All Comes Good Fishing The Bridgewater Canal....

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update I hope I find you all well and your nets wet.  Another week on and another week closer to the rivers opening and i can almost feel the start of the season in sight.  I have booked the opening day off work and at the moment a few plans are being talked about as to how we are going to start the season.  One such plan involves being on the bank as the clock strikes 12 on the opening evening, something i have never done and if the weathers OK and the rain leaves the river in a good state then fingers crossed for this happening.

Onto this weeks update and we start with the introduction of course, this week it include the next part on how to fish the canal and this week we look at the different lines we fish on the canal, not line as in tackle but the places within the canal we feed and fish.  Also in to introduction is a look at something that recently happened at a local lake involving the swans that nest there and we finish up covering a little trip i had to Go Outdoors using a gift voucher up.  The fishing this week See's me taking a huge, but calculated risk on going all out on one bait.  I was confident but would it work?

On to the update.

What Lines To Fish On The Canal..

So in previous updates we have talked about where on a stretch of canal to fish and then gone into detail on baits and tackle to use, so you find yourself sat on your box with your pole rig ready to go and your bait box loaded with bait and you are faced with the canal in front of you.  A case point to remember here is all canals are different and they can change dramatically from swim to swim even within the same canal but we will work on the principle of a standard straight on a canal where boats go right down the middle.

The diagram below shows a cross section of the canal and as you can see it is not the simple straight down across and back up dug out piece of water it seems.

This is when the most valuable piece of kit you own comes into play and its a piece of kit that baffles me when i see people just set up and cast in. This piece of kit is of course a depth plummet and it will allow you to find out the places you want to fish on the canal.

So lets look into the different areas on the canal and how i fish them..

The inside line...(yellow Line)

The canal generally will go to about 2-3ft right off the very edge at your feet and then go out at this depth for a bit then as it reaches the boat lane it will gradually drop off to a point where the canal levels out, normally at around 4 sections of pole.  Using your depth plummet you want to keep shipping out inch by inch till you find the point where the the slope finishes and starts to level out, this area is known as the inside line and is a place fish will patrol and feed along as all the food that falls into the canal will slide down the slope and settle here.

This line i find as soon as i am set up, i line up with a far bank marker and mark my pole so i know i am right over my bait when i fish it.  I feed this line straight away with two balls of ground bait laced with pinkie.  I do this so this line has time to settle and fish to come in while i plum up my other lines as by the time i have done that there will normally be fish waiting on this line.

Down The Middle Line....(Red Line)

This line is exactly what is says on the tin its a line fished right smack bang down the middle of the canal.  The line is a dangerous line to fish as it is right where the boats go down the middle and i have found it to be hit and miss on and changes from canal to canal.  The canals where there is a lot of boat traffic you can do well on it as the boats coming one after each other does not really bother the fish who are by nature of living in such a coloured canal used to finishing fish by smell and feeding in this water.   A line if i am honest i steer clear from as you can never really know where you bait is after its been churned up by boats but does seem to produce well early mornings and is a good line to move out slightly onto if the fish back off early on in the session before the boats start up.

Bottom of Far Shelf....(green line)

This is the exact same part of the canal as the "inside line" but on the other side of the canal.  The far sides of the canal are normally a lot shallower than the inside and the you normally find a more dramatic drop in depths.  Moving your pole along the far bank towards yourself you will find a gentle change in depth and then it will drop quite fast into the boat lane and you are looking for the point where the canal levels off and again this is where food will naturally collect.  This far bank line you will see later on in the blog as it is the line i fish in this weeks blog so to see how well this line can fish read on further down the blog.  A line i fish with baits like castor and maggot due to it containing a better stamp of fish that stay clear of the tow path side and the noise that goes with it.

