CANAL CAPERS

Having spent the last few sessions targeting catfish on lakes I decided to give it a rest and spend a night on the Exeter canal, a hard but special venue to which I owe some of my most fond fishing triumphs. I spent the evening in the company of Moxy and Ty, a couple of my skating pals who also share a liking of chasing big fish.

They had kindly spent 2 nights raking and baiting 3 swims around the Lime kilms area. I arrived late afternoon, pushing it a bit for a Saturday but luckily no one had nicked my spot. With heavy rain fore-casted for the whole evening I'm not surprised.

With carp being the main target I opted for large snowman style baits, balancing a stack of corn, tipped with a trimmed down monster squid pop up. To finish off, hook links were then threaded through PVA sticks and flicked out to the baited clear patch.

When fishing the canal, the possibility of a fish of a lifetime is always on the cards; which is the main reason I'm constantly drawn to this venue. Whether it be carp, pike or tench, fish of specimen proportions are there for the taking.

First fish went to Mox in the form of a very typical canal bream. An hour into dark my right hand buzzer burst into life. I swept the rod back over my shoulder and bent into a fish that most certainly (and thankfully) was no bream. Not that I hate the poor old bream (like some carp anglers do), its just that their not meant to be caught on 2.5lb tc rods with heavy line.anyway after a bit of a tussle it turned out to be a very welcome tench of 6lb.

An absolute perfect example of a healthy canal tench, not like some of the colour-less little blighters found in ponds. If u want a proper tench the exeter canal is the place to go. 99% of tench I have ever caught there have been shapely fish in mint condition.


No more action for the night, but lots and lots of rain and line bites. At 4.30 am my other rod slowly trundled off. I was out of my bivvy like a flash, no shoes or coat on, hitting a run in the middle of a blinking monsoon. A bream flopped to the surface and popped of the hook leaving me stood there wet to my draws. On that note i packed up all my soggy gear, and made a mad dash to the car park. Good tench and a laugh with the bays. never a chore!