Time for a change

My piscatorial exploits over the last three months have been devoted to perch fishing on Leicestershire's Grand Union Canal. It's been short session fishing (no single trip has exceeded three hours) and it's been productive (only one blank, three pike and a plentiful harvest of perch) but the time feels right for a change of focus. I'll probably fish one more early morning lure session with my friend Pete, before deserting the towpath to fish for carp with my son at a local lake.

 

This morning's session was one of the less successful (but no less enjoyable) trips to the watery former industrial arterial highway, and sporadic showers broke my recent run of fine weather fishing.

 

 

A variety of spinners and small spinnerbaits were used, with a small silver and blue number being the successful lure on the day, accounting for the brace of small perch that graced the bank. Other spinners were subject to follows and small plucks, but the perch appeared more reluctant to feed than normal, and the pike were conspicuous by their absence. More disappointing than the lack of fish, however, was the loss of a favourite red and yellow Panther Martin spinner.

 

 

 The morning's highlight was when I was treated to a remarkable display of predatory behaviour, when I witnessed a perch of about a quarter of a pound chase a hapless smaller fish, which gave several leaps before being engulfed by the perch, which itself bumped into some bankside wooden supports during the hectic few seconds of the chase.

 

The canal has been good to me, providing free sport, compliant perch and the occasional bonus jack pike, but it feels that the time is now overdue to get a real bend in my rod and tangle with some midsummer carp.

So many species, so many ways to fish, so little time ......