In Praise of Canal Roach

[dezza]

January is the time of year that roach fishing is really worth considering, especially if we can get a spell of mild weather.

Many waters these days do have a dearth of decent roach however, which is mainly due to cormorant predation. However there is one type of water that big roach do inhabit in fair numbers and that is canals.

It may be that the boat traffic on canals help in keeping cormorant populations away.

Canals just don't seem to be fished much these days, which is a great shame. I am convinced that if more anglers fished canals specifically for big roach, they would get the surprise of their lives.

So how does one fish specifically for big canal roach?

Simple, avoid maggots like the plague. Fish on the edges and drop offs and fish on the bottom with lobworms, bread paste, bread flake, sweetcorn or stewed wheat.

How many of you have caught big roach from canals? And by big I mean upwards of 1 lb?

 

[Poshpaul (Angling Trust and PaSC)]

Spiders and I tend of focus on extracting a large perch or two from the local cut. Perhaps a switch to the larger roach may change our luck!!!

 

[dezza]

I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday who told me that he had caught some excellent roach from the New Junction Canal recently, fish up to 1 3/4 lbs. If someone tells me that roach of that calibre are not worth fishing for, then I will go bonkers!

I have caught 1 1/2lb plus roach from several canals in my life, Incuding the Chesterfield Canal, The Grand Union Canal, The South Yorkshire Navigation and a section of the GU Canal right in the middle of Warwick.

Virtually all my big canal roach have come to float tackle fished with waggler or pole using bread, worms or casters and hemp.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - leave your maggots at home.

And within a 30 mile radius of where I live, we have some of the best canal fishing in the country.

 

[Ben Haigh]

Keadby Canal has some stonkers in, but you need big baits to get through the bits. worms and large flake seem to do the business. seen a few pics from some mates with 15-20lb bags made up of a dozen or so fish, from just before the cold snap. hot flasks, big baits and patience are apparently the way.

 

[dezza]

Exactly Ben.

It does take time to get those big canal roach moving. Old Albert Oldfield who became famous for extracting roach up to 2lbs 14oz from the Macclesfield canal used to fish bread flake, bread paste or lobworms - whole ones on size 8 and 10 hooks. The local match boys used to laugh their heads off at him until they saw what was in his keepnet.

Take no notice of match anglers if you want big canal roach,

And one tremendous advantage we have now is that we can fish for canal roach in April and May, the best time of year.

 

[Ben Haigh]

Take no notice of match anglers if you want big canal roach,

very true. one of these bags was from a spot that scotthorne recently plundered for 20lb on bloodworm. he had 170 fish in his bag?

 

[Derek Gibson]

The Albert Oldfield approach still works, it's just that everyone these days are maggot or caster crazy.

A few years ago I took a short break from piking, and over a three week period had great fun fishing the Oldfield way on a couple of local canals. So I know the method is still viable, I had plenty of roach in the pound to pound and three quarters. That is testimony to this, but I must credit Tag Barnes for this, he passed on to me the tips for canal roaching, back in the early sixties, having fished with Albert a number of times.
Ron is well aware of the Oldfield approach, and how successful Albert was at utilising it.

 

[Stealph Viper]

Excuse my ignorance, but, just what is the Oldfield approach that you are referring to ?

I too recently started to fish Canals with some success, but all of the fish i caught were only small Roach, perch, small skimmers and Gudgeon, but i was told to fish small hooks, light line etc etc

I would be interested in hearing alternative methods that i could use along side the methods i currently use.

 

[Derek Gibson]

Keadby Canal has some stonkers in, but you need big baits to get through the bits. worms and large flake seem to do the business. seen a few pics from some mates with 15-20lb bags made up of a dozen or so fish, from just before the cold snap. hot flasks, big baits and patience are apparently the way.

Spot on Ben, baits are the Oldfield way, and they are the baits I used on that very venue. Don't know whether your mates ledgered or float fished, but Oldfield was a confirmed float angler.

 

[Ben Haigh]

Excuse my ignorance, but, just what is the Oldfield approach that you are referring to ?

I too recently started to fish Canals with some success, but all of the fish i caught were only small Roach, perch, small skimmers and Gudgeon, but i was told to fish small hooks, light line etc etc

I would be interested in hearing alternative methods that i could use along side the methods i currently use.

in fairness stealph, you was specifically talking bout whip fishing with bread punch to start with, and ron did join the thread later and mention big baits on the waggler. (i remember as you showed no gudgeon photos, i love a good gudgeon me, lol)

derek, they are waggler men, and was hoping for perch on the worm till they realised the roach potential and started using their sandwiches, lol. hoping to get down there myself during the holiday period, if it ever warms up that is

 

[Stealph Viper]

True Ben,

However, being new to Canal fishing, most articles i could find relating to Canal Fishing involved the use of Poles or Whips and light Lines and small hooks along with Small Baits.

