Have just come across your videos and found them to be very relaxing and enjoyable, which is what fishing should be about, my style of angling. Also in this video it was nice to see that you weren’t using a keepnet which is better for the fish and one less thing to carry making you more mobile. Keep making these videos and I will keep watching them. Well done and tight lines.
Thank you very much Graham, most of the time I don't use a keepnet these days for the reasons you have mentioned but occasionally I do just so that I can show the viewers what I've had at the end. Tight lines for your next trip out and take care 😎👍
Thank you. I find when the float goes under or the tip goes round, or the bite alarm goes off. Even after all these years, I still get an adrenaline-rush 👍
Hi Raymond, yes both the Grand Union and the Oxford canals are made up of either black silt or a brown sandy bottom in this area, the trouble is that when you get a lot of boat traffic the colour just doesn't drop out during the daytime. Thanks for taking the time to comment, it's always appreciated Raymond.
Hi mate, really good video, kept simple. I usually pike fish but as its spawning time for them I decided to head to the canal yesterday with a tub of wax grubs and a few slices of bread and later some sweetcorn with a little trout rod without really knowing what I was doing. There was a shoal of hundreds of roach just under the surface.(some looked huge) constantly swimming almost in a circuit into a large lock gate and back out along the front and under a pontoon. I ended up getting a couple but they didn't really seem interested in any of my bait for the most part. I did see as small Jack pike earlier in the day but the shoals behaviour was pretty much the same all day. Was wondering if you've ever come across this before? I had a good day trying to stalk them and think I'll get myself a float fishing setup with some groundbait for my next trip. Any advice would be much appreciated.
It sounds to me that they may have shoaled up, ready to spawn, which stops them feeding as they would naturally. A light float fishing setup, combined with loose fed maggots, or a ball or two of groundbait or some mashed up bread, and a small piece of bread on the hook should do the trick If you search through my videos, there is an entire playlist of canal fishing videos, ranging from pole fishing to simple float fishing. Have a look at some of those if you have time, and you should find something to help you there. 🤞 tight lines and good luck.
@Adrenaline-Rush thanks for the quick reply mate, that would make sense, I ran my bait through the shoal for most of the day and only managed 3 smallish fish. Now that I've seen the size of some of them i'll definitely be targeting them in the summer months as they are stunning looking fish. Very interesting watching you slowly build up a swim with groundbait I'm used to moving swims after an hour or so when pike fishing. What features would you be looking for on the canal when deciding what swims to fish? I'll have a look through your playlist and try some of your methods out and hopefully get a few of the bigger ones.
