The weather was foul, the water cold, but the canal still gave two anglers just what they’d come for
IBEGAN my angling career as an excited boy, desperate for anything with fins to pull my float under! I didn't have a clue what I was doing, and this was the best bit, because that mixture of naivety and mystery is what I miss the most.
As I cycled to and from the Grand Union Canal, little did I know that I was destined for some great fishing adventures – but I can never replicate those magical early days. We all have to grow up, and I duly deserted the canal for bigger quarry.
That said, when I visited my local tackle shop, Premier Angling , and heard their social media manager Gareth Mayers talking about his spring tenching trips to the Kennet & Avon, I was all ears.
Judging by his pictures, he’d been doing okay. These weren’t big fish by national standards, but it was where they were from that made me sit up and take notice. I decided to play my trump card, which was an Angling Times feature in return for a guided trip.
Rain, rain and more rain was forecast, but there was a short three-hour window at daybreak on Thursday, if Gareth was free – which happily he was. Date and time fixed, we met up in the Wiltshire town of Devizes. Here are Caen Hill Locks, the longest straight flight of locks in the country. Sixteen of them were built to get the Kennet & Avon to rise 237 feet in two miles, part of the 29 in total known as the Devizes flight. Completed in 1810, Caen Hill became a local hotspot for specimen carp and pike. Alas, in the last decade otters have thinned them out, but Gareth insisted there was still fun to be had.
When I pulled up next to Gareth’s car and we cut through a Devizes housing estate with our tackle, nobody was awake to see the barrow go by, save for a jogger, also happy to enjoy the peace of an early spring morning.
Within a minute we were on the towpath, looking at a series of lock pounds that resembled ponds rather than a canal. Fishing isn’t allowed on the flights themselves, but there are still plenty of places for anglers.
Gareth pointed out a row of barges which just had to hold fish. The cover, warmth and extra food offered by canal boats make them go-to places and, as the first on-board chimney billowed out smoke, we began to set up as the sun rose over Wiltshire.
To reach the hulls, I guessed 16 metres of pole would be needed. That was a bit too extreme for us, especially as tench were our goal, so we both opted for a quivertip rod with the reel spool
