How's this setup for a canal?

[Haydenr25]

Hello

As you can see by the title, i'm going through my basic canal fishing tackle. I'm looking for some advice e.g. rigs, line, hook sizes, baits.

Please keep in mind that I haven't been fishing for a long time (only around a month or so).

12ft Match rod, 3 sections
Shakespeare open face reel
2-3lb line (not quite sure off the top of my head)
Size 18 hooks with 2.2lb break strain
5'' float, orange tipped
One AAA weight 3'' above the hook, two no.8 weights to keep float in place, 1-2 size 6's spread equally apart between hook and float.
White and red maggots, canned sweetcorn, and a few strawberry flavoured boilies (approx 1-1.5cm diameter)

The canal is about 3-4ft deep, i do plumb the depth, the swim is roughly in the middle of the canal.

Went out today and had no success, pretty sunny day, slight breeze. I bait the swim roughly every 10-15 mins with maggots, throwing around 20 or so in.

P.s. today i used a 7ft rod, tomorrow im planning to use exact same setup but with my 12ft.

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Hayden

[BoldBear]

Haydenr25 wrote:- "5'' float, orange tipped"

A tad small for the average canal, I would use a 4BB to 3AA waggler which can be cast anywhere even against the far bank while still being fairly light and sensitive if shotted correctly.
A float like a medium sized 'Canal Grey' or a small to medium 'Onion waggler' or insert waggler is what I would use on the average width canal.

Haydenr25 wrote:- "One AAA weight 3'' above the hook, two no.8 weights to keep float in place, 1-2 size 6's spread equally apart between hook and float."

The following is the usual standard shotting pattern for using a waggler on a canal which enables the angler to cast easily without tangles and is also an ideal setup for casting against the far bank with the hooklength flying behind the float on the cast as long as you don't feather your line as it lands.

NB. Also try fishing an inch or two off the bottom.

Haydenr25 wrote:- "White and red maggots, canned sweetcorn, and a few strawberry flavoured boilies (approx 1-1.5cm diameter)"

Unless your canal is a known Carp stretch; leave the boilees at home.
Maggots (red or bronze) are usually fine, or try pinkies on a size 20 hook as they are sometimes better than the humble maggot. Or try casters to pick out the larger fish in the shoal once you get the fish feeding. If your stretch of canal has decent sized Chub in it then try Casters within a foot of the far bank and no further away (Chub love to hug tight to the far bank).

Haydenr25 wrote:- "The canal is about 3-4ft deep, i do plumb the depth, the swim is roughly in the middle of the canal."

Choose two lines to fish so that if a barge ploughs through or the fish get spooked then you can move to the other line which you have also been regularly feeding and carry on catching but remember to carry on feeding both lines regularly.
Two lines that are usually worth feeding and fishing are bottom of the far shelf where you can pick up Roach, Bream, Perch etc. and tight to the far bank where you can pick up decent Chub; or if Chub are not present then another good line is on top of the far shelf a little further away, for Roach, Rudd and Perch.
Don't be tempted to feed all over your swim as you will be spreading any fish all over your swim and not concentrating them to your chosen lines.

Haydenr25 wrote:- "Went out today and had no success, pretty sunny day, slight breeze. I bait the swim roughly every 10-15 mins with maggots, throwing around 20 or so in."

Now that the temperatures have started to fall; Feed only around 5 to 10 maggots every minute or two until you start getting fish feeding and when the fish start to compete for the feed increase as necessary.
10 minutes between each feed is far too long and feeding smaller ammounts much more regularly is a much better way of attracting feeding fish.

Best of luck

Keith (BoldBear)

[Haydenr25]

Thanks for the reply Keith

I've just read this, going out on the canal today. I'll definitely try out the shot patterns, and there are a few carp in the canal so i'll still take my boilies just incase.

Many thanks,

Hayden.

[dave fish]

try fishing at half depth i had the same problem fishing bottom and catching nowt ,changed to half depth and catch rate was doubled almost straight away,tight lines

[Haydenr25]

Had a good day lads. Had a few roach and perch, nothing special but still an improvement on saturday.
I tested the shot pattern, my float seems more bouyant and sensitive now.
I'll have to try the half depth method sometime next week.

Many Thanks,

Hayden

[MaggotLover]

Don't forget the humble worm :)

[Haydenr25]

Thanks for all the advice lads.
Going to the canal again tomorrow, any ideas on using bread as bait ?

[NICK R]

There are four main ways of fishing with Bread, these being the punch, flake, paste or crust.

A bread punch is a small tool that has different sized little cups on the end that punch out small pellets for hook baits. Bread punch can be used to devastating effect
Bread paste is bread with the crusts removed and a small amount of water added then kneeded until it becomes a doughy ball.

Bread flake is a small flake of bread that is nipped on to the hook to present a very natural and slow sinking bait.

[Haydenr25]

Thanks Nick,
I already know that i need to buy a bread punch to create bread punch.
What of the other three ? How would I go about setting those up ?

[chazyboi]

i use alot of liquidized bread for feed, clouds the water nice and holds the fish feed casters and mags with it and a red on the hook ,,i use 18s but sometimes go down to 20s and a light canal float dotted down with bulk round the float and a single num 8 bout 2 inches from hook ,if there is a slight flow i will use a quill float so i can let the bait roam had some good roach this way,,, keep it simple hayden