hello folks,i have just started fishing the local canal(worsley/leigh) .apart from the usual newbie mistakes things are going great,catching loads of perch and the odd roach.but i would love to catch somthing else ive heard theres bream in there and any advice would be most grateful.I am float fishing at the moment with 3lb line and size 16 hooks with maggot on them. advice on any canal fish would also be appreiciated, cheers martin.
canal bream
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slime monster
Senior Member
A good starting point would be locating the Bream , I don't know that Canal ask advice from your Tackle shop or local anglers , wide areas such as boat turning basins are usually banker pegs for Bream.
peter crabtree
AKA Simon, 1953 - 2022 (RIP)
as slime says , finding them is half the battle.
If you find the shoal you should bag up doing what you are doing.
best tip would be keep feeding samples of your hookbait to hold their attention .
If you find the shoal you should bag up doing what you are doing.
best tip would be keep feeding samples of your hookbait to hold their attention .
captain carrott
Senior Member
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if you're using maggot, i've often found using reds will help pick up bream.
also you could consider small redworms and sweetcorn as bait.
one thing bream love is groundbait particularly sweet ones.
you don't need too much of it for fishing a canal either.
one other thing on canals for bream is a canal usually has 2 marginal shelves, you will often find the bream at the bottom of the drop off from either shelf.
also you could consider small redworms and sweetcorn as bait.
one thing bream love is groundbait particularly sweet ones.
you don't need too much of it for fishing a canal either.
one other thing on canals for bream is a canal usually has 2 marginal shelves, you will often find the bream at the bottom of the drop off from either shelf.
Day Breamer
Well-known member
All the above plus try loosefeeding micro pellets (regularily) and the odd bit of sweetcorn.
Buy a bag of groundbait and mix it so it is just slightly damp so it just holds together as a small ball, and try a single grain of corn on the hook.
Bream feed predominantly on the bottom, setup your float accordingly, then just sit back and have fun.
Buy a bag of groundbait and mix it so it is just slightly damp so it just holds together as a small ball, and try a single grain of corn on the hook.
Bream feed predominantly on the bottom, setup your float accordingly, then just sit back and have fun.
Colin North the one and only
Well-known member
Welcome to FM.
All of the above plus, on some venues, by introducing fairly large quantities of groundbait, sometimes the fish will move up in the water to intercept the bait on its way down. This is particularly the case on deeper waters. If you are catching loads of fish on the bottom, and it suddenly goes a bit quiet, it is certainly worth trying to shallow up a bit. Just keep altering your depth until you make contact with the fish. If you don't make contact, go back to bottom fishing and try a different bait. Brandlings and Dendras work well for bream and will catch other species too.
Conversely, introduction of too much, and sometimes any, groundbait can kill a swim stone dead. I recall winning a Winter League match on the Basingstoke Canal once when the anglers on either side of me "balled it in" and I doubt if I used a quarter of a pint of casters all day
All of the above plus, on some venues, by introducing fairly large quantities of groundbait, sometimes the fish will move up in the water to intercept the bait on its way down. This is particularly the case on deeper waters. If you are catching loads of fish on the bottom, and it suddenly goes a bit quiet, it is certainly worth trying to shallow up a bit. Just keep altering your depth until you make contact with the fish. If you don't make contact, go back to bottom fishing and try a different bait. Brandlings and Dendras work well for bream and will catch other species too.
Conversely, introduction of too much, and sometimes any, groundbait can kill a swim stone dead. I recall winning a Winter League match on the Basingstoke Canal once when the anglers on either side of me "balled it in" and I doubt if I used a quarter of a pint of casters all day
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dezza
Well-known member
To find bream in canals and fenland drains, you need to do a great deal of walking. Bream shoals colour up the water wherever they are feeding. They also cause a great deal of bubbling and at times they roll on the surface.
Bream tend to roll as a prelude to feeding too.
If you find a spot where bream can have been located, try this:
Introduce groundbait in the evening in large quanities. Next morning get there at sparrow blow and start fishing.
I have lost count of the times I have caught large bags of bream using this ploy. It works very well on canals, slow moving rivers and fenland drains.
Bream tend to roll as a prelude to feeding too.
If you find a spot where bream can have been located, try this:
Introduce groundbait in the evening in large quanities. Next morning get there at sparrow blow and start fishing.
I have lost count of the times I have caught large bags of bream using this ploy. It works very well on canals, slow moving rivers and fenland drains.
Day Breamer
Well-known member
Quite possiblty true, but i believe that sometimes rolling Bream are not always seen as they can roll just beneath the surface of the water, they might actually be there and you wouldnt neccesarily see them.
I am not sure if rolling is a way of the Bream 'cleaning' themselves whilst feeding or if they are simply 'coming up for air' during long stints of feeding...
Either way, seeing a Bream roll is a sure sign of their current location and this should never be ignored, nor should you ball in your bait without first checking to see if there are any Bream already present... do not just rely on 'seeing' them.
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Canal bream shoals are very localised concentrations, consequently matches can be won from one hot peg with the two pegs either side providing second and third place whilst everyone else in the match struggles to get anywhere near the bottom end of the leading weights.
A match on the Coventry canal last winter saw competitors breaking three inches of ice but still the top weight was a very impressive 38lb of bream, with the second place going to the peg next door.
I walk the cut every day and can tell you that it is not at all easy to locate the shoals when the water is heavily coloured by boat traffic, however I have located one shoal this summer in hot conditions when the fish came up to the surface to bask. There were a couple of hundred bream in groups of five or six and up to twenty fish, spread over an area of three pegs with a mile of water either side without any visible signs of bream whatsoever.
Skimmers however, can be picked up just about anywhere in one and twos, sometimes more.
A match on the Coventry canal last winter saw competitors breaking three inches of ice but still the top weight was a very impressive 38lb of bream, with the second place going to the peg next door.
I walk the cut every day and can tell you that it is not at all easy to locate the shoals when the water is heavily coloured by boat traffic, however I have located one shoal this summer in hot conditions when the fish came up to the surface to bask. There were a couple of hundred bream in groups of five or six and up to twenty fish, spread over an area of three pegs with a mile of water either side without any visible signs of bream whatsoever.
Skimmers however, can be picked up just about anywhere in one and twos, sometimes more.