Far Shelf Line......(Blue Square)

This line is fished right over the far side of the canal any where from the edge of the canal wall back towards the drop off.  I start off on the other lines whilst i feed this line with maggot or castor and leave this line as long as possible before i go over and fish it.  This line is where i expect to catch well and also a better quality of fish.  Big fish like car, tench and bream love to hug the far bank line and a carefully fed swim built up over a few hours feeding can be deadly and produce some surprises.  A line i normally fish on the pole but also a great line for the waggler as the shallower depths make holding bottom easier and also a line you want to be fishing over depth on as not to spook the fish.

This line is a priceless line when you want to fish a all day long session on the canal as its well out of the boat traffic so you know your bait is not moving away and also when you look at a canal after a boat has gone thought it is always the edges that clear first so this with better light can mean some fantastic fishing.  Also the line i would choose if i was baiting up the canal for carp with boilies and hemp as you know your bait is not going anywhere.

Shopping Trip Stocking up....

I was recently given a voucher for Go Outdoors and i had a few quid still on the card so this week i decided to pay the shop a little visit to see what i could pick up.  With the river season fast approaching i decided to stock up on tackle i use week in and week out in great numbers, weights and hooks.   It is safe to say behind line for hook lengths these two are by far my most common purchase with a number of hooks being lost on each session to either snags of blunting from catching the fish. 

These hooks are my new favourite hook after the Kamasan Animals and its purely down to the smaller size of the hook compared to the animal i choose these ones as you will find a size 14 or 16 in these hooks is the equivalent in size to an kamasan animal 18 or 20 and on some days you really want this smaller hook.  I am not really a fan of using big hooks for chub fishing either as i have landed plenty of chub on size 20 and size 18 hooks i don't think twice now and the fact i use mainly maggot and caster means i rarely need a big hook.

A nice purchase that will see me OK for the first few months of the season.


Some Sick People In This World

For some years now my trips to the local canal have been made even more magical by the local pair of swans who each year appear on this canal and raise a  number of young cygnets.  It has been great to see them arrive, raise a family and then see this family grow on through the year till they part.  Well it is with great sadness i logged into Facebook a week or so back and saw the horrific news that someone on a bike had pulled up grabbed a stick attacked the swans to the point they moved off the nest and then thought it was "fun" to smash three of the five eggs on the bank side path!!

Needless to say the pair have abandoned the nest and the two eggs in it and up to yet are showing no signs of trying to raise another brood.  What is wrong with these people? Seriously what is wrong with the people in this generation where we have people who think that this is OK?  It really does make me worry about the people in this world my children will grow up with.  It is not just a local thing either i an a regular viewer of Stewart Bloors videos and he reported this week that a coots nest had been attacked with stones and smashed eggs all over the nest! 

These are the pictures from facebook i posted them just to show the world how sick some people can be.  I only hope Karma is real. Not so much a rant than a release there but, even typing this bit now i am like "Why!!. 

On to the Fishing...

Putting It All Together On The Bridgewater...

So after a number of weeks fishing the canal with quite good results i have felt it was time to draw some conclusions from the trips and try and have a session where i tried to get the best from the swim i was fishing.  The session unfortunately came on the same day i was due to attend a wedding party in the evening and with a few jobs still to do that day i only had a few hours to fish in the morning.  This in mind i knew i would be fishing from around 5am till 10am.

The past few sessions i have fished pinkie and maggot down the edge and experimented with a number of baits to target the better fish on the far bank line.  The better fish had certainly come on caster and on the passed session they had come down the bottom for the far bank shelf line.  This line had produced a nice tench along with some quality bream and roach but i had not really targeted this line all session so on this session i was a man with a plan i traveled to the bank with only Hemp and Castor shown below.

Pluming up i found the base of the far bank shelf and fed two good pots of castor and hemp and i also set up a far bank line just in case the warmer weather saw the fish move back up the shelf.  I also fed this line with the odd sprinkling of castors all session just in case the swim i intended to fish died or did not get going. You always need a plan B on canals and sometimes a C and D.

