Challenging Canals.

 Recently I have been sticking to a handful of sections of the Grand Union / Regents canal systems with the view of catching some more species of fish, a range of predators are present and the Pike are here at good sizes too, the Bream are pushing towards the double figure mark and the Carp seem to be topping the mid-twenties to which I have already managed to successfully target one, the Bream have also been fished for with one over 7lbs caught off the surface using free-lined bread flake.

 On Saturday I was joined by Brian for a days Bream fishing and stalking Carp for which we saw no shortage of and considering the canals I've been fishing are by no-means crammed we did see fish, obviously we were both excited and couldn't wait to crack on but my excitement wasn't as full blown as I know these fish rarely get fished for but are extremely shy, this makes catching them very difficult and just highlights what a challenge they represent, five trips for me and the result has been 1 bream and 1 carp both of which were very big, we spent ages trying but to no-avail so we headed down to a deeper area to get the Bream going, it didn't take long as I banked a 5lb 8oz snotty and Brian followed up with a new PB of 4.9, then all of a sudden they switched off as quickly as they came on.

 We knew exactly what happened and a decent Pike nailed Brian's lure, a couple tail walks later and a sturdy scrap a 15lb Esox lay in the net, happy days and a couple of good Zander also showed but didn't show again, the Bream never did come back on the feed so we ended the session early for me to get back and watch my beloved Arsenal stuff Aston Villa 4-0 to win back to back FA cups.

 We played the way I hoped we would and got a deserved result, well done boys!!!. 

 This afternoon I headed back down with a load of Pike gear to tap into what I believe is quite a decent head of specimens, the application was right but the fish clearly weren't feeding very well as I had a total of 3 dropped runs on the lamprey section and not a touch of the ledgered Roach or lures, I am still learning this enormous body of water so it could take a while, but in the end I hope it's worth it all. 

 With my Farnham ticket received it won't be long before my Rudd campaign begins on Frensham where they do grow to decent sizes but a new PB is highly unlikely but it's been such a long time since I've had a 2lb specimen that I really feel the need to catch one, so a target of 2lb 8oz is set and the Tench will also keep me occupied at times when the Rudd will probably go missing.