Canal Fishing with Bread Punch

[Rodney Wrestt]

Rodney, no wonder you struggled ,everything about the hooks you used was against you to fish hemp you need a long shank fine wire wide gape hook and definitely not a pattern with an offset point ,a 16 is ideal and I never go below that on hemp .
hope this helps

Hello Slime, the thing is I don't struggle with hemp? the hooks have performed very well on every bait I've used despite their out of favour pattern (forgot to mention, they are also eyed), I can get it to clamp on the shank without any problem on an 18. The method of piercing the shell I suggested to S.V. was because he struggled to keep it on but it's sometimes used for when the fish are really having it and you get several fish without rebaiting. I don't tend to fish hemp on the hook too often but when I do it goes OK so far.

 

[slime monster]

Apology for the mix up Rodders, Stealth should have been the recipient, hats off to you if you manage with those offset hooks mind you I am a ham fisted so and so.
I have used the hole in the hemp method also tried supergluing a raw seed to the hook and that worked quite well with a dab of tippex on the shank to mimic the kernel.

 

[Stealph Viper]

Eh, what didn't i do this time ?

I will perservere with the Hemp as a Hook Bait.

I have a couple of Kamasan B511 hooks lying around in my Hook Collection but i think they're a size 20, guess i'll have to get some bigger sizes.

I had a look at getting some Tares also, but i have been having a bit of a mare sourcing some, my local pet food store can get them but i have to buy a full sack of them and i really don't want that much.

 

[slime monster]

I only use 16 as I have big hands and struggle to get the point clear of the seed on 18s but it does not seem to put the Roach off

 

[Stealph Viper]

I didn't know you had really big hands, i just thought you only caught little Perch

 

[Stealph Viper]

I went for a little Recce on a new stretch of Canal.

It took me a little while to find it, and then find a parking space.

The new stretch of Canal i have found, looks excellent and very fishy, it's not to wide and it has plenty of Reeds and Trees on the opposite bank to the Tow Path.

I forgot to take my camera with me, but i shall take some shots when i actually go fishing.

It will be Casters and Hemp on the Far Shelf and Pinkies on the Near Shelf.

On the website for the water it says that the stretch has, Gudgeon, Ruffe, Roach, perch, Skimmers, Bream, Tench and Carp.

I think the Bream, Tench and Carp are few and far between but at least there sounds to be plenty of choice.

 

[dezza]

Here's another approach to canal roach.

Forget maggots, pinkies, squats, even casters. Take a fresh loaf of bread and some lobworms. Size 10 or 12 eyed hooks to 3lb line is about right. Your pole is probably the best method because you need to fish on the edge of the far shelf.

Plumb the depth carefully across the canal to find the far shelf. If you do not possess a pole, fish the near shelf.

Chop up a few lobs and cup them in, or use some sloppy mashed bread, For hookbait fish the tail end of the lob or a fair wadge of breadflake. Forget bread punches - waste of time.

Fish well overdepth.

Be prepared to wait, you might go several hours without a bite.

But the time will come when your float will slowly slide across the surface sinking as it goes. You strike and a huge redfin swirls, showing those wine coloured fins.

Yes there are big roach in canals, all you need to do is fish for them.

---------- Post added at 11:09 ---------- Previous post was at 11:03 ----------

Oh and read the chapter entitled "Roach" in Graham Marsden's book "Advanced Coarse Fishing."

Never were truer words ever written about how to catch big canal roach.

And I also knew a "Henry" on my bit of the Chesterfield canal in my youth.

 

[Stealph Viper]

My son who is 10 is one of them typical lads who hates the crust on his bread, so my wife has started to buy this bread by Kingsmill called "Crusts Away".

This bread will be excellent for fishing Bread Punch in my opinion, the bread itself is very light and quite small compared to normal sized slices, it would be easy to roll and you could just take a couple of slices out the pack and be ready to go fishing.

It's not available from every supermarket, we get ours from Asda.

 

[jcp01]

Here's another approach to canal roach.

Forget maggots, pinkies, squats, even casters. Take a fresh loaf of bread and some lobworms. Size 10 or 12 eyed hooks to 3lb line is about right. Your pole is probably the best method because you need to fish on the edge of the far shelf.

Plumb the depth carefully across the canal to find the far shelf. If you do not possess a pole, fish the near shelf.

Chop up a few lobs and cup them in, or use some sloppy mashed bread, For hookbait fish the tail end of the lob or a fair wadge of breadflake. Forget bread punches - waste of time.

Fish well overdepth.

Be prepared to wait, you might go several hours without a bite.

But the time will come when your float will slowly slide across the surface sinking as it goes. You strike and a huge redfin swirls, showing those wine coloured fins.

Yes there are big roach in canals, all you need to do is fish for them.

---------- Post added at 11:09 ---------- Previous post was at 11:03 ----------

Oh and read the chapter entitled "Roach" in Graham Marsden's book "Advanced Coarse Fishing."

Never were truer words ever written about how to catch big canal roach.

And I also knew a "Henry" on my bit of the Chesterfield canal in my youth.

Well, here it is, the truth in a nutshell about canals ~

There are big roach in canals that would make the purest chalk stream purist turn their heads and they take either, as Ron rightly says, bread flake or lobworms, but only the one or the other depending upon where you are fishing and never both in the same venue.

The big roach where I fish (Cov & Oxford Canals) will take lobs as big as you dare to mount on a hook, so big in fact that it seems ridiculous that you are actually fishing for roach when you hook them on your size ten.

They will not touch bread...

And you won't catch any small fish with lobs either, only those over a pound