I approached the ridiculously steep hump backed bridge very cautiously, which was just as well, as I had about two inches clearance on either side of the van and a fraction of that underneath. Oh well, the hazards of of having a big old lump of a camper.
I pulled in to a lovely little campsite on the banks of the Montgomery canal which was surprisingly deserted.
Very little boat traffic here and on the stretch five minutes walk away, absolutely none, as that bit is classed as unnavigable. The difference between the two bits is amazing.
The unnavigable bit full of reeds, lillies and generally overgrown and the adjoining part is well, like a canal. As you might expect.
You can guess where most of the fish are.
No signs that anyone had been fishing this part so in the evening I chose four swims and put in plenty of seed, corn and mash . Putting bait in overnight is always a strange one, will the fish clear it up and then bog off elsewhere before you arrive in the morning ?
In my experience this doesn't normally happen, they seem to linger around hoping for more or are after any remaining morsels.
About six ish the next morning first drop in and the float shot off. Foul hooked bream. Then another. I changed to the lift method, purely to avoid false bites. If the float lays flat something MUST have lifted the shot. It does work.
With that adjustment I started catching bream, not what I wanted but a bit of action.
After a while I let the hooked fish plough about the swim hoping it would scare the others and give my intended target, tench, a chance to get on the bait. Strangely enough this seemed to work, about twenty minutes after the bream vanished the float laid flat and my first Monty tench was boring around the swim leading me a merry dance. A litlun but in immaculate condition.
As an aside, Field Marshall Montgomery splits opinion amongst military historians. Many feel he was far too cautious, too defensive, not gung ho enough.
Others think he was a meticulous planner and took the well being and lives of his troops very seriously. Which is probably why is men liked him.
Everyone seems to agree he was an insufferable, egotistical little twerp.
What has this got to do with fishing ?
Anyway, I was well chuffed as I always am when you go somewhere new and get what you wanted.
I love this type of fishing, little pressure, space to rove about, using a bit of observation to work out where the fish will be. Working it out for yourself.
Putting a bit of bait in an hour or so before fishing really does improve your chances. Often you get a bite first chuck as the fish are settled and feeding.
I had several more tench and far too many bream before heading back to the camper for cheese, cheese, cheese and a damn fine glass of Fitou.
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