First canal session

With all my local rivers in flood (most of them in the fields) I took the opportunity to fish a stretch of canal for the first time. It was a good 90 minute drive in my old jeep and I arrived at the canal by 08:30. Shortly after I had baits (lamprey and sardine) in the water, both on simple float ledger rigs.

I had a take 45 minutes later on the sardine rod, as I was netting the pike I realised that I still had baits defrosting in the landing net. I had the pike in the net and while I was trying to re-net the baits, the pike thrashed, the trebles caught in the mesh and the pike got away!

I give the swim another 30 minutes but nothing happened, so I leapfrogged the rods along the stretch. Lunchtime came and I hadn't had any further interest in either bait. I was approached by a member of the club that controlled the stretch he informed me that day tickets were no longer available, yearbooks only! After a bit of a chat he rang the membership secretary (Richard) who said he would come down and sort it out. An hour or so later he turned up just as a sprat was taken.

My first pike from a canal

After a short fight a pike of 12lb 4oz was netted. Richard was on hand to take a couple of photos and he also sorted me a yearbook (for yet another new club). The last couple of hours past quickly, without further interest in any of the baits I tried. Not a bad start to the year, a first session on a canal, a nice pike and a new club with a few more waters to explore.

Looking forward to my next session, hopefully the rivers will be at a normal level as I might get the lures out.