The session in all honesty got off to a great start with the float shooting under as soon as the castor hit the bottom with a quality bream.  I only set up on top kit for the session and that was with white hydro elastic, the thought behind this was i wanted to target the better fish and i knew there was a good chance of a tench or big bream showing up so i wanted to be prepared, i knew i might bump the odd smaller fish but i was thinking that if it was small enough for me to bump then it was a fish i did not want to catch any way.

After a number of put ins i was into a strange stamp of fish that looked like skimmers but certainly has some roach in them.  They put up a great fish on the pole and i am certain they were roach bream hybrids.  The swim either way was rammed with these fish and they where of a good stamp and as each one went into the net i began to think if these keep up i would be on for quite a solid net come the end of the session.

After every other fish i fed the swim with a cad pot of castor and hemp.  I was sure there would be fish feeding on the bait as it fell through the water columns so i did not think i was over feeding the swim.  This amount of bait is quite unusual for a canal session but the bites where coming thick and fast so i fed the swim as per how i felt the fish where feeding.

My thinking was that getting a decent bed of bait down might see a shoal of bream turn up and if this happened it could really pile on the weight quite quickly, remember on this session i was trying to get the best from the swim by trying the best method i had found for getting the better fish.  Normally with castor it can be a waiting game for really big fish like bronze bream and tench to come along but on this session a good stamp of bream where really on the feed.  Eventually the swim die off and i knew something bigger had moved in, a slow bite developed into the float sliding under and i was into a better fish, not a tench but a nice bream that gave itself away with the rhythmic thudding on the elastic as it came in.

As the session wore on some better quality fish started appearing amongst the skimmers and odd better bream and as with other sessions it took a while for the roach to start to come on the feed.  I believe these fish move up and down the stretch searching for food and when they move in the area they then show in your catches.  A fish that is the real prize for any canal angler and although not the big roach i know are in this canal i was happy to see roach starting to show.

Within the last hour of the session the bites kept coming with bites coming thick and fast and i was sure i could have fed the swim with even more bait and maybe got some of the tench in on the act.  These tench might have even settled on my far bank line but this line was not even looked at due to the fishing being so steady on the line down the track.  It is very rare on the canal for one line to fish well all session and in that last hour the bream moved in.  I landed one and lost two, in hindsight these would prove costly as they would have sent me over that 20lb mark.

Like with all good sessions they are over all to soon and i was gutted packing in as i knew i had put together a solid weight and given the rest of the day god knows what the weight would have been.  The final net went over 19lb of fish and needless to say i was over the moon.  The plan in my eyes had worked in i had battered my biggest weight for this season off there and given the net did not include a single tench 19lb of fish shows how steady the action was in just over 4.5hours fishing.

Going home reeking of success that only comes with a canal bream session i was over the moon and that evening sat in the beer garden the first pint went down a treat

Till next time i wish you all

tight lines

Danny

 

Pole Fishing the Bridgewater Canal - What Tackle To Use

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  I start this weeks update by again saying how well it has been getting such great feedback to these canal blogs.  This week i have received quite a few messages and emails saying that the previous two blogs have really helped them out in tackling the canal.  Feedback like this is like a big boost in the arm when writing blogs as there is no better feeling than someone letting you know that your writings have in some way helped them.

The previous two updates are listed here:

WHERE TO FISH ON A CANAL - Canals roots dating back to the industrial times can look quite featureless places and as such we have to take advantage of any features we find.  This blog shows how i go about picking out places to fish on the Canal and it also crosses over to my river exploration.

WHAT BAITS I USE FOR CANALS - This blog update covers all the baits i use on canal fishing sessions from the tiny pinkie through to corn.  This update also includes a small video on how i mix my ground bait for canals.  The session is an in depth look at how i use different baits to figure out my approach for waters.

This weeks blog update See's me looking at the tackle i use for fishing the canal and a simple rig i use for fishing the canal.  A look forward to this weekends bank holiday and my plans and the introduction finishes with a look at the upcoming river season.  The fishing is a session on the Bridgewater Canal where i have a play round with a few baits in preparation for a big hit session the next weekend.

