I've never fished the canal for carp.

Couple of questions;

Do you backlead, fish slack lines or reel in when boats pass?

How much do you beef your gear up?

My thoughts would be helicopter rig with either a 3inch chod or a 35lb boom a Ronnie or stiff hinge depending how soft the bottom is.

Thanks 👍👍

In reply to Post #1
Fish the margins and the pass were boats are navigating.
You should get by with using slack lines

But it al depends on the depth of the canal, type and amount of boats navigating on the canal, etc.

In reply to Post #1
I usually use backleads, check area out eg snags , silt , firm areas and most off all plenty of looking and baiting,

Your best friend is a baiting pole getting your rigs to the far side with minimum of disturbance every time is a god send. Use a backlead and drop it just into the deeper channel to keep it away from boats. Double backleads are often useful.Sometimes your going to get picked up regardless. If your fishing the far bank to snags obviously fish tight lines, try and keep bait going in a few spots regular that will give you something to fall back on if you can't locate fish. Fish light,mega light. Could be walking miles some days to find carp it's no fun with a barrow full of crap. Your normal carp gear will be fine 👍🏼

Thanks for the advice.

Didn't think of using a baiting pole would make sense. Will do some more investigating and set a plan in motion!!

Always Have some scissors to hand... iv hooked a river cruiser before and it was not fun and took a fair amount of line before I got my snips an cut it

In reply to Post #6
Was piking on a river basin and a narrow boat with an absolute weapon showing off to some kids came within 6 feet of the bank and wiped out about 7 rods. We had so many lines attached to it his motor was strong enough to pull away and he beached on a shallow bar. He spent half an hour untangling his prop while we hurled f and c bombs at him.

In reply to Post #1
Had a go on the canal last weekend. First time for me, luckily no boats moving around.

Found a nice spot and fished down the canal along the far side rather than across it. Went with a naked inline setup, 1.5oz lead.
First rig I tried was just a 15lb braided hair rig size 8 hook with a 12mm Wafter and a small pva mesh bag.
Had a bream on in in first half hour but was having trouble getting back on the same spot, must on been lucky on my first cast as every other spot seemed to be in either chod or deep silt.

Swapped it to a soft 15lb ntrap hook link and a 14mm pop up on a hookbait swivel. Had a double Mirror and another bream within an hour of changing. Then came the crays Thought a pike had been at my rig When I brung it in.

Probably beginners luck but really enjoyed it on the canal, was moving around casting at any signs of fish and not leaving it out for more than a half hour 45mins max. Was fishing tight lines as there seemed to be a bit of an under tow
Hooked now got 4 other locks I'm going to work my way along over the next few weeks
1st fishing session for 20years

Had my first outing - prebaited tried a few spots but it was cold - bitter wind so I struggled. No signs of fish but saw 1 come out to an old boy who'd been fishing there 20years.

They're there and I'll keep trying - going to do a week of prebait then try again.

In reply to Post #9
Wind was grim, couple of lads had one in the spot I fished last week. Not a sniff myself spent half the day trying to keep the altars out of the wind.

In reply to Post #10
Is there still a closed season on canals.

In reply to Post #11
Not on non club waters, check out the canals trust page to see if the section you want to fish is a club water or not.
Each club have their own rules.

In reply to Post #9
Been baiting a few spots myself, apparently it's a big edge on the stretches I've been fishing.
Now whether or not I'm pre baiting with the right thing is another matter Been using partical so will soon find out.
Having a Couple more weeks on my current stretch then going to have a look at Salford quays.

Enjoying it, think I will spend the most of the year on the canals and rivers. Certainly quite different to stillwaters

In reply to Post #12
That's good to hear my club has a lovely stretch I want to try