Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
Catch your first canal carp – Mark Peck
The UK’s canal network offers some incredible carp fishing opportunities. Dyamite Baits’ Mark Peck and Mark Parker reveal how they target carp from the ‘cut’…
CARP fishing on canals has become more popular as ever more anglers shun increasingly busy day-ticket stillwaters and turn to the quiet, more challenging, towpaths of the UK’s network. With more than 2,000 miles of canals in the country, locating and catching carp can be a daunting prospect for anyone starting out but, by following a few simple steps, good results are easier to achieve than you think. One thing to consider before loading your car for your first canal fishing session is that if fish weighing more than 40lb are your quarry you may as well stick to your local syndicate. Canal fish are never going to break your scales but what you do get is some truly stunning fish and a terrific sense of achievement when you catch one. Because they are relatively unpressured, canal carp can also often be easier to catch than their stillwater counterparts. And contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to fish long sessions or even through the night to catch canal carp. Early morning and evening can be the key times for catching them so short sessions before and after work is often all you need to register your first results.
Do your homework first
More and more canal stretches hold carp these days and doing a simple bit of research can soon put you on to a few fish. Its worth reading the match results in publications such as Angling Times or talking to local clubs and pleasure anglers on the bank. It’s also worth walking your targeted stretches, particularly on sunny days. Canals are relatively shallow and any carp present will soon show, particularly in summer. Prebaiting a spot for a few weeks is also worth a try if you’re struggling to find fish. The constant trickle of bait will soon draw in any carp nearby and once get used to finding bait in the area they will soon be confident enough to take a hookbait. Features are always canal carp magnets particularly on long narrow stretches. Marinas, boats, locks, turning bays and canal junctions are all good places to start. Using Google Earth’s satellite imagery online is a great way of discovering fish-holding features and this is what myself and Dynamite Baits colleagues, Mark Parker and David Spence used to track down an ideal spot for a short evening session. We picked an area where two canals met and incorporated a marina, two locks and a side pond which is used to refill the lock. This provided plenty of space and more than enough features for the three of us to go at.
Don’t bait too heavy
With only small numbers of fish expected, tactics such as spodding particles go out the window and small PVA bags or loosefeeding come into play. Heavy feeding can be the kiss of death on many canals and with so many bream around its best to avoid this. The beauty of canal fishing is the lack of
rules and so baits that are often banned on commercials, such as nuts, are a great option. Especially as bream don’t like them. Tiger Nuts can easily be fed by hand, throwing stick or catapult into likely spots on canals where you can get to the far bank or over bridges to drop your bait on to your spot. This is the approach I opted for. Where feeding by hand isn’t possible or if you require a quicker impact on shorter sessions, PVA bags of larger pellets such as 8mm Monster Tiger Nut or CompleX-T are useful, and this is what Mark and Dave opted for, picking 20mm CompleX-T boilies hookbaits balanced with matching pop-ups.
Rigs to beat the silt
Strong tackle is required but the type of rig you choose isn’t that important on canals where fish are less pressured, but many canal stretches are very silty so how you present the bait is far more important. Critically balanced or popped-up hookbaits are key. I used two Frenzied Tiger Nuts drilled out and balanced with cork on a D-Rig while Mark and Dave selected snowman rigs to prevent their baits from sinking into the mud. Helicopter rigs or chod set-ups also work really well to help keep your bait above the silt. I opted to target an overhanging tree and the deeper central channel between two locks while Mark positioned his rigs in the margins on the side pond next door. A hundred yards down the towpath, Dave had positioned his rods with a bait boat tight to some barges on the marina in order to avoid casting into them and keeping the subtle approach intact. As darkness fell, only the odd liner had stirred the bobbins but then my alarm screamed as a fish tore off with the bait positioned under the tree. Unfortunately, the hook pulled out early and much fish was gone. Mark’s alarm then sprung into life as his rod positioned in the margins of the side pond registered a success – a stunning low twenty that looked as if it had never been caught. Success! We had proved you don’t need long sessions or lots of bait to catch canal carp!