Deflated, literally....

In my very limited experience of Zander fishing (4 or 5 sessions) I've landed plenty on the lure but none on deadbait. I've had decent fish on, some for a reasonable time too but they not always been hooked effectively or they have managed to shake the hook. I switched from a thick'ish gauge circle hook to an off the shelf thinner gauge LYNX wire trace jobbie because I thought the circle hook might have difficulty penetrating the Zanders bony mouth.Danny Hale recommended I lift in the fish rather than strike which makes sense but again that didn't seem to help my hook-ups. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. Not for the first time I might add.

Yesterday's short 2 hour evening session didn't go much better either, I caught a couple of schoolies on the lure and not a touch on the deadbait sleeper rod. I'm also doing my bit to clear the canal from rubbish because I hooked and landed a tyre.Maybe a job moonlighting for the canal & river trust is on the cards.:)

With my mate Simon in tow and with the light reducing we called it a day and decided to pop to the local hostelry for a pint of UBU. I lifted the deadbait rod to feel some resistance and said to Simon,'no wonder there wasn't a touch on the deadbait, it's snagged'. This wasn't a snag though, because the snag was pulling back and I could see a half decent fish. The Zander had obviously grabbed at the roach on the retrieve the greedy git. Again the fish was on for 5 secs or so then, nothing, gone. I want to persevere with the single hook rings and not switch to a treble set-up just yet.  The deadbait attracted the bigger fish, no doubt about that, all very frustrating as I'd have a reasonable PB by now. I'm learning though, that's what fishing is all about.