After moving from the Lakes, I didn't have much time for fishing due to my work, but since I moved again to Lancashire now, I have found plenty of time to go fishing... After a bit of searching on google Earth and the web in general, I noted that the Lancaster canal seemed very promising... So one day I got my mate Derek for a reconnaissance mission..(!) We found an area that the canal widens and holds moored barges with a good depth. The weather was relatively mild, after a couple weeks of freezing temperatures and was due to get worse again... I have encountered this again when fishing and have noted that the fish get really active immediately before and upto the coming of a cold front... Looking at the water we were amazed at the amount of activity, as fry was jumping and fleeing all over the place. This is quite common during the warmer months, but in the middle of winter quite surprising.
We fished many styles and lures (jigging, crankbaits, spinners) but only caught fish on the dropshot,
with the best baits being: the LFT live baby shad, Umiushi worm, Jackall super pin tail, Ima trilobite and Tiemco PDL super fin tail. I fished on the ultralight gear comprising of Awa shima Q lite spin, 2.40m, 1-5g rod and Mitchell mag pro 1000 reel. The fish were caught as expected near the barges and the walls of the canal and also from among the snags in the deeper areas. Their sizes being from 100g to about 700g.
Unfortunatelly that day we got two attacks from pike that easily managed to cut the 3lb fluoro but using a korda wide gape barbless hook I hope that they will get rid of it easily...
Since that day I have been regularly visiting the canal and have managed to get a few fish every time.. I have also modified my dropshot rig using thicker fluorocarbon and got some pike as well.
An important note is that many fish have been precaught and mishandled at times, something that shows the fishing pressure at that stretch and the need for better handling skills among anglers..
At times when the water was very cold and miserable weather, the trick of substituting the sinker for a hookless pilker seems to give a couple fish when all else fail...
.JPG)
More reports to come and thanks for reading...
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| Derek on the stretch mentioned. |
with the best baits being: the LFT live baby shad, Umiushi worm, Jackall super pin tail, Ima trilobite and Tiemco PDL super fin tail. I fished on the ultralight gear comprising of Awa shima Q lite spin, 2.40m, 1-5g rod and Mitchell mag pro 1000 reel. The fish were caught as expected near the barges and the walls of the canal and also from among the snags in the deeper areas. Their sizes being from 100g to about 700g.
Since that day I have been regularly visiting the canal and have managed to get a few fish every time.. I have also modified my dropshot rig using thicker fluorocarbon and got some pike as well.
An important note is that many fish have been precaught and mishandled at times, something that shows the fishing pressure at that stretch and the need for better handling skills among anglers..
At times when the water was very cold and miserable weather, the trick of substituting the sinker for a hookless pilker seems to give a couple fish when all else fail...
.JPG)
