Whole lotta’ fizzing going on

I snuck in another canal session today, which was very bold of me considering the heavy schedule of jobs I have to do around the house. In my defence, the outside painting has been coming along nicely with a solid week of me up ladders with brushes or wielding my latest toy, a paint sprayer. Fiddly to set up and a downright pain in the arse to clean once spraying was over, it was still a game changer. Heavily textured walls were a breeze and I fairly flew through the large expanses of harled walls. Ladders are my nemesis these days, what with my vertigo and useless left arm, and I found the high level stuff a bit of a challenge but I got there and survived to tell the tale. Everyone is happy with the outcome, except for two of the cats who are now sporting white tails where they got too close to the fresh emulsion. I figured I had earned a break, and specifically a day’s fishing.

So, it was back to the Royal canal for me and a spot of maggot drowning. There was a strong temptation to take my boat out on Conn to fly fish for trout, but deep down I knew my arm would not take the strain so instead I opted for the simple joys of float and feeder. I’ll take the boat out for a spin sometime in September then pull her out for the winter. My worst ever trout season will then be over.

A stop off in Longford town first to buy some maggots, then onwards to the canal and another stretch which was new to me. I like trying out different parts of the canal, even though most of it looks pretty much identical to any other part. Fish stocks do vary considerably and even a couple of miles can make a big difference. Tench seem to be very localised and the same goes for big rudd. The small rudd are ever present along the whole canal, but the big ones are a different matter and they take some finding. This time I was near the townland of Killashee in county Longford. The spot I selected looked fine, the only issue was the abundant weed growth, but this is August and weeds are rampant everywhere.

In a complete departure for me, I brought along a spinning rod too. Pike are a fish I have never really got into, despite the obvious attractions of being both common and growing to big proportions here in Ireland. For many years I have been threatening to do more piking but it never materialised. I was thinking about this dichotomy as I was painting last week (strange where your mind goes while slapping on the white stuff), and figured I was approaching pike fishing all wrong. I had it sort of compartmentalised in my head, a stand-alone pastime which required me to target just that fish to the exclusion of all others. What if, instead of that I just dabbled at pike fishing by giving it a try when out doing other forms of angling? One more rod and a box of lures would be more than enough gear to take with me on trips like this one to the canal. Lord knows there are enough spinning rods and lures in my collection so I might as well use them occasionally. Anyway, an old spinning rod was tucked in the car and I was going to force myself to try for a pike at some point during the day.

My experimentation with ground bait feeders in place of my usual maggot feeder continues. A mix of Sensas 3000, homemade breadcrumb, some porridge oats and crushed hemp is my starting mix these days. As a back up I brought along some fishy micro pellets. As for gear, the old 12 foot feeder rod is now firmly my number one choice for bottom fishing and the light 11 foot Korum float rod was plenty man enough for anything I was likely to encounter. I also brought along my rod pod, a bit of kit I thought would be used on most outings but in fact I am too lazy to bring with me. I am trying to be a bit more organised when fishing, especially when catching fish. With the rod pod beside me the feeder rod can be perfectly presented and easy to grab when there is a bite, but I can also drop the float rod on to the pod when I have a fish to unhook. Well, that’s the theory anyway and today was going to be a trial of the new arrangements.

Our freakishly good weather continues here with pleasantly warm, dry days. The only downside is the wind which has swung into an easterly quarter. The spring and summer of 2025 have been unusually settled and dry, or is this the new reality with the ever changing climate? Scorching temperatures and wild fires plague mainland Europe each summer while the mid-twenty degree days so beloved of the Irish holidaymaker are now the norm at home. It is such a shame it is so expensive to vacation here. Someone I know recently looked at a 2 day weekend break in Ireland, nothing fancy now, just a 3 star hotel for a couple of nights. In the end, he and his wife jetted off to Spain for a full week for less than it would have cost for a weekend in Ireland. Economists reckon Ireland is the second wealthiest country in Europe, but the reality for us who live here is everything is so expensive we just live pay check to pay check as prices continue to soar. Enough whingeing, back to the fishing!

Car parked, I unloaded the gear and set up at a spot which had previously been cleared by another angler in the recent past. Just a small gap in the bankside reeds, but enough to allow me great comfort to fish. I set up the chair, then made up the ground bait and tossed two balls in. While concentrating on putting the feeder rod together my eye caught some movement on the surface. By God! Tench bubbles just where I had introduce the ground bait not 5 minutes before. I loose fed some maggots to try and keep the fish there while I finished setting up, then once the feeder was ready I cast it in close the the fizzing. Setting up the float rod took longer than it should as I divided my attention between the little bubbles and the float gear. At last, I was ready with the float, so I re-positioned the feeder slightly to my right and began to cast the float into the now expanding area of tiny bubbles.

A word on tackle before I go on. The old Leeder 12 foot Generation X feeder rod with a cheap Shaky baitrunner reel full of 6 pound mono was furnished with an open end feeder and a 12 inch hook length to a size 14. I used the ground bait mix in the feeder and fished maggots as the hook bait. The 11 foot Korum float rod was rigged with an ABU Garcia 2500 size fixed spool and 6 pound mono to a six pound hook length and another size 14 and maggot bait. Float choice on the day was a yellow tipped crystal waggler with bulk shot above the hook length knot. Bar a couple of taps, the feeder rod did nothing and I took it down about half way through the session, the only thing I achieved was losing two feeder rigs in the extensive weeds. C’est la Vie. A plus point was while trying to pull the stuck feeders out of the weeds I applied a lot of pressure on the repaired rod and it passed that test with flying colours.

