SMALL FISH ON THE CANAL IN WINTER 
- by Allan Pellow

The Forth & Clyde Canal can produce excellent bags including quality roach. Often in matches though, particularly in winter, it can seem devoid of fish. Allan Pellow argues that there are nearly always small roach around and tells of how to catch them when vital team points are at stake.

Catching small, even tiny, roach from the Forth & Clyde canal, is fast becoming a proven, winning, match tactic not to be scorned. Individual fish weighing less than 5 grams often win sections in the Scottish Winter League. However, 1 isn't always good enough, you will need to catch lots more to make them a worthwhile target.

There are a few things to be considered before investing 4 hours of valuable match time to catching these small fish. Firstly, are they there in sufficient numbers to build a weight? Realistically, what other fish are in the area? Fishing for the small roach is usually worthwhile if it is unlikely that better fish would show but only if they are present and you have the right bait, tackle, and approach.

Undoubtedly the best bait for the job is bloodworm, but not any old bloodworm. Small feeder worm is best for the hook and joker best for feed. If the fish are coming confidently, try using squatt on the hook, this saves time in rebaiting and sometimes sorts out the slightly larger, 10 or 20 gramme, roach.

If the temperature isn't too low, it would be a fair bet that the fish would respond to groundbait. To catch all day, takes the right mix. I use Cloud, Super Cup and Brown Crumb, in equal amounts .I prepare groundbait the night before a match. The dry ingredients are put through a flour sieve to remove the larger particles, (it's surprising what can be riddled out even from Cloud). I then mix until the groundbait just holds together, left overnight, the mix dries out a bit, but can still be squeezed into a compact ball the size of a walnut, which floats on the surface before sinking and breaking up 18 inches below the surface.

These tiny fish can be found usually in the top 2 feet of the water, in the middle channel to far side. This invariably means the long pole from 8 to 11 metres with 9.5m being a comfortable starting point. The floats should be in the order of 0.1 to 0.25 grammes with styl leads strung out and dotted down so that it can be held up by a film of vaseline. The best hook for the job is the Mustad 90343 size 25 tied to the lightest, softest, hooklength you can find No.1 elastic through two sections is best since, occasionally, a larger fish may be caught. If it's icy, a flick tip will be best since elastic can sometimes freeze up.

The most important aspect for this type of fishing has got to be bait preparation and feeding. The joker should be stored in very fine peat (flour sieve again) until it looks as though there is too much peat in the pack. This ensures that you don't introduce too many joker to the groundbait as you feed. The idea is that you feed a small ball of bait every 2-3 minutes, creating a consistent cloud as the groundbait breaks up near the surface, releasing about 10 jokers each time. The roach swim in and out the cloud competing for the loose offerings.

The killing area is in the top 2 feet of water, which should have a constant supply of small joker and cloud. You may be reluctant to feed this often, but don't forget that the feed is only effective in this area until it sinks below the fish. Now and again, loose feed some squat beyond your chosen line, to get any better roach interested if they are around.

Bait up with a small bloodworm and lay the tackle out in the cloud, don't expect a bite until the float has settled properly, I feel that often these roach just watch the bait as it falls through the cloud and only take when it stops falling.

If you don't get a bite right away, fish around your cloud until you do. Don't be afraid to move the float around, with or against the wind and flow, until you establish whether the fish are right in the groundbait or hanging away from where you are throwing it. It is surprising how often you can catch slightly bigger fish, or faster, by fishing well away from your groundbait, either to the left, right or beyond. When this happens it is tempting to feed to where you are getting bites, but it could be that the fish want to hang off, so just keep the small balls of feed going in to the same spot.

Often, moving the bait around is the most positive way of seeing and hitting bites, if you just wait and wait you will get your bait ragged and miss bites. Experiment with the depth too. You are always looking to find slightly bigger fish and they may be deeper in the water, usually there is no point going much deeper than 3ft.

Don't waste too much time searching if it becomes obvious that only tiny fish are present, you have to commit yourself to the tiny ones sometimes, the decision is yours! Keep your eyes and ears open as to what is being caught around you. Be realistic about the kind of weight you are really puting in the net, this is the real art in this style of fishing, i.e. knowing when to do it and when to stop!

The fact that you are continually feeding small quantities of joker will soon give the shoal confidence to come closer and participate in the hunt for a morsel. As the session progresses, the fish become more and more eager to find a bloodworm, this is when you should ease off on the joker but keep the groundbait going.

To make up a decent weight (say from 200-500 grammes) you should be catching about 15-20 fish an hour during the good spells, and searching during the quieter periods for better quality fish (i.e. 1oz+) beyond the cloud with squatt or pinkie on the hook. More often than not, you will contact a better fish downstream of your loose fed squatts, where these slightly larger, bonus fish hang around, keeping out of the way, yet still being interested enough in the commotion caused by the smaller feeding fish. If you contact the better quality roach, keep the groundbait and joker going because you may want to come back to them after just 5 or 10 minutes.

The whole idea behind this type of approach for a match is that you are constantly catching and adding to your total weight throughout the four hour session, which, if you are successful in doing, should see you into the top 3, in your section.

There are many anglers, who think that there are no fish in their swim and that others just have a better peg. I can assure you that these tiny roach are in just about every peg on the canal in summer and winter and that if you make a point to learn the methods to catch them, your league results will take a turn for the better.