We arrived in Llangollen in the Vale of Dee, Wales on Thursday and the weather was not bad at all and the river looked OK to my eye of limited experience. Come Friday it was very wet all day and though no doubt high for the time of year again it looked fish able. I thought I might try to get a few hours in on Saturday evening but overnight the river rose two feet and was like hot chocolate ( gone cold!).
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What to do for my piscine fix?

Our cottage is literally 20 yards from the Llangollen canal so I thought I might wet a line in there. I had seen a guy fishing in the canal at Trevor and he was catching on ‘bread punch’ whatever that is with a tiny wee stick float.

Best I could do was rig up my Hanak 3# with a thingamabobber indicator on the leader and a tiny size 18 fly hook- stripped of its Caenis dressing. Like many anglers I have a few flies that are rubbish and I know I will never fish- this particular pattern was just one such pattern- so it was sacrificed.

A small coarse fish from the canal

A small coarse fish from the canal, probably a Dace.

I popped a bit bread on the tiny hook and trotted it down near the edge of the Canal. After about 10 mins the bobber vanished, a fish bit but the bait was gone and the hook bare.

A further few runs through illicited nothing. A move was in order

So the bait was gone and the hook untouched.

The activity near the bridge stopped so I moved 10 yards and tried again. Trotting down the bobber vanished and again the flake was gone. This happened about four times. I know there is a proper way to bait a hook with bread but for the life of me I cannot recall just how- so I experimented with a few methods. Success! Fish on and my first true coarse fish if you don’t count random perch and pike, or Grayling. Not sure what it was though? A Dace?