Beukers Canal, Steenwijk - October 

The Beukers canal can be difficult in matches, but you usually have a good days fishing when you're alone or in a small group. Today, I'm on the section by the campsite at the northern end of the canal. 

A sheltered area of the canal, with the car next to me and a lovely flat grassed bank. Lovely start to the day.

The weather is looking good today, with light winds from the west, overcast with some Sun, and a lovely dark water surface colour from the trees on the far bank.

A lovely comfortable peg. The Beukers canal is a great venue where you get plenty of bites.

I'm not expecting any big fish today. I've fished here a few times, but only ever had a small Tench and a largish Eel - no Bream.

Shimano Aero X7 Competition. I could not have bought a better pole for me.

The pole at 11.5 m is the only method i'm setting up today, with just the cupping kit and 2 rigs. 

Preston Innovations Power - a great float.

The first rig is a 1 g Preston Inter Carbon with a yellow tip. There is an olivette about 75 cm from the hook and the several No. 10 droppers. Hook is a ready tied N10 size 18. The elastic through the top section (1.25 m) is the Drennan Hybrid Solid elastic size 1.0 mm. 

Preston Innovations Inter Carbon - I wish you could still get this float, I have a few is stock though!

The heavier rig is a Preston Power 1.5 g with a yellow tip. The olivette is about 50 cm from the hook, then 3 No. 9 droppers. Hook is also a ready tied Preston, a N20 in size 18. The elastic is also from Drennan, but this time I'm using the 1.2 mm version.

A side tray full of good bait for the fish.

Groundbait for today is VDE Black Earth, VDE Supercrack Bream, VDE Caramel Bream additive, some grilled crushed hemp and some light brown leam.

Ready for the initial feed. If only we had smell-o-vision - it smells great.

As usual, I have dead and live white maggot and pinkies, casters, hemp, worms, and this time a few 2 mm expanders.

The yellow-tipped float was easy to see, although a red-tipped float would probably been better.

At the start I fed 6 balls with some dead pinkies, casters and hemp. I held the balls about 2 feet above the water to make a noise when they entered the water. I think this can help to attract the fish. 

107 fish. They kept me busy throughout the day.

I started on the light 1 g rig and had a small skimmer on the first put in. A steady steam of small fish continued for the next five hours. I had no large fish, but the float was going under on a regular basis.

The water had a very nice colour, if anything, a little too much colour. The boats were going through regularly, although far fewer than there was a month ago. The boats are slowly going into winter storage, waiting for the next season to start in April.

11 lb 12 oz - not bad for a day on the canal with no bonus fish.

Every hour I fed a ball of groundbait to keep the bites coming. I loose fed hemp and a few casters over the top, although I don't think this made any difference. The fish were on the groundbait on the bottom.

I fished for 5 hours and was happy to put 11 lb 12 oz on the scales at the end of the day. The fish were coming regularly, and I did slow down the pace a little - I wasn't at match speed that's for sure. Altogether, I had 107 fish. 

The Beukers canal is a great canal for plenty of bites on a pleasure session. Alone, or in a small group, you will all catch lots of fish. 

A nice net of fish from the Beukers canal. This is the typical stamp of fish from the Northern end of the canal.

In matches however, the pressure of all the cars on the bank, and the heavy feeding that goes on, make fishing then more difficult. You can get 10 lb off every peg in a pleasure session, but not in a match. 

If ever you get the chance, a day on the Beukers canal will leave you smiling.

Cheers, Steve