From Somerset With Love.

 A couple of weeks ago my sister proudly graduated from Falmouth university with a degree in English Lit', this was cause for a trip down south, now South London to Falmouth is a long drive so I fancied breaking it up a bit and squeeze some fishing in, why not have a go for a specimen Rudd on the levels I thought, it's been some time since I was down that way and fancied another go at stalking them. I booked the BnB a couple of weeks previously and had a plan all in my head as to what I was going to do.

 Thankfully the Levels are roughly half way between home and the Uni so it made for a good place to stay anyway, two and half hours later I was in the car park of my digs, stalking gear already made in preparation I was raring to go, miles of walking, a pair of polaroids and a couple loaves of bread, what type of fishing could be better, just how I like it.

 The wind was a little blustery as it is now writing this with plenty of patchy cloud that looked like it wanted to rain, thankfully it managed to hold off until the last knockings. The first section I walked looked good for some decent Rudd but the shoals of tiny fish was simply incredible, a handful of crusts that would go out to search out the bigger fish were just getting smashed by scores of hungry fingerlings, actually getting 6-10oz Rudd to the bait was a challenge in itself and I weren't even after them. After a few hours I realised that I had to find areas where the population of Rudd was much smaller where competition wouldn't be so fierce and would hopefully give rise to an opportunity for my targets to get to the bait.

 Whilst walking around I bumped into a local angler who had also been looking for some Rudd but having the same problems I was, after chatting for a while we decided to head down a couple of locks to see if we could get ahead of the cuttings, unfortunately a mile or so down we were still firmly in the thick of it. I had a little mooch around and it looked good for a fish or two, for a couple of hours loads of bread went out and a few small fish were caught ( Pike, Perch, Silver Bream, Bream and Rudd), yes Pike on bread, the Perch came out on a little spinner.

 As dusk approached I noticed a couple of really large swirls around some crust some 70-80 yards from where I was initially fishing and flicking out the bread, I suspected the Pike activity spooked the bigger Rudd down the section, I dropped down maybe 50 yards down and flicked some more fish crust out and waited to see what happened, not fifteen minutes after moving this beauty of a canal Rudd surfaced before darting back down towards the weed beds, I knew it was a big fish immediately as the take was very powerful and the first part of the fight impressive, a small period of negotiating the cuttings and beds of pads and weed she cruised straight into the net and my Somerset trip was now a complete success!

My canal PB, 2 lb 5oz.

The very last thing the bread sees.

Top down, 2.05, 1.06 & 1.01

 I made the journey down just to catch a fish that special, for a canal specimen, they seldom get more impressive! the other two above came in quick succession when they switched off for the night, as did I ! a well earned couple of pints were had, on my own it has to be said.....chin chin!

 That evening we had a huge storm around 2am that kept me awake as I watched the lightning like a child, I've always been impressed by it however it did have a knock on affect to my mornings plans, these were to be at the docks for around 530am, that didn't happen and around 7am 'ish I set up my float rod and got plenty of bait out. This part of the trip didn't really go to plan either as a huge shoal of small fish annoyed me and I couldn't get my bait through to my intended target, the Silver Bream.

My best Silver Bream in years.

Pretty canal Perch.

My first ever Golden Rudd.

Bread munching Esox.

Stunning sunset over the levels.

This was what I had to deal with for time I was there.....

 Fortunately I had a couple to 9ozs the day before but really wanted a good pound plus fish to add to my challenge, this wasn't to be, for now at least as another trip next friday is planned and I hope to do a couple of hours on the docks as I head through to Taunton.