Canal Monster Mirror.

 Having only done a few trips to the canal I haven't gone there expectantly, but the more time I put into it hopefully the more I shall see and catch. But before we get to the canal fishing we had a wander around a couple of our relatively local docks, most of which are very deep and acres in size, stocks of most of these waters aren't known due to this, but this makes it an exciting prospect and never quite know what you may see or catch.

 My father and I headed out with Carp in mind and upon arrival to the first dock we found Carp basking in the sunshine, my tactic was free-lining bread and the ol'bean was fishing just under the surface, this tactic paid dividends first as I watched over the bay to see his rod hooped over as a Carp dived into 28ft+ of water, I ended up putting the gear down and jog round to him to slip the net under one of the prettiest Mirror Carp I've seen.

13lb on the nose, average but a stunning fish.

 I had a couple of chances in that dock but I was a little rusty, one of the chances was as clear cut as you'd like but failed to connect as the Carp bolted, so a change of venue and we headed up the cut for a trek in the hope of spotting some Carp and Bream, we walked for around 4 miles up and didn't see a single fish, big or small, that for us wasn't soul destroying but quite hard to take as we know there has to be something knocking about, a mile or two back down past a few locks and I spotted three Carp basking among some weed and as I spotted them they began to move as if they knew so I had little time to get ready and one of the Carp was a belter around the mid-twenties with the other two in the upper-doubles, I already knew which one I wanted so I got ahead of them and flicked out my slow sinking flake and hoped for the best, they all approached it and the flake vanished as the biggest one took it. Heart skipped a beat and my rod slammed over as I lent into a lump.

 This was by far one of the best fights I have had the pleasure of being embroiled in, one of those battles where you had to let the fish do what it wanted and then gain on it during the short spells that it didn't power down towards the next lock and after three attempts she headed for the net and I had my prize.....what a prize it was.

My prize catching it's breath.

My biggest canal Carp at 25lb 3oz.

After weighing, photographing and much admiration.

 I thought I have had some real crackers but this one was up there and I was very very happy indeed, a canal 25lb + Carp so soon I am clearly made up and just writing this makes me smile.

 The fun didn't end there as I found a small Pike which took a liking to my gold mepps, a short fight resulted in a 2.6 mini esox, further down we did see Bream and more Carp but unfortunately we didn't catch anymore fish but I didn't mind one bit. I will be back again for sure.

How about that for a shot!, incidentally I didn't catch that Carp but I had the Pike.