Piscatorial Quagswagging

...the diary of a specialist angler in around the Warwickshire Avon and its tributaries.

Friday 23 March 2018

Closed Season Canal Zander Quest PT70 – Brazilians and Braguettes

The long walk back to the car from the last session I stopped for a pit stop. A handful of defrosted deads were deposited next to a 10 yard stretch of thick cover that would have otherwise ended up in the poo bin.

Pre-baiting if you will, nothing to lose, but that wasn’t the only reason, this area was home to a big fat Canal Zander I’d manage to catch that for a while was my PB at 8lb 10oz. It was an area so productive a blank was rarely on the cards. Until the last closed season quest that is, where for some reason the fish were suspicious in their absence.


The bushes and cover had been given a bit of a tidy up though, and to be honest the overzealous hedge trimming operative had given it a proper Brazilian rather than a mere quick once over. Ok it looked nice, I’d admit but it might have buggered up the habitat where the Zed’s were happy to put their feet up and unzip their armoured codpieces without fear of ridicule.

They were more exposed that was the issue I feared, because they are predators after all, and like all hot heads they enjoy lying in wait for any potential hunger quencher to mosey on by.

Unsuspecting no more…


The Brazilian was now more Au Natural though hence why it stopped me in my tracks at the end of the last session, the cover now looked more like it did before. It sort of dictated this short after work session to be honest.

Were there fish back in residence, relaxing with their fins behind their heads ?

Only one way to find out…

Again, the usual Zander fair, this time though, one of the rods I’d use a section of Roach. The cross sectional area giving it mucho bang for buck.

All guts and glory….


To be honest, I don’t think Zander are that fussy when it comes to deads having now caught them on many a different type of dead fish, sea and coarse but sometimes maybe mixing it up a bit can lead to more bites, a washed out 3 inch whole roach or a something that looks a little more palatable maybe could make the difference. It certainly would me, often putting ones nose up to the cheap works birthday donuts but happily gobbling down a few lamb samosa’s.

The last hour would be spent in the aforementioned, the first leap frogging another section a short walk away, this time though, the near margin looked tasty for a fish to be holding up. I like moving around for Zander on the canal, you know if they are there within 20 minutes or so generally so I wanted to fish a few more swims before giving the last swim a go where I was expecting a blank.

So the session, out with the floats, and on the new rods set-up too, more of that in another thread.


So the canal had a bit of a dead feeling about it, I couldn't quite put my finger on it. A canoeist went that stirred up the boredom but before heading to the last swim despite leapfrogging a section of decent looking cover, not a murmur on the floats. Now talking of cover nearly all of my float caught Zander have been tight to cover, many of those swims must have been on the shelf too because it's surprising just how much deeper the channel is and in places the cover isn't that thick.

Maybe I'm missing a trick because as Dan says it's not only easier for a Zander, especially a big one to move about in deeper water but it's easier to hunt too, looking up rather than down.Then depending how thick the cover is, I could be fishing not far off the channel anyway.

If I think about it most of my lure caught Zander have been in said channel, so maybe it's something I'll try later during this closed season, certainly as the light fades and they are likely to go on the hunt. I fish quite turbid waters so light levels may not be not that much of an issue, but definitely worth a try.


Looking at the canal Zander over 7lb I've caught, the biggest and my 9lb PB was caught in the shallow water of a turning bay and the others tight to cover. So shallow water may not be such an issue but the mediocre results last season, I need to try any avenues that may help.

anyway back to the fishing, the last swim, which has been a banker the year before last, not a sausage despite leaving the baits longer than I usually do.

The first blank of this years challenge....

2 comments:

  1. The pack I found Tuesday evening Mick were very tightly packed.13 z's to about 4lb ish in the space of maybe 90 mins. I would of stayed longer but ran out of deads. I think they're still very much shoaled up.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeap still cold at the minute so not doing a fat lot, just matter of finding them to get a bite. Effort equals reward and that’s what I’m hoping. Another two sessions planned over the weekend.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...