Urban fishing - the new trend?

It's easier than you think to go urban fishing

Recently, REUTERS interviewed our angling and fisheries manager, John Ellis, on the Regent's Canal about the rise of urban fishing. (Click the image to watch the video.)

Thank you to REUTERS for sharing this with us.

With over 2.5 million people working within 250 metres of one of our canals or rivers, there's every chance that your new favourite fishing spot is a stone's throw from your office. Find your nearest canal or search for a place to fish that's perfect for winding down after work.

What you need

• to go fishing anywhere in England and Wales you need an Environment Agency rod licence. This licenses your rod but doesn't give you permission to actually fish
• to go fishing on any of our canals, you either need to pay the local angling club who manages that stretch of canal or have one of our waterway wanderers permits

The kit

• travel light - to fish in more built-up areas, you're best to opt for a lure fishing kit or a short pack away pole. A lure fishing kit includes: a reasonably short light weight rod, reel, line (most anglers prefer braid to monofilament), landing net and unhooking mat. Finally, there's the actual lure itself and on many canals small lures designed for targeting perch are a good choice. If you are opting for the short pole, you will need two or three pole rigs, a landing net, a plummet, a disgorger, some spare hooks and shot and something to sit on.
• the bait - big maggots, squatts or pinkies might not be welcome stored in the works' fridge at most employers but never fear – you could recycle your lunchtime sandwich bread to use as bread punch. It's brilliant for roach and bream, and gudgeon are happy to nibble it too. Another option that's worth considering is the recently introduced Fjuka Bait. Believed by some to be a gimmick to catch anglers rather than fish, John Ellis was taken by surprise as to how effective the bait was on the Shropshire Union Canal.

What will I catch?

You'll be surprised how many different species of freshwater fish are in our canals. But if you are using a lure kit then you're most likely catch:

• perch – a common species easy to identify by its stripes. You can catch small and large perch alike using small spinners and lures but they're also partial to maggots and worms
• pike – a large predator that's surprisingly fragile and must be handled with great care. If you're using the lure you're very likely to catch a pike. They're found in most of our canals and rivers. And there's some pretty large specimens in our urban waterways too so a wire trace is recommended

Plus, as we said above, if you're using bread or various kinds of maggots you are most likely to catch roach, bream or gudgeon.

Where to fish

As the waterways and wellbeing charity, we own the fishing rights for much of the 2,000 miles of our canals and rivers. Our local waterways teams, towpath volunteers and fisheries and angling team, work to make sure each stretch of water is a healthy environment for fish to thrive.

We're supported by hundreds of local angling clubs who manage various stretches for us. You can check to see which area is managed by a local club using our fisheries list. Just add the postcode or town name of where you want to go fishing. The local club may issue day memberships, typically priced at around £5, but if you want to go fishing regularly it's better value to join the club.

Where a club doesn't yet manage the stretch you can still go fishing by buying a yearly Waterways Wanderers permit from us and it too will cover you for hundreds of miles of fish-filled waters.

Popular spots include:

• the whole of the Regent's Canal in London, which is wholly covered by our Waterways Wanderers permit
• Birmingham Canal Navigations on our map you can see club managed fisheries in green and our Waterways Wanderers area in orange
• the Rochdale Canal, right into the heart of Manchester which are available on Waterways Wanderers
• The Grand Union Canal in Leicester, managed by Wigston Angling Society

Where not to fish

You can't fish:

• in lock chambers or within 25m of a lock (that's about one boat length)
• within 25m of a boating water point tap
• near overhead powerlines (there's usually loads of signs warning you about these anyway)
• from the offside bank – that's the side opposite the towpath – please stick to the towpath to stay safe
• turning or winding circles
• in rivers during the close season – but you can fish in most of our canals all year long
• and of course, anywhere you see a ‘no fishing' sign – it's there for a very good reason

See our guide to good fishing with loads more information you need to know where ever you're fishing.

Win our Catch of the month

Why not share your urban catches with us on our Facebook group? You could win one of our catch of the month vouchers.