A mixed bag on the cut

I won't bore you with my usual excuses for not going fishing but suffice to say I'm still in the same boat as my last entry. I managed a night on the Trent last week on a rapidly rising river and even though I hooked two Barbel both were lost. I also managed to foul hook one as I packed up just to add insult to injury!

I planned an early finish from work on Friday and my idea was to head to a local stretch of the Trent and Mersey canal to try for some zander. I needed to catch some bait first so a stop at the tackle shop in Kegworth was made on the way to pick up some maggots.

Upon arrival at the cut I was surprised to find somebody fishing as, even though I've fished it several times with the lure gear, I've never seen anyone else bothering with the place. A chat with the guy revealed he'd caught some big chub recently from there to well over 5lb and I made a mental note to return with the bread in the winter. The water was chocolate colour and the boats were active but even so there was fish topping everywhere I looked, I was still dubious about whether I'd be able to catch some bait though.

I found a spot next to some reeds and got setup. Ive only ever bait fished it once before and that was in the depths of winter so i was unsure what to expect. A quick plumb around revealed a fairly uniform 4feet of water all over so I fed along the reeds and cast in.

Within a minute the float began to bob around and a tommy Ruffe was soon being swung in and was quickly followed by another. Next bite produced a plump Dace, then another and another, blimey this place was fish soup!

I was getting a bite a chuck right under the rod tip and the action never subsided despite a couple of boats coming past. The species count continued to grow, Roach, Chub, Perch, Bleak and Gudgeon, I really didn't know what was coming next. I'd almost forgotten that I was actually there for the Zander until I had a Perch attacked by what looked like a Zed as I was about to swing it in.

I quickly setup a float with a small gudgeon deadbait and chucked it along the margins to my left. I continued to fish on with maggots and the bites kept coming. The weather started to close in and it wasn't long before the rain began to come down, only lightly to begin with but getting progressively heavier.

I didn't have a brolly with me so I began to tidy my gear up and as I did so the deadbait began to register a bit of interest. The float bobbed a couple of times and I picked up the rod in anticipation. It bobbed again and then slipped away, I struck expecting the rod to take on a healthy curve but was most disappointed to strike into thin air, damn those Zander and their finicky ways!

I'm really intrigued now as to the possibilities of what could be in there. Nobody really knows anything about the place because its so rarely fished but I do know of some good Perch, Chub, Zander and Carp being caught in the past by the few in the know. It's a different kind of fishing to what I'm used to but it could be interesting especially when the rivers are out of sorts.

 

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