Ulverston Canal: Fish Species

Ulverston Canal, a mixed coarse fishery - Roach, Rudd, Bream, Crucian Carp, Pike and Tench

Ulverston Canal offers the best mixed coarse fishing in South Cumbria, sometimes you never know which species you're going to catch next. If you're sick of fishing a hole in the ground for carp then Ulverston Canal offers a good alternative, back to fishing like it used to be.

Many coarse fish species

Roach numbers have swelled in recent years and the species classes have become stronger and larger. Roach fishing in Ulverston Canal really excels in the late Summer and right through Autumn. Rudd, Perch, Crucian Carp and Eels are all also present with eels being the only fish to respond sometimes in matches on a hot summers day. In the winter months local anglers enjoy fishing for Pike in the canal that are present in quite large numbers. A pike of over 20lbs has been caught but these are very rare.

Large shoals of Common Bream in Ulverston Canal

The canal holds a good head of Bream although these are rarely fished for. Common Bream run from small Skimmers through to 6lb plus fish. Large shoals of Common Bream can be seen on calm summer days basking just below the surface, hundreds of Bream can be seen ranging in size from 8oz to 6lb. Cumbria Open matches held on the canal have been won with large bags of Bream.

Ulverston Canal is famous for its early season Tench Fishing

Ulverston Canal is famous for its early season Tench Fishing making the front cover of Angling Times with a centre page spread on the canal's superb Tench fishing in 1992. The canal holds a good head of quality tench between 3-6lb and the record Tench being over 7lb. Early in the year when the tench have just woken from their slumbers big catches of tench can be caught with bags of 100lb not unknown. Four or five tench to 6lb is quite a common catch until the fish finally 'wise up' and get a bit finicky. Good catches can be had throughout the year and Tench were caught on a mild Boxing Day!

Ulverston Canal has a good head of large Carp

Carp were stocked in the Canal in the 1960's and these fish are still present in small numbers but run to over 20lbs. In the Summer of 2002 thirty nine carp were stocked in the town end of Ulverston canal. The Carp were moved from Sandhall Ponds and were mainly Common Carp with a few Mirrors and one Ghosty, the biggest of these fish being a 16lb 6oz Common. The fish were weighed and tagged before they were released in the canal so they could be monitored. The Carp didn't take long to acclimatise to the Canal and were being caught within a couple of weeks of being stocked. These fish have now put on considerable weight and are ready for the specialist Carp angler who is able to put in the time and effort to catch them.