Winning tricks from Ian Chadburn
Ian Chadburn tackles deep water with tow
WHEN canals are mentioned in match circles, it’s easy to think of narrow, shallow venues packed with boats, and catching roach on squatts.
But there is another type of canal criss-crossing the angling hotbed of South Yorkshire – and they’re certainly nothing like their smaller cousins!
Venues such as the Aire & Calder, Stainforth & Keadby and New Junction are wide and deep, built to take massive barges carrying coal, slate and steel from industrial centres and pits over 100 years ago. And anglers have not been slow to cotton on to the wealth of sport that these fisheries can provide.
Nationals, Fish O’Mania qualifiers and Winter Leagues have all trodden the grass on these big shipping canals down the years, and they’re absolutely packed with fish, from big bream and chub to smaller roach, skimmers and perch.
Given their depth and their propensity to tow wildly during the day, you might think they require a heavy-duty approach where kit and feeding are concerned, but that’s not the case.
The lighter you can fish, the better you will catch according to Rive Future Fishing matchman Ian Chadburn. Faced with 12ft of water, he’ll use rigs that at first glance look all wrong.
Floats taking around 0.6g of weight and designed to catch through the water are his go-to attack, rather than pinning a bait on the deck under a float two or three times that size. As with everything in fishing, it’s all to do with presentation.
“In such a depth the fish will often come off bottom, and that means the angler who fishes overdepth all day with a heavy float will only catch half what they would by scaling back and searching the depths,” Leedsbased Ian explained.
“My aim is to feed groundbait to draw the fish into the swim, then fish a rig that lets the bait fall slowly through the final few feet directly on top of it. It’s just as the float settles that I’d expect to get the bulk of my bites.”
To put it into practice, Ian headed to the Doncaster DAAcontrolled New Junction Canal at Kirkhouse Green Bridge, near Stainforth.
ACTIVE GROUNDBAITS
“I may be aiming to catch fish just as the bait settles, but I don’t use loosefeed to help this. Instead, I pick a groundbait mix that’s highly active, giving off lots of particles over time. This is a pint of Sensas Gros Gardons, Roach Noire, Roach and Silverfish and Super Canal Black, around two kilos in total and enough for a five-hour match.
“I mix this wet so it ends up very sticky to get straight to the bottom while carrying a lot of loose freebies. With plenty of fish to catch, you can keep the food content of the mix high.
“To the groundbait I’ll add a generous helping of hemp, casters and pinkies. The fish on this canal love groundbait, and I’ve even had them cough the stuff up when unhooking them. I’m of the opinion that loosefeeding will only bring fish off the bottom from where I want them to be.”
TOPPING UP
“I’ll feed more when one of two things happens. If I am catching roach well and bites then tail off, it’s time to add another ball of groundbait. But if I am catching
only perch with the odd roach than more feed will be needed.
“Perch are greedy fish and can eat a lot of the feed, but adding another groundbait ball with its high levels of activity will hopefully pull the roach back to where I’m fishing.”