Predator 2

Entry posted by Rusty September 2, 2012

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Kennet & Avon Canal, Sunday 2nd September 2012

Even I can take a hint, for the second day running the weather screamed perch and although I realised this a bit too late for the dawn session (as usual) I had lobs in the fridge and I was in the mood for a walk. Time to explore the canal.

The objective was to try and find a perch swim to replace one that had been decimated by ‘canal improvement’ works earlier in the year. It wasn’t my swim mind, another AN’er had kindly put me onto it but had also recently said that the vegetation which created it had now gone, not just cut back but completely removed. I had no reason to doubt this but curiosity got the better of me and I headed in that direction first to have a look….I walked straight past the swim before realising that I’d arrived. There wasn’t a sign of the overhanging trees which admittedly had hindered boat navigation but far more importantly had harboured large perch. There was no reason for the fish to still be there and a couple of speculative casts proved that they weren’t.

Oh well, it was a nice day for a stroll back to the car trying each and every spot which looked to have potential. Boat traffic wasn’t too heavy, it was the cyclists which were annoying. Some of the more considerate Pendletons/Hoys would see me and slow down, others would tinkle their bell and shout “coming through” assuming that I would leap into the canal to avoid the risk of a collision. It was with some relief that I arrived at a swim which enabled me to completely avoid cyclists and where even boat traffic wasn’t a problem.

First cast produced a 2lb perch, blimey no messing about fighting through the tiddlers then. Second cast tempted a 1lb 12oz specimen…..umm how many lobs have I got? Only ten, oh dear, I should’ve thought this through a bit more.

By tearing them in half I managed to eek out the lobs for a couple of hours during which time my float spent more time under water than it did on the surface. Every perch caught without losing the worm was a real bonus and I managed to get the final tally up to fifteen before the worm pot was empty. That’s not a large number of perch but every one of them needed the net and the best five were 1lb 12oz (twice), 2lb on the nose (twice) and the largest at 2lb 12oz (pictured). There may have been some repeat captures in the larger fish, I didn’t photograph all of them.

The end of my bait signalled the end of the session, I had some maggots and tried them but they just attracted small silverfish into the perch swim, they must have been either very stupid or very hungry.

It was a great session and I have to admit a little unexpected.