CONQUERING
CANALS
"There's
the hard way and the not-quite-so hard way"
says Ashley Nicholls
INTRODUCTION
by Deputy Editor, Brian Barwell
Well, there are canals, and there are canals, dozens of
them, all different, and we get many enquiries from lure-anglers about the best
ways to conquer them.
One of our Team, Ashley Nicholls, fishes canals in England, Ireland and overseas, a lot, with varying degrees of success. That said, we felt that, of all of us lure-fishing enthusiasts here in the Editorial and Tackle Test Teams, Ashley is best qualified to try to put-together an article about lure-fishing on canals, with his hints and tips on how to maximise your results and, just as importantly, how not to let canals make you lose the will to live ...sometimes — here's what our Ashley has to offer by way of advice and suggestions:-
Conquering
Canals: where to start
I've fished canals all over the world and some can be really
productive and rewarding, while others can make you lose the will to live! Editor
Nick has put me on the spot, and asked me to give some hints and tips on how
to get the best from any canal that you chose to fish. Well, conquering canals
is far from easy, but if am forced to crystallise my ideas and suggestions into
a single sentence it would be that the
best way is to concentrate on the underwater contours with weedless lures, or,
in clear conditions, to tackle the margins and mid-water with suspending plugs.
Concentrating
on Contours
There are many types of canal, primarily those
that still have boat traffic and those that don't; the former tend to have an
underwater profile that consists of shallow shelves on the margins either side
of a deeper central channel
Canals that no longer have boat traffic tend to silt-up and therefore they usually have a much more even depth, and maybe are relatively shallow, like this ( below):-
Of course, on canals that have boat-traffic, it's best to avoid the peak season for them, and especially those pleasure cruisers that go up and down on day~trips — obviously, water-clarity is important if you are to get the best results.
For the sake of this article, I am deliberately going to ignore lure-fishing with surface~lures in warm conditions, because that is covered elsewhere in Nick's website, and although it's a specialised technique that only works at certain times of the year, it applies to most venues, not just canals — here I am concentrating on hints and tips for all-year-round-results on canals.
Keys to following Contours
Naturally, when tackling a new water, be it a canal, lake or river, us lure-anglers are always a bit worried about losing our precious lures on underwater snags etc., especially if the water is a bit coloured — the net result is that we often fish far too shallow i.e. well above the predator zone.
Luckily there's a two-fold solution to this, and that's to (a) use cheap lures, initially, that you won't mind so much losing on snags and (b) use weedless spoons, spinners and spinnerbaits, which are much less likely to snag and are ace for following underwater contours.
Now, despite what those Harry Enfield Angling types might try to tell you, this is not as obvious and easy as it looks: when retrieving your lure from the far marginal shelf, it's only too easy to over-shoot the drop-off into the central channel, and to miss those predators, especially big perch, that love to lurk in that area.
Equally, if you're retrieving your lure from the depths of the deeper central channel, it takes quite a bit of feel, skill and control, to bring your lure up the underwater slope towards the margianl shelf close to the tow path.
Master these two challenges and you're well on the way to conquering your canals.
I hasten to add that, for conquering canals, in addition to a selection weedless lures of the sorts that I have just mentioned, some suspending plugs such as Rapala Husky Jerks, are important for fishing the margins and mid-water if the water-clarity on your canal is good.
Features
Although some sections of many canals may seem pretty featureless, most canals have plenty of locks and bridges etc., and these areas are always good places to fish thoroughly, not in the locks themselves of course, but on the approaches, and the downstream outflow areas. If local clubs hold Matches along the towpath, then these are yet more places to cover thoroughly in the days after the Match.
Other areas such as places where people park and feed the ducks are usually have good predator potential, so don't ignore them — big pike are very partial to a nice bit of duckling too, if you know what I am saying!
Even gentle curves with weedy margins on an otherwise straight and barren-looking canal can often provide some excellent results, provided that you cast and cover the margins and contours thoroughly, changing lures from time to time.
Tackle
Generally canals don't present the lure-angler with any major problems tackle-wise, so your normal 8ft rod (or shorter) with fixed-spool or multiplier reel, 15 or 20 lb. trace wire and 20 lb. braid is perfectly OK.
All-conquering Lures for Canals
As I've already said, new waters, be they canals or any other kind, tend to be a tad daunting when you fish them for the first few times; for sure there will be hidden underwater snags and fish-holding features, and always in the back of your mind will be the worry that you're going to lose a lure or two. This worry can be reduced to a minimum if not almost completely eliminated if you use lures that have weed-guarded hooks to reduce the risk of snagging.
