My Weekend Disaster".

Well your probably all wondering were my blogs are for weekend as I do my best to get them on as soon as possible, Straight to the point' I've only gone and managed to fracture my right hand whilst fooling around after a couple of bevey's Saturday night! when will I learn I'm not 20yrs old anymore" lol. That put pay to any hope of me fishing a match and on route to the hospital early Sunday morning with a very swollen hand' I had to make a call to Nick Harvey to tell him not to bother picking me up (which was probably disappointing for him after taking a quid off me last week I'm sure he thought he could do it again..?) as well as a call owner Pete's side kick and tea boy Aide to tell um I couldn't fish..

Not the ideal start to a Sunday morning being sat in A+E waiting for the verdict on my X-rays and I felt my mind wandering to where I should of been, Hilltops having my usual large fry-up! No chance of that here and the best I managed was Luke warm half cup' of coffee for 80p!. Not all glum though as long time friend Darren (Bigbird) Greenwood & Myself had planned a day fishing for some Tench on the Taunton & Bridgwater Canal on Saturday, after reminiscing on the matches we fished on these stretches over 20yrs ago along with the beaver we used to meet, (That's the two legged variety in the night clubs!)  and collecting some bait from Thyers Tackle in Highbridge Shop manager and now speci hunter Russ Tinkling who advised us they had been catching a few from the fordgate section, We had a look at the normal fancied Boat & Anchor section but after finding it a little weedy and not taking the rake we took Russ's advice and headed for fordgate. After a bit of a trek due to birdy not bringing his trolley and having to carry the remaining kit I couldn't fit on mine I thought he was going to pass out when we got there' Although I expect the boulder I slipped in my net-bag before he shipped it over his shoulder didn't help..!

We decided to have the price of the day ticket between us just to keep it interesting between us as are tactics were going to pretty much the same, worm and caster across to the far bank vegetation and a rig for down the track, it wasn't very deep being just over 2ft across and around 3ft down the track but with a tinge of colour in the water and two anglers on the bank already netting a Tench each we were itching to get going'. I fed a handful of chopped worms and casters with a few dead red maggots added over to the far bank near the stick-ups and two balls of brown crumb with the same bait added down the track. Starting across with a single red maggot I had a quick couple of small fish before a rudd of 12oz on the head of a worm, before I topped it up and tried down the track, with a piece of worm and a floro pinkee on the hook my first bite 10mins later was a 1lb plus perch". Over an hour in and neither of us had hooked a Tench as yet and signs weren't looking promising?. Not long after the canal began pulling really hard followed by a day trippers barge passing us so there was no chance are loose offerings were going to be were we fed them but at least it had added a bit more colour to the water which may trigger a response?

Letting things settle before re-feeding I added another nice perch and a few better size rudd before a greedy jack pike attached itself to one of them ending up with a free dinner"

 

Apart from a few small rudd and the odd perch neither of us could connect with these elusive Tench until after about 4hrs and big bird falling behind in the £5 stake he managed to moan one onto the hook" it was a good un too and using micro barb hooks it wasn't going to come off ending up in his net pushing 6lb! that was the fiver gone then with one fish" we gave it a while longer but with no more signs and the boat retuning in the distance we called it a day. it didn't turn out quite as we hoped but it turned out the guys further up on the reeds had a few tench each so perhaps we didn't chose the best swims opposite some brambles and reed cover. We plan another trip soon but are going to use a rake before hand and try another area, well that's when I will be able to fish again' the out come of the hand? plastered up to my elbow and a return to the fracture clinic Friday to have it reset! not looking to promising but hoping for a change to a lighter cast as writing this left handed is no fun". No chance of me working this week but in hoping to get out on the bank and catch up with some anglers who are doing well at the moment to see if I can pinch a few more tips so who knows who I will choose'.

 Darren With His Tench & Bits.