The big perch in Hunt’s always appeared to lie in the most inaccessible areas of the basin. A favourite haunt was directly below the bridge parapets towards the side of the sheet metal works. It was difficult casting an old tank aerial and Nottingham star back to the desired spot, and the only way to get the bait anywhere near these fish was to climb inside the bridge and straddle a kind of partition which separated the railways lines. Once inside the bridge you were invisible to the railway lines and the canal towpath (unless somebody looked up of course). Edging your way across the inside the bridge girders, and being careful not to look down, you could position yourself, rod, reel and bucket, in such a way as to be able to lower a bait directly over the fishes head, this being only a mere ten foot above the water!
Fortunately, I never hooked a large perch and I dread to think of the problems I would have encountered had I done so. The thought of hoisting a three-pound perch, from ten foot up, between my legs doesn’t bear thinking about. The smaller fish however, came up with little trouble, although it must have come as a bit of a shock to anyone passing below, seeing a perch flying out of the water.
The Coolers, which were large power station cooling towers, really were an hotspot for both perch and pike alone, access was however, again a little tricky. Most of the noted hotspots were situated opposite the towpath in the grounds of the power station, and it did take us some to discover how we could actually gain access. This was however discovered by chance. The power station occupied the off-side of the towpath while the cooling towers sat on the towpath bank and at a number of points bridges which held pipes crossed the canal, there was one pedestrian bridge for the workers, and on all our attempt to cross here, we had each time been either chased away or caught. One of the pipe bridges was our only chance. While fishing from the towpath one day we did notice some maintenance workers on a pipe bridge, when they had finished we discovered as trap door, which when lifted, gave access to the inside. It was a tight squeeze even for us and at times the pipes were hot and other times quite steamy. Passing the rods across the pipes was also difficult and it often required the test curves being stretched to their limits, and the bucket had to be left behind. The fishing was however superb, a fish a cast on some occasions. Indeed we took some quite exceptional perch in these warmer waters, mainly over sandy bottoms of which the area was largely made up. We made numerous trips to the far bank and sport was indeed plentiful until one day when we arrived at the bridge, we were horrified to find a new iron manhole cover that was locked, replacing the wooden door and the entrance to the bridge. We had been sussed and that was our lot really as we never experience the same sport while fishing from the towpath, great days though, if not a little hairy at times.
