant huge Arctic's coming in and out so .... quite a lot going on.

In addition there was a pedestrian Foot Bridge, a Fly Over and a Railway Bridge so .. totally 'Extreme Urban Fishing'.

As I was setting up a Cormorant appeared which indicated to me that there were fish around (although it was April 1st).

The flow was toward Bristol Docks and it was moving quite slowly. I set up a 1.5 gramme rig and a 1 gramme. depth was pretty even all the way across at two thirds (13 meters) and about 15 feet deep (nice). Hook was a Drennan 18 maggot to 0.10 on both rigs. I had almost a pint of caster, half a tin of hemp, half pint of reds and some red worms in case there was perch around. my ground bait mix was black crumb (from Ireland last year), lake and roach. Two tightly packed balls were fed at 13 meters and a couple of nuggets at 5 meters. the 5 meter line was not fished all day in the end.

Double red went on the hook and I was fishing by 08:15. I did let there rig run through and the float did dip slightly, I held it back and it buried. A Dace of around 6 oz's was on and it put up a good fight on the long line given the depth and the 4 elastic. back out and holding back straight away this time I was rewarded with another Dace but a little smaller none the less a nice fish. The flow then picked up and I increased the depth by around 6 inches and added another No. 8 shot in order to hold back hard. That was spot on as I caught 3 or 4 in as many put in's.

the bites tailed off a little so re-fed another ball and at the same time the flow stopped. Altered the rig again and starting connecting with them again. I put on a caster and the float buried straight away resulting in a roach of about 4 oz.

A couple of hours into the session I heard a 'beep beep' and turned around to see Simon Hebditch waving out to me in the M5 Angling Van. Another silver van also beeped out at me, i think it was fellow Clevedon Club member Scott Smallwood.

That's pretty much how my 5 hour session went, adjusting the rig and depth depending on the flow or tow. I had a really good session with lots of bites and with the flow etc. could have been on a river!

The spring balance went 8 lbs 10 oz's.

Only 2 roach with the bag of fish but not complaining.

The Feeder Canal is free fishing, not affected by the Close Season. If you go during the week make sure you get there before 07:30 in order to park or go in the evening after 17:00. Dace, Roach, Perch and Bream frequent the Canal plus the odd Chub.