A Welcome Gudgeon

This month's fishing began on 3 October on the canal at Willington, with my Redmayne & Todd cane rod, paired with my Mitchell 300. It was another pleasant session - even though temperatures had dropped about 10 degrees since my previous session - and I landed some good-sized Roach Skimmers and Perch.

On 10 October I had a day off work and felt like a change. I hadn't been Carp fishing for a while, so I went to Markeaton Park Lake and set up in the hope of an Autumn Carp or a nice Bream. After casting a rod to a 'carpy'-looking spot just off one of the islands and another rod mid-water, I was getting knocks and could see fish in my swims but no runs. Conditions were flat calm and sunny, about 7 degrees. By lunchtime, an easterly wind had got up a little, and the sky clouded over.

After a few changes of bait - boilies, pop-ups and fake sweetcorn - it started to rain heavily, and the wind changed to a cold northerly. I saw several Jack Pike right under my peg, chasing the shoals of fry and a few Herons on the opposite side of the lake were having more luck than me, so mid-afternoon I decided to call it a day. Better luck next time.

I was back on the canal at Swakestone on 24 October, on a chilly Autumn day. Fishing maggots on the Craddock Goldie with a float, I had a steady session catching Skimmers, Roach, Perch and Gudgeon.

On 29 October, I went along to a Predator Demo hosted by the 'Earl', but unfortunately the person leading it cancelled. As I was there anyway, I fished on Markeaton Park Lake with various jigs and spinners but didn't get any takes. Just a few anglers fishing this event, and one landed a nice Pike. I did see a decent-sized Pike right under the platform, but it completely ignored my lure.