Cutbank

On the Oxford Canal

On the Oxford Canal
Left: The common bream is one of Britian’s most popular “coarse fish.” This slimy specimen (which might be a bream-roach hybrid) took a chironomid dangled close to the bottom. Canal fishing can be lively, but it can also die when the sun gets high and boats churn up the ancient sediment. Photo: Henry Hughes Right: In the Oxfordshire hamlet of Thrupp, these reedy canal banks hold lots of fish if you can sneak in a cast between narrowboats. “Don’t hook my cat,” one woman cautioned with a smile. Canal fishing is often social, with nearly everyone friendly to anglers, especially to the “odd bloke” brandishing a fly rod. “So nice to see someone flyfishing,” was a common greeting. Photo: Chloë Hughes
Words: Henry Hughes

A battered blue narrowboat parts the early mist under a stone bridge and chugs up the Oxford Canal in south central England, “Lyra” painted on a plaque. “After the roach, are you?” asks the bearded, pipe-smoking boatman, accompanied by his plump tabby cat.

“Aye,” I reply with a smile. “And his brother, the bream.” The man chuckles and nods.

Long married to Britain through my wife, Chloë, born and raised in Kidlington, I return often to these waters. Britain’s canals and rivers, used for irrigation in the Roman era and developed into a transportation system during the Industrial Revolution, span 4,700 miles, though their use today is largely recreational.

The Oxford Canal, dug in the late 1700s to accommodate coal barges towed by oxen, horses and men from Coventry, runs nearly 80 miles over 46 locks, past medieval churches, through lush countryside and idyllic villages into the heart of Oxford. And it’s full of fish.

“Coarse fish,” as they’re called in Britain—carp, bream, roach, dace, chub, perch and pike—flourish in these sluggish cuts, often weed-bordered and shaded under alder and willow. The canal averages 20 feet wide with a depth of 6 to 10 feet, with larger basins that serve as marinas.

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