Warwickshire Avon – Bloodless verses the Bogus

This ‘zander’ pack of roach freezer baits looked past their best to be honest, after all they were left over from the Zander challenge back in June and my ‘Quest for a Cut Double”.

Now readers of this blog will know I didn’t quite get that elusive double figure fish, but did bank a few nice Zander accumulating in a fish of smack bang on 9lb which ain’t to be sniffed at considering I’ve caught hundreds and hundreds of the little schoolie buggers that would barely make an amuse-bouche in a posh French restaurant.

I’d grown to like the single minded approach….and I miss fishing the cut, yes really....

I rarely fish lakes and pools these days spending most of my time on running water but I’ve become to love fishing the cut. Probably because I’ve spent so much time there during one’s quest. Now I’m not saying next March cannot come round soon enough but it will be nice to get in a mindset knowing what I’m fishing for my next session.

In my experience, fishing for Zander on the canals I wasn’t too bothered about the condition of these baits, ok fresher the better, but these colourless, pale and pallid small Roach deadbaits would still catch fish. It wasn't an issue, so for this session river Zander were my target and from a couple of swims I’d not fished before.

To hedge my bets and keep myself active I’d also brought my lure rod, if bites were not forthcoming maybe they fancied something different than an obvious deadbait, it’s still clear and tough going after all, and they’ve seen it all these fish, and it's not lured fished much from what I've found out. It’s a bit like those tried and tested chat up lines, you need to work harder than that to get anywhere near the forbidden, something a little out of the ordinary maybe.

This season because of the conditions have been a little haphazard and my results have been mediocre to say the least but maybe for my 400’th post going forward maybe I should start a river Chub challenge, the ‘Quest for a River 5lber” ?

I’m sure I’m missing a trick....Mick, shape up, or ship out, my results have been mediocre up to now.

It was only a short session this but I wanted to try one particular swim that looked deeper than the swims either side of it. Those I could see the bottom in these rain baron times and I thought if a predator was here then it is likely to be lurking here.

The session was a quick one with around 45 minutes in each swim, very quiet indeed but eventually after the third move I received my first bite on the deadbait. I thought it was a decent Zander at first but in the clear water I could see a Pike of around 6 or 7 pound had the bait in its jaws broadside.

I saw him, he saw me so he ejects the baits and plunges back to the depths. Oh well...

The last swim I managed two Jacks, one on the lure the other on a deadbait which it nabbed on the retrieve. Some lovely markings hence the picture.

At least I didn't blank. As soon as the first frost comes I think I will give the Perch a back further downstream.

Martin was out too, fishing downstream and proved that the Barbel will feed in the day. After a quick natter I might mirror his tactics when I get a chance, it certainly seems to work effectively.