The Close Season Zander Quest Pt.125 – Grinagog's and Grumbletonians

The session the weekend just gone, 7 Zander caught, fish lost, bites galore, things were looking up. You see the Zeds appear to be free from the shackles of their Thierry Mugler corset dresses and are back to being mobile, back to do what they do best. There isn’t any science to catching Zander in this mood to be honest but if I’m to catch a big female with bulging bits with narcissism to match, I need to up the bank time.

That’s not easy because after all I’ve mouths to feed and a home to keep. An hour here, an hour there can really pay off though, especially if you’ve spent as much time chasing the needle in the proverbial haystack like I have, you get to know areas where bites are nearly almost guaranteed. Those areas are few and far between, they really are.

Now a step on from that is an area I found that is as rare as a correct MP’s expenses form, you see it’s an area that not only produces plenty of bites but those Zed’s that bite are usually fish over 3 or 4 pound. It’s an area that a 5lber isn’t an eyebrow raiser which believe you me, a 5lber is a rare canal Zander I tell thee.

This early morning session, would be short, very short indeed, maybe three, three and a a half hours max before the geriatrics activate their galvanic isolators and get on the move. I’d fish tight to some cover with smelt on the Sakuma Manta’s. It’s an area I refer to as the ‘deep bit’ because the cutting here has some nice depth to it, it may only be a foot and a half deeper than the usual depth of the canal but any ‘feature’ like this can really up the catch rate of the bigger fish.

A 7lb 8oz fish my biggest up till now in this particular area but having caught other fish exceeding 5lb it’s that rare hotspot us specimen Zed heads are trying to find. I’ve given it a little rest of late because oddly it’s been off form. I’m sure the spawning ritual didn’t help mind you so I was back for this quicky to see if there are fish here still.

I tend to give this section of cover a little more time however, the floats a little more time to settle. When the fish are up and moving around if you haven’t had a bit within 10 or 15 minutes it’s time to move to the next spot.

When the fish are in situ they will readily take a deadbait when dropped on their noggin’s so it’s a waste of time fishing one swim if bites are not forthcoming, you need to move. It means lots of canal can be covered which can be daunting at first to a newbie where all you can see is a huge volume of water, scratching your head thinking where to start.

Find the fish, rather than them find you, so anyway, back to the session !!!!

Now Nick from Avon Angling UK was out with a friend of his Steve the other day and they did quite well on dyed yellow deadbaits so for this session I thought I'd give them a go myself. Now Zander are known to like green and certainly it's one of the default colours for me so I wondered if they would make any difference, maybe a headturner over the hundrum.

It didn't help that I drove to the venue then realised I'd forgotten the deadbaits so I had to return home  to fetch them, so 20 minutes wasted basically in prime fishing time. Anyway I eventually got fishing but nearly an hour spent in the deep bit and boats starting to get moving it was time to get on the rove.

There are certain spots that usually hold Zander but today they were off feeding for sure. Eventually I received the first bite nearly two and half hours in to the session but it was a small fish that dropped off when it let go of the bait. A banker area sure enough produced a bite but again a lost fish, I don't think it was all that big luckily. So the last half an hour fishing the deep bit again, not a jot. Hmmm, not good, this used to be a productive area, just goes to show how much it can change.

So another blank to add to my list !!!!