Raining, Cats and Dogs!
You cant predict the weather and when Chris and I planned this weekends trip we needed to purchase tickets in advance, so come the day of the trip it was obviously forecast for heavy rain and strong winds. Getting used to these 5am fishing starts as is the dog ,and now I only have to drag him for the first 100yds. The venue for this weekends sortie was Tiverton Canal a 12 mile local canal fairly shallow and allegedly full of jack pike, these being the target species. Having never visited this canal before we opted for a mobile approach with a float fished deadbait and light lure rod to fish small jelly grubs. During the week I done as much research as possible and looked at the various bridges via google which allowed a glimpse of these sections of canal. The intended fishing areas were marked on a plan of the canal which hopefully will also come in useful for the summer Tenching trips. Chris arrived in the pope mobile as a fine drizzle started only visible in the headlights of the vehicle, I knew this was the driest that the day would be. We had taken a light roaming approach to packing the kit and I had a rucksack, net and the two rods, plus some heavy duty waterproof clothing to keep out the forecast monsoon. Within the hour we pulled into the first chosen areas car park and set about rigging the rods and layering up the clothing, a raft of ducks quacked angrily as they drifted past us in the emerging dawn. The canal looked good and a few quick casts highlighted just how weedy this waterway really is, it was still too dark to see into the water but with every second the light grew.
We leapfrogged each other down the canal to cover as many areas as possible but please don't think we actually played leapfrog as that would have been dangerous in the low light and just plain wrong. This first area seemed perfect for a pike or two but after the first hour it was decidedly quiet, I changed lures and bait frequently in order to try and find a fish hopefully before the heavy rain started. I scaled everything down just in case the fish were being decidedly picky and finally a small red and white grub instigated some interest as a pike swirled just under the lure, as I lifted it out of the water, " darn it I've missed one Chris"! Not sure if he was interested in hearing that bit of news or not, but just in case that was the highlight of the day I wanted it registered with another human. I checked the hook to ensure it wasn't blunt and re-covered the same section of water, this time a Pike grabbed it instantly, well I say Pike maybe I should call it a Pikelet as it really was incredibly small. It was so small that when Chris looked over he thought I had just put a bigger lure on, " trying something new"? Chris had asked " no mate this is actually the first Pike of the day, and incredibly species number 19"!
This might not be the best advert for the great predator Esox Lucius but very reminiscent of the baby crocodiles it was still armed with razor sharp teeth and the attitude of a hunter. The rain started becoming heavy and the wind not wanting to be outdone raised its game and blew wildly, I pushed on down the canal looking for the Pikelets fathers mother. The next leapfrog Chris made he informed me he had one drop off while trying to hand it out of the water, at least we were finding a few fish now. The weather was fast becoming darn annoying and at one point I thought Chris had decided to warm himself up by fishing directly below the electric power lines, fortunately he only has a small rod.
We covered about a 2 miles of this section of canal and both lost another fish a piece but the area we now found ourselves just didn't seen pikey, the section had recently been worked on with much of the removed weed now adorning the bank edges. The water was crystal clear and the bottom clean not a great habitat for an ambush predator, we decided to go back to the car and move to a spot 5 miles further along the canal. We arrived at the next area and it wasn't until I went to put the waterproofs on that I realised just how wet we had got, the coat now weighed twice as much as it did. There's also something sole destroying about climbing into waterproofs that have exceeded their saturation level, I would be lying if I didn't think at this point I will take that little pike as a result and run. However anglers love a bit of self abuse in pursuit of something in a bigger size and besides Chris hadn't landed one so we had to soldier on for a least a bit longer. This sentiment was shortlived when Chris stated he was swapping to hat number two, having worn a flat cap all morning he now placed a cowboy hat on his head, being neither from the north or a cowboy I felt I had to intereject. We started walking towards the next section of canal and I couldn't contain it anymore, " do you know what id love to put in room 101"? Chris seemed confused with the random context of my statement " no I don't go on"!
I gestured towards his head " people who wear cowboy hats, that aren't actually cowboys" Chris was clearly not expecting that topic to be raised but still managed a reply " well a lot of people consider I'm a cowboy". He had a point, so I said no more and trudged onwards protected by the ever growing sponge bob square coat on my back, the rain was now cold and wet as opposed to just wet. This section of the canal had some cracking looking spots and once again we whipped the water to a foam with our frenzied repeated casting.
In the distance a woman's voice bellowed " Ziggy no"! I glanced down the canal but a bend prevented me seeing the lady in question but once again the woman shouted this time with more urgency" Ziggy no"! The only Ziggy I know owns Anglers Paradise and he doesn't strike me as the type of person to be running amok on a canal towpath that is of course unless he was sat on a big game boat steaming down the canal with a glass of homemade wine in his hand! The culprit soon became obvious as a large black dog dove into the canal a few yards down from where Chris had just cast his lure, "Ziggy no, please Ziggy no", screamed the perturbed women. The dog carried on oblivious to her frantic requests for obedience as it searched excitedly in the area it observed the splash, Chris had retrieved the line out of harms way but Labrador Ziggy carried on regardless. Eventually the dog tired of this game and climbed from the water the lady thinking the dog had heeded her instructions went forward to attach him to a leash. Ziggy had other ideas and bolted up the path towards me, the owner once again running behind "Ziggy no"! Part of me thought maybe the dog was actually called Ziggy No, it was something amusing on a dreary day and now the dog included me in his act of defiance. He bounded straight towards me, soaked, sweaty, overweight and slobbering but that's enough about me. I braced for impact as the inbound Ziggy seemed focused on knocking me into the canal, at the last second he swerved and instantly stuck his head into my cool bag. "Ziggy no" I yelled, but too late he had grabbed a prize and was off along the towpath to consume it, what tasty item did the super intelligent Ziggy steal, Rudd, Mackerel or maybe a section of lamprey? The clearly out of breath owner had managed to pounce on the dopey hound as he lay mouthing the contraband, she removed it from him and passed it to me, my spool of bait elastic, clever dog that one!
That turned out to be the highlight of that section of the canal and our lures received no attention from any pike and it was time for a final move to the end of the canal. We pulled into the last carpark as the driving rain signalled it was going to get seriously wet, this final push really was under duress with neither of us wanting to signal time and go home and get warm. This area of the canal was the deepest we had witnessed and did look really good, on another day I would start here and work back but today at this time stood drenched, cold and underwhelmed I struggled to re-bait the rod with fingers that refused to work. I stood staring at the motionless float while all the time feeling new areas that the water had penetrated my clothing and in my heart of heart I now knew the rain had reached my pants, time to go! I then noticed a large cat mincing towards me down the path, I find cats arrogant at the best of times but this was the first cat that has ever smirked at me. It quite literally came over to my landing net, looked into it, sniffed it and walked off smirking and in one expression it had summed up my day, no fish been in that net mate!
That really was enough for me and it had felt a long and torturous day for extremely slim pickings, a day of rain, cats and dogs but no matter how small that fish was it is still number 19 so from that perspective its a job done.
Welldone Chris for getting a soaking with me and for heeding my room 101 warning and removing the Cowboy hat at the last venue, hopefully next weeks effort will be drier, warmer and a tad more productive. If I take into account the tickets, bait, fuel and parking the little pike was worth about £50 per pound so a valuable little guy, be nice to meet it again when its all grown up. Thanks everyone who reads, likes and offers support to me on this challenge it really is appreciated.
