The Close Season Zander Quest Pt.138 – Ingordigious and Ichthyarchy

The Zander I've caught of late have been very small indeed, not my usual stamp where the fish generally exceed 2.5lb and over. Then again the fish seemingly off the feed, the warm weather certainly doesn't help because if I look at my blog, many of the fish over 5lb I have caught from the canal, are caught when a warm jacket and woolly hat is required.

What it has shown me though, is just how many youngsters are thriving in these turbid waters and are here to stay in waterways they now call their home.

They are very much established and despite their misfortune of being persecuted years gone by for no fault of their own, they really are here to stay.

Now the day before I had been at the Monster Jam monster truck show at the Ricoh arena in Coventry and they rain in the morning was proper rain, you know the rain that Great Britain is famous for, and the type that keeps this great country of ours a lush green.

Remember the heatwave last year when the ground was literally parched ? when this recent rainfall, there is no chance of that.

The rain had really dropped the air temperature as well and it was only 10 degrees or so when we made our way to the ground Coventry City will no longer play at having to now sadly slum it in Small Heath. Luckily the rain abated and we had a brilliant day watching these ridiculously powerful machines performing in the arena