Tuesday 11th April - 3rd Session of the year on the Bristol Feeder Canal

Today's session was planned last week and I was going to go above Clark's Wood where I was last week until long time friend Mike Endicott informed me he had walked the Canal on Sunday and a guy fishing below Clark's Wood was having a few bream. I checked the Feeder Canal Facebook page and sure enough Will Gibson had reported having a few skimmers in front of Manor Scrap. That's where I decided to go.
I was up early and parked by 07:00, it was cold, only 4 degrees and very bright. I was soon on the water after crossing the busy Feeder Road (only a mile from the City Centre.
A cormorant was diving in the water and there was the odd fish topping. I settled on the bank with Manor Scrap behind me, you can't miss it with Wallace and Gromit characters on the roof.

The bright conditions down this end can play havoc with seeing the float bristle as the various colours of bricks on the wall opposite reflect on the water, hiding the float. I picked out on of the rigs I used last week and gave the red bristle  a thick coat of orange paint. Another 1.5 gram rig was selected from the tray with a nice thick red top.

Two number 10 droppers below the olivetti to a size 20 and an 18 completed the simple set up. Hook lengths were .10 and .12 fluro carbon.

You don't fish the Feeder Canal for the view

My ground bait today was Heinz 57, some of everything left over from Sunday and last Wednesday but when mixed it smelt and bonded OK. I has a fresh pint of caster, less than half a pint each of maggot, squat and hemp.

4 big balls were cupped in at the start down the track and I did expect the float to sail away first time but it didn't. I took about 15 minutes for the first bite and it was a daddy ruff. After that I started to put a few fish in the net but on caught directly over the ground bait. The tow was all over the place and about 08:45 the canal became still. The float buried and my no.3 elastic shot out and then the thump thump of a big skimmer was felt, lovely fish about 2lbs.

I then had a nice few roach which were really rough as was the skimmer.

There where not many bites but the fish were a better size.

In the 2nd hour I had another two good skimmers, I also bumped a couple.

The flow picked up again and some canal boats came through, after this the dace showed up and they were not a bad size either.

I managed another good skimmer about 12:00 and still kept putting fish in the net until I called it a day just after 13:00.

I did not have my spring balance with me but would estimate I had around 15lbs. I asked a passer by to take the photo below.

lovely mornings fishing and its free

Next outing is this Friday when I am fishing a match on a local Commercial, then Gloucester Canal on Sunday.