The Close Season Zander Quest Pt.109 – Brothels and Broughtonian’s

Weird isn't I've only been back on the canal for a few session now and the trudging of the towpaths and watching of the largely motionless floats has started to give me trips of the moving towpath kind again.

To be honest I quite enjoy the visual treat, a little like spending to much time on a cruise ship and finding that you've sea-legs when you're back on dry land again it's there to be enjoyed rather than sometime to be scared of, or a post Eclipse in Coventry all-nighter when you're back in the land of the living and feeling compos mentis.

But then the other evening, I felt a presence to the left of me, 50 or so yards down right next to one of those posts used to indicate a powerline, every time I looked a figure was there watching me and then as soon as I caught a glimpse the post was back again, all very odd, a ghostly presence I suppose but not in a bad way.

The canal was eerily quiet, but then to be fair is usually is down at this particular stretch.

Now these Zander that frequent these midland waterways have been sent to Coventry not on their own doing, but after unscrupulous anglers decided that these unruly things with fins, could do with sticking their fingers up to the establishment, and mix thing up a bit.

And mix things up a bit they have, in-fact some would say they have ruined the local cut and they will never get back to where they were before.

The biomass changed for the detriment of the other fish species, look on the bright-side though the EA's Christmas fund never been bigger !!!!

Certainly the stamp of fish in the stretches I fish has changed, decent bream and rod bending hybrids being the mainstay. But then angling has changed, commercial fishery, white vans and F1’s in abundance, canals all but forgotten.

That couldn’t be better for me though, I prefer it that way, miles of canal towpath to myself. Fishing on my terms, fish seeing little pressure.

Now for this morning session I was down at the Laryngeal Prominence, an area home to my PB canal Zander of 9lb. Unlike big Pike though these larger fish are transient in their making, catch it from one swim, it won’t be there again, don’t worry I’ve tried.

Travelling light is the key for these sessions, leapfrog likely holding spots to try and drop in on a fish. Move on after ten or fifteen minutes if you’re biteless, you’re generally wasting your time. Again a smelt and roach mix for this session, keep on plugging away, I’m sure it will come good one day.

This was a different session entirely, well don't get too excited, I caught a few fish though. To be fair there was no boat traffic and the water had a least a foot of visibility which to be honest doesn't bode well for Zander.

They were hungry though and I managed a few fish and even one put a decent bend in the rod. Lots of roving though like a lot of these sessions but as soon as the sun came out it went dead. The water felt a little warmer so I'm sure there will get on the move soon enough and I'll have the odd session using a lure rod as well.

At least the fish are getting slightly bigger, this one going 3lb 7oz's. Quite a rotund thing as well and not happy being caught.

So on the next one then, I'm not sure where I'm going to fish either. Decisions Decisions. Also plans are in action to maybe give a dusk in to dark session a go. Although I might wait till the water warms up and wait till the clocks change.