X marks the spot....

One thing I noticed when fishing Coventry’s Hawkesbury Junction yesterday was just how much shallower it was compared to the area of the Grand Union I fish, it was much clearer too. The recent rain would have influenced that but certainly not ideal conditions for Predator fishing. There are Zander here as well as Pike and Perch, even some big ones. The day proved that it didn’t put the fish off so despite my reservations there were plenty of fish caught.

Zedvember the 53rd was a get together of like minded anglers from mainly the Midlands but also from down South to celebrate the birthday of Jeff Hatt. In attendance were James Denison,Brian Roberts,Danny Everitt ,Joe Chatterton, Keith Jobling amongst others. More of a social chinwag, well for me anyway. The event was midday till 6.00pm concluding with a well deserved pint at the Greyhound.

You are always learning when fishing whether it be technique or tackle and having never considered drop-shotting before Danny’s adapted method where he uses half a lob worm proved very productive indeed. It’s only when you see the worm dancing close up you can understand why it’s tempting to a fish. Irresistible I’d expect a something I’m planning to try myself as it’s seems ideal for the canal where you can cover plenty of water and tempt a fish to take bait when it’s waved temptingly in front of their face.

Talking of technique and tackle Jeff’s widget rig proved itself success yet again with the biggest Zander of the day and confirmed that location is certainly the key on canals where a foot either side of the bait may leave you bite-less but hit the spot marked with an X you could see the float sailing away.

My running set-up for Zander has proved reasonably productive but having witnessed how accurate a float set-up is, maybe I’m missing a trick. The next closed season I’m going to try my hardest to bag a double figure canal fish by leapfrogging with two rods widget style, I like the idea of watching a float too because you can tell exactly what’s going on below the surface, with the the ledger set-up it’s guess work. I blanked having lost a Zander on first cast but probably had my rods out the water more than in.

Cheers for the invite Jeff, an enjoyable day.

Oh and if anyone finds my stainless chub bankstick and Gardner bite alarm as shown in the picture above you can have this lure I retrieved that snagged me up. Don't think I ever finish a session without losing something.