Beat The Boats

Top all-rounder Jon Arthur shows you how getting up early ill unlock the potential of your local canal.

- Jon Arthur

Canals are absolutely full of fish. These days they are also heavily used by people for recreation, and not just anglers – narrow boaters, canoeists, walkers, joggers, cyclists and us anglers all share these brilliant waterways that criss-cross Britain. They don’t always mix, however, and too many other waterway users tend to affect how much you catch.

I served my angling apprenticeship on venues like the Grand Union, Coventry and Oxford canals and still love them. I have fished countless matches on canals up and down the country. However, the same excuses always seem to rear their head whenever a canal fishes hard and catches are low: “Too many boats”, “too many cyclists”, “too much sunshine”, “I kept getting skylined by bank walkers” and “I was double-boated.”

A canal’s popularity is also why it can sometimes be so difficult to exploit its full potential. This is especially if you have a ‘match hours’ mentality, fishing from 10am or 11am to 3pm or 4pm. These are possibly the worst times to try and catch fish, so you really will be making things hard for yourself!

So, take my advice, set the alarm clock and get up really early instead. Beat the boats and you’ll discover just how frighteningly good your local canal can actually be!

That’s what I’ve done today. I’ve got up while it’s still dark, loaded the van with a minimum of tackle (by my standards!) and headed 10 minutes up the road to a nice stretch of the Oxford Canal. Daylight has just crept over the horizon as I load my barrow up and push it along the towpath. Other than a faint wisp of smoke from someone having an early cooked breakfast there isn’t another soul in sight.