The Towpath Angler
Our monthly look at the angling scene
IT HAS been a busy time for me of late with lots of major competitions taking place at national, regional and club level.
I have certainly been more involved with the national events this year than I had originally planned due, in the main, to staff restructuring and changes in volunteers at Angling Trust. I guess I have been the continuity person throughout what has been quite a turbulent period. I am pleased to say that the new team ‘at the office’ is top quality and, very importantly, much younger. They are probably even more in touch with the anglers and certainly much more savvy with social media in all its forms. We all know that the various platforms are, all too often, very misused but in the present day and age are invaluable. I feel sure that angling competitions will reap the benefits of this new team going forward.
Acknowledging that 2022 is the 10th birthday of the Canal & River Trust I decided to have a look through some of my Towpath articles in that inaugural year. Issues such as increasing antisocial behaviour on our towpaths, predator control, uncontrolled cycling and linear moorings were covered then and, guess what, they are all still on the table today. Of course there has been some movement on some of these but none are anywhere near resolution. I still firmly believe that CRT must use the expertise and experience within the National Council to address these as a matter of some urgency. All of them have adversely impacted on the trust’s customers for far too long.
September has been a pretty hectic month with the two remaining Angling Trust Nationals both destined for the Warwickshire Avon, the final of the highly successful Riverfest competition scheduled for the Trent below Nottingham, the concluding qualifiers of the AT/CRT Canal Pairs Championship ahead of the final in October and, as if that was not enough, CRT’s National Celebration of Young People in Fishing in which, I understand, there could be well over 300 competitors. Still on the competitions front, plans are well advanced for the 2023 AT Nationals which will see the mighty Gloucester Canal being used again for Division 1 and what is effectively a new venue, the Shropshire Union at the Nantwich end, being used for Division 2.
Low water levels
Regarding competitions and angling generally reports in the past few weeks have been very encouraging but with water levels still falling I am not sure this will continue. Indeed it has become so bad that at some venues angling has been suspended. It goes without saying that fish welfare is paramount so it is reassuring to see that most people seem to be on the same page with this. As we know some of our canals have suffered an alarming drop in levels which has led to a suspension of all activities pro tem. Similarly I have visited a couple of local reservoirs recently and it was reminiscent of Skegness at low tide.
Just yesterday I bumped into an old schoolmate who loves his fishing and the history around it. He has retained his love of the Erewash Canal and told me that last week he found a hole in the duckweed where he enjoyed a lovely couple of hours catching some beautiful rudd, roach and two tench. Another close friend travelled up to the Aire & Calder Canal at the beginning of August to fish a small match and finished third with 8lb-odd which, he said, vindicated the long trip and fuel costs. Some of the local commercials have been on top form too often with almost record weights. That said, water levels have fallen over 1m at some venues so, without some significant rainfall, there may be further enforced closures.
Finally despite having been so very busy with AT events until just a week ago I tried really hard to fish once a week just for a bit of respite. While not picking up many brown envelopes I have been on a decent run in terms of catching fish totalling around 350lb in my last four matches. Obviously these were on commercials but in each case I was up against some very good opposition. I just hope that this run has some way to go yet and that I can turn the good catches into a frame place or two. I talked last month about decision making and I feel that is something I have been doing better at recently.
If you are contemplating a few hours on the bank just look at the weather forecast for cooler, overcast conditions and keep your options few and simple otherwise time can be wasted trying too many things. Like myself recently having made some good decisions I hope you can too. Tight lines.