Canal fishing

Just got into fishing the last month or so.Had about a dozen small roach on maggot last week,.This morning not a bite on sweetcorn.Anybody any tips on bait for the canal.3lb main line to the hook,although i have been advised to use 2lb bottom,which i am wary of doing due to the size of some of the fish.I am using size 20 hook.(and yes my surname really is Fisher)

There has been a big drop in temperatures over the last couple of days Tony, which will affect the fish until the weather stabelises. Three days of consistent temperature, warm, wet, or cold usually does the trick. If fishing a canal I would tend to feed squatts and fish maggot or caster as the weather cools. Even a bunch of maggots, on a bigger hook (size 12) will work for the bigger fish.

Casters should sort out the better fish Tony, use a 16 hook and bury it inside the caster. Feed a bit of hemp along with a few casters. This should bring the fish into your swim matey.

If you are in doubt about using 2lb bottoms, use a stronger mainline with a 3lb bottom. When you fish direct it can break near the float(where you put the shot on) and this can lead to a long length of line trailing behind a fish. If you use a weaker strength hooklength, it should break before the main line. Although having said this, if you set your reels clutch correctly, it shouldn't break anyway.

have a look for ian heaps video-fishing the whip on canals,using bread as bait.very instructional,as are all his videos i find.

I every1, as anyone got any tips for cannal carp, where i live theres a lot of carp whice im findin hard to catch.

U can see the fish feedin on the top so was thickin a floatin bait but ducks are putting me off. Any idea's???

soz about the spelling!! using a little keypad thing aroun a mates!!!

Stuart look here

Does the canal fish all year round or does it go quiet around this time?
I was gonna have a dabble on the river this Sunday coming,but 3 days of rain and it is now fast flowing,think i need a bit more experience first.

I have been fishing for a few months and up until last week only fished the canal (GU in Milton Keynes) All my larger fish have been taken on corn with 1 on a lump of meat...

As people will testify I have found the small perch cause a nuisance when fishing maggot!!

Everyone on this fine and informative site have told me to persevere, I have and it's paying dividends... By going at it slowly, reading lots and making small tweaks and improvements to my float fishing things are steadily improving and I'm enjoying it more and more!!

Though I have found nights on the canal better, lack of boats and disturbances etc and all my fish have been caught no more than 4 or 5 feet out from the towpath side....

Keep at it and the lads on here will see you right!!

Canals contain some really superb fish - Roach for example.

Most people make the mistake of fishing in the middle of the canal. If your canal has bushes or trees overhanging the opposite bank, this is where you should be fishing. And of course, the pole really comes into its own in these circumstances.

Casters are good. Bread can be even better. Don't use much in the way of feed. A few pieces of mashed bread or 1/2 a dozen casters fed little and often.

If you don't have a pole, fish right under your own bank, next to bankside rushes. If a boat passes, don't worry too much. It's not boats that fish associate with danger, it is you on the bank, so keep low and quiet.

In my area I have the Chesterfield canal and the South Yorks Navigation, both of which hold very good roach. I have had pound plus roach right in the middle of Rotherham before today. My brother took a 6lb chub from the Chesterfield canal on a large lump of luncheon meat a little while ago.

The boat track can be great in winter though Ron, especially with chopped worm as bait!

It's funny Eddie but I have not had much joy in the boat track. On the edges yes.

Many of us, including myself do not spend as much time on canals as we should. The best time for the roach on the canals is into the evening as the light fades. And fish on the deck.

I know what you mean Ron but all canals are different mate.

I havent done that much canal fishing for small fish these last few years, but the Trent and Mersey in cheshire was always better over the far bank, and as a general rule we used to struggle down the track!

The Bridgewater Canal however would often provide bites no matter where you put a bait, sure some areas of the canal were better but you could get bites virtually wherever you cast!

Actually Eddie, the last thing I am looking for on a canal is lots of bites. As you imply, these mean small fish.

But there are big roach and other species in many canals that don't really get fished for.

Many years ago roach up to 2 3/4lb were taken from the Macclesfield Canal by the legendary Albert Oldfield. This guy was a bailiff on this stretch and knew every inch of that canal.

He used to fish into the evening using bread paste, flake or whole lobworms. He fished the margins and many of the match types used to laugh at his tackle - 4lb line and size 10 hooks!

He always fished on the bottom - laying-on style - for a few hours into evening - with a shot on the bottom and the float at half cock.

The match types soon were laughing at the other sides of their faces when they saw the size of the roach he was catching.

He caught scores of 2 pounders from that canal!

And further - when I was no more than a kid, I used to fish the Chesterfield canal a lot in the Worksop/Ranby area. Those of you old enough will remember that this canal was very clear. The size of the tench, roach and chub, which you could see, would amaze some anglers. Yet they often told me that they were uncatchable.

Then I met this old bloke who lived in Worksop. He only ever fished the River Idle, The River Ryton and the canal. He was a big roach expert who scorned maggots. He used to laugh long and loud at the Sheffield anglers with their maggots catching lots of tiddlers on this canal.

I've forgotton this old blokes name but all he ever used was bread paste, with a bit of sloppy mashed bread as groundbait. I still remember his old cane rod with the set in the top piece, his wooden star back reel and his ancient creaking basket. The roach this man caught were monsters to my young eyes, maybe not 2 pounders but certainly he had many over the pound.

Even Graham Marsden, writing in his book - "Advanced Coarse Fishing" remembers a similar character.

All canals seem to possess them in those days. Anglers who understood the ways of big roach.

Much of the lore of roach fishing seems to have been lost in the mists of time. Much of the recent stuff written on roach fishing also seems very match orientated to me. When did you last see an angler using bread paste for example?

I have alway thought that if you want big roach you must fish in a way designed to avoid small roach. And that means using any bait other than maggots and fishing into late evening!

Even Tony Miles will tell you that the first "big" fish he ever caught was a roach of well over the pound on a lump of legered breadpaste fishing into darkness on the Grand Union Canal.

Tony, winter canal fishing can put a newcomer off for life but never give up.
My advice is, with the onset of winter you will find that the fish will shoal up in the same areas every winter,when you find this is happening,walk the cut on a Sunday morning when there is a match of some sort going on,and,when they weigh in, follow the scales making a mental note of where the weights come from and what species were caught.This way you will be able to build up a picture in your mind of the good and the bad pegs.I fished the G.U.C.
around Milton Keynes for 25 yrs and there where stretches 2-300yds completely devoid of fish,then 6 or 7 pegs stuffed to the surface.Why not keep a diary? a lot of us do.The more you get to know the more you will enjoy your fishing.
P.S. if you do have a look a match dont stand directly behind an angler,half way between pegs is o.k tucked up in the hedge,I'm sure you realise this though .
happy days.