The Towpath Angler

Our monthly look at the angling scene

I HAVE spent a fair bit of time in recent weeks, when the weather has allowed, walking along the Erewash Canal and the local River Trent. Apart from ticking the ever-necessary exercise box, I hoped these little trips would enable me to see if the behaviour and attitudes of people using the paths and towpaths might be changing. Straight away I must say the vast majority of people are, by and large, pretty tolerant of the needs of others so we are only ever really looking at the inconsiderate minority. I also wanted to see if the views of my fellow anglers were any different. Not surprisingly, given the ongoing flooded state of our rivers, I saw very few fishing there.

That said, a few barbel specialists were out and of those I spoke to, most had been permanently huddled in their bivvies and so saw and heard very little. One or two told me that as they walked the paths from their parked vehicles to their chosen swims they were seeing a significant increase in dog poo along the paths. Interestingly this was mirrored by a number of people, including anglers, whom I met along the canal towpath. They all said that this problem is actually getting worse.

It does beg the question about the safety of towpaths for anyone using them, especially for children.

Represent members’ views

This leads me nicely to my next topic. I am currently in the process of building an email group of representatives from among the trust’s 240-plus angling club customers. The main objective of this is to ensure that when I speak with key officers at the trust or at the Members’ Council on behalf of those clubs I can do so, confident that I take along the views of a considerable number of those clubs. I already had a number of club contacts in place but following another recent circulation of my intentions that number is now rising quite impressively.

It is immediately clear that many of the trust’s angling clubs are far from happy. Issues range from all the usual anti-social behaviour (in all its forms) incidents to the equally long-standing problems surrounding the trust’s often poor communication with its customer clubs. Among these growing numbers of responses, some clubs have indicated their frustrations are forcing them to consider “talking with their feet”.

I hope to be able to meet with officers very soon to, hopefully, identify some resolutions and keep these clubs onside.

Rain and flood consequences

It is noticeable, no doubt due to rivers and many still-waters being inaccessible due to flooding, that canals have seen more anglers of late. My information suggests, though, that generally, sport on the canals has not been particularly good. Again, many canals have been adversely affected by the rain. Last weekend a small club fished my local canal and only one angler had a bite, which he missed! Also, a good friend who lives in South Yorkshire travelled up to a match on the New Junction a week ago. Weights were well down on normal but, at least, everyone caught. It seemed that pinkies (small maggots) proved to be the best bait. Saying that, pinkies are proving to be a good choice of bait on commercials too. I spoke with another friend (also a David) who came second in the commercial open match for the over-60s last Saturday with almost 40lb of small carp, all of which he caught on pinkie.

Personally, I have only wet a line twice in the past three weeks. The first time was decidedly unenjoyable as it rained pretty much all day. I did manage to catch a couple though. The weather on the second trip was beautiful with some real warmth in the sun. Again the fishing was hard but I did catch 17 small bream and two carp, so was kept fairly busy.

If you are thinking of getting out in the coming days just bear in mind that, despite it having stayed fairly mild, it is still best to approach your session with a bit of caution. Fish are starting to show signs of wanting a little feed but little is the operative word. As I said earlier, pinkies seem to be a good choice of bait right now so it may be advisable to take a few with you. If you do venture out please be mindful of the amount of water still around so stay safe. Tight lines.