Royal Canal Disappointment

Ive done a bit of pike fishing back in North West of Ireland in the Shannon and lakes close by with varying success, so im not new to the whole pike fishing game.

I decided to give the Royal canal a go this weekend. Based on a drive and a little online research i narrowed down to 2 spots around the Dublin/Kildare boarder.

Saturday:
Weather - probably a little bright. quite sunny.
Water - very clear.
Bait - floating poppers, jelly eels, and various sinking plugs.
Range Covered: about 3km
Time: 10am - 2pm
Result: Nothing

Sunday:
Weather - overcast, much nicer.
Water - quite clear. looks like grass cutter was on part of this stretch recently, not sure if thats good or bad ( probably bad)
Bait - floating poppers, jelly eels, and various sinking plugs, mostly smaller lures to see if there are any perch.
Range Covered: about 5km
Time: 3pm - 6pm
Result: one bite, i saw him, a jack pike but wasnt hooked.

For the amount of ground covered, i would have expected at least a few takes and possibly a few small perch. If you know the right spot and the right time you can get a perch on every cast out in the Shannon.

Just curious if anyone here regularly fishes the royal canal and if so, is it worth pursuing further?



note: not giving out exact locations fished as im aware its not the best practice with all the poaching, even if the fishing was terrible.