Hungerford Canal

Today we decided to fish hungerford canal. To be honest I am not a massive fan of some canal fishing. The local canal to me can be very tricky at best. Luckily hungerford canal is completely different and although a syndicate water you can buy day tickets from local tackle shops, we got ours from experience fishing. 

I love winter fishing, the colder the better, a good frost on the ground is perfect, although close it was not quite a frost at 6 in the morning when I left to pick Steve up. 

We arrived in hungerford about 6:45am at parked next to the church as it's a known area for producing big Perch, which was our quarry. 

It was just starting to get light just after 7, we decided to start by lure fishing the stretch carrying the bare minimum as we would be walking in the region of 6 miles. I used a 10 ft commercial float rod with a small fixed spool with quick drag and 6lb reel line, and small rubber jigs. We started by turning right at the church and working our way along casting nearly constantly leap frogging past each other. 

Just after the town wharf Steve had the first Perch followed very shortly by me, nothing huge but great fun. 

It was soon clear there are many Perch in the canal making it a joy to fish. I have done very little Perch fishing so my PB was only just over 1lb, which was soon beaten with a 1lb 2oz, not by a lot but still great. We had a fair few Perch walking up the canal, Steve also had a Jack Pike. 

Once we had walked for sometime we turned back and walked back casting in the same spots we had them the other way. 

As it was about 1pm by the time we was back to the start we put the gear back in the car and walked into town for a spot of lunch.

Once refuelled we changed tactics for the float and headed to the bridge next to the church for a bit of static fishing.  

It didn't take long after trickling in a few maggots to get some bites, mainly from Dace and small Roach but soon a few more bigger Perch came in. Then out of the blue something bigger was on, I thought it was a big Perch or even a Chub but when I saw the red fins I could not believe it even a boat driver going past commented on its size as it slipped into the net. I soon called Steve over for the pictures and to weigh it, I must admit I thought it was easy 2lb it looked massive, on the scales it went 1lb 15oz, not quite but still a PB and I was over joyed, I still think the Roach is the most beautiful of coarse fish. 

Steve soon came running over with a clonking great Ruff, I had never caught a Ruff so I used 2 maggots instead of 3 and fished slightly over depth and soon had my prize, and perch looking little fish, brilliant. 

It was now starting to get dark but just before I packed up the float was away again, this time a good Perch. At 1lb 10oz was another PB. With that I decided was a great way to end, what a cracking day, 3 PB's in one day and a beautiful venue, may have to return soon.