Canal fishing

[markcw]

Mike go on ebay and see if you can pick a "system" whip up.
Top 3 tele, other sections take apart, Daiwa do some good ones, Middy do one but I cant comment on that due to not having waggle with it.
Or splash the cash and get Daiwa Coinnesouir, or Preston Response or Drennan Acolyte, all are just over £200.
The Daiwa is better value because you get a couple of spare topkits.

 

[nottskev]

Loving how this has accelerated to suggesting a £200+ whip for someone who just wants to try whip fishing and canal fishing for the first time. In my teens I got given a glass 6m Shakespeare tele. I adapted it to allow me to fish a long line over a lock runners to fish far bank reedbeds, landed big fish by collapsing sections, shoved a piece of lead in the butt to balance it to hold like a rod - it was heavy - and used a hollow tip someone gave me to fashions a prototype elastic system. Lots of fun and cost next to nothing. The all-tele 5m Garbolino I have is far better for dealing with unexpected big fish than the Daiwa system whip I have - it's much more flexible and elastic; the Daiwa is "boxy" and stiff by comparison. I'd get a cheap tele and see if you like fishing with it.

 

[Keith M]

I don’t think I’ve spent more than £75 on a 7mtr whip and my shorter whips ranged from around a tenner (for my cheapest whip which I bought for my son when he was younger) up to around £30 to £50-ish for my other three proper whips which are still going strong after 15 years or so.

I don’t think I would pay anything near £200 plus for a whip, but then again I no longer fish matches.

Keith

 

[markcw]

The £200 comment was a tongue in cheek post, even I wouldn't spend that on a whip.

 

[silvers]

You would be sitting in the middle of the towpath, not ideal....

He’d be sitting in the middle of the hedge on some of the grand union near Brum!

 

[silvers]

A lot (not all) of canal bank is concrete or brick, even retained by metal plating - so therefore very solid.

In contrast to the op, I prefer to sit with my boots pretty much to the edge of the cut.

i personally do use a box (or canal seat like the top box shown earlier) but unlike some I prefer to be as low as possible to the water when floatfishing. In fact, on my very first national on the Leeds-Liverpool canal the water was gin clear and the bank quite high. So I sat on the bank with my legs dangling down. I caught more tench than anyone near me, which I like to think was not a coincidence.

 

[103841]

£200???

go the whole hog and get a Browning Silverlite whip, start at just £649.

 

[mikench]

I have gone off the idea of a whip or a pole. I have all the time in the world. I will visit canals though.

 

[mikench]

Simple and effective trolleys please for negotiating canal towpaths.

 

[peter crabtree]

Which canal is local to you Mike?

 

[mikench]

The Bridgewater, the Leeds Liverpool , Trent Mersey and the Macclesfield canal are the closest and favourite Simon. It will be mainly the sections on the Warrington Angling Association card

 

[markcw]

The Bridgewater, the Leeds Liverpool , Trent Mersey and the Macclesfield canal are the closest and favourite Simon. It will be mainly the sections on the Warrington Angling Association card

Mike steer clear of the Macc Canal at Congleton unless you want a net full of motherless minnows, admittedly there are some decent silvers there, but the minnows are all along that canal. The Trent and Misery can be hit and miss, same with Leeds Liverpool,depending on where you fish,
The Bridgewater is good around Dunham, Agden boat yard for pike, Lymm for various catches, Walton near warrington sports club is good. And dont forget Wally Res as the locals call it (in the licence as Appleton Res) it's a good water for feeder fishing.

 

[mikench]

Gordon shall be my guide and mentor.

 

[wetthrough]

I can give you excellent directions Mike. As for mentoring, I'm still living down 3 Tench to none!

 

[mikench]

Having fished a canal for the first time time since i was about 12, it was a pleasant experience and the towpath was wider than expected but I have a canal box and trolley now so the future is bright. I bought an NGT trolly which worked perfectly and was easier to pull than my wheel kit on my chair is to push.

I found the flow and tow to be greater than expected particularly when one changed direction. I don't think there are many locks on the Bridgewater so is it gravitational pull? . The boat owners were pleasant and slowed down on approach and I have to say I will be going again.

Whilst issuing will be variable due to conditions and the canal itself, is feeder fishing as effective as the float ?

 

[markcw]

Having fished a canal for the first time time since i was about 12, it was a pleasant experience and the towpath was wider than expected but I have a canal box and trolley now so the future is bright. I bought an NGT trolly which worked perfectly and was easier to pull than my wheel kit on my chair is to push.

I found the flow and tow to be greater than expected particularly when one changed direction. I don't think there are many locks on the Bridgewater so is it gravitational pull? . The boat owners were pleasant and slowed down on approach and I have to say I will be going again.

Whilst issuing will be variable due to conditions and the canal itself, is feeder fishing as effective as the float ?

What stretch did you fish Mike, ? As for locks , u can go for miles and not come across one. Feeder fishing can be very effective, you would need a light tip rod, ( I happen to have a Shakespeare wand for sale,condition as new) for the canal. I used to feeder fish or straight lead opposite moored boats or into turning basins, On some stretches if there was a wall on the far side I used to fish straight lead tight up to it, cast so it hit the wall and fell in the water without bouncing to far back. Saved breaking floats.

 

[mikench]

It was the stretch from Outrington to Dunham in Lymm. I have a Marksman 10' bomb rod and an 8' Browning wand which should be perfect for the canal otherwise I would have been interested Mark.

 

[wetthrough]

I don't think there are many locks on the Bridgewater so is it gravitational pull?

There don't appear to be any active locks on the Bridgewater but it does join up with the Leeds and Liverpool and there's a weir that returns excess water to the Medlock - from 'The Duke's Cut by Cyril J Wood'. BTW the moon would have been directly above at around 11:40 which is about the time it started really pulling and it does run more or less East West so you might have something there.

 

[markcw]

It was the stretch from Outrington to Dunham in Lymm. I have a Marksman 10' bomb rod and an 8' Browning wand which should be perfect for the canal otherwise I would have been interested Mark.

Use the lightest tip you have in them. If you go again, park at Oughtrington bridge and get on the canal there, if you go under the bridge there is a length of moored boats on the far bank, some good fish there either on float or feeder, bread and corn do well there.the other side of the bridge where you access the canal is good as soon as you access the canal, or walk along to the "Lawns" its self explanatory , it's a wide towpath grassed behind it, that is a good stretch.
Another one is turn right at Jolly Thresher lights ,coming from Altrincham towards Lymm, go down Burford Lane, traffic lights are at the bottom as you go under the canal bridge, once under the bridge take immediate left, part way down lane is a gate on the left, Spud Wood, this is a WAA car park, key needed I think. Park there and access the canal.

 

[mikench]

That's where we were Mark. We parked in that car park, walked to the bridge and down to the canal. We fished 200 m up under the trees.