Fishing canals

Years ago I used to see loads of people fishing on the canals around Warrington, but now I never see anybody fishing on the canals.
Why is that?

Mark

i know from when i first fishe the canals around tipton unless theirs a match which in summer their is every tuesday all i see are young kids and gangs of less favourable people.
was always looking over my shoulder and with the kids it's always have you got, can borrow, have you got some spare bait or bread.
i fish for tranquility and relaxation not harrasement so wonder if it's the same else where

The only canal I fish now is the Chesterfield which seems to still be attracting plenty of anglers although it's not a heavily navigated stretch of canal like others.

I read somewhere that the number of licensed pleasure boats had reached the numbers that there used to be when the many working boats ploughed the cuts day and night and wonder if this has driven people away?

my opinion on canal fishing is a lot dont fish them now due to access and parking.in the last week i have fished the leeds /liverpool 3 times most recently on tuesday in between the locks at town lane wheelton chorley .when i arrived looked over the bridge frozen so had walk down a couple of locks and it was ice free .went back got my gear all of 80yds walk and off i went,took an hour to get a bite and i never saw the fish bottomed my elastic out and broke me,5s elastic to .08 bottom .12 mainline single caster took another half hour to get another bite finished up with 2 big skimmers around the pound mark.enjoyable 4 hrs even though it was cold .

Just a tip... I know lots of people fish to moored narrowboats on canals and if there's one that's occupied look for the forward chimney on the cabin roof and aim to fish the water below it.

The solid fuel stoves inside get red hot for many hours which i'm certain must transmit to the water immediately around it on waters where there is little or no flow, i've tested the theory many times when staying on my sisters narrowboat in the depths of winter and I can guarantee i'll catch doing this when I can't buy a bite in any other part of the cut.

There's few reasons you don't see many on canals nowadays 1s access but the main 1 in my opinion is the lack of matches on them caused by the matches on commercials, as a match fishermen myself its a disappointment as I love to fish natural waters but times changes n certainly there's bigger rewards on the commercials. An 3 people want to catch fish n want to catch carp so its seen a lot of people move to commercials, but give me a winter 10lb bag of roach any day which is why I'm off to break the ice shorlty.

The Stainy which is my local canal has opens on it around Thorne most weekends of the year and throughout the summer months the same can be said of the Junky and the Aire & Calder.