Closed Season Zander Quest Pt.14 – Commander-in-Teeth

A change of plan for this session, I had planned to fish the Stratford canal but a mate Simon decided to join me last minute with some left over maggots he had from a mid-week session in overstocked Shrewley Pools. So this particular area of the Grand Union I’ve lost a couple of decent Zander at the net, potential PB beaters too, so all very frustrating. What is weird though is that these bigger fish are amongst the schoolies and the pattern has always been the same, catch a few smaller fish from the same swim and then, wham a much bigger fish turns up. It’s like the Commander sends in his troops for a reccy and then he joins them at the battlefield. I’ve found the morning for some reason far better than an evening session, not sure why but it just is.

The problem I’ve had here is one of the swims is quite elevated so the angle of rod to line is very acute and for some reason the bigger fish have managed to lose the hook once they shook their heads in anger. The acuteness is emphasised by the short 6ft rod, maybe that doesn’t help, it’s certainly having an effect that’s for sure, even when the tried and trusted mustad ultimate bass hook is used. (with barb crushed)

The water is properly thick and coloured so the fish respond best to deadbait than lures so for this short session I dumped the lure rod and rigged up another running rig for an all out headless roach sortie. The smaller rod was positioned within the deeper boat channel at the entrance to some gates and the larger rod in the hotspot near some reeds.

Within ten minutes I had a little scrapper on the bank, and more or less every fifteen minutes I had another 6 further schoolies. A proper savage bite with an hour to go the bobbin hit the butt ring but sadly didn’t connect to a fish. I’ve found the more aggressive the bobbin movement it’s usually a smaller fish, the larger fish are nice and steady. The last fish was a better fat near 3lber but the lure of a pint of ale sadly was too much so with the new river season not far away I will return here again for a last gasp morning session.

Oh and Simon caught naff all.......