The Wyrley & Essington canal may be a strange thing to talk about in carp fishing, but canals are often overlooked.They may be hard to fish for the elusive big carp, having to put many an hour riding the old mountain bike for miles up and down the towpath for any sign of fish, but i for certain think its worth it.

A Long Time Ago

I started fishing the "cut" in the early 80's around the town of Brownhills. It covers a very wide area of quite a few miles between locks.
Ranging from chasewater in an "arm",joining to catshill junction in brownhills,then going east to the Blackcock, Shelfield, Aldridge, Rushall where it meets a lock at calderfields golf club nr walsall.
the other leg of the canal goes east from catshill junction to Brownhills,Pelsall,(where it "tee's" off " to a dead end near Norton canes,the main canal carries on into Bloxwich,then to the other side of Rushall , to Birchills junction.To the left is a short straight till it reaches locks again at walsall to the right.From Birchills junction it goes past Beachdale estate,past the m6 near juncton 10,going towards ashmore park,Wednesfield,till it reaches Horseleyfields junction near wolverhamton where it goes on to wolverhamton.
now,,,if you where a fish,,you have got a gooooood few miles of water to swim about and hide in there,,not a mile or 2,,but miles upon miles upon miles,,,have a look on google earth,,its a massive amount of water,hence the hard fishing.
but,yeee not worry too much ,,carp are very territorial.and only swim a few miles,,LOL!!!!
try using   FLASH EARTH  to have a look at various waters including the canal system near you.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW FOR A MORE DETAILED VIEW OF THE BLACK COUNTRY CANAL SYSTEM

Persistance Rewards!

yes it was froze over,yes i was mad,and yes i had to pack up !

Me with a brace,"tyson" and "3 scale" in the early 90's

Elvis with a 20.08 in the 80's,,,what would its size be today??? 30lb,,35lb ???

Dave mallin action shot,,a rare picture that dave probaly has not got !

The result,a small common off the top in the 1980's, nice clothes dave !

A more recent fish from the canal,"HENRY" has put on some weight since last capture,i think he was around  18lb on 18th sept 2005.

June 2006, 14.04lb common with a funny mouth, its hard to take pics with a mobile phone,,,i forgot my camera!

...from the same session a 17.02 mirror