Simple Match Fishing Forum

Similar to the world champs post, name you top canal men past and present.  Here's mine for starters:

Joker - Ian Moulton (still have nightmares about fishing next to him) Norm Carpenter, Pete Vasey
Squatt - Polly, Dave Brown, Gary Miller
Bread - Fred Cheetham, John Haynes (old Bedworth angler) + 1
Caster/big fish - Preecy, Paul Turner, Gordon Curl (Oakwood)

Them big deep Yorkshire ones and that big hole in Gloucester - Alan Scotthorne, Lee Kerry, Kim Milson.

Billy Makin.

Team mate fred cheetham, simon nickless, paul hughes, dave brown, simon mottram, dave loydd, carl baker, nigel bull

Around staffordshire at the moment in my opinion
Squatt/small fish - dean williams-mel wood-macca-kev perry
Bread/hemp- fred cheetham - eric gardner
Caster / big fish - paul turner - steve broom

cannot belive nobody has mentiond norman carpenter

u colly has keef on the first write up kiddo have you been on the pop again

Mel Wood edges!!! He couldn't catch a cold!!

All round great canal anglers for me-

Dean Stewart, Dave Brown, Jason Cunningham, Andy Billington, Darren Bickerton and me

Swampy chk his results over the last two years not been on a bad peg lol most of the time comes back with 6 lb or more

Most of my former Tipton team mates plus d Massey R Quinn and my old mate John fowler

This is a difficult one is this as canals vary. Take the North Sea Canal in Holland where it is one mile wide (car ferries go up it) and well over 30 feet deep, - it also rises and falls as you fish it. On the Kinda Canal in Sweden (another one that flows) you have to fish the slider on one length, - it was that deep and CIPS Rules. Scaling down a bit you have the Gloucester, New Junction and a few other that need a different approach owing to their depth and fish content.

Also today canal anglers specialise on certain baits and tactics, they also specialise geographically, you can not blame them with fuel costs.

If we mean all round "narrow canal anglers" it is slightly different. When Dave Berrow was practising (on a daily basis) he was the best. Pete Hargreaves was another one that sticks in the mind, totally different style but equally as effective.

Unfortunately lots of canal anglers had really good spells for fairly short periods, it still goes on today, for some reason the bubble then bursts, - maybe some want a change of scenery!

In very recent years, in my book, your best two canal anglers, for narrow canal work, have been Mark Pollard and Paul Ross.

There are some excellent canal anglers out there at this very time but as good as they are I see nobody that gets anywhere near Rocco; nobody did any more to get the best out of his draw, no matter how good or bad his peg was.

If I had to pick any all round canal anglers today I would go for Darran Bickerton and Polly.

There are some very interesting suggestions on this post but not too many 'all round; canal anglers.

Where's me crash hat?

not so keen on this topic as for England you have to be good at all angling's disciplines [a part from legering]
but the likes of ray mills, billy makin ,dave berrows jon hargreaves bil
and fred the bread all stickout to me
on the young side llove him or hate him darren lewis is a cracking canal angler
along with jason cunningham darren massey paul bick all have great track records on canals

llove him or hate him darren lewis

I think I have a headache coming on -- where's me pills

Bill, you have my utmost respect as a wise old sage, and as an even older angler, but honestly......... to leave Joffie off your list of the greats (pm sent Joffie so you can send me the cheque kiddo)

When I sit and think back to some of the leagues that I was priveleged to take part in, there are a few consistent names who could tackle any canal and achieve exceptional results.
I am talking here of T & M canal, Shroppie, S & W, and further afield to the likes of the Bridgie, L & L, Lanky. The distant ones for me were usually for nationals, apart from the Bridgie where I fished AT winter leagues, but here are my nominees.

Jeff Moores, Ian Moulton, Paul Turner, Fred the Bread, Bezza, Pete Hargreaves, Simon Nickless.

These lads could sort out any venue they went to. Used to get battered regularly by them,but never minded as it was all a learning curve for me.

cheque in the post kiddo the way i draw i could take on rolfe harris and win a medal
mrV don't for get back then a canal match was as big as a river match with anywhere between 100  to 200 anglers  pete hargraves thats the fella

Not getting involved in this thread purely because there are so many quality canal anglers around these days i could easily pick at least 50

u colly has keef on the first write up kiddo have you been on the pop again

afraid so joff

Planty


He ain't called the master for nothing!

Dodge I hope no one puts up a topic the best commercial angler

When there used to be a canal scene 20 plus years ago darn sarf on the LAA stretches of the Grand Union it was like a who's who of top canal anglers. Here's just a few I can remember: Dave Vincent, Mick Vincent, Derek Young, Pete Vasey, Andy Mead, Mark Pollard, Chris Pollard, Gary Miller, Chris V, Jason Wooster, Graham Smith, Gordon Curl, Kim Milsom, Steve Gardner, Clive Gingell, Glen Brown, Mark Hoye, Kevin Stack, Simon Drew, Gary Page, Darren Davis, Toni Marti, Lee Newsom, Mark Bird, John Hassler, Graham Dack.

I was a young man then and just used to gawp star struck at the draw!

Let's also not forget Fred the chair, the old boy that used to travel all over the shop to come & spectate!

nathen hughes and sean ashby aswell as dazzla from derby