Bratchworth to King’s Langley

Slow starting Sunday, the weather was bright and sunny which made the last few locks coming out of London pleasant in the bright, warm sunshine.

Saw some nice boats coming out and around Rickmansworth to Cassio, through Watford.

These aren’t sunk.

The people obviously take care of them….

Cassiobury

Last stop on the Tube… Technically, out of London as you come out of Watford and Cassiobury. There’s a large country park in Cassiobury and crowds gather to walk their dogs, escort their children to take in the woods and waterways and suchlike. A park scene.

I was locking up at this time. And coming through the park, there were many visitors watching me and taking pictures of Bonnie.

When I was coming out of that area, the final lock, no. 76 had the first set of gates open, and the bottom gates were leaking badly. So badly, it looked like one of the paddles was open! It wasn’t, but someone leaving the other gates open had left the pound looking like this.

Me and the boat behind spent about half an hour refilling it to the point where I could just about struggle through. Scraping along the bottom…

His boat had a deeper draught and had to wait longer and run more water through, so I left him there and carried on up.

4 Boats a day, is that a lot?

His was only one of 4 boats I encountered moving throughout the whole of the day. A sunny, August afternoon on the Grand Union.

You’ve got to wonder what’s going to happen to all the businesses that rely on canal traffic. Hire companies, marinas, chandlers etc.

This whole season has completely disappeared. Not so much on this canal, the Grand Union, but on the Oxford.

The Oxford Canal, the whole of the Southern Section is now closed due to lack of water.

From an email today:

Current navigation closure between Claydon Top Lock 17 and Little Bourton Lock 27 is to be extend to Aynho Weir Lock 33

We have continued to monitor the exceptionally dry conditions, and the impact on our reservoirs. Unfortunately, despite all our operational efforts, as rainfall has remained well below the long-term average water levels in our feeder reservoirs are continuing to fall due to canal water demands. We can now confirm that, from 4pm .Wednesday 20th August 2025, the following locks will close to navigation until there is enough rainfall to replenish our reservoirs:

• Claydon Flight Locks 17-21
• Elkington’s Lock 22
• Varneys Lock 23
• Broadmoor Lock 24
• Cropredy Lock 25
• Slatmill Lock 26
• Little Bourton Lock 27
• Hardwick Lock 28
• Banbury Lock 29
• Grants Lock 30
• Kings Sutton Lock 31
• Nell Bridge Lock 33
• Aynho Weir Lock 33 *

That will have some impact, directly and indirectly.

The other thing is, I don’t see this drought ending any time soon.

Moored up

Didn’t bother going to the local pub last night. The nearest one is the Rose and Crown. We came here for Uncle John’s birthday some years ago. I know what it’s like.

Did some fishing instead as I saw some large carp lingering under the trees when I came through on the boat.

Fishing for carp in King’s Langley

Last night, dipped the float in for a little before dinner. Pulled out a minnow, first time for me, and a very small roach.

Laughable. I didn’t want to carry on, so had my dinner and went for an early night.

This morning, woke up around 5.20. Before dawn.

This gave me plenty of time and I thought I’d have a few casts before the little shits got going again.

Was just about to call it a day or change bait when this happened.

Six pound mirror carp! On bread which was given to me by an Irish guy. He was fishing for trout in the river behind, didn’t want it, and gave it to me. I chucked a big lump in and then fished around that. Took about 15 minutes, was the first real bite. I had to play it for 20 minutes before it would come into the net!

Good fish. Nice start to the day.