This was meant to be Round 3 of the Head to Head with team mate Leigh Wakefield. Unfortunately Leigh had other commitments so was unable to make it. Shame really as our H 2 H's are good fun and we enjoy the breakfast in the Feeder Rd Munch beforehand.
Long time friend Tony Humphries who joined us last week was also unable to make it.
I was always going to go whatever so it was breakfast for one when the Feeder Rd Much opened at 07:00.
I always go for the regular breakfast but noticed on the menu there was a "Slimming World" breakfast, must enquire what that is next time.
I don't think mine would be endorsed by Slimming World
I was on the bank by 08:00 and decided to fish about 10 metres above where I normally go as I found a few snags halfway across last week.
Jason Bird who fishes the Bristol Docks System fairly regular fished the Canal last Sunday and let me know that he had a load of skimmers and roach for around 24lbs. In the days leading up to this the weather had improved and it seemed the migration from the Docks was in full swing.
In preparation for this session I cooked up a few pints of hemp and planned to just feed hemp and caster in ground bait in order to target the better fish.
Ground bait was my favourite Sensas Black Lake, Gros Gardons Noire and a little Black Magic. Its an ideal mix for the Feeder Canal the Gros Gardons helps with binding the other two together especially if its mixed up the night before and then just dampened the next day before fishing.
I always have a decent number of rigs for the Feeder but always favour 1 gram and 2 gram in line Sensas In Line Floats which have a nice medium wire stem.
Although they are river floats they work well on the Feeder as it can tow quite hard at times and you need to hold back. I generally have two number 10's together below the olivette and another number 10 on the hook length about 6 inches above the hook.
Hooks I use are wide gape size 20's to 0.09 fluro carbon.
I cupped in one big ball at 13 metres and one at 7 metres laced with more hemp than caster and started long with maggot on the hook.
It didn't take long to get my first bite long and of course it was a small dace. They always turn up first and can be a bit of a pain as they seem to get to the food before the roach etc. After a few more dace the bites dried up. I have found this to be normal on the Feeder and I just feed another ball and come in on the short line.
I have also found it normal when I come in on the short line I get better quality fish early and it was the same today. First put in I had a nice 5oz roach which was extremely rough and ready to spawn.
Quite a few more roach graced the net and I just fished the line out before re-feeding and going out long again.
The long line gave me a few fish but not as prolific as when I came in short however it did come good from around 11:30. This was when the skimmers showed up (my first ones of the year on the Feeder). I absolutely love catching skimmers on light gear, the roach also came on the feed long.
Due to posting the Feeder Canal experiences on FaceBook and this Blog there has been a lot on interest on this venue and I we get visitors come down and have a look at what we are doing.
I had a few today .... A couple of drivers from Manor Scrap asking a load of questions about the methods I use, Lewis Walker a fellow angler who fishes Commercials a lot and an old P O Colleague Dave Poole who took me fishing back in the late 70's when I didn't have a car.
All in all I have had a brilliant day, loads of quality roach and skimmers for about 25lb.
No fishing this weekend or next week due to other commitments but I'll be back soon after that.
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