We head to Lapworth Top Pool – a ‘canal’ with a difference – plus 10 hot river clubs to join this season
A pool off the Grand Union offers perfect peace!
IT’S a canal angler’s dream – a stretch of cut where you never have to ship in your pole for a passing boat.
Well, for visitors to one small length of the Grand Union Canal at Lapworth that’s a reality.
Alongside the main channel, yards from the lock, is a small basin stuffed with fish – and not a single boat can pass through it!
Lapworth Top Pool, near the famous Hatton Lock Flight, began life as a water-saving basin to refill the lock with water as boats passed through it.
On most UK canal locks of the same design this reservoir serves only this one purpose, but here in this peaceful Warwickshire village where the Grand Union and Stratford Canals meet, the pool has been turned into an angling haven.
This unique day-ticket venue is run by PERLS Angling Club which offers fishing on more than a dozen pegs for less than the price of a pint. The fish you find in the canal are also in the basin, but thanks to a wire mesh separating the pool from the main cut, bream, rudd, carp, roach, perch and tench can no longer escape.
This has given the club, with the help of the Canal & River Trust, the confidence to stock the venue with even more fish without the chance of them swimming away.
“There are even F1s swimming in here,” says local matchman and venue regular Richard Ray.
“You can fish for your favourite canal species with the usual rigs and not have to put up with all the boats. The Top Pool being off the main channel means that few walkers and cyclists will pass your peg, so it’s more like fishing a lake than a canal.”
Richard has been fishing here for a couple of years and has had enjoyed excellent catches, particularly in the warmer months: “I’ve had 50lb bags
on some days. The skimmers average 2lb-3lb but I’ve also caught lots of roach, eels and the odd tench. I’ve also seen anglers come and catch some of the carp, which go to over 20lb,” he said.
A lot of anglers who come here like to fish the pole with typical canal baits such as worm, maggots or casters, but Richard prefers to fish the feeder.
“I use a standard groundbait feeder cast around 30 yards close to the opposite bank when I’m fishing from the railway line side.
“I use small pop-up boilies, as they sit well out of the silt for the bream to see them,” he added.
If your local towpath is too busy but you fancy some great canal sport, why not head to Lapworth this weekend? PRICES: £3 a day on the bank or £20 for a season ticket, PERLS AC CONTACT: 0121 686 5909 LOCATION: Lapworth Top Pool, Canal & River Trust car park off Brome Hall Lane, Lapworth, Warks, B94 5RB