It would still be nice to hear other alternatives to accompany my fine tactics approach.

Perhaps, Pellets and Larger Punch Bread approach on the Pole, will help to tempt some larger Roach and some larger Canal Fish.

 

[no-one in particular]

Roach in January

Would just like to confirm the bit in the beginning about January being an excellent month for roach. I have been keeping records for years as some of you know and I can confirm that January is a top month for roach. I believe that the cold water temperatures bottom out in December and by January fish have had the chance to acclimatise and this particulary applies to roach.

 

[Mark Wintle]

I saw this canal approach being used by old timers on the Oxford Canal in the mid 70s.

In simple terms what they did was sit well back and use a top and bottom float casting to mid canal and fishing slightly over depth. They then let the steady draw (gentle current) pull the float around on a tight line so that the bait came to rest at the base of the inside shelf (about 12 foot out) and then waited for bites. I watched one of the NOAS mid week matches for the OAPS and found that they caught much bigger roach from the canal than I did on my tiny hook/pinkie method.

Whether it would still work depends entirely on the presence of good roach.

 

[Derek Gibson]

Mark, your summary of the situation is spot on. That describes what we call the ''Oldfield'' approach. Baits were lobworm, crust, flake, and paste, fished exactly as you describe. It ''does'' single out the bigger specimens given that they are present, as you say.

Bigger hook samples seem to be a vital ingredient.

 

[dezza]

Read all about the "Oldfield Approach" in a book which not only describes the method well, it is written by Marsbar himself.

It describes how a young angler learned all about how to catch big fish from a canal.

I asked Graham years ago to publish this chapter on FM. I will ask him again. The roach chapter in his book: "Advanced Coarse Fishing" is a classic.

Come on mate.

 

[Robert Woods]

I remember when carp first showed in Bridgewater canal round Runcorn. We ftried corn on heavier tackle (2.6 bayer to 14's hooks) and caught big roach...!!!

 

[Philip]

What an interesting thread.

I have some canals within striking distance of me and got chatting to a guy a couple of years back who was fishing a pole and a Lollipop float over depth a little like Mark describes by letting the draw of the canal pull it round so the bait came to rest against the near side ledge and then waiting. He was fishing worm and when he showed me what was in his net I was gobsmacked to say the least. I’ll have some of that I thought but I keep getting my attention taken by something else. However this thread has rekindled my interest to give it a proper go after Xmas so any more info or tips would be appreciated.

….for example I was under the impression that my chances would be improved if I fished after dark, especially if a stretch is match fished, or can I expect the Roach throughout the day ? …How fine are you fishing ? ….Are you putting any bait out ? Regular feed or just some at the start and fish over it ? etc etc ...thanks..

 

[dezza]

The classic "witching hour" when big roach get their heads down is the last hour od daylight or so. However when the weather is overcast and the water has some colour, roach will often feed all day.

Don't become despondent if you only get a few small roach. The biggies often move in during the last hour.

For most of my canal roach fishing I have used a light 13 foot float fishing rod with a small fixed spool reel, 3lb reel line and a 2lb hook length with Drennan Specimen 16 to 10 eyed hooks. A 16 hook for casters, A 14 or 12 hook for bread flake or sweetcorn and a 10 for worms. I like a gilt hook for corn or wheat. Big roach love lobworms make no mistake, no matter what some match anglers might tell you.

For floats, a lollypop float is an excellent choice. A standard loaded insert waggler is also good. I dont use poles as much as I used to, they can be very tiring.

 

[Philip]

great, thanks...sounds like the sort of tackle I had in mind...are you putting any bait out ? ...and if so on a little and often basis or one bigger feed at the start and then sit and wait ...

 

[dezza]

Oh and before I forget, make yourself some bread paste. To do this you must obtain a stale (not mouldy) white farmhouse loaf. Cut off the crusts and slice the bread. Soak each slice in water that has either been filtered through activated carbon or boiled for a few minutes. This is done to remove the chlorine.

After you have soaked the bread, start squeezing it and working it until you have a nice smooth paste.

Bread paste is one of those superb roach baits that many angling writers of today never mention.

As for groundbait, a small amount of sloppy mashed bread or some white crumb is as good as anything. Don't overdo it - little and often is the best way, and probably the best way to put it in is with a cupping kit.