Basingstoke Canal – Woking Stretch

The Basingstoke Canal Woking Stretch is a proper handy bit of canal fishing around Woking town centre and Horsell. It’s a man-made waterway running through West Surrey and North Hampshire, with towpath access and a mix of urban sections and more rural-looking water. Handy if you fancy a session without heading miles into the sticks.

• 1 lake: Basingstoke Canal – Woking Stretch
• Fish: carp, chub, bream, roach, pike, perch, rudd, crucian
• Tickets from: Adult day permit, ages 16–64 — £5
• Find it: Woking · GU21 4LJ

Based on how each lake is set up — not a ranking.

The Basingstoke Canal Woking Stretch is a proper handy bit of canal fishing around Woking town centre and Horsell. It’s a man-made waterway running through West Surrey and North Hampshire, with towpath access and a mix of urban sections and more rural-looking water. Handy if you fancy a session without heading miles into the sticks.

This isn’t a lake complex with a string of named pools. It’s one canal fishery, with the Woking area providing the focus for this guide. The Basingstoke Canal runs for approximately 32 miles overall, so there’s plenty of waterway character, but your fishing here is all about choosing a sensible towpath swim and making the most of what’s in front of you.

The fish population is described as healthy and self-stocked, with fish surveys reporting a decent spread of coarse species. Carp, mirror carp, chub, bream, silver bream, roach, rudd, perch, pike, gudgeon and crucian carp are all reported. That gives you loads of options, from a tidy silver-fish session to a cheeky carp, chub or predator hunt when the conditions look right.

As with any new canal, keep your eyes peeled before chucking in. Watch the margins, look for cover, depth changes and signs of fish, then build your swim around what the water is showing you. A simple, tidy approach is a good starting point, with kit that lets you stay mobile rather than dragging the whole tackle shop down the towpath. A short recce before settling in can save a fair bit of faff.

The towpath side is the only permitted fishing side, so peg choice is shaped by the rules as much as by the fish. Fishing is by rod and line only, with a maximum of two rods. Floating craft and public wharves are out, and you must stay at least 20 metres from any lock, bridge or aqueduct. Keep the gear compact, leave room for other towpath users and check the swim is legal before you start.

You’ll need both an Environment Agency rod licence and a Basingstoke Canal Authority fishing permit or day ticket. Adult day permits for ages 16-64 cost £5, concessions cost £3, juniors aged 12-15 cost £3 and day permits are free for children under 12. Adult annual permits cost £37, concession annual permits cost £26, junior annual permits cost £26 and annual permits are free for under-12s. Buy them online through the Basingstoke Canal Authority shop.

Fishing is catch-and-release only, and the annual close season runs from 15 March to 15 June inclusive, when no fishing is allowed anywhere on the canal. No official night-fishing permission or hours are advertised for the Woking stretch, so check the current position before planning anything outside normal daylight sessions. Take all tackle and litter home, keep your permit details sorted and you’ll be bob on.

Good background reading. Most of it is a few years old, so treat it as a starting point and ask on the day.

Videos linked by the fishery

• Our read

  Checked Sept '26 — “A proper urban-and-rural canal stretch around Woking and Horsell, with towpath access and a healthy self-stocked coarse-fish population. Day permits start at £3, but you’ll need both the canal permit and an Environment Agency rod licence before wetting a line.”

This is our own summary of recurring public feedback and the venue details we checked, not a copied customer review or a promise you’ll catch. Feedback changes, so we keep it separate from the Tackle Index score.