Martin Bowler
goes in search of huge canal perch in his latest angling adventure
GOING fishing without taking any bait along seems a daft thing to do, but that’s exactly what I was planning. Today was all about harvesting nature’s bounty.
Arriving on the canal bank, my first action was to scoop the margins with a landing net, running it swiftly along the bottom. With any luck, small fish would be engulfed in the mesh and give me what I needed.
Within five minutes I had plenty – indeed, I returned far more silvers than I kept, taking only what I needed and returning the rest to ensure a harvest for next
year. Satisfied with my bucketful of tiny fish, I returned to the truck for my tackle.
It can be tricky to catch on cold spring days, especially if you target the wrong species, but an all-round angler has plenty of fish to go at and I knew a perch would still fancy a bite to eat.
A shoal of stripeys had gathered against old submerged brickwork, jostling for position. Bellies plump with spawn and spikey dorsal fins flicking in disapproval, they took turns at stealing each other’s favourite pitches.
This angry bunch of bullies certainly wouldn’t tolerate intrusion from another species.
A few yards away I sat quietly assembling my tackle, blissfully happy that there wasn’t a narrowboat or another person in sight on this gloomy afternoon. This was unsurprising really, given the chill wind that caused a nearby robin to fluff up his feathers, Christmas-card fashion.
My rod was a personal favourite, an old Drennan Tench Float model with carbon so sweet I swear it sings to me under the pressure of a fighting fish. To this I added a small fixed-spool reel loaded with 6lb Method Feeder line, a mono in which I place my absolute trust. On to this, locked securely in place with two silicone rubbers, went a two-SSG Crystal Loafer.
Has any float pattern sunk under as many times as this one to the bite of a specimen perch or chub? For years its sudden disappearance has made my day, and I was hoping it would