On with the Update-

Tackle To Use For Fishing A Canal -

In this part i will try and share how i fish the local canal and i will break it down into two sub headings.  The first will cover the pole top kits i use and the second i will cover the terminal tackle with the current rig I'm using.

Top Kits For Fishing The Canal -

Number 6 Elastic - Pinkie/squatt line mainly - I have one pole kit fitted with really light elastic which is so soft you need to net every fish basically you catch it is so fine.  This is the first elastic i use when fishing a new section as you can hook and not bump every fish you strike into as it is so soft.  This i use mainly on my pinkie and squatt line as generally the fish you catch are smaller roach and skimmers.  A great place to start when wanting to judge what fish are in the section.

Blue Hydro Elastic - All Lines - This is probably my favourite elastic to use out of them all as it is soft enough for you to catch most silvers but also gives you a chance if you hit a bream, tench or big perch.  The elastic does have a lot of stretch in it so i find it lacks the back bone to ease fish like perch, tench and bream away from snaggy swims like reeds etc if you are fishing near them.  A great all round elastic for open water and my normal far bank maggot and castor top kit.

White Hydro Fitted with Puller - Castor/maggot/corn line - This elastic only comes out when i know there is a high chance of catching better fish and if i am hitting fish regular on the other elastics but either not getting them in or it being a real struggle.  I use this elastic mainly when i go all out for better fish on castor and hemp.  My though here are that in know i will bump some smaller fish but if i do i work on the mentality that if i did bump it, it was probably not a stamp of fish i am targeting any way.  As strong as i go on the canal and an elastic you should get most fish in on a canal barring big carp.  Probably the most exciting fishing is when i use this as i know i am going all out for bigger fish.

Terminal Tackle I Use For Canal Fishing -

There is no doubting that when fishing a canal our approach has to be more refined than fishing any other type of water.  In summer the canal is more coloured than winter so you can get away with the rigs i am using at the moment but come October to winter you will have to really refine right down sometimes to tiny size 22 hooks and one pound breaking strain hook lengths for bites.  The main thinking here is that summer and winter fishing on a canal are two completely different animals all together.

Canal Floats - 12x 4 floats
To be honest this is an area i am completely lost on and there are so many different weights of floats which just confuse anglers i think.  I go into the shop and i pick a float that looks light with a nice long bristle.  If i am looking at weights along the side i normally go for a 12x4 float.  I don't really look at this in to finer detail as i know when it comes to fishing with it i will have the weight shotted so the bristle is a mere pin prick.

Line - Bayer Perlon 1.7lb or 2lb1oz -

At this time of year i will fish my line straight through on 1lb 7oz line.  I find this line is fine enough to get bites all day along and catch small and big fish alike.  A lot of anglers use hook lengths but with tench around i work on the mind set that i don't want any breaks in the line that will create a weak point.  On the far bank line and when using a bigger hook like a 18 or 16 hook i will up to 2lb1oz line.

Hooks - B525 size 20 or 18 hook

On the canal i rarely go above a 18 hook unless i am using a bait like worm of corn.  Fishing rivers for chub has taught me that hook size does not necessarily equate to increased chances of getting a

fish in.  I regularly fish the river with a size 20 or 18 hook and even with the pressure of the river you find the hook well in the lips of the fish and not going any where.  Hooks i have ultimate confidence in and catching all the fish you see in my blog for the past few years.  Be prepared in winter though to tie up a few rigs at home with size 22 or even 24 hooks.

Weights -
 Probably the most important item of tackle behind the plummet shown in the picture for me.  You would be amazed how a weight pinging off your line can change how your float behaves and fishes.  When you get on the canal the first thing is do is plum up then set my use the shots to set the float.  This where your smaller shots like number 12, 11 shots can be the difference between a full bristle showing and a sensitive rig to just the tip of the bristle showing and a ultra sensitive rig.  Little difference like that make a huge difference.

