Grantham Canal
Grantham AA hold the fishing rights on the local disused canal, offering several miles of towpath, running from the outskirts of town up to Top Lock at Woolsthorpe. During my time in the area, duckweed was a major problem and blighted most stretches. But where fish stocks somehow survived the low oxygen levels this problem created; some interesting sport could be had. This is the lower end of the Casthorpe section, once renowned for tench and bream, but only lightly fished now. It’s mainly a pole venue, although waggler tactics can work on wider parts. Baits like punched bread, pinkies, red maggots, worms, casters, pellets, hemp or sweetcorn are all worth considering, but location is key. Coloured water is the best pointer. It’s day tickets on the bank, although season permits are reasonably priced. More about that later.
Finding Water
This photograph highlights the fine balance the Grantham Canal has been teetering on for many years. It was the only fishable spot for miles, with most of the waterway choked solid with weed, but amazingly there were still plenty of bites to be had. Although never easy, it was enjoyable trying to master the tricky conditions, always gambling on which way the weather would be pushing all the green stuff. After uncovering a newly productive peg, chances were you might not get to see it clear again for months, depending on rainfall and wind direction. I still enjoyed the challenge, discovering roach, rudd, perch, bream, tench and hybrids. There were also pike and stories of rare carp. Attempts are in hand to bring the canal back to life and locks are slowly being restored. One day, it might join up with the River Trent again, but that’s a long way off.
Red Letter Day
Most people said, don’t bother with the canal’s turning bay at Denton, but I eventually proved them wrong. A great session resulted, casting a waggler out between floating rafts of reeds a dredger had dislodged. A big shoal of bream sometimes drifted in and out of this wide area, proving extremely elusive. Unusually, something stirred them into feeding for a while, capped off with a cracking tench. I also caught loads of small silver fish, which I didn’t bother keeping for this photograph. It was a rare occurrence, thanks to the carpet of duckweed moving, but it soon returned, and the whole basin became unfishable for another year. When I eventually managed another go, the bream shoal was still there but catching one spooked the rest. Not far away, by a footbridge, there was a tench hotspot that would turn on and off in a similar erratic fashion.
Buckminster Pit
On days when the local canal was proving too difficult, it was only a short drive down the A1 to the small village of Buckminster. Grantham AA have an old brick pit there, and it’s a pleasant place to fish, especially for tench. This is member’s only water, and I used to buy my season ticket from the Post Office in Great Gonerby. I believe you can still do that, requiring a passport size photograph. There is also a postal route that can be taken by seeking details online. It costs £30 for full membership, or £15 concessionary, which is good value. The pit gets very weedy but is fished regularly, so there are normally some reasonably clear swims, raked out by regulars. This stillwater is horseshoe shaped and heavily overgrown, which makes it interesting. It’s similar in appearance to an old estate lake, with its weeping willows and attractive rural setting.
Margin Pole
It was this venue where I first used my Cadence CP800 Margin Pole. Fishing into holes in dense weed you need to employ strong tackle, along with hit and hold tactics, otherwise tench make mincemeat of your gear. But first it became a case of finding a way to beat the hordes of small rudd that most baits pulled in instantly. Normal stuff like maggots, casters and worms would get mauled to pieces, never having enough time to find anything bigger. The tench loved groundbait and would fizz bubbles over it for ages, but it was always a tricky job getting through to them. I gradually got better at fooling these fish, beating the bits by feeding a mixture of similar flavour groundbait and pellets, impaling a soft 6mm offering on a decent size hook. By closely matching hook baits with the groundbait and feed pellets, it confused the picky target species.
Simons Pond
It took me a while to find Simons Pond on the old wartime airfield at Fulbeck, not helped by a fiddly padlock on the entrance gate. This was another attractive lake, with plenty of lily beds dotted around the place. When I first went, the water was clear. I spotted several shoals of decent size chub drifting around, but they were incredibly spooky, fading away fast if anything was put in their direction. I caught plenty of rudd and roach, along with odd skimmers, but it wasn’t brilliant. Returning a year later, the place had changed, having turned a near chocolate colour. I quickly discovered why, catching loads of small carp. They had obviously been stocked recently, and the hungry fish were stirring everything up. The only trouble was, I couldn’t see where the chub were shoaled up. Next trip, I followed a hunch and trekked all the way to the far end.
Top Peg
The first half of Simons Pond has swims on both sides until a bend, after which the far side became inaccessible. Being quiet over there, I suspected that’s where the chub might be. The far bank was steep with odd clumps of marsh grass, providing good depth tight over. I fed casters across with a catapult and followed up with waggler tackle, delighted to catch a small chub first cast. Several more followed before bigger ones started competing. It was great fun in the depths of winter and I went back several times, catching loads more chub and a decent bream. Most bites came by almost brushing the far side grass every cast because that’s where the fish wanted to be. However, things changed when an extension was added to the water. Sport went into decline for a while, although I believe the lake has finally settled down now.
Upper Witham
The Upper River Witham is not far from the busy A1 north of Grantham, meandering through farmland and looking more like a stream. Locals informed me it was a shadow of its former glory, mainly due to big pollution back in the nineties. But I found the miles of water the Grantham club still offers for the price of a season ticket well worth the outlay. I discovered fish were very localised. Many pegs were barren apart from minnows, tiny grayling and lively trout. However, after putting a lot of work in and being prepared to walk long distances, I uncovered some good sport. Roach were the hardest species to find. There were only a few areas where they would turn up in numbers, providing the water had colour. Dace were very localised too, but gradually I found consistent areas where they lived, along with a few chub hotspots.
Gliding It
There were two ways of finding chub: travelling light and working through lots of swims, or picking a decent glide and patiently feeding it until they turned up. The first option tended to find smaller fish mingling with shoals of dace, typically like this stick float haul. The latter way was harder and didn’t always work, but when it did, surprisingly big chub resulted. My best session involved hiking around several muddy fields and clambering over fences, then a long wait carefully feeding hemp and casters at the head of a long trot. It took several hours to get a response, but suddenly a shoal of big chub turned up. First a three-pounder, then a four, followed by a couple pushing the five mark. It wasn’t always like that. Very often trout would wreck proceedings, tail-walking and leaping all over the place, scaring everything else to death.
Denton Reservoir
The local reservoir is Grantham’s premier fishery, mainly frequented by carpers because it holds some real monsters, but there were also rumours of huge bream and tench. I struggled to begin with because it was gin clear and very weedy. This members only venue requires key entry and is generally reasonably quiet, although in hot weather you can get local youngsters partying on the grassy banks. Speaking to club members I met on this bowl-shaped stillwater, trying to find out more about the big bream and tench, I was informed there was one angler who often caught them. When I first came across Chris Toon, he was indeed attached to a double figure bream. It was little wonder I hadn’t been catching them. He was launching a window feeder an immense distance, knowing exactly where the shoal hung out, having fished this place all his life.
Weed Clearing
When casting long range with a feeder, the only way to clear weed is to keep firing your rig out and winding the stuff in. Chris also had a theory that once your bait started attracting big fish, their activity helped to clear a spot even more. Having fished the bream swim regularly, carefully gauging the right distance with measuring sticks, I witnessed him landing a big tench next. He was using powerful gear. In Cadence terms, you would need something like a CR10 13ft Distance Feeder Rod, combined with a CS10 5000 Feeder Reel. After witnessing how it was done, I eventually got better on this place, although it was never easy. I did catch shorter a few times with a groundbait feeder, casting a more comfortable 40 to 50 metres. After wading through small perch and roach, the tench arrived. I went on to record some of my biggest ones on here.
Learning More
I had noticed a regular on Denton Reservoir dropping method feeders down the margins on the deeper dam wall side, which turned out to be another way of finding the tench. This gave me the idea of feeding this area by hand and fishing a pole float over the top, but with running line. Using a long float rod, I enjoyed some success doing this, which led me to get even bolder and bring my CP800 Margin Pole into play. We didn’t have Edge Pole Elastic back then, so I used the equivalent of 16 to 18 hollow latex with a strong 0.18mm float rig, kitted out with an eyed hook. I don’t normally use eyed models, but they are better than spade designs in weedy situations, not tending to cut through the line when tench charge into underwater growth. This is one of the turbocharged fish I managed to land on such gear, on what was another fascinating venue.
For more information, please visit the Grantham Angling Association Website here.
