The Closed Season Zander Quest Pt.133 - Ark Ruffians and Autem Bawlers

A bite required, needs must so back to waters long forgotten, an area of containment, a few in-fact, fish here aplenty in years gone by. The was the area the area that kicked on my Zander obsession and because of it's location and footfall I prefer to fish other waters.

The biggest from this location for me, 5lb on the nose, certainly some nice fish around from what I know, but for me it's always been an area to get a bite, not for the lunkers I'm after.

But bites here can be plentiful if you play it right, bankside at 6.00am to avoid the great unwashed, a deadbait here is not the norm. Shad chuckers and wasp flickers here in numbers. The first bite came in the same swim, a visible pull of the line and the float bobbles and moves, then confidently goes from left to right and headed to the middle of the swim.

I feel a little resistance, but then it drops off !!!!

An inspection of the bait, it's a small fish. They tend to do that here, a little more pressure than the other areas I fish, so they can tentatively take the bait, clutching the bait side-on so any resistance they let go. Bait back out, again another bite, this time on the other rod.

Sure enough, another fish on, then off as quickly as I type this sentence.

But then two bites at the same time, one float properly going off like the fish is trying to take the bait away from another fish. So a pack most likely mooching around the structure and moving around confident fashion.

A small fish banked, hardly troubled the rod though, a fish is a fish after all.

2 lure anglers turn up, one has decided to join me at my swim, that's nice of him isn't it. He's been blanking and wanted to see what I was doing,

"Hey I recognise you"

Just as the left hand float starts to bob and a confident bite leads to something that is at least putting up a scrap.

Time to move on, I prefer fishing on my terms, a towpath that I share with the rabbits and ducks. So on to the next stretch, an area that has been on my radar for a while. Some cover I wanted to fish, this more my thing some roving to do, the step meter woken up.

The far bank cover is thick here, but boat traffic can be heavy, the shallow waters going from static to pedestrian in a split second. As someone that has fish for Zander plenty of times you get to know where these fish hold out, and sure enough as nice thick bush providing some canopy cover brought a bite pretty quick.

Not a huge fish but at least I'm on them now, having had some mediocre sessions of late. A another couple of hours fishing a few other likely looking spots, no more fish. The boats becoming a pain.