Gourec april 07

Clear skies and warm sunshine are often not the conditions that are best for fishing, but the canal at Gourec looked really attractive, the water had that clean sparkling
look and the waterboatmen were all over the surface. I have often passed this part of the canal but never fished it. I did not fish the towpath side but instead went into the town and found a way to the far bank, No walking involved here as Heather dropped me off within yards of the bank. Winter in Brittany has been a wet one and the canal had quite a flow on it , however, it was slightly slacker on the inside, the wind was easterly and upsteam , though not cold. I set up at about 10 metres with a 1,5 gram
float . I was looking to catch roach and began steadily loose feeding caster and red maggot . The swim was just over a metre deep which was a little less than I had hoped for, but ok. After 1/2 hour I was biteless , not encouraging ! My first fish came by accident, as I was mixing a little groundbait I left the bait in the water under my feet and hey presto! a tiny perch, only a corporal this little chap, just big enough for 2 stripes. Still no response at 10 metres so I fed a little on the inside line and immediately had a small hybrid. Having now mixed the groudbait very stiff I fed two medium sized balls at 10 metres. The effect was instant , a 10 oz roach right at the front of the swim, cracked it then? afraid not. 10 mins ticked by before my next fish a roach of 6 ozs. Still at least I had a pound in the net. The next hour went fairly well and I was able to pick off odd roach and bleak but never catching on successive casts.
Coming slightly inside and holding back much harder the next hour was very productive
with good roach coming steadily if not fast. Just as I began to think a good weight was possible the swim completely died on me , any efforts to improve the situation were not helped when I was suddenly mugged by a spaniel , who despite the protests of his owner took a liking to my groundbait , with this determined little mutt crashing about in my kit plus the owner standing on the skyline I lost interest in the fishing but chatted happily to the chap , who himself was an angler and gave me some information about the area. When he left I did pick off a few more fish and ended the day with 24 roach ,
13 bleak, 2 hybrids, 1 rudd, 1 perch for approx 8 lbs, not exciting but a very pleasant
days fishing.