Singing the Praises of Spinnerbaits
Spinnerbaits themselves are intrinsically weedless and are undoubtedly very good all-venue, all-round, predatory~fish catchers, not just for conquering canals or other venues with weeds and snags. In fact, if pushed, I would go as far as to say that if I was only allowed one type of lure with which to fish, it would have to be a spinnerbait.
Spinnerbaits are so versatile: you can retrieve them across the surface, above submerged weeds, or in a slow controlled manner in mid water, or use them to closely follow the contours and depths. What more can you ask of a lure?!
Not only that, you can incorporate the catching potential of grubs and worms into your spinnerbaits, thus (see left).
As you will have gathered, I could go on and on about spinnerbaits and that's because they are ace lures for conquering canals, and just about every other type of venue too — trust me, I've tried them all!
Finesse Fishing
And I mustn't forget fans of lightweight lure-fishing, a finesse technique that has become quite popular because of the fact that the method and its lures will catch the complete range of predator species, bar none.
Although it requires quite specialised tackle, with experience and skill, it becomes a devastatingly 
effective technique, and fortunately there are a few lightweight spinnerbaits suited to this lure-fishing method. These super little so-called Super Rooster Tail spinnerbaits are part of Worden's range of Rooster Tail spinners and spinnerbaits, although Wordens are now part of the Yakima Bait empire.
Spoons & Spinners of the weedless variety
Next on my list of weedless lures are spoons, followed by spinners — I use the former much more frequently than the latter, but nevertheless I'm going to talk~about weedless spinners first!
These are quite rare beasts and many lure-anglers resort to DIY to make their own weedless spinners. Of the commercially-available ones, the most well-
known version is probably the Snagless Sally. It is cheap, and easy to fish, and puts-out a nice bit of flash. You may ask or wonder what advantage it has over a spinner-bait, and the truth is that I don't really know. What I do know for sure, is that some folks prefer spinners to spinnerbaits and spoons, and so to make them feel comfortable in tackling and hopefully conquering canals, I have to make mention of the Snagless Sally and other weedless spinners of that ilk.
When it comes to weedless spoons, you are completely spoilt for choice; it's mainly a matter of size, weight, colour and personal preference. Canals tend not to be overly deep nor to have much flow, so you don't need a heavy weedless spoon.
I like a lot of red on my spoons, either on the spoon itself or by adding hackles and feathers which I also like to soak in fish-oil — the same applies to my spinnerbaits. I think that confidence is a major key to success in conquering any venue, and you need to ignore any comments from fellow anglers about the merits or otherwise of lure-colours and the effectiveness of adding oils etc., and do exactly what give you the greatest confidence in your lure-fishing.
I very much agree with Len Parker in his article on this website about fishing from the bottom up, not from the top down, and how it's important to ignore those "Harry Enfield angling types", unquote, who are always saying "Oooh, you don't want to do it like that!" — rowlocks to them, I say! I find that it's these know-all lure-anglers who think that they are so good that if they can't catch something, then no-one else can — you know the sort — "I've been lure-fishing for 400 years " etc etc — just goes to show that they may have been using the wrong techniques and/or lures for all those years!
But back to weedless spoons: if you do find that you need a slightly heavier weedless spoon, Nils Master sell a nice one called the Nix that weighs about 20 gm.. I have used it a fair bit on some canals with deep central channels with a lot of success; I have of course added some hackles to mine, but this is what the standard version looks-like (see right)
Suspenders !
When the water clarity of your canal venue is good, as well as the other lures that I 
have mentioned, it's always a good idea to fish the margins and mid-water with a nice natural-looking suspending plug such as the Rapala Husky Jerk or one of my old and all-time favourites, the Storm Suspending Thunderstick (see left). Now, I'm by no means an expert with, or on, suspending plugs and I don't use them that often, only when the water is crystal~clear. If you want chapter & verse on suspending plugs, have a look at Tony Thwaites' excellent article on this website (See under Lures & Lure Fishing)
In Conclusion
Canals are rarely easy and are most often quite hard going, so use cheap weedless spinnerbaits, spoons or spinners, and be brave ...... fish slowly, and deep, following the underwater contours using the bottom-bouncing technique, and as far as anyone can, I can guarantee that if there are predators to be had in your canal venue, and all other things being equal, if you follow these hints and tips, for sure you'll do as well as anyone else if not a lot better, on conquering those canals.
And of course, good luck!
Ashley