A quiet start but then the float dipped and I pulled in a cracking rudd of about a pound. Chuffed to bits, I returned said rudd to the water thinking I’d be catching loads of fish of that stamp today. Of course I didn’t and none of the other rudd I landed were anywhere near the size of the first fellow. Did I take a photo of the handsome pounder? Of course I didn’t, bloody fool that I am. More rudd followed but most were tiny wee things. The fizzing kept up almost constantly, and any time it slackened off I was able to pull the tench back into the swim with small balls of groundbait. I was also trickling in loose maggots fairly consistently, not many now, just a few each time I cast.

The odd roach appeared, not big fish, only about 8 ounces but they were welcome all the same. The tench however were making a fool of me. I briefly considered moving to another spot but common sense prevailed and I stuck it out where I was. Seeing the fizzy bubbles in front of me gave me hope I could fool at least one of the obviously feeding tench. More rudd came to hand and by now I had landed north of 20 of the gorgeous golden fish.

Bites varied a lot, sometimes the maggots did not get the chance to get to the bottom, being snaffled by a rudd as they descended. Other times the float would slide away to one side, or give a little bob. I was just thinking of making a change when a very different bite dragged the waggler well under. I lifted into a nice bit of weight and some shaking from near the bottom. Down there a tench figured out something was not right and it bolted into a ginormous weedbed. Everything went absolutely solid, I could sense no movement at all. I piled on the pressure, but the rod just hooped over and nothing fishy pulled back. I tried altering the angle and dipping the rod tip into the water to get a more lateral pull. Again, nothing. Had the tench gone? Standing up, I walked a couple of yards to my left and let the line go slack. This old trick failed to work either, and with no tugging from the fish I figured I had nothing to lose by going all in with the pressure. Drag tightened hard down, I put a frightening bend in the light rod. Nothing at first, then slowly bits of weeds came floating up and hey presto! the rod kicked as a tench swam free of the greenery. The fish was quiet so I netted it and got a quick snap. Hardly the most exhilarating of battles, but at least I had landed a tench.

Once the fish had been safely returned to the water I fed some more ground bait, my thinking was any other fish would have been spooked by all the ‘noise’ I had made. Now I had to bring them back into the swim. The hook length looked OK but I decided to change it after all the pressure it had been under during the ‘fight’. By the time I had everything ready for action the fizzing had built up and I was able to cast into a patch of bubbles about 2 yards long. In the photo below you can see both the bubbles from the tench and small rises from rudd.

More rudd, none of them any size, and a stray hybrid kept me busy before the next tench showed up. A slightly smaller fish than the first one, it too tried to bury itself in the weeds but I got it out handy enough. What was noticeable was both these tench were lightly hooked by just the skin on the edge of their mouths.

From then on the fishing slowed considerably. I ate my sandwich and relaxed in the chair, just taking in the countryside around me. Swallows and sand martins swooped over the water, butterflies flittered around the grass and reeds, and a lone Lapwing kept up its lonesome cry for most of the session. Despite there being a road only a few yards behind me there was virtually no disturbance from cars or lorries. One silver saloon did stop behind me and a fella got out to ask how I was doing. Obviously a fisher himself, we got chatting. He fishes Sheelin and Owel regularly for the trout, but both have been very poor this season. The big fish kill on Sheelin will have made the situation even worse. Bernie was heading to another part of the canal for a couple of hours and I gave him some of my maggots as he only had sweet corn with him and he departed with a wave of his hand.

Back to the business in hand, and with the fizzing still happening in patches, I felt there was the chance of one more tench. Sure enough, in the middle of a spell of small rudd bites I hooked my third of the day. The liveliest of the three, this one ran around for a while till I got it under control. It weeded me as I was working it towards the net and more heavy pressure had to be applied to coax it out into open water again. Number three was soon in the meshes though, not bad for a spot that was new to me and quite challenging to fish.

Just after 2pm I called it a day and packed up. Right the last cast the little rudd were nipping at my maggots. I didn’t keep an accurate tally but it was something like 40 plus rudd, 5 roach, one hybrid and the 3 tench. As always, a good pole angler would have doubled or maybe even trebled that catch. When I was buying maggots in Denniston’s in Longford Town my eye fell on a cheap whip they had on display. Twenty odd quid, they have them in 3 or 4 metre lengths and I was sorely tempted to buy one. I resisted (for now) but I can see me trying a whip next year.

What about the pike fishing? I chickened out on spinning with such dense weeds in the canal. It was difficult to float fish, so spinning would have been a nightmare. I have left the pike gear in the car though, so any time I am out now I will have the option of chucking a spoon or crankbait for a while.

Thinking about pike fishing (I know, this is becoming an obsession), once I get the fly tying gear re-instated from the pile of boxes piled on the floor, I will make some new predator flies for the coming autumn. There is a stack of materials and even a box of 100 suitable hooks to be used up, so I have no excuses really. As a fly tyer, I have always enjoyed making small flies rather than big ones. Dainty dries on size 16’s, or multi-hackled wet bumbles on 12’s are a pure joy for me, whereas I find the constant winding of the tying silk to catch in big clumps of hair or flash is a bit boring. I’ll need to change that mindset if I am to enjoy filling a box with pike flies. Any recommendations for pike fly patterns would be appreciated from you nice people.

There you have it, a solid session on the canal. The most pleasing part of the day for me was that I managed to keep the fish in my swim. There was no signs of tench anywhere else, they were just in front of me where I was feeding. There is many layers to enjoying fishing. The dry fly angler lives for the heart stopping rise as their tiny artificial is sucked under, the salmon angler for that slow, steady draw as the fish turns on the fly, or the match angler for the weigh in after a day pulling in silvers. I’ll admit I loved the challenge of feeding the swim today. There was a lot of pleasure to be had from that fizzy water.