Bait choice

Hi Folks .


Thinking of taking part in the contest this Sunday on one of my local canals .

Fished it last week on maggot bit disapointing whilst i did catch some reasonable fish more would have been a little more of an pleasure ..

Reading round i am thinking liquidised bread loose feed bread punch on the hook , That said i have also been reading the thread about Wheat and it has got me wondering there is a seed/feed merchant not far from me so may see about a bit of Wheat ..

Your thoughts please


Thanks PG

If you're thinking of fishing a match, or even a good idea for pleasure fishing on canals in particular, there are a number of considerations in addition to bait choice such as alternative lines, feeding plans etc.

I'm way too predictable and would go for worm with chopped worm every time, it's a quality fish puller and a quantity fish puller, easy to vary the size of hookbait to sort out a better stamp of fish if they're around and the bait isn't species specific either so you'll catch anything that swims on it.

Nothing wrong with the bread or wheat approach either, just my two penneth worth.

Will you be fishing rod or pole?

Definitely give yourself a choice of baits.
Without knowing which canal, target species etc its hard to be specific but if I went "blind" to a new canal venue my bog standard approach would probably be...
Feed a cup or two of liquidised and start on the punch straight in front at the bottom of the near slope. Might still be a bit early for the punch but nothing ventured...
Have a line for chopped worm at about the same distance but off to one side a bit.

Third line, distance will vary but up the far slope a bit at the point where its about a foot shallower than the deepest water, make that 18" if deepest point is 5ft or more. Might feed punch here as well if confident about it but more likely squatt and a few maggots, in groundbait if I thought there might be skimmers present. If the boat traffic increases just follow the fish a bit further over.

Finally, right across with caster and/or chopped worm. Dont worry about how shallow it might be . Unless the water's gone clear you can catch decent fish in only inches of water especially if theres a lot of boat traffic. If theres very little boat traffic (as there isnt on the bit of canal I fish the most) its also worth feeding a few caster/ big maggot/ chop well off to one side and in the deep water. In general these will be your bonus fish lines and best leave them unfished for a couple of hours , just keeping a trickle of feed going in. I say in general because in some canals its worth the gamble of going straight out on a "big" bait for the first fifteen minutes or so but not knowing the venue can't really advise one way or the other.
Not sure about the wheat idea. Its the sort of thing that can really work well pleasure fishing but rarely in matches . Have come unstuck quite a few times myself trying to go "different" with unusual baits.
Worth having some hemp though. Feed a few grains over one of your punch lines and give it a quick look on the hook now and then. If its going to work you'll find out pretty quickly as a rule.
All sounds complicated but it really isn't. And for most canals you won't need all that much of anything so likely to work out cheaper than matches elsewhere.
Best of luck.

Generally most canals respond to punch with either sloppy groundbait or more likely liquidised bread sometimes with hemp or squatt to produce weights of small/medium Roach,skimmers.
If you need to catch quality fish it will be caster possibly with some finely chopped lobworm
It depends on the canal and the expected winning weight to be more accurate and if its a clear canal like parts of the Leeds Liverpool or a coloured canal like the Shropshire Union.

peter crabtree said:

Will you be fishing rod or pole?

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Hi .


Pole is the weapon of choice ...

The actual canal in the Dudley No1 between Hawne basin and the Gorsty Hill tunnel just outside Halesowen Bull Fisheries ..


PG .

Supposed to hold a good head of Bream, bailiff used to be a guy called John (I think), he reckoned punched bread used to work well. I've fished the other side of the tunnel where the Wharf pub used to be, but only caught a few small perch and roach

John Sturman by the market in Blackheath is probably the closest seed merchant

Rule 1 of competition fishing. Do not experiment with bait you haven't used before. Use the obvious baits like maggot, pinkie, bread punch or worm.
Rule 2. It's not a race but remember every minute counts.
Rule 3. Whenever possible look at what your oppos are catching on and copy them.....

itsfishingnotcatching said:

Supposed to hold a good head of Bream, bailiff used to be a guy called John (I think), he reckoned punched bread used to work well. I've fished the other side of the tunnel where the Wharf pub used to be, but only caught a few small perch and roach

John Sturman by the market in Blackheath is probably the closest seed merchant

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Hi ..

Yes know john and Norman still got a good head of bream and some nice roach and roach hybrids and carp if you can get them out .

Punch bread seems to be a common choice there for most also maggot and worm

I will be at Blackheath Market in the morning shop there every Saturday and use the fishing stall on the market for most things , John Sturman is where i was intending to head for in the morning ..


Cheers
PG .

So MD how did it go? Been down Wales over the weekend but I use Blackheath Market as well for bits and pieces most Saturdays

itsfishingnotcatching said:

So MD how did it go? Been down Wales over the weekend but I use Blackheath Market as well for bits and pieces most Saturdays

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Hi ..


Err not good hno: the wind was dire i spent so much time fighting the pole i switched to rod&reel but still poor, winner was 3lb 7oz then 2lb 1 then 1lb 1ox 3
i was 9th out of 20 all small catches did not fish well at all .

maybe have better luck next time i hate wind i can handle cold wet snow but wind just bugs me

PG

maggot_dangler said:

Err not good the wind was dire i spent so much time fighting the pole i switched to rod&reel but still poor, winner was 3lb 7oz then 2lb 1 then 1lb 1ox 3
i was 9th out of 20 all small catches did not fish well at all .

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Similar down in Wales mate. Found a sheltered corner of the pool about 10 Roach nothing over 6oz and 3 small Perch. What bait did you end up using?

Ian

itsfishingnotcatching said:

Similar down in Wales mate. Found a sheltered corner of the pool about 10 Roach nothing over 6oz and 3 small Perch. What bait did you end up using?

Ian

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Hi .

Pinkies seemed to be the only bait catching everyone that caught was on them with just one on bread punch

See what this weekend brings if the weather is going to be reasonable .

PG