Canal Zander – Billy Big Puds

100ml of milk, 75 grams of flour, a little water, 2 eggs, some dried sage and onion salt, season.

Whisk, leave, room temperature, ready to go….

Fan oven set to 210 degrees.

6 cup muffin tin, the much needed groundnut oil that makes the difference, preheated.

Fill mixture to rim, watch it bubble, oven bound.

Meat up top, spuds and puds below, door closed.

25 minutes, jobs a good’un, watch them rise.

Give them a go, I’ve been tinkering with ones Yorkshire puds for some time now and they are a revelation.

Aunt Bessies lazy frozen jobbies, GET OUT !!!!

You see mediocrity is not something to be relished in my opinion. I’d watched a YouTube video the other day you see with a name embroidered lure fisherman drop shotting a miniscule micro lure in a local canal where he caught over 3 and ¾ metres of tiny perch. Now the thing that struck me was not only the fact that he actually measured the length of each and every fish caught despite not being in a match but also the fact that he had a corresponding tally counter that he proudly displayed at the end of the video.

And ‘wasping’, what’s all that about….?

After skipping through the monotony there was certainly nothing to put a bend in the rod from what I could see. However I can now see why many lure clubs are changing their match rules to the 3 biggest caught rather than total length as come on, be realistic some of the Perch looked like they were just out of nappies and therefore naive after their new found freedom.

Now, I’ve no doubt bigger fish would eventually succumb to this method but it looked completely alien to me as the resulting fish were rivaling a nats nadger.

I've said before though, I ain't a match fisherman, but I can see why the technique is well practiced, micro lures catch plenty of fish.

Then I had an idea !!!! which I have from time to time believe it or not that may benefit the type of fishing I partake in.

You see my ongoing quest for a cut double I’ve been using 12cm Fox spikey shads on the whole where the results have been reasonably productive for Zander and Perch but still nothing to touch the results on chunks of roach. Maybe there was something to learn from these micro lure tip tappers after all.

What about using a lure more befitting the size of the fish I’m trying to catch….

Thinking about it, an ‘A’ cup wouldn’t turn my head, a set of ‘DD’s , no question.

So it was out with the head turners….the biggest over 6.5" inches of Kopyto

Saturday morning, 7.30am, canal towpath, fog still around the first cast of the lure,

PING !!!!

It's still frozen, whoops...

As it got lighter I could see, oh yeah, BALLS !!!!

Weird as it hadn't been freezing over night. Only a thin layer and the areas that looked fishable just didn't appeal.

So back in car, I'll try tomorrow...

Again, foggy but this time it was fine. The clarity wasn't the best, clearer than I usually like. I decided to start small and go big, to one of my most successful lures was put on. The Red Headed Fox spikey shad.

About the 4th or 5th cast, a small Perch

I upped the size to 4.5" and sure after a few plucks as Zander nailed it, not the biggest but just goes to show, they don't mess around.

The next lure I'd used down the river before. A firetiger pattern with a slightly slimmer body than the white Kopyto, which is the larger lure I thought I'd try.

Now the canal especially away from the boat track is very shallow indeed so these lure are not ideal. It helps that the hook point is on top of the lure though so less issue with catching debris.

So it's a matter of casting out, leaving the lure to bottom out and then slowly retrieve the lure. I've found Zander like to sometimes take a lure on the drop but it's difficult with these larger lures.

Anyway after half an hour I though about downsizing but after a few nibbles and plucks eventually a fish grabbed it.

This felt larger than the last fish but after seeing it's flanks it was still a small fish.

It properly nailed it though and just goes to show. Zander look like they have relatively small mouths but a bit like a Perch, they can get their jaws really well open to be able to target their prey.

This one had a belly on it but still not that big, maybe 4lb or so....

So on the last lure, the Kopyto, to be honest this looked ridiculous and I was in two minds whether or not to try it out but after fitting it with a 5g jig head it performed pretty well to be honest. The biggest issue is the disturbance on the water.

It was a little like Peter Kay in the John Smith's advert, it's a tank slapper, a depth charge. Maybe on the river that's ok, but a small canal, I'm sure the fish would keep their distance.

Luckily I was on my tod....

Now I tried for an hour and there was certainly fish interested as every now and then something took a nibble of the tail. The clarity didn't help as it was too clear for a proper good Zander session but it was good to experiment me thinks.

I'm thinking I might try this lure down the river where hopefully I can snare a Pike or a Zander.

Switching back to the spikey shad I had another 2 schoolies in quick succession. The larger fish I'm after didn't show, but come on this is Zander fishing, I'm still learning and I've caught bucket loads of them now.

A river session me thinks....maybe this time with a dead bait on a sleeper rod.