13/04/2012 - Kegworth Cut

I'm lucky enough to live within spitting distance of several canals, but have never really paid them any attention in the close season. However, this year my intention is to have a good go at them with my light lure outfit. All of them, with the possible exception of the Erewash Canal, now give a good chance of a zander along with the usual suspects of perch, pike and chub. In fact I've entered into a bit of a competition with my mate Tim to see who can achieve a predator "grand slam" in a single session. We'll have to see how we get on with that! Today I had a couple of hours free after work, so stopped off at Kegworth Cut. To call it a canal seems a bit grand as it's basically a very short section of navigable channel that by-passes Kegworth Weir and is only separated from the River Soar by a long thin island. Anyway, the club book says it's open all year 'round, so that's good enough for me!

The Cut

Started at the downstream end where there's a wider section where boats moor up before going through Kegworth Deep Lock. Was using the "Big Hammer" shads I got from AGM Products. Second cast up into the lock itself with a 3" shad in pearl resulted in a thump on the rod tip and a fish that briefly thrashed on the surface before coming off.  A few casts later I had a take under the rod tip from a little jack.

First blood to the "Big Hammer"!

Had another one of a similar size from the basin, then winkled his brother out from underneath the only boat moored on the section. Upstream of this point the canal was pretty featureless, so after a few half-hearted casts, I was soon back down near the lock. Had a little perch follow a minnow pattern, so cut the shad back by an inch and mounted it on a smaller jig head as recommended on the AGM Products website. Unfortunately that seemed to be that as I couldn't buy another take. Nice to be out though, even if it was just a couple of snatched hours.