Darren’s top five tips for catching canal bream

1 GO SHALLOW

A swim with 2ft-3ft of water just off the far bank reeds is ideal. This is enough for the fish to confidently feed in but shallow enough to prevent you being dogged by line bites.

2 SOFT ELASTIC

Make sure your elastic is set soft so you don’t pull out of any bream. The species have soft mouths and I usually rely on a 12-16 grade Middy Pink

hollow elastic.

3 USE DIBBERS

A dibber float will remain stable if the canal is towing and will also enable you to use fairly big baits without affecting rig presentation. A

4x12 ST dibber is my choice.

4 SWAP BAIT

Keep rotating hookbaits. If you can’t get a bite on one bait, switch to something else as the fish could be in the swim and just not interested in what you are offering.

5 FEED PLENTY

Feed plenty at the start. If you don’t and a shoal of bream turns up they will hoover up what is there and move on. A carpet of bait will keep them in the swim for a long time.