Had an exceptional day on the canal yesterday with 59 small Perch falling to the Micro Wind darting technique!
On a previous session I noticed that the perch were extremely active still, so I returned with Micro Wind in mind, as it’s not something I’ve successfully made work in the canal before. From the first cast I was into fish. Previously I had my doubts whether I could make the darting technique work effectively in the skinny canal waters, while working the lure slow enough to give the fish a fair go in 18-inch visibility. Lure choice and rod angle ended up being the solution.
I married an AquaWave Spark 40 with a 2g Issei head from the Umitaro. And then controlled the depth the lure worked by raising or lowering the rod tip. Because the canal is bath-shaped that meant I had to keep my rod tip high at the start and end of the retrieve, and flatter through the deeper middle section. It didn’t seem to matter so much if the lure touched down briefly as long as I flicked the lure upwards.
For reference, I was using 3lb FC leader, PE0.3 braid mainline and a 5g-rated tubular rod.