Have your fishing license and your parking permit or it will be an expensive trip. There are a lot of places to fish for those willing to look. It's a shame that the Canal would get crowded, but back in the day the Canal would have a hundred people there and everyone got along fine. For that reason it was a good place for kids (like myself) to fish. On rainy nights my friends and I could fish under the highway bridge and stay dry.
I don't like traffic of any kind (people, boats, other kayaks) when I'm fishing. I don't fish to meet people. I do it to get away from people and interact with nature. There's a different "culture" for each different type of fishing (surf, head boat, jetty/canal, offshore) and an etiquette for each. If you get to the Canal, never having been there, it's probably a good idea to watch what the old-timers are doing. They catch the most fish and are almost always willing to share what they know.
