Having an understanding of under water morphology is an important aspect of increasing your catch rate as it affects where you target fish. While there are books out there, like Dom Garnett’s, that detail what we can expect to find when fly fishing for coarse fish. However, we don’t always get the opportunity to see it first hand. While out walking the other day I came across a section of the Old Main Line at the Wolverhampton Locks where they are replacing some old lock gates and have drained the canal to facilitate this maintenance.
Drained canal at Wolverhampton locks 
Cross section of a canal
The cross section of the canal was most intriguing with a clear deeper channel down the centre of the basin or alongside the wall supporting the towpath and a sloped bank rising to the opposite bank side vegetation. It was interesting to see the bank side vegetation overhanging what would have been the typical water level. Hope the photos and the cross section provided above help you visualise the underwater structure when next you fly fish for coarse fish.
The Canal and Rivers Trust workers on site were very friendly and noted that they had netted and removed thousands of fish from the section before it was drained, including a number of trout. So next time you are fly fishing and wondering if the canal section is barren or it is your fishing technique, it is probably your technique 🙂
Tight Lines
Greg