My Current Rig Setup -
I always set up a few rigs at home as it saves so much time on the bank.  Tie the hook on using your favourite knott, i use a Palomar.  Then spool off enough line for the swim you are going to fish, you will find most will be covered by your top two sections. Slide on your float and pole rubbers to attach the float to the line and tie a overhand loop in the top to attach the rig yo your pole.  Set the float about the depth you are going to fish and add a bulk shot half way down the rig, for me its normally 2 to three number 8 then attach two number 12 shots equal distant apart form the bulk shot down to the hook.  One pole rig made and ready to go, it is a simple as that.

Well that's tackle covered next weeks update will cover where i fish my lines on the canal and why i fish there.

Bank Holiday Circus

In fishing you are always learning that goes without saying but i also think you have to also learn from past experiences and that is so true when it comes to Bank Holiday weekends.  They are always very appetising to me as an angler, what with 3 whole days to go at and the high chance in May of warm sunny weather.  Experience has taught me to think other wise though.

Bank holidays are a great time to go fishing but picking your right venue is a must and taking time to make sure you have chosen well is essential.  time has taught me to avoid places like canals, club waters and commercials as major hot spots for instance.  The weather and bank holidays seems to mix together to encourage all types of idiots to emerge from winter hiding and converge on waterways in the hope of either exploring the outside world of going fishing.

One example that springs to mind is a trip a few years ago on Flushing meadows fishery.  I arrived as the gates opened and enjoyed a good half an hour of peace and quiet before it happened, an idiot arrived.  A few lads spread evenly round the pool i was fishing a margin line on big pieces of meat, minimal feed, you don't need it on here when after the carp.  A whole bank to set up on he pegs in 7 maybe 8 yards up the bank.  So scene set picture this, he then opens a whole tin of sweetcorn, the big tins, then proceeds to hand full by hand full lob in the whole tin of corn.  To my amazement he then picks up another big tin of corn out of his box and begins fishing.  I just shook my head in shock at first but i must admit it was funny seeing his swim like a Jacuzzi of bubbles as the bream had a feast while he sat without a bite all day watching me catching fish in the margin.  By midday he was over asking questions and i helped him out but it just shows what it can be like had he fished the margin and put that in none of us would have caught! 

Canals avoided for the obvious regatta of boats that will be out in force come the weekend and on most canals they start quite early on compared to normal weekends out.   This weekend i am planning on getting some decorating done although i do have a pint of maggots so i might get out for one of two.

River Season Round The Corner

Where has the time gone it seems only yesterday we wrapped up the pike season and the river season and now its only just over 20 days till we will be back on the banks of the river.  Personally i have enjoyed the challenge the canals have brought me this closed season.  Working out a new stretch and then it all coming good has been a great achievement for me and i have also enjoyed writing theses blogs.

It has also been a time of great change for me both with two children under three and moving into a new house that needs decorating head to toe it has meant fishing has really been an as and when affair.  My plans for the early season are to explore the places we found chub last year and see if the warm weather brings in other species like roach and dace so that is something i am really looking forward too.  The new river season is certainly on my mind a lot now and that will only increase as we get closer.  I might run a small series in the introductions of my favourite sessions on the river as we draw close as i think that would be fun so look out for that.

On to this weeks update

Mixing It Up On The Bridgewater...

Sometimes in angling i think you have those moment where your head is full if that many ideas on what you want to do on a session you end up not giving your all to one particular plan and not getting the best from that scenario but on the other hand i also feel you need to have sessions where you try new things because if you don't how will you ever know the reaction of the fish to another bait?

The previous session i went with a game plan of fishing caster over the far side and this worked really well but i was yet to settle on a set game plan for the big hit session i had planned for this venue before the rivers opened again.  This bit hit i was hoping would be a Nice round off to the canal sessions but before i committed and drew up a final game plan for that session i needed to explore all possibilities and i think this shown in my bait tray.

