A wandering man

With another day off work I continued my search for the elusive Trent and tributaries carp, With the good weather I suspected that there would be a reasonable chance of spotting one in the Erewash canal. I travelled clad in knee length waders with the fly rod in one hand, float rod in the other and a landing net. A small backpack held a couple of pints of maggots, half a loaf of bread, fly box and a few sundry items of tackle.
To create a circular route I headed north, wading up the river Erewash,  exploring the river upstream of Dockholme bridge. Apart from a handful of 1-2 lb chub above the bridge I didn't find any significant fish in the stretch. Mostly from ankle to knee deep, there were one or two slightly deeper areas that required diverting out of the ever and onto the bank. Overall though the habitat was disappointing when compared with the meandering river further downstream. At Sandiacre lock I crossed over onto the Erewash canal,  finding a dozen or so bream backing in the sun. I spent half an hour or so watching them with free offerings of crust and flake sitting just inches from their noses... None had any interest in feeding. I kind of thought that a carp would eventually show itself... It didnt and eventually I had to move on from the well placed bench.

Carrying on up towards Sandiacre town centre I spent a while flicking a fly at the rudd and roach shoals I spotted. Whilst I was able to get a bit of interest I was unable to raise a take, I thought the maggots would be a dead cert, but again I struggled, the crystal clear water let me watch them delicately peck at the decending maggots, without swallowing, until they eventually ended up dropping out of sight below the cabbage layer, or lay ignored on the bed of the canal. I returned to Dockholme via the canal, still struggling to get bites, even on a single floatfished maggot.

I hopped back in the car and dropped down to Toton park, hoping I would find a few more fish here. I started off fishing a soldier palmer with the fly rod, getting nothing from the first swim, and failing to impress the 3 chub resident in the next peg down. They were interested, but not enough to open their big fat lips. Switching to a green goldhead damsel nymph didn't help, so I carried on downstream, eventually collecting a tiny chublet and bumping the hook on a bigger perch.