Short session on the Shropy

[Corneybury]

Another short session on the Shroppie, two days ago , off the back of my narrow boat, Happy Days. On the Middlewich arm, we moored up near Church Minshall (where we enjoyed a very nice meal at the Badger), and I managed to fish off the back of the boat for an hour or so, with a glass of red in one hand and a rod in the other. Started knocking out small roach on maggots by a reed bed on the opposite bank, and then in quick succession, a two pound bream, (which necessitated a rapid assembly of the landing net, whilst my wife held the rod), followed by a very feisty one pound perch. A string of largish roach followed, and then it all went dead. No idea why, but it was time to get to the Badger anyway, so no regrets. My first session of 2017, and it has whetted my appetite for more. Sadly, the appalling weather over the next two days has precluded any more angling activity

[John Harding]

Corner bury,

Great to hear you are enjoying some sport on the Shroppy, the Middlewich arm is certainly a good length. Perhaps the reason your sport suddenly switched off is because there are a lot of fair sized carp in that area and and as we know once a carp moves in they tend to move the smaller fish out. I hope the weather picks up as I am hoping to get out on the Shroppy myself in the next few days.
Regards,
John.

[Corneybury]

Would have been nice if I latched into one of those carp, but very happy with my bream, perch and roach using 3 maggots. Was fishing using a float set up as close into the reeds on the far bank as I could manage by casting. Needless to say, it resulted in a number of arguments with shrubbery on the far side, which necessitated replacement of floats, hooks, shot etc. Are there any tench in there? Got a nice run on sweetcorn, but I parted company with what ever was on the business end fairly rapidly - it didn't seem too big.

[John Harding]

I haven't heard of any tench being caught in that area or indeed in the southern sections of the Shroppy. The only area that I have known tench to be caught is the length between Chester and Ellesmere Port, particularly in the Backford area which runs a few fields behind Chester Zoo. This was also the area that everyone wanted to be when canal fishing matches used to be very popular as there are also quite a lot of bream in that area.

Regards,
John

[Corneybury]

Alas, back home down south now. Not due back on boat until August Bank holiday, when I will, no doubt, have another go. Let's hope the weather is more friendly next time. In the meantime, I met this fellow angler at Church Minshall who was far more skilled and traditional than I will ever be.