I'm looking for some advice from some people that know what they're doing when it comes to course fish on the fly as I don't have a scooby!

I go down to my local canal every night if possible and assuming there's no-one there, to practise my casting and usually if it's a nice night there's quite a few fish rising. Not unusual you might say but what intrigues me is these fish are not small, none of them are! But for the life of me i don't know what they are.

My first thought was perch then i found out they don't tend to take dries, so i'm thinking bream, carp who knows! I know there is big carp in the water but that's about all i know! I've some some big fish cruising on the surface with their dorsals out but i'm sure these were pike.

Any advice as to flies/techniques/species would be much appreciated! I want to tempt them to a dry fly!


Edit: I've managed to dig up a wee bit more ingfo:

"The canal was well stocked by the local club and the council in the 80’s and had a big introduction of carp in particular. Bream were also introduced. The carp are now huge and very difficult to catch, but the bream can still be caught near the basin. There are also roach, gudgeon, tench and chub."

It's the monklands canal btw!

they'll most likely be chub or carp mate as for flies I don't have a scoobies either- trial and error, with a bit of match the hatch should see you connect with some fish.

alternatively you could try a deer hair dog biscuit imitation and chuck a few dog biscuits out.... works on my local cut, especially for the carp and chub.

Thanks Jonnie, will wait to see if any experts have some proven carp catchers!

The rises tend to be rather noisy and leave a lot of bubbles on the surface of the water, this says carp to me as they're sucking flies down. I could be wrong though! What's the general gear setup for canal fishing for coarse fish? 5/6wt too light?

Hi Scotty

If we are fishing the same canal and i think we are its most likely Roach at my stretch there are "millions" of roach from 2" -2lb but most 1/2lb they rise freely and to date ive not managed to catch one had them attack flys that are too big for them. 3weight has had alot more luck then me im sure he will chip in.

Small jack pike are pretty easy to catch, i find an orange blob, yellow bunny bug, orange/yellow marabou thingys i tie up work very well..........mind trace.

There are some cracking Tench i spooked a couple of 3lb plus fish the other day whilst piking, never had them on the fly, reckon it would be FUN !!

Tons of perch ,y favorite fish agian 3weight has alot more luck than me. Although ive caught them on damsel lures and my wee buddy had a cracker on my viva nymph Mind perch dont like trace ..............

There are carp,never seen hide nor hair even when i course fished, my wee buddy even managed to catch a eel on the fly ...........well a rubber squid he was casting for pike

Twice i thought ive seen Chub out the corner of my eye whilst fishing ..........But ive never heard of any comfirmed catches

Theres also the "odd" trout ................never seen one but they are there.

Oh mind your fishing specs you will be suprised what you see

Keep us posted mate

__________________
Englander

"Barbless since 2008"

Vision GT Four catapult 9' 6#
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Vision Cult 9' 3#
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Cortland Endurance 9' 6#
Shakespeare Expedition float tube
Vosseler DC3 reel
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Greys G series 3/4 reel
Snowbee Geo 3/4 reel

I find the whole canal business a bit of a puzzle. In fact I only go to my local one (the Lee Navigation) because its the nearest bit of fishable water to me. I can catch plenty of perch in summer, by quick dragging almost any bright fly or lure, but these tend to be small. BTW Englander, saw your lad's perch recently posted, & it inspired me to have another try, which resulted in 1/2 dozen tiny perch & one 1/2 pounder, in beautiful condition. I've also caught roach (small) and one nice chub, which was posted on here over a year ago, on a bloodworm fished static on the bottom. One huge carp took my (balloon caddis) fly, only to spit it out again. The number of times I've blanked on there though.........
Its an education.
Dave.

canals are gold mines if you give them the time of day dave. take the leeds and liverpool close to me, I've had 20lb carp, 15lb pike, 3lb perch, 2lb roach, 3lb chub and 2lb ide and there are bigger fish that I have seen such as a 27lb pike!

I've grown up on canals, I love fishing them and its great that people just pass them by as I get them all to myself

Thanks for all the replies, Englander - it's the monklands canal, think you'll be on the forth and clyde. Although the monklands does flow in at port dundas or something like that...

I'll have to see if i can tempt some fish up, carp could be an experience, there's so many snags in the canal and i've heard they run like nothing else!

There is defo Carp in the Monklands - - I suppose it depends on the size of fish you saw?

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I haven't seen one out of the water but they make one heck of a disturbance on the water when they come up!

Yeah, didn't mean to say canals are useless or anything, just that they can be a bit of a mystery. In fact I lost my thread all together on that last post. The sort of thingh I mean, for example, is the evening rise on the Lee Navi. The rises look like they're made by biggish fish, but in fact they are tiny fish, mostly too small to take the fly. I've proved this by presenting them a #22 fly (my old fingers could hardly tie it on) and been rewarded with a bleak less than one ounce. Not saying canals are rubbish, just they are a puzzle.
Dave.