An Unplanned Red Letter Day

Last Saturday, Kevin travelled to the Midlands ahead of Sunday's British Lure Angling Championship Qualifier at Warwick. 

It was meant to be a day spent with the family and friends, but something unexpected happened....

"I recalled the night before Sam had posted on a Facebook page that he was thinking of going perch fishing after he had seen some huge perch at a local canal stretch which had him all excited!"

The temptation was too much for Kevin! The thought of a few hours spent on the canal with Sam chasing the elusive spikey dorsal stripey beasts was on the cards. It's not often that long time childhood fiends Kev and Sam get to fish together, and every opportunity nowadays is just as exciting as it was 15 years ago.

Kevin trying every feature that is likely to hold a perch

"I messaged Sam on the way up and planted the seed in his mind, and before I knew it we were heading down the steps to the canal next to a bridge."

Sam was keen to take Kevin straight to his perch hot spot, but eagle eyed Kevin had other plans.

"I saw a few movements under the bridge', explained Kevin, not wanting to miss a likely opportunity. "I really fancied trying here before we headed further."

Kevin's first cast the drop shot lure was attacked! But the hook didn't set. It was a mixture of excitement and frustration. There's nothing that charges the adrenaline more than a bite on your first cast.

As Kevin finished cursing to himself, Sam stuck gold! The first perch was hooked, and quickly followed by another...and another. He landed on a shoal of perch one end of the bridge. A rare and momentous occasion!

Kevin persisted the other end of the bridge, moving stealthily and casting around likely features. It wasn't long before a "tap tap BANG" disturbed his peace. Kevin had found his own shoal of perch and reached a personal milestone.

"Only a tiddler, but I had just landed my first ever drop shot caught perch!!!" 

Kevin with his first drop shot caught perch

 "There were bigger fish in the swim." Kevin explained, "I had seen them chasing my lure. I persisted in the same spot. I was looking on while Sam was picking off the small perch. One after another!"

Kevin under armed his lure back in and began to twitch, mimicking the movements of an injured fish that could barely swim. Out of the murky lair, a chunky little warrior of a perch darted out and engulfed his lure. "It played like slow motion", Kevin recalled. "It's like the fish came out of nowhere, then BANG!" 

The fight was great fight on scaled down lure tackle. At about a pound and a half, Kevin was one happy perch angler. After some posing in front of the camera, the perch was returned to its shadowy lair.

Persistence and intuition pays off with a magnificent perch 

After a couple more smaller perch, Kevin and Sam moved on. It had gone quiet. All the activity must have spooked them.

The pair hit a few spots along the way as they walked down the canal. Kevin was teased by a big perch that he enticed from under the cover of a bramble bush. Frustratingly, the perch must have been wise to anger's games, as it nosed the lure and swam off. A short while later,

Sam caught another little perch and pointed out that Kevin had been hogging all of the photos. It was definitely his turn to show off a catch, however small!

Sam getting slapped by a perch that decided to let itself back

"We walked on along some of the most beautiful canal stretches I've ever seen", said Kevin. "You guys that live in the Midlands are spoiled for choice with miles of canal to fish."

The lads stopped for a short while, fishing around a canal junction. "We couldn't tempt any fish" Kevin recalls, "but it didn't matter. The lovely scenery and being out enjoying the nature made up for it."

Kevin and Sam continued trying around inlets, boats and other features. But to no avail. Now that dusk was setting, they decided to head back to the first bridge which produced good sport at the start of the session.

"There had to be more perch there" Kevin thought. 

After a long trudge back time was not on their side. Darkness was creeping in but the canal began to boil with fish activity. It was that magical moment at dusk when predators came out of their liars, using darkness to creep up on unsuspecting prey fish. 

When they finally reached the bridge, Sam was on a mission for a bigger perch, and was methodically putting his lure in every likely feature a fish might be hiding.

The race was on to catch before darkness 

"We retreated under the bridge as it got darker and colder. We must have said those infamous words "last cast" at least 20 times!"

It was almost completely dark and Sam was yet again catching smaller fish, almost every cast! Relentlessly he kept going repeating "last cast now, last cast" after every cast. At this point Kevin kept himself entertained by watching bats that had woken up for their evening shift.  

Several casts later, Sam's rod arced round, and he shouted the famous words "FISH ON!". After a short but thunderous fight in the darkness, the fish succumbed to the net in Kevin's hand.

Finally, another nice perch just in the nick of time 

A short but very chunky pound plus fish ended an immensely enjoyable short session that was completely unplanned!

The unplanned ones are always the best!

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