Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
Andy May on canal roach
Reigning Fish O’Mania champ Andy May reveals how you can fill your net with roach using just £1-worth of bait
ANGLERS are renowned for doing their best to save a few quid, but there is one aspect of the sport where we seem completely undeterred by the cost. We’ll hunt around tackle shops and websites to find the cheapest price for a new rod or pole, but when it comes to bait we’ll happily spend a wedge to fill our sidetray. For a standard session on your local canal you could easily spend over £30, splashing out on half a kilo of worms ‘just in case’ you go for a big perch, a couple of pints of fresh casters ‘if the bigger roach turn up’ and a few bags of groundbait because ‘you never know, the water might be coloured’. But come the end of the session at this time of year you’ll end up wasting it all and feeding it to the waterfowl, having caught all your fish on the cheapest bait of them all. When it comes to getting guaranteed action on almost any inner-city canal at the tail end of winter, you can’t go wrong with a £1 loaf of bread. No matter which canal you fish, a big head of roach are sure to play a major role in your session and there are no ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ as to whether they’ll feed. Do it right and a big net of redfins will come your way, with the contents of your wallet still very much intact. Current Fish O’Mania champion Andy May bagged the biggest title in angling on a commercial but he is much more than just a stillwater expert and spent much of his younger days on the ‘cut’. “Bonus fish can be so hit-and-miss on canals and if you added up the amount of bait you had bought and then ultimately wasted you’d be pretty alarmed,” explained Andy. “But when it comes to fishing with bread it ticks every box. It is almost guaranteed to get bites and you can buy a loaf for less than a quid.”
Inner-city magic
The water temperature at all of your local venues will still be extremely low but the acute senses of coarse fish helps them locate areas that may be just a tiny bit warmer. That difference may only be one degree more but the fish will shoal up in these spots as they try and see the winter out. Track down where the fish are sat and you are sure to be in for a memorable day of action. “All of the industry that has sprung up in town centres makes nearby stretches of river and canal slightly warmer. The protection that these buildings create prevents the harshest of weather affecting these areas and, as a result, they are more often than not packed with fish. “Once you’ve located the roach, they are very likely to play ball, especially if you rely on bread.” Andy took a loaf to the Trent & Mersey Canal in Sandbach, Cheshire, where we joined him.
“Once you’ve located the roach, they are very likely to play ball, especially if you rely on bread”
Canals better than you think
Canals have developed a bad reputation with some anglers but the vast majority of accusations levelled at these fisheries are false. Parking is often very close to the best pegs, most towpaths are wide enough to accommodate anglers and other users and the fish stocks are much more plentiful than the rumours will have you believe. “It’s important to know where the fish are holding up at this time of year though as some pegs are stuffed and others are almost devoid. “Checking match results in Angling Times can help locate the shoals, as can walking the stretch either before the session or the day before. No matter how cold it is, roach will give themselves away by topping in the swims they are sat.” Armed with a little local knowledge, Andy headed to a peg that had won a match just weeks before with over 15lb of roach and felt confident the shoal wouldn’t have ventured too far. Plumbing up lines both down the track and towards the far side cover, he started by cupping in a sizeable ball of liquidised bread on each. “You only need one loaf of bread for both the hookbait and feed. I cut all the crusts off and then put a few slices at a time into the blender and give it a good whizz until it is all really fine. “I leave four or five slices to one side for hookbait and flatten them with a rolling pin and then place them in the microwave for 10 seconds. They are then placed in a sealed food bag so that they maintain their moisture. Although bread makes up 90 per cent of the bait bill, Andy also carries less than half a pint each of maggots and casters, giving him the option of feeding over the top from time to time to trigger a response and draw in bonus fish. “Topping up with a small ball of bread once bites dry up will bring the fish back but they won’t leave in the first place if you trickle in a few maggots and casters from time to time.”
Non-stop action
The banks were clean and seemingly well maintained, there was ample passing space for pedestrians behind Andy’s tackle and parking was less than a minute from the hotspot. But would the fishing add to the long list of positives? Of course it would! It didn’t take long for the first bite of the day to register, with small roach around the 1oz mark the first to fall for Andy’s punch hookbait. But as the swim was built, so did the stamp of fish, with roach to 8oz and even a big bonus skimmer contributing to a 10lb net of silvers. “There are so many canals that respond to this minimalistic bait approach and the vast majority of them barely ever get a look in. “Save yourself a few quid next time you head out and get yourself down to your local stretch for guaranteed action,” concluded Andy.