All 4 inches of him!

Oxford canal 3 to 6pm. My past visits to canals in April have all been blanks, so almost anything was going to count as a success. I started float fishing maggot under the rod tip in a very narrow stretch. I guess I had too light a float, and it was a bit strange to see the wind blowing the float against the flow. So I switched to an area where a passer by told me Zeds roamed, and soon switched to maggot feeder. Almost at once two decent roach of 6-7 oz, and a perch of about 1lb 8oz. Then it went dead, and I missed the few bites - must use my shaved-down quiver-tip next time. Then, just before I packed up, a tiny zander. The first I've ever caught, so that definitely counts as my best April canal day so far.

Next time I'll take the ultra-lite gear.