Grand Union Canal - Weedon area

[SteveW]

Hello all!

I'm looking for some info on the grand union canal around rubgy way (A5) up to Weedon. I've not been fishing too much up to now but I've decided to make time to fish on the cut as I just love fishing them! I've fished this stretch quite a few times and caught resonably well but I just thought i'd look for a few helpful tips and pointers.

What are the best lines of attack and what baits etc for this stretch.

I've been fishing punch down the track up to where the shelf starts feeding a couple of balls of shop bought white crumb (I think i'm going to try liquidised bread instead??) at the start and catching ok, then once this line dies off I then cup in chopped worm and usually pick up some good perch (which is where most of weight comes from).

The whip line I just feed squatt but its very 'quiet' and I don't catch too much. I don't feed groundbait as I'm a bit out of touch on it and I just remember my favourite being supercup which I always think is a summer groundbait(?)

The far shelf, depending which part i'm on either fished good or not at all! I usually fish squatt and pinkie over here but it can get very shallow. Last Thursday I fished on the Weedon stretch and the far side was only about a foot or so deep and I didn't have a single knock! All my weight (2.5lb in 4 hrs) came from punch and worm.

Am I way off the mark with my methods or do they just need fine tuning?!

Thanks in advance!

Steve

[Oneabung]

Steve,

With the punch try mixing white crumb and liquidised 50-50 then pushing it through a very fine sieve or a pinkie riddle and feeding a very small amount at the start and topping up with thumb nails of the same.

The key with fishing the punch is to fish as fine as you can and dot your float right down as many of the bites from the bigger roach are just minature blips on the float.

Personally I would try to start on what I thought I could catch on all day and if you can get bites on the squatt I would stick with this and feed regular and often stepping the feed up through the day till the roach start to get a taste for it.

As for the chop try it right down the track in the deepest water.

If your going to feed up the shelf maybe just 6-10 casters then leave it for 15-20 mins and drop in, if you dont get a bite first put in then leave it again - dont bother wasting too much time on the really shallow water unless you really cannot buy a bite at the bottom of the far shelf.

[SteveW]

Steve,

With the punch try mixing white crumb and liquidised 50-50 then pushing it through a very fine sieve or a pinkie riddle and feeding a very small amount at the start and topping up with thumb nails of the same.

The key with fishing the punch is to fish as fine as you can and dot your float right down as many of the bites from the bigger roach are just minature blips on the float.

Personally I would try to start on what I thought I could catch on all day and if you can get bites on the squatt I would stick with this and feed regular and often stepping the feed up through the day till the roach start to get a taste for it.

As for the chop try it right down the track in the deepest water.

If your going to feed up the shelf maybe just 6-10 casters then leave it for 15-20 mins and drop in, if you dont get a bite first put in then leave it again - dont bother wasting too much time on the really shallow water unless you really cannot buy a bite at the bottom of the far shelf.

Thanks for your reply Simon! From other bit of info i've been given, the track is the most productive area to fish. I had found this out from when I have fished it too. I'm fishing it again on Sunday with a friend so we are going to try different methods and see which works.

As there are some good bonus perch in there I have been feeding chopped worm once the bread line dies and its always worked. Last thursday I fed a caster line to my right about 9 metres across in about 2.5ft of water but didn't have a knock on that.

If decide to fish squatt down the track from the off where would be best for a worm/caster line to pick up the bonus perch? There is a little bit of tow so I wouldn't think about fishing 2 swims at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock as to me they will just mix(?)

Thanks
Steve

[Oneabung]

Steve,

If I were fishing the squatt and wanting to put a choppy line in too I would do the following -

Just fish the squatt straight out in front of you at the bottom of the far shelf, have another rig done up to go half a meter past the main line for the slightly up the shelf were your overspray of your squatt goes but dont get obsessed with this rig its just for picking up the odd bonus as if you fish it too long it can kill your main line of attack.

As for the choppie... fish the same bottom of shelf but about 3 meters away from your squatt line so if your squatt line is at 10M you would need to fish 13M on the chop but to one side if you see what I mean - or if there are any features or weed fish it to that....

[SteveW]

Steve,

If I were fishing the squatt and wanting to put a choppy line in too I would do the following -

Just fish the squatt straight out in front of you at the bottom of the far shelf, have another rig done up to go half a meter past the main line for the slightly up the shelf were your overspray of your squatt goes but dont get obsessed with this rig its just for picking up the odd bonus as if you fish it too long it can kill your main line of attack.

As for the choppie... fish the same bottom of shelf but about 3 meters away from your squatt line so if your squatt line is at 10M you would need to fish 13M on the chop but to one side if you see what I mean - or if there are any features or weed fish it to that....

Thanks! I see what you mean, didn't really think about just moving the 2 swims further apart

I'll let you know how we get on!

Thanks again
Steve

[SteveW]

Well myself, my Dad and a friend fished the cut on sunday morning and it was hard work but very enjoyable! We arrived at around 7am and had a quick walk to make sure there wasn't a match on and then picked our pegs. We fished the section just off the A5/A45 crossroad and didn't walk too far as my dad didn't fancy a walk!

