the outlook is not so bleak

woke up this morning thinking about the lack of progress I had made with the A-Z. Marie was going to the gym, so I grabbed a float rod and the leftover maggots from the fridge and got a lift to the canal on London road. There is a turning basin here, with much less flow than the rest of the canal, I was optimistic I could find bleak here, even if I did only have an hour or so.
a small handful of maggots went in before I had even put the rod together and another dozen before tying the size 18 to a 3lb bottom. It was warm I thought the fish would be up in the water so I started at 3ft deep. feeding a dozen maggots every minute it took less than 5 before the first fish, a perch, latched on. I was then "plagued" by fast biting roach, they certainly honed my striking reactions but as my tally neared double figures there were still no bleak. Acting on a hunch I shallowed up to about 18 inches and bulked the shot below the float. that did the trick, as I held a wriggling bleak in my hand.
Marie returned form the gym and as I was enjoying myself so much she was happy to give me another hour or so while she went to the supermarket.

The mixed bag that followed included more perch roach and bleak along with a solitary small common bream. A perfect bronze minature of its parents rather than a traditional silvery skimmer. I started retaining some of the bleak in the landing net, intending to bag and freeze them for deadbaits later in the season. Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age, but when it came to the crunch I was happy to let them go - there will be another time to get some deadbaits before the A-Z reaches eels... Next stop Carp