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6 tips to catch fish on clear canals

North West canal maestro Alan Barnes has six great bits of advice to help you catch more fish from clear spring canals.

by Angling Times |

Published on6th April 2023 at 6.56pm

On my local North West canals, there are only two baits worth considering in early spring conditions, and they’re breadpunch and casters.

Bread will almost always work in clear water, while casters have that habit of drawing in and holding the better fish, even if you don’t actually catch with them on the hook.

Here's how I do it, give it a go on your next session...

Alan Barnes with a canal skimmer

Vary the depth

For bigger fish it’s punched bread 3ins overdepth – for roach, anything from an inch to 8ins off bottom is brilliant.

Vary the depth when fishing with punch

Plumb up accurately

My flat-bottomed plummet is a drilled 2p piece fitted with a felting nail and silicone sleeve to attach the hook.

A homemade plummet

Feed with a tiny pot

The smallest feed pots let you regularly top up swims with a couple of casters and a pinch of liquidised bread.

Feed small amounts with a pole pot

Bulk shotting

My SF2 breadpunch float is shotted with a bulk of No11s grouped tightly together 15ins from the hook.

I use this float for punch fishing

Short hooklengths

My 6ins hooklength is Edge Tackle Pure Fluorocarbon from 0.07mm-0.105mm, hard for fish to see and very stiff.

Try a short fluorocarbon hooklength

Two baits, two rigs

My wire stemmed stick-type float is shotted shirt-button style with 12 x No12s, for a slow-falling caster hookbait.

This is the float I use for casters

Read the full feature from a previous issue of Angling Times over on our Members site.

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