Lock Down - One of my favourite venues

Well, how's it going everyone .... running out of jobs yet? Personally up until now I have kept fairly active doing my voluntary job, Clevedon Angling Club admin and projects, odd DIY jobs, oh and the wife's green house has arrived ..... a nice challenge from a flat pack kit, but it's raining today so a blog it is.

At this time of the year I am normally fishing the Bristol Feeder Canal which I re-discovered 4 years ago when I took early retirement.

It's not everyones cup of tea due to .....location, surrounding environment and parking (Mon - Fri),
but it offers great fishing in the Spring with roach, bream, skimmers, perch and dace in abundance.

The Feeder Canal is not controlled by any Club, all that's needed is an EA Rod Licence. It's approximately 1 mile long running from Totterdown Basin at one end of Feeder Rd up to Netham Lock at the other end where it meets the tidal Bristol Avon. Due to it being a Canal there is no ''Close Season'' restrictions.

Map showing location of the Canal

The Canal runs alongside Feeder Rd so it's a case of parking on Feeder Rd, over the railing or down a slipway onto a decent width grass towpath. Not all of it is fishable from the road side but in terms of parking and fishing I would suggest the following locations ......

Brandon Tool Hire 72 - 75 Feeder Rd. BS2 0TQ

Manor Scrap 59 - 61 Feeder Rd. BS2 0SH

Kellys Cafe 31 Feeder Rd. BS2 0SE

Netham Lock where the Canal joins the tidal Avon

Middle of the Canal from the Foot Bridge near Brandon Tool Hire down to Totterdown Basin at the end

End of the Canal at Totterdown Basin

Parking during the week is tricky due to the various industries in the area plus some people park on Feeder Rd and walk to Temple Meads Rail Station to avoid parking charges but if you get there by 06:45 it's fine. After 17:00 in the evening is fine as is Saturday and Sunday.

Under normal circumstances Kelly's Cafe opens at 07:00 during the week and does a great breakfast.

The Canal width is on average 14 metres but can be as narrow as 11 metres in places, average depth is 5 foot. The depth is fairly even all the way across. There is a nice bit of flow most of the time but it can vary due to activity down in Bristol Harbour and the Lock at Netham. I believe an ''operation known as scouring'' which is carried out once a month were by the flow is allowed to increase at a fast pace in order to flush away silt and it lasts about 2 hours.

Boat traffic is generally low with just the odd rower, canal barge or pleasure craft. It is regularly patrolled by the Bristol Harbour Master.

There are vast shoals of roach and bream in Bristol Docks, during the spring they move up into the Canal to spawn probably due to more weed and less salt content in the water. Some will move back into the Docks but you can still catch them up until September. Dace seem to be prominent all year round.

My preferred method on the Canal is the pole. It's not complicated and a 1 gram to 1.5 gram float will cover most situations. A number 3 or 4 solid elastic is ideal, main rig line of 0.11 and a hook length of 0.09 or 0.08 to a wide gape 20 or 18 completes the set up. There are very few snags in the Canal.

I normally set up 2 lines, 6 metre and 11 metres. Cupping in at the start with a couple of balls dark ground bait laced with dead reds, dead pinkie and caster is what I usually and then topping up depending on how the session goes. Sometimes you need to feed hard balls to get through the dace. 

Allowing the rig to run through if the flow is slow works fine but holding it still or back is better. When the bream and skimmers are in the peg then a small piece of worm gets the better fish.

Here are some photo's from sessions last year.......

Keep your gear parallel to the bank as there is the odd dog walker

Lovely days skimmer fishing

Angling friend Geoff Mortimer from Gloucester

Team mate Mike Martin

                         

Team mate Leigh Wakefield

Full details of my sessions on the Canal are on this Blog. I bumped into an angler from Castle Carey last year who came up to fish it after reading about it here.

I hope I can get on the Canal in the not to distant future, decision on allowing pleasure fishing coming soon following the Angling Trust submitting a plan to the Government.

In the meantime stay safe all.