RINGER TO THE RESCUE
Guaranteed warm water no matter how cold the air temperature ensured some memorable catches on the Sankey Canal
How long should feeder hooklengths be?
“In the 1960s the area was famous for its nets of tropical fish”
THESE days the word hotties probably conjures up slightly different images in the minds of North West canal anglers than it does in most others.
Although nubile females may well be a close second, to many match and pleasure anglers The Hotties was a stretch of the Sankey Canal in St Helens, where the water was warmed by an adjacent glassworks.
It was a superb winter fishing venue, providing locals and visiting anglers with great sport in the bleakest of weather. The warm water outlet from the factory was capped in the 1990s, but back in the 1960s and 1970s the area was famous for its nets of tropical fish, allegedly dumped by a pet shop owner. There were even rumours of an alligator – although I doubt many Lancashire pet shops stocked those!
The colder winters would freeze other canals but good sport could be had from the Hotties, even if some of the tropicals had teeth that would bite through hooklengths.
Along with the cichlids, guppies and mollys, there were bream, roach, dace and gudgeon, as well as occasional carp feeding in air so cold the steam from the warm water would condense, leaving a frost on woolly hats, even eyebrows!
I used to love my winter canal fishing and one of my favourite winter jaunts in the mid-tolate 1980s was the Safeweight League run by Pat O’Connor on the Midlands canals. If memory serves it was a sold-out 240 pegs, and teams from all over the country entered.
I recall one match fished through pretty thick ice was won with almost 6lb of ruffe! They’re pretty scarce these days, possibly due to the invasion of zander which, in turn, now provide some sensational sport on sections now deserted by match anglers...because of the zander.
What we need are more Hotties...agreed?