Simply Pole Fishing

 Zuid Willemsvaart Canal, Weert - 23 Oct 2016 

Today I went to Weert to fish the Zuid Willemsvaart canal for a few hours.

Parked behind my peg on the Zuid-Willemsvaart in Weert.

The weather was not the best with a light, but bitterly cold easterly wind blowing across the water, and fog that refused to go away.

Now that's a comfortable peg!

Here the water is just 3 metres deep and easy to fish with a top 4.

Pinkies and Maggots in Turmeric, Casters, micro hemp and a few worms - more than enough options for the canal.

I'm trying out a new elastic today, the Preston Fluoro Slip No. 6. It is made from pure latex and the No. 6 is 1.15 mm - the normal slip is 1.06 mm.

The fluoro slip is not as good as the standard slip.

I found that the elastic sticks to the inside of the pole too easily - so it's back to normal slip for me.

Really pleased with my setup now. The Octbox is solid and the top kit roost is excellent.

The water flows a bit here, so I set up a 3 g rig for holding still, and a 1 g rig for running through.

Six soft balls should be OK

I made up some groundbait and cupped in 6 soft balls on the 12 m line. It sounds like a lot, but there are many Bream here and I wanted to make sure I had a good bed of bait on the bottom.

Just a few grains of hemp and a few casters every now and again should get the fish going.

I only put some hemp a few casters into the groundbait and started to loose feed a few grains of small hemp and casters every few minutes.

The GIS 11 XS at 12 metres.

I started on the light rig and after an hour I hadn't had a bite. I was running through or easing the rig at half speed through the swim.

It's always good to get the first fish in the net - no blank today!

I fed a loose cup of groundbait via the pole cup and stopped for a cup of tea. After the tea I started again on the light rig and had a Roach first run through.

A single caster on a size 18 Kamasan B511 to Preston 0.09 mm Reflo Power.

Maybe they were there now. Next run down and I had another Roach, things were looking good. I had four Roach altogether and it was starting to get colder.

Nice looking fish - proper 'caster' fish

There's me sat in a Preston Polo shirt and hooded sweatshirt, it's 1.5°C and I'm getting cold - maybe winter has arrived!

I think next time out the thermals and the DF20 will be in use.

It was getting cold so decided to call it a day with my 4 Roach.

Four nice 'caster' Roach on a cold winters day.

This is a nice bit of the canal and I think I will try it again in a couple of weeks.