Canal fishing tactics

[tiddlertamer]

Thanks for the advice everyone. Keep it coming on in. It's all extremely useful for beginners like me and I'm sure there must be stuff that even much more experienced anglers who use this site can learn from.

 

The canal I hope to fish is the Grand Union Canal. Anywhere outside the M25 which encircles London. Possibly in the Kings Langley area. I'm sure canals differ across the country but typically what depths will I find.

 

I suppose I should just dig out my plummet (never have used the darn thing relying on guesswork and trail and error by moving the float up and down) but are there any basic principles. For instance I imagine the centre section of a canal is much deeper than the edges. Is there a sudden drop off?

Is the centre channel itself fairly useless if there is a lot of boat traffic?

Should I try the far bank if the water is clear but the near bank if the water is cloudy?

[richjones]

hi tiddletamer

 

Im not sure that a big wide canal like the grand union would fish the same as the one i fish which is the 3m wide llangollen canal, but i have found that throughout the winter and even now still, its a complete waste of time fishing the long featureless straights of the canal, and that it could be worth targetting the wider basins.

 

A good example was when after spending a couple of outings searching out fish around the straight stretches where a few boats were moored, expecting all of the fish to be shoaled up around here, i caught on average nothing more than a few gudgeon, then on the third trip, as i was heading back as the sun was going down, with only an hour or so before my bus home, a woman sitting on the roof of a canal barge parked in a small basin/marina shouted over... " there's loads of fish around here, iv been watching them rising for the last hour". I then quickly threw in a small handful of maggots and cast in. during the next 30mins i caught no less than 20 roach, dace, and lost a bream of about 3lb at the net.

 

since then i have fished this particular basin and when fishing close to the far wall, introducing 1 small ball of black groundbait mixed with micro pellets every hour i have found it to fish as well as in summer, catching alot of nice bream and roach over 1lb.

 

Im not sure that the fish in your canal will be shoaled up in the basins in this way, but it may be worth considering.

 

anyway, im off to egypt in 6hours and fishing is strictly banned from the shores around the red sea, so my telescopic lure rod is staying firmly in the garage

so spare a thought for me!

 

Good luck!

 

Rich

[tiddlertamer]

I'm not sure that the fish in your canal will be shoaled up in the basins in this way, but it may be worth considering.

 

anyway, I'm off to egypt in 6hours and fishing is strictly banned from the shores around the red sea, so my telescopic lure rod is staying firmly in the garage

so spare a thought for me!

 

Good luck!

 

Rich

 

 

 

Enjoy your trip. The Red Sea is, by all accounts, and somewhat ironically, the most gorgeous and sublime shade of blue.

The Grand Union Canal is probably closer to a green/grey but colour ain't everything in life...

 

Good tip about canal basins though methinks.

My one and only stab at canal fishing was indeed in a basin and it was swarming with bream. Fading light and a train to catch meant I only had twenty minutes there but one of the top ten fish of my life, in terms of weight, emerged from the gloom and attached itself to my line.

And though bream have a poor reputation as a fighting fish, it even gave a really good show for itself for a minute or two before emerging on the surface and doing its finest carrier bag impersonation... It was a thing of beauty though...

[93toffee]

just to add here fellas is it worth fishing as early as this in the season if so what tactics or is it pretty much the same as mentioned? ta

[Dick Dastardly]

In Winter/Spring I find its even more important to fish as fine as possible on canals they often go crystal clear.1.1lb bottoms (or equivalent diameter hi-tec hook lengths and 22 hooks are the order of the day. Bread punch and liquidised bread is often good for canal roach at this time of year.

[DavyR]

Alternatively, I've been getting some nice roach and bream on my local (permanently coloured) canal by fishing at dusk and into the first couple of hours of darkness with bread crust or corn on a 16 hook to 4lb line. Fishing during daylight hours is pretty much a waste of time due to boat activity, so I'm not sure if it's simply a case of the fish losing their natural caution as the light levels drop.

 

The stronger tackle also gives me a fighting chance of landing the occasional carp that might wander by!

[suffolktoad]

Fish light my friend fish light, canals are usually fished much lighter and finer than rivers, lakes or puddles.