I opted to fish squatt from the start while my dad and my friend fished bread. I plumbed up and found the shelf at about 4m and 9m so opted to fish at the base of both shelves, the inside line using my top 3 with a section added on and the same rig at 9m. I also set up a overspray rig at 10m and a worm rig fished at 9m (11m of pole) to my left well out of the way of the squatt line.

After reading this months APF article on squatt fishing I decided to try some of the dynamite baits groundbait (silver x bream and frenzied hempseed) which i mixed on saturday night. I cupped in 2 orange size balls with squatt, caster and hemp cupped in separately on the 9m line and fed one ball and squatt on the 4m line.

After about 20 minutes on the 4m line i'd had a couple of gudgeon but it was pretty slow. My dad and friend were taking a few fish over the bread line so I decided to try the 9m line. I shipped over with single white squatt on the hook and caught a couple of net roach on 2 put ins. This was followed up with smaller roach and gudgeon so I decided to start loosefeeding squatt over the top with occasional hempseed too. From then on I caught steadily all morning on this line feeding a good pinch of squatt every fish or every bite.

I had my float dotted right down and bites were really hard to spot, They were barely moving the float and the slightlest indication I struck and 9/10 times I hit the bite. The canal was towing slightly from right to left and I found the that if I lay the rig in from left to right I had a bite much quicker! Also holding back gave me bites from a couple of net perch too. I mainly fished single squatt but I switched to double squatt and pinkie occasionally which gave me a few better fish then went to small again! (some fish were incredibly small!!) I fed one ball of groundbait about 1.5hrs from the end when bites dried and bites picked up again!

The overspray line worked well too and I picked up a couple of better fish aswell as small gudgeon, roach and perch. The worm line didn't produce at all which I thought was odd but I was catching on the squatt line so it was ok.

After about 4 hrs we packed up and I weighed in 2.5lb while my dad weighed in 1.5lb and my friend weighed in a 1lb. It was hard going but I really enjoyed as you really had to work for the fish.

The bread didn't work as well as we all thought it would but maybe there was too much colour in the water? A couple of other guys were fishing too and they found it hard too. They said it had been fishing hard in the week aswell. So definately the squatt approach worked the best but maybe when the water goes a bit clearer the punch might work better?!

I think we might try the oxford canal next weekend and see how thats fishing!

[david_avfc]

how did you find the oxford canal? if i had read this 2 weeks ago i could have given you some pointers because for me it's home from home. I know 6 miles of the oxford canal like the back of my hand iv'e been fishing it for years. Where about's did you fish? anywhere near kidlington-or near oxford itself? (Plenty of bonus fish to be had down are end of the canal up the far shelf mate, you wont have any problems down here, i wouldnt worry about going 0.8 bottoms fishing up the shelf, you need an 0.10 Hook Length, size 4 elastic, because you never know when you might hook into a big chub/perch/ and carp arnt to rare. but also plenty of decent sized bonus fish you'll big catch big roach on caster, skimmers on chop over it but they will take casters, but if there about keep on the worm, i normally feed 70-80 casters to start with, and i normally introduce 25% of chopped worm, so 75/25 caster/worm. remember caster is a great holding bait and will stay there for as long as it needs too.

And as for you whip line, if your fishing 3m, you should have any problems, feed 1 ball in prior to fishing, with about 20 loose fed squatts or pinkies, wait for your first bite, then just keep flicking in 6 loose feed pinkies or squatts over the top of that ever 30 seconds to a minite or soo. little and offen.

your other squatt or pinkie line down the far shelf, feed 4 balls prior to stating, and feed 10-15pinkies or squatts over that line ever minute or so for an hour, just leave it for at least 45-mins to an hour don't even be tempted even if you see the fish taking as soon as your bait hits the water. remember your building the peg, the longer you get them confident, the more fish you will draw in, and when you do go over, you'll be bagging. if you get a boat come through feed a ball of groundbait straight after, and you'll find they wont go away, they will hold. but keep going over to nick a fish on you big fish line or if there there stay on them, then when it goes quiet top up with 50 casters or soo, and some chop then leave it.

for groundbaits, i tend to use 50/50 sensas roach3000/ sensas matchblend during the summer when you get more boat traffic, its a stickier mix which will get too the bottom no problems and break up slowly giving you a carpet of feed and stays on the bottom when you getting pestered by boats ect, so will hold the fish, during these colder months that groundbait is no good because roach3000 has far to much food contect, at this time of year now summer has gone you have two choices because there are less boats.

you can either have a mix thats gives an out and out cloud affect, or a mix that will go to the bottom but give of a nice cloud as it goes through the water, which i prefer, because you congregate the fish in one area, rather than them grubbing about all over the shot, but its really up too you, evey anglers different. for a cloud affect van den enyde special/supercup 50/50 works well. or my favourite all through the winter, sensas roach noire 3000, normally i would add 25% matchblend, just to bind it really but not soo it's sticky, but so it gives a nice cloud and break very quickly on its way down and leave a lovely carpet where you want it. i normally sieve the bigger bits out of the groundbait, you dont need those this time of year. same as you would do with punch get it nice and fine.


where about's where you thinking of fishing on the oxford canal? i could point you in the way of a decent stretch or two.... Sorry for the long thread, more of a story than just a short reply.