The Canal & River Trust has issued a dry-weather navigation update after the driest spring since 1893 left parts of the canal network under real water strain

Driest spring since 1893 is the kind of statistic that's easy to skim past, but the mechanism connecting it to fishing is direct: canals depend on river-fed reservoirs to maintain navigable depth, and when spring rainfall is that far below normal, the reservoirs feeding the network into summer start from a lower baseline than usual. The Canal & River Trust's navigation update is framed around boat movement, but the same low water and low flow conditions apply equally to anyone fishing the network.

Low water combined with the marine and inland heat this summer has been producing is a genuinely tougher combination for fish than either factor alone. Warmer water holds less dissolved oxygen, and lower flow means less natural mixing and aeration to compensate, which is the classic recipe for fish becoming lethargic, moving to deeper or shaded swims, and feeding in narrower windows. If a normally reliable canal stretch has felt thin this summer, water conditions rather than fish numbers are the more likely explanation.

This is also a reasonable moment to be more careful about fish welfare on your own session, not just about catch rates. Extended fight times, prolonged time out of water for photos, and returning fish into water that's already oxygen-stressed all carry more risk during a low-water, high-temperature summer than they would in a normal year. Nothing about current conditions is a reason to stop fishing, but it is a reason to handle fish faster and return them with more care than usual.

Practically, if you're planning a canal session while these conditions hold, deeper pounds, lock cuttings and any swim with visible flow or aeration are worth prioritising over shallow, still stretches, and dawn or dusk sessions are likely to outperform the middle of a hot day for the same reasons covered in our marine heatwave piece this week. Check the Canal & River Trust's navigation notices for your specific stretch before a trip, since water strain isn't uniform across the whole network.