Regent's Canal

[Bigoll]

After a wet and wild winter which left my local waters unfishable or inaccessible for months on end, conditions are inevitably improving just in time for the close season, which affects not just my patch of river but also all my regular stillwaters. Typical! In order to wet a line before summer I've decided to give some of London's canal network a try and will focus on the Regent's and Hertford Union in the first instance. I will adopt a roving approach from Mile End station but wondered if any of you fine fellows could provide any knowledge, experience or stories of fishing these canals?

Oh, and in a refreshing change, the ticket to fish these two canals and a wealth of others in town and around the country, is a mere £20 for the entire year, courtesy of the canals and rivers trust.

[Tench Dreamer]

I know these two canals in the area that you speak of very well. I fished the regents in the Victoria park area a few times in the late 90s and again in 2005 a (few small perch and roach). In 2012 just before the Olympics I fished the Hertford at old ford lock.(blanked, me mate caught a jack pike) . I walked the Hertford la few times in the last year.... The water was gin clear. Even though its local, with my limited time I go further out of London ... Just for the battery re charge.

[Ljm183]

I walked the Regent,s at Mile End Park last year and as Tench Dreamer said was gin clear and not a sign of life any where along that stretch.

[Stick]

Please keep us posted with your progress?

I love fishing canals as you might have guessed from my recent post. They often have a reputation for small fish but that isn't always the case. I don't know your canal at all but I hope some of the following will help. I also hope to stimulate some input from others as I would love to learn about other people's approach to canals.

I tend to fish dawn and dusk. The composition of my catches are very different from those who fish in the day. The best roach really do feed after dark, anything up to two hours after dark can be the beginning of prime time. Using pellets (only 6mm) has been a real revelation. I started using them as they were crayfish proof and had an excellent shelf life. What I found is they were highly selective for better bream and tench and surprisingly roach too. Fish maggot or bread in the same areas at the same times of day and I don't get anything like the same size of fish but more and smaller fish (oh, and no tench).

I should also mention I pre-baited with them for about 10 days before I first tried pellet, three handfuls per swim every other day.

For perch I look for shady spots preferably with branches or roots in the water and fish lobworm. I hybrid approach I have used a few times is to feed pellet and a few lobworm and fish worm on the hook. Result is bream and perch whereas if I fish a lobworm only approach it is almost exclusively perch.

Tactics wise it is very simple. I float ledger of fish lift method most of the time. I will use either an isotope or chemical light on the float if needed and rarely fish sessions longer than 3 hours.

(Edit for typo and spelling!)