September, a month to remember

September's fishing began on the canal at Stenson Bubble, float-fishing red maggots with a 10'6" split cane rod and Hardy Altex reel. I landed plenty of Roach, although strangely the Perch were absent and when the bites stopped, I moved downstream and watched the Buzzard circling overhead between bites. I did a double-take when I watched a Terepin about the size of my hand float past.

After being cancelled due to the pandemic, the Earl of Harrington's annual fancy dress charity match was back at Allestree Lake. Eight of us fished the six-hour match and I managed a good third place with two small Perch. Three Roach took second place and three nice Bream took first place. Conditions were ideal for fishing and I was surprised we didn't catch more, oh well, that's fishing.

My next session this month was back on the canal, this time at Findern, on the day of the Queen's funeral. There was hardly any traffic on the roads and the towpath was pretty quiet as was the boat traffic. I landed several good-sized Perch, float-fishing red maggots with a 12' hollow fiberglass rod and Mitchell 300 reel.

I heard there were a lot of small Carp at Heatherton Pond which is known as a specimen water and a difficult water to fish, but it's near where I live and a nice place to fish so I thought it would be a nice place to catch a few of the smaller fish.

I used a strong line on the Mitchell 300 just in case I hooked into one of the larger fish and float-fished my Avon rod using red maggots, sweetcorn, and pellets on a size 12 hook. It wasn't long before Carp of one to two pounds were landed as well as some nice Rudd, which I didn't even know were in the pond.

Then back on the cut for the next session, this time at Shardlow on a stretch I'd not fished before, near the first or last lock before the canal joins the River Trent. I had a good session catching Dace, Perch, and Skimmers, and was told by a passer-by It was a good stretch to fish in winter for Bream with bread or sweetcorn for hook bait.

The final session this month saw me back at Heatherton after those smaller Carp and Rudd. The session was a bot of a washout, although I did catch one of the small Carp, it started to lash it down with rain so after a while and no more bites I called it a day.