What an utterly beautiful place the Grand Western Canal can be. We all have our favourite places as anglers, but for me this perfect little cut has been the scene of so many great days. It's such a fabulously intimate water, the clear water making it perfect to spot fish.
It's almost time to switch species from pike to roach and rudd here, but we thought it was worth a good final bash with the prospect of the Devon Baits Pike Match. As it turned out we had a disappointing attendance, despite promoting the event far and wide and even getting a sponsor to offer free bait. The canal itself didn't produce too many fireworks either, and it soon became evident that one decent fish would probably win the match. Gary Blackmore stole a march early on with two fish, including this six pounder.
Very clear, very sunny conditions made the going slow for just about everyone. In my own case, I tried every trick in the book. Suspending a small roach or sprat at mid depth is usually a reliable way to snare a jack or two here, but I had one missed run and that was about it. The highlight of the match by far in fact, was the appearance of a rather striking guest, a beautiful grass snake.
He sunned himself on the path before slithering into a fishing carryall, owned by Patrick Sanders who was fishing next peg along to me! Never have I been so close to a wild snake. Along with low soaring buzzards, the wildlife provided more than enough entertainment to make up for the slow fishing. Gary was still way ahead at the final whistle and picked up his trophy along with the winner's prize of a great big stack of bait. I think the look on his face was delight mingled with the thought "What am I going to tell my wife when she opens the freezer?"
Typical isn't it, when you're not fishing in a match, the fish come easier. I had a cracking afternoon on my birthday, catching jacks like this five pounder. So much for the complexity of fly fishing, I saw him, dropped the fly just ahead and -wallop- instant pike!
On the fly fishing front I also enjoyed our hands on session at the final PAC meet at the Mill on Exe. Some excellent first attempts at flies, including Adam Moxey's spangly creation now known as the "Gary Glitter". I tie a few unsavoury beasts myself, but many of my favourites are relatively small flies. These are effortless to cast and you really can't beat a nice light outfit (usually an 8 weight) and a few bite sized patterns for canal and drain fishing. Here are a few home-rolled specials:
In the meantime, the other work also gathers pace. I'm to be hoiked from Devon to a London book signing at the release of "Flyfishing for Coarse Fish" along with various other stopping points to promote the book. Also hot from the printers are more of John Dullaways beautiful fish prints, which I will be selling at events this year. This one's a trout- watch this space for more as www.dgfishing.co.uk gets an overhaul in the next two weeks.
We now enter that undecided phase of the season when your next trip could resemble a fine spring day or a greying fragment of late winter. When it comes to the closed season I usually spend at least a handful of days on still waters with a mixed bag in mind. I don't retire my centre pin reel either, and love to fish pole style with a long rod of 15ft. I had hoped for a mild day at Viaduct fishery, but it turned out to be a cool, misty affair. The fishing was hardly instant and fine tackle seemed a sensible choice.
It turned out to be quite a challenging, cat and mouse game with the fish not really going madly on the feed. Enjoyable, nonetheless, to try and winkle out a decent net by carefully feeding a swim. Once upon a time I really enjoyed match fishing with a pole- and whilst I no longer fish to compete with others, some good habits have stuck. A slim tipped pole float and feeding two or three different lines is a lovely, subtle way to catch fish like skimmers. I was quickly into a few bites on a maggot and pellet line, but kept flicking in a few casters elsewhere to hopefully hold the interest of a few bigger residents:
Plenty of tiny roach and a couple of perch arrived with the skimmers on maggots and small pellets, before I made the switch to the caster line. Sadly the carp just didn't want to know, but some pretty solid bream made for an interesting session nonetheless. Seb Nowosiad grabbed some nice misty images too- makes a change from me capturing his antics netting pike!
A handful of proper slabs joined the skimmers in the end, but no matter whether I tried chopped worm or bigger pellets I just couldn't get many other species interested. A reasonable catch then, but not the most varied ever- although I always have a soft spot for bream, fish I spent hours trying to catch on the canal in my teens. If nothing else they teach you how to present your bait with some subtlety. Even on a commercial so many of the bites are tiny movements or suspicious little lifts. Paradoxically, it's this frustration which makes for fun, reflex testing angling.
Who know's what the fishing will be like next week then- will it be more scratching for bites, or a beautifully mild afternoon casting a fly? It's anyone's guess, but I can't wait to try for trout again on a cute stream somewhere. For any regular blog followers interested in catching some totally wild fish for beer money, I couldn't recommend the "Westcountry Angling Passport" scheme (see the link on my site) highly enough for this game. The streams are beautiful, full of trout and you come away with the great feeling that all your ticket money (£5-£10 typically) goes to improving and protecting some of our prettiest rivers. It's still a bit cool at present, so I'm currently tying up my spring arsenal rather than having an early cast. Here's a Beacon Beige- a deadly little classic dry fly born and bred in Devon, on the River Culm to be specific:
