I had a couple of hours on the canal on Wednesday night, but couldn’t rouse a bite again. I wanted to try a spot about a mile down the canal from me where I had a nice chub out before - an odd catch as I didn’t know there were chub in the canal, plus it was caught on a Kuusamo spoon. Unfortunately someone else had snagged the spot already, so I cycled a bit further along and just dropped in at some likely looking spots as I went. I tried a few approaches at each spot - 4Play swimbait fished surface, middle and bottom, spoons fished slow and fast, soft plastics jigged along the bottom and stripped across the top - but all to no avail.
The boat traffic is definitely increasing and the water is very coloured-up now. The visibility is probably less than a foot and I wonder if the lure fishing is just not viable with conditions like this. There have been a couple of threads on the LAS forums about fishing for pike at night, which seems to point at visibility only being one factor in lure fishing. Vibration, movement and sound are all key as well so maybe I could use some spinners or splashy surface lures to try and attract in fish. In a clear lake the flash of a spoon would attract fish from quite a distance, but I don’t think this would be the case on the canal with the water colour and debris stirred up by the boats.
Completely winging it, I could say that there are a lot of disturbances and noises on the canal that attract fish but which may also get the fish into trouble - boat engines, propellers, floating rubbish and discarded waste, dogs, etc - and this may mean that the canal fish are more likely to rely on sight. There is some slim basis of fact in this as I have found that certain spots on the canal do consistently produce pike, which could mean that they are more likely to have a good ambush spot? Also, I have noticed that I can fish along a certain line for a while with no takes, but a slight move or over-cast brings an instant hit. Could it be that the fish detects something in the swim, but will only take when it gets a sight of it and it looks like possible prey?
All this is (as usual) unscientific speculation, but I find it interesting to ruminate on it. I know there are some cracking fish in the canal, and it is a very easy water for me to fish in terms of location. In terms of fish on the bank, however, I am finding it a very tough water to crack; but every blank only makes me more determined to find a way to get it right.