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A 9 foot Daiwa Matchman ledger rod sold this month.

It's been at least 18 months since I fished the canal, so it was good to get back to one of my favourite stretches of the cut. I went to Willington on the Trent & Mersey Canal and found my usual spot, where the towpath is wider full of narrow boats. I continued down the towpath where I found a good spot. The far bank looked fishy, the towpath was still wide enough not to be in the way of passes by and there weren't any over-hanging trees to get caught in when casting my 13' rod.

Temperatures had dropped since my previous session and although the sun was out it was a chilly nine degrees with a cold westerly wind. There had been heavy rain for the previous few days and the water was coloured with quite a fast flow. After a few float and shot changes due to the wind and flow, and as I din't have a long waggler, I settled on a bobber float which I cast to the far bank with a single maggot on a size 14 hook. It was very slow fishing and a while before I hooked my first fish, a nice Roach. A small Perch followed and due to the boat traffic I decided to call it a day.