People have mentioned most things already, but the thread reminded me of my fishing mate's unorthodox "punch" fishing. I don't fish punch often, and I find the method a bit fiddly - prep'ing the bread, keeping it from drying out, punching bits on a hard surface, knocking odd bits off shipping out etc - so I walked down to see how he was doing with it. He was taking his bait out of a lidded box, which was tiny squares or triangles of rolled bread cut on a breadboard at home. He was catching roach every put in. Typical triumph of skill over equipment - I'd watched him bag up on the stick for years before I noticed he'd snapped a couple of inches off his rod tip, and the second ring was now the tip ring.
I've just bought the cheap winter card for a club that has some good canal roach fishing at Loughborough, and I gather you need to fish bread in the clear water, so I'll have to brush up on it, if anyone has any good tips.