Closed Season Zander Quest Pt.10 – Stone the Crows !!!!

Well I didn’t expect that !!!!!!!, I rocked up at a series of locks I intend to fish and whilst mooching about to see where I’d fish first an almighty splash turned my head quick sharpish and I saw a fish clear of the water. It was Pike or Zander shaped, certainly not a carp, but left in the rather large wake was a bedraggled moorhen chick and its mother so I can only assume a fish fancied a starter before it intended to search out my dead roach main course. I’ve never even had a mere sniff from a Pike during my Zander cut fishing exploits so it had to have been a Zander. A one off, or any of the bloggers seen anything like that? I remember reading this news article about an agressive Zander that was biting swimmers.

Better get a bait in quick…..

Again a short evening session amongst the diesel, grime and crud. It’s weird this stretch, one day it looks clean, the next, even a wallowing pig would think twice. Zander thrive in this habitat though, their big eyes give a massive advantage over the other dwellers, they love it here. I’m scraping the barrel where deadbait is concerned and all I have left is some tiny (Zander Pack) roach to be used on the running sleeper set-up and the tried and trusted firetiger shad on the lure rod.

It didn’t take long to catch my first Zander, it took the lure on the drop with a proper bang. I didn’t bother to weigh it but looked 2lb or so. The swim then went quiet for a bit but as soon as the light started to drop and the gnats started moving the surface of the canal came alive. Some half decent fish were moving about too looking at the disturbance in the water. Maybe I’m missing a trick on the bloggers challenge and should also have a rod out for the bream or carp. The deadbait sleeper rod started to get interest so I swopped the lure over and fished a manky Roach quiver-tip style and sure enough within 20 minutes or so, bang, bang on the tip and I was in to a fish. It was hugging the bottom and felt half decent. When it eventually came to the surface it looked a potential PB beater sadly it was foul hooked in the flank and after a last gasp spirited fight as it was reaching the net it managed to lose the hook.

Damn….

I fished for another half hour or so and managed another small schoolie. The kamikaze bats were now out and I called it a day. I’ve said before, find yourself a murky bit of canal where Zander reside and you can fish in bright sun and still catch them. They don’t mind and to be honest I’ve had less success in low light than I have during the day. I suspect a clear river is the reverse.

I've still a couple more Zander sessions to go, but this single minded approach ain't scoring me points in the bloggers challenge.