Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
Marina Magic – Andrew Cranston
Andrew Cranston takes the IYCF cameras to a fishfilled canal peg where he enjoyed recent match success
WHEN Andrew Cranston drew his peg out of the bag for a match on the Kennet & Avon Canal, the number meant nothing to him. Unfamiliar with the stretch, he plodded to his car to drive to the spot – but before he’d even sat down in the driver’s seat it became apparent he could be sat on a very special peg. Numerous fellow competitors jokingly made comments along the lines of ‘I’d sell my tackle if you don’t catch from there’ and ‘that peg is absolutely stacked with fish’ to give Andrew an inkling of what he could be in for. Upon arriving at the peg in the Wiltshire town of Bradford-on-Avon it instantly clicked why the swim could be such a hotspot. “It was opposite the mouth of a marina, and when the temperatures plummet, you can guarantee that fish are going to pack in amid the boats as these offer warmth,” explained Andrew. “Any feeding fish would drift out and I’d then have a chance to catch them before they moved off to where other anglers were sat. “I was confident of having a good day’s fishing, but what happened over the next few hours caught me completely by surprise.”
Match winning performance
With boats lining the far bank, these seemed like the obvious place to launch his attack and in went a few balls of groundbait in an attempt to concentrate the fish at the start. Bites from hand-sized skimmers were instant, but surely they would vanish at some point, forcing the Preston Innovations Thatchers man to scratch around? “It was unbelievable – the shoal stayed put for pretty much the whole session with skimmers, hybrids, quality roach and even a perch of almost 2lb coming to the net,” he enthused. “The scalesmen came around at the end of the match and the weigh-in told me I had landed 39lb of silverfish on a cold winter’s day – way beyond my expectations!” The weight was three times more than that of his nearest rival, proving that the swim was indeed a real gem packed full of fish. But even though it was in a competitive scenario that Andrew did the business, there’s no reason why you can’t replicate his success during an action-packed pleasure session. Controlled by Airsprung AA, day tickets are £5 and half-season tickets until mid-June are just £15. Juniors can even have free membership! Andrew’s match success was highly impressive but could he put in a repeat performance? There was only one way to find out.
Different ball game
Although it was chilly on the day of the match, conditions were fairly favourable. But it was all change when the IYCF cameras arrived. A thin layer of ice could be seen clinging to numerous boats in the yard, with the surrounding grassy areas decorated with a frosty white tinge. Would the drop in temperatures hit the sport? Time would tell. Three balls of groundbait laced with a few freebies were potted in tight to a boat while a mush of finely chopped worms, maggots and casters went down the track to try and tempt the resident perch. A single caster was impaled on the hook before the rig was laid close to the barge. We both held our breath momentarily in hope of an instant bite, but it never came. The float barely moved for the first 20 minutes, and when it finally did it was tiniest of roach responsible. “I’m going to feed a few balls of groundbait into open water where it is slightly deeper because the cold weather may have forced the fish out of the shallows,” he explained. By this point the ice had melted and that was bound to have chilled the water even more, potentially scuppering any chance of the feeding frenzy we were keen to witness.
True colours
Hopes were still high that the fish would eventually play ball, and a quick look on the chopped worm line produced what we had been looking for. The half lobworm hookbait was lowered in down the track and moments after it hit the bottom Andrew lifted and dropped the rig at pace several times. “If there’s a big perch nearby there’s every chance its predatory instincts will kick in and it will snap at the bait as it dances around.” A split second after finally letting the rig settle the float disappeared and a firm strike was met with several feet of No.8 elastic streaming from the pole tip. As Andrew tentatively shipped back, the fish showed no signs of surrendering at first but by patiently manoeuvring it towards him, the specimen was eventually netted. “What an absolute stunner – that can’t be far off 2lb,” exclaimed Andrew as he placed the perch in his keepnet. A few small skimmers came over that line, prompting him to look towards his deep-water spot where a tempting bed of groundbait lay. “If these skimmers are willing to take a lobworm then surely they will take a smaller bait such as a caster?” He was bang on, and the switch of rig and location in his peg finally ignited the flame, with skimmers and hybrids between 4oz and 1lb and roach up to 12oz coming every drop in. Resting the swim from time to time and having a look close to the boat kept the bites coming and at the end of the session he had netted around 15lb of quality silvers. “I feel slightly underwhelmed because that is
“A strike was met with several feet of No.8 elastic streaming from the tip”
less than half of what I had in the match.” But in reality, Andrew was being tough on himself and this was an excellent result in what had been far more challenging conditions. There is every chance that fishing elsewhere on the canal that day would have brought a very poor result, if not a blank, with all the fish likely to have packed into the boatyard. “It’s a phenomenal spot and no matter how cold it gets, today proves that setting up close to a boatyard is always going to end in success,” concluded Andrew.