Big canal roach

[daniel121]

Hi guys,

Thanks to another Dave I have came arross this video, after watching his is nostalgic video over my morning cup of tea, the next suggested video was this one

YouTube

I come from Nottingham and I personally love to fish for these fish, the only large natural roach I've caught nowadays are from the trent in the summer. I'm going to be honest, I would not know where to start I know the trent and mersey canal had large predator and alot of small fish years ago.

Have any of you guys had any luck regarding this type of fishing?

 

[peterjg]

Daniel, thanks for putting that video on the forum. I enjoyed watching it, proper fishing.

I do quite a lot of canal fishing for roach on the K & A canal. In winter when the boats stop unless we have had a great deal of rain the K & A runs gin clear which makes the roach fishing so difficult. In winter (like the video) bread is the best bait but in summer bread just gets mullered by the tiddlers. In summer corn or pellets seem best. I usually start on the K & A and when the boats start I move onto the nearby river Kennet. With big roach light/water clarity is more important than water temperature. Big roach, the hardest fish of all!

 

[mikench]

I too really enjoyed the video! I reckon his rod was a Matchpro Ultralight! I love roach fishing and just wish I was better at it!

 

[markcw]

The Bridgewater Canal used to do some big roach every year. I have had 3 genuine 2lb fish from one stretch, it may have been the same fish over a number of months, I have not fished that stretch for a few years now so I don’t know if they large roach are still there,or the shoal of 3–4lb bream.

 

[wetthrough]

or the shoal of 3–4lb bream.

Apparently they are. The pole guy I was talking to had 17 out just before Christmas apparently.

 

[markcw]

Apparently they are. The pole guy I was talking to had 17 out just before Christmas apparently.

Gordon was that the stretch in Lymm near the Village , I wont mention what part in case I decide to go back, the shoal was always in the same place, All I will say is tha it is between the Village and Dog bridge (Oughtrington bridge )

 

[mikench]

I sense a little outing is on the cards! I have signed the official secrets act Mark.

 

[nottskev]

Good video - a bit of inspiration for some close season canal fishing. The lift method is a nice way to fish, but impractical on a canal with a lot of movement back and to from locks. If you fish a busy canal for bigger than average roach, what's your preferred method?

 

[peter crabtree]

I've had my best results using pole and caster up the far shelf. You get better control when it starts moving, bites often occur when the flow lifts the caster whilst holding back on the pole.
The same effect can be achieved on a bomb and caster, but the bites are very fast and harder to hit than on the pole with a short rig.

 

[The Runner]

Great video.
Some big roach in the Slough Arm but very rarely caught as the water is generally tapwater clear. Can regularly see small shoals of them swimming about but very mobile and don't seem to settle- a couple of years back there was a shoal of half a dozen that were mistaken for chub until we got a better view. Wouldn't like to guess how big.
The odd ones that have come out have generally been on bread fished overdepth on days with murky light. Best I know of was one of 1-15 that our club sec had in a match three or four years ago, he's definitely no bullshitter and reckons he lost a much bigger one the same day.

 

[wetthrough]

Gordon was that the stretch in Lymm near the Village , I wont mention what part in case I decide to go back, the shoal was always in the same place, All I will say is tha it is between the Village and Dog bridge (Oughtrington bridge )

It's between Dunham and Lymm. Bear in mind he had diddly squat when I was there!

 

[Keith M]

The once very popular match stretch of the Grand Union canal called the ‘Lady Capels stretch’ between Watford and Kings Langley used to hold some lovely shoals of Roach over the pound mark up near the ‘boom swim’; and we used to catch them down the far shelf using caster on the hook and feeding hemp and caster.

There also used to be some large roach along the far bank of the ‘wides’ swims plus some large bream shoals, and there used to be big Chub hugging along the far banks all along that stretch.

You rarely see an angler along there nowerdays since the Matchman moved onto the commercials back in the day.

Im going to have a couple of days there in the spring just to see if the good fish are still along there.

Keith

 

[markcw]

It's between Dunham and Lymm. Bear in mind he had diddly squat when I was there!

Got your pm, it wasn’t the stretch I was on about. The shoal arrived more or less the same time each day, we tried baiting up further along either side of the “patrol” route. But never had much luck,the odd carp used to show but when you were after bream and roach they were a nuisance.