best way to fish canal...

[csmaster]

how and what is the best way to fish a canal for fish of around 1 lb and upwards , i dont have a pole, but have most other things, please advise on baits and methods of fishing for the fish

 

thx in advance

 

[ 25 March 2002, 08:35 PM: Message edited by: csmaster ]

[John S]

What canal will you be fishing? Someone here might have fished it him/herself recently....

 

I fish a canal pretty regularly, but as you well know, every canal is different. Let us know where you'll be fishing, and if you don't get any joy after that I'll post again with a few tips

[goin_fishin]

hey i know i didnt start this topic off but i could do with some tips i fish the leeds and liverpool up in kirkstall and rodley, and i dont have a pole........

if you could help any of you it would be appricieated

[csmaster]

i am going to fish the canal in Derbyshire, East / south Midlands....

any tips at all will b greatly apriciated !!

cheers

[John 'BLOCK']

In reply to the canal question....i regularly fish the Grand Union at the London end and find that the turning areas near marinas and in town are the best bet.Generally for a better stamp of fish you need to be hooking into bream and skimmers.The stretch i fish the roach don't really go over the pound mark (if your lucky !?). The good part about turning bays, especially ones near to locks is that the shoals of bream will then turn back on themselves to go the opposite way back up the canal if you get the bait out there waiting for them you can have really good results.Usually feeding up the smaller fish will bring the bigger ones in to investigate.Getting the right amount of bait out there and the right bait is the key....bream are renown for liking cocktail baits so its always worth a try.

Ground bait is a good bet as is crumbed bread and maggots will always score (i prefer red)as will sweetcorn.A good way to feed maggots is to kill some by freezing some overnight and add them to the groundbait, that way they don't move off the baited area !!

Obvoiusly each canal differs and some contain a good head of carp and tench if this is the case you may want to step up the tackle a wee bit...

I don't own a pole either and prefer to use a match rod (13-15 ft) set up with an insert waggler (a waggler with enought shot to reach the far bank) with 3-5lb mainline with a 2lb hooklength (Daiwa monofil is good).As a rough rule the fish tend to stay out at the far bank but it is always usefull to feed an area to the left or right in the margin.Now its warming up early mornings and evenings are best for the bream / skimmers when the boat traffic has calmed down.

A good tip is to chat with angler's and find out what has been caught, when and what baits are working best.

best of luck, the canal can be a bit hit and miss.

i hope its a hit, a good day at the cut can be very rewarding !

 

John

[csmaster]

thx for the reply m8

all the marinas/turningareas are too far away for me...but thx anyway

i will b using a match rod(carnt remember the size), or a 4 meter whip

would love some nice roaches, rudd, bream, chubb etc.... so any more tips welcome !

[davidP]

A fairly simple tip - fish with casters. This isn't a guaranteed method but it's amazing how often on canals that casters pick out the better fish. I wouldn't recommend deliberately fishing for larger fish with the whip, it's really a small fish tool. Instead I'd use a small waggler fished with very little weight down the line and try and get the fish going on the drop on or around the far shelf. Don't feed a lot to start with, just little and often with the casters and maybe a little hemp.

 

Another alternative would be to fish chopped worm with worm on the hook. You only need to look at the canal match results to see all the big perch being caught on this method, and you've always a good chance of practically every other species that swims.

[csmaster]

cheers dave

any1 else...

[phil dean]

as the weather warms up try a 1cm cube of bread rather than bread punch, but still fished on fine tackle (1lb/2lb bottom to a size twenty hook) I've had better roach on this when all around were getting small stuff on maggot, but you need to be patient