I'm Glad To Be Back In The Heart Of Coarse Fishing

ANGLER’S MAIL columnist Dave Coster relocated from the North East of England to the Midlands last Christmas. He now works on product development and marketing for Angling Direct. Here’s a special account of Dave’s bank exploits, back in the heart of coarse fishing country.

Back on the cut

ONE thing that I missed most living in the far north was canals. I used to love fishing the Grand Union, Regents, River Lea Navigation and Oxford cuts. I have always found canals fascinating places, mainly because you never know exactly what might turn up.

I soon discovered a canal close to my new home in Grantham, but the bad news was I couldn’t find out anything about it! The Grantham Canal is disused, many miles of it are choked with weed, and very few anglers seem to bother with it any more. Unperturbed, I set off exploring this waterway, which used to link Grantham with Nottingham and the famous River Trent.

I soon discovered the town basin is now a supermarket car park, that several sections are cut off, and only a few locks still operate. But the biggest problem is floating duckweed. There are literally miles of this horrible stuff, which covers the water like a thick pile carpet in many places. However, there are still a few sections where the prevailing winds tend to keep the surface reasonably clear, so I set about fishing them.

Much to my surprise, I found the place to be full of fish. Back in the spring I enjoyed many good catches of tench, bream, rudd and roach, also catching some surprisingly big fish, including tench to 5 lb and bream to 4 lb. My best session was on a turning bay, where I caught half a dozen bream and a decent tench, not even bothering to put a steady stream of smaller fish in my keepnet.

Reservoir rewards

IF THERE’S one thing I miss about the North East, it’s the reservoirs. I spent most of my time up there fishing these type of venues, which mostly have coarse fish in them, although in most cases they have to take a back seat to trout.