Grantham angler Coster catches roach aplenty on canal

Boat traffic has been hectic over the past few months on Lincoln’s Fossdyke Canal but is gradually dropping away now which, combined with cooler autumnal nights, is making the water a lot clearer.

With less disturbance, roach are beginning to dominate catches, but these prey fish are in turn setting the resident pike into feeding mode.

On a couple of recent trips to the canal on the café stretch at Colbournes, Journal angling correspondent Dave Coster has been trying the hemp and tare combination with pole tackle, getting plenty of bites.

But, in the clearer water, they are proving tricky to connect with. The ones that do result in fish are finding roach between 3oz and 12oz, which are nice to catch on light tackle.

Dave has also tried his favourite far bank waggler and caster approach, getting plenty of action on that too. But when the occasional boat goes by, lots of dying surface weed gets stirred up and makes the method tricky to operate.

The general pattern over the past few weeks has seen the fish switching on after the first cruiser or barge of the day churns the water up, with plenty of small fish action before the better quality roach respond to regular loose feeding of baits like hemp, maggots or casters.

However, once a few better sized fish start turning up, they need to be hurried in, otherwise hungry jack pike snatch whatever is on the hook. These predators are between 3lb and 5lb and once they find you, it is hard to get rid of them.

A good trick when pike disturb your swim is to have a couple of different feed lines on the go, well-spaced apart. By rotating around these it is often possible to catch a few fish in each area, resting one of them, which tends to calm pike down, or even confuses them.

Speaking to the chairman of Lincoln and District Angling Association, which runs the fishing all along the Fossdyke, Dave has been told the canal is fishing well on the Woodcocks section, which is closer to the city, nearer the big marina at Burton Waters.

The Whisby Angling Saturday Fossdyke League matches start on October 22 on the roadside stretches above Saxilby. This popular series can also be fished as one-off Opens for those anglers who can not commit to the whole fixture list.

Day tickets are £10 on the bank all along the canal from Lincoln city centre to the River Trent, while reasonably priced annual membership is open to all. For more details check out the Lincoln and District AA website.