Albert Canal - 18.01.2015
Today we were on the Albert Canal near Gellik in Belgium. I will be fishing with Theo today, Roger with Helmut and Guido Nullens with one of his friends.
We will be using Bloodworm and Joker to try and tempt some of the canal's Roach.
It was interesting watching Guido mix up his groundbait. First he made a 'Leam Cream' with water.
Then he added it slowly to his groundbait whilst mixing with the drill.
It was a heavy mix for the 5.5m deep water. Theo and I stuck to the more conventional and just mixed a heavy Roach groundbait with some Leam. We added our Joker and balled-in at the start on the 9.5 metre line.
Theo was using a 1 gram rig and I was using a heavier rig of 1.5 grams. I had 0.10 mm main line through to a 0.08 mm bottom and a size 18 B512 hook. Not light but it worked.
We had 5.5 metres of water from 5 metres out to 13 metres, so we decided to fish close at 9.5 metres.
We started to catch fish fairly quickly, just Roach from about 25 grams up to 50 grams.
The bites were different to normal bites when using maggot, casters of worms. The fish take the float just under the surface and hold it there.
Warning!
If you strike straight away you miss nearly every bite! You have to let it go under, wait 2 seconds and then strike. It's as though the fish are taking the bait tail first. Strange.
After an hour or so I lost a big Perch, then shortly after Theo had one.
And then another. He told me he had some fish on pinkie and Bloodworm - but I only caught on Bloodworm.
If we could catch a few more of these then we would quickly build up a good weight.
After about 3 hours we stopped catching and decided to re-feed with six balls of groundbait each. This did the trick and we started catching again.
This time he did not get away.
I took a walk down to Roger and Helmut to see how they were doing.
They had both had about 10 small Roach each. His fish were a bit smaller than Theo's.
Roger came down for a walk and took this behind my back.
Please stop for a chat if you see me fishing!
I ended the day with about 40 fish and a weight of 1.84 kg.
Theo had the edge on me today though, with his two big Perch and big Roach pushing up his weight to 2.43 kg.
Roger and Helmut had much smaller fish and not as many. It was windier where they were and it felt much colder.
Theo and I had a pretty good day and went home happy. It was a warmish day and it stayed dry, so all-in-all not a bad days fishing.
Guido managed to whittle out about a ton (100) of small Roach on a size 22 hook and single Bloodworm. Good angling - but then again, he was World Champion in 2005!
I think the Bloodworm and Joker were good, because I never had a bite on caster, pinkie or maggot. I think I will have to try the Bloodworm again.
Tight Lines,
Steve