As you can see it contains almost all the baits mentioned in last weeks blog with Castor, hemp, maggot, pinkie, ground bait and pellet all on show.  To gauge the reaction to the baits from the fish i fed two short lines down the shelf, one on maggot ground bait and one on pinkie and ground bait.  I also fed a line on the far shelf base and one  right over on the shallow far shelf.

Fishing 4 lines is never easy and it involves a lot of feeding and topping up of these lines and i knew concentration was the key and i also knew mine would drop as i caught fish so i set myself a short window to fish and was to be packed in for 11am. 

The conditions on the day looked perfect with a cool day planned with plenty of cloud cover i expected the middle lines to produce well early on and the far bank lines to also benefit as the fish do seem to spook on that far shelf in the sun.  Both lines fed on the near shelf with two balls of ground bait on each one laced with pinkie and one with maggot.

I started over my pinkie line and was straight into fish.

This line was providing plenty of bites but all seemed to be of this stamp or smaller so i fed one more ball of ground bait and went over to my maggot line.  The fish on the maggot line where noticeably bigger and by a good way with some nice skimmers mixed in to boot.

This in my eyes was showing me that maggot might just be the way to go down the track for the slightly better fish and this was proved even more when i moved back onto the pinkie line and picked up another small roach.  The maggot was picking up better fish but i was still picking up some of the smaller ones as well.   While messing around on these lines i was flicking the odd few casters over my far bank line whilst also stopping in between to feed the bottom of the far bank shelf line with castor and hemp.

I have to admit it was hard work juggling 4 swims while trying to concentrate on fishing the swim i was in at the moment.  I fished the inside line till bites dried up and knowing that boat traffic may hamper my chances on the 3/4 line i went over this first on castor.  The bite took me by surprise as it was quite quickly i was into a fish and as i expected the castor was picking out a better stamp of fish on a consistent basis.

On this line i expected it to be quite an unknown as it is a line i really don't fish when on the canal so it was a great discovery for me as better fish after better skimmer kept coming to the net and the session was really coming together to show me some new stuff about canal fishing.  It was then the bites died completely so i went over the far bank line as surely there would be fish waiting but no nothing at all.  I went round all three lines again down the middle but nothing, you could say big fish moved in but on all three lines at the same time? Not a chance and i knew that i had a pike in my area and it was on the hunt.

This was confirmed by the fish in my keep net all coming up to the top as if there only chance of survival was to get out of that keep net.  As with all my sessions i had a pike rod to hand so i reached over for it and put it together and readied it for action.  Eventually i managed to catch a fish on the pole and bringing it in resulted in the normal bow wave behind the fish, this pike was only small but certainly on the feed.  The fish i was bringing in had been grabbed and had a deep laceration down its flank so it was on the hooks he went.  It didn't take long before the pike claimed its meal and was having its picture taken before being released away from the swim.

It always amazes me how silver fish know a pike is on the feed and it is still quite surprising to me how quickly they settle into feeding again once the pike has gone.  Swims that hadn't produced a fish 10 minutes ago now alive with bites and this is the reason i take the pike rod as you could literally be waiting ages for the pike to move non otherwise.

I went over the far bank line as i hit the pike down the middle so i guessed it would be best to rest the lines.  The fish over the far side where OK fish but not as good as down the shelf where the better bream seemed to be.  I settled down back on my castor line down the middle and after a few bream i hit into a real bonus fish in a 4 1/2lb tench which really showed the benefit of castor.

To be honest i stuck on this line for the remainder of the session as i was intrigued as to how it would fish and learn from it.  It fished well all the way till 11am and the quality of fish coming on this line went from strength to strength with some really nice roach showing as well.

I called it a day as a load of boats trundled right through the swim.  It also felt like the right time to call it a day as i had learnt a good lesson fishing a new line and had something to build on.  A 10lb8oz net in only a few hours i was made up.

Well that sums up another blog update i hope this weekend is kind to you all,

till next time

tight lines

Danny