Canal Fishing Tips | Target the wides for canal bream with Alan Donnelly
Canals are generally narrow, with not much more than 13m of water to go at. But dotted along the length of most of them are wider parts.
These are turning points for boats or, in some cases, they were widened out when the canals were first dug back in the 1800s. From a fishing point of view, these wides act as a magnet to fish and anglers.
Boats don’t have too much of an impact on the waggler line because it’s tucked well away from the boat channel
Some wides can have 30m-plus of water while others can be incredibly shallow and are not all that they seem. Given a good depth and some cover, though, they’re brilliant and the ideal sort of swim to banish any thoughts that canals are all about tiny fish and battles with barges and mountain bikes.
Bream, especially, like these wider sections, but there’s a problem. Often the pole won’t be long enough to get to the fish. The answer is very much old-school, ditching the pole for rod and line tactics with a little waggler. This approach was the norm on canals back in the 1970s before the pole took over. We’re talking short rods, stumpy light floats and loosefeeding – a lovely way to catch fish.
Bream love to hang around in wide sections
My local Grand Union Canal around Tring has plenty of wides and they’re all home to bream that can be caught on the float. It’s easy to find a wide swim. The hard work is in deciding where to fish in the peg and how best to approach it. Groundbait can play a part, but loosefeeding can be better on some days.
The waggler is a great option to get the best out of a wide peg, letting you fish places you can’t reach with the pole and catch the fish that may have backed off to the other side of the canal.
I use specially-made floats by Graham Welton
It’s also a lot easier to fish than the long pole. Not everyone can manage 16m of pole, especially if the wind is blowing, then there’s the hassle of unshipping back on to narrow towpaths with bikes, joggers and dog walkers filing past.
The waggler does away with all of that. It’s an efficient method too, in fact when you’re catching well on it, it’s miles faster than fishing the pole.
Tackle doesn’t need to be specialised, you may well already have a lot of what’s needed in the shed. Base your attack around short, light floats, small hooks and minimal shotting down the line. A good through-actioned match rod is just the job. Add a few pints of casters as bait and a catapult and you’re more or less there!
An 11ft rod gives you the control for relatively short casts and is easier to use than a 13ft model. I use an 11ft Drennan Ultralight Matchpro.