Closed Season Zander Quest Pt.21 – Commercial Instinct

My favourite Whisky Cask Strength Finlaggaan (58%) remains a very closely-guarded secret, the distillery is something of mystery. Most people assume that it is Lagavulin.

This is a hefty cask strength, un-chill filtered dram bottled in its natural colour. Nose (undiluted): Peat, cereal, barley, citrus, cookie dough, Intense

Add a little water the Intensity diminishes and the gentle side of this dram reveals itself. Cooked apples, bitter herbal notes, vanilla cream, Chardonnay and woodsmoke

Give it a bash, it gives a big hit so ideal to aid the shuteye.

Now most specialist anglers are quite rightly hush hush about where they fish, why spend the time finding the specimens only to share the detail in passing and someone who you are unlikely to see again.

Barbel particulary, some anglers just don’t want to do the groundwork.

Now matchmen are less likely to have closely-guarded secrets so whenever I get the chance, be it, lake, canal or river I always have a natter, I often get a whole host of information shared and it’s appreciated.

I’d fished in this vicinity before but after some Chinese Whispers (most probably) I was back again. This time however gone was the slop, the pellets and maggots and it was out with the Zed gear.

Now don’t tell the Wife, she doesn’t read my blog as fishing talk makes her eye glaze over but she thought I was at work not fishing down at the local canal. Friday for the majority of the automotive industry has always been a lunchtime finish (Except for JLR) so we usually make most of the kid free time but having had the Monday off I was meant to be catching up on my hours.

So Thursday evening with her out with friends and the kids running amok I whacked the gear in the car and when she returned she was none the wiser.

Mouths zipped please….heck I work enough as it is, I deserve some time off.

The first thing I noticed was I don't think it is fished much as the lure kept on getting snagged on branches and debris. There was plenty of feature though, moored boats, bends, narrowing's, thick cover and reed beds.

Lack of life mind you, no fished even topped during the near 4 hours I was there. It was cold admittedly and the majority of the stretch had really poor clarity but I'd have expected something on the lure at least when eventually the clarity improved.

The float remained motionless....

So the first blank on the challenge and I'm expecting many more so it didn't really surprise me.

I haven't given up on this stretch though as I'm planning another session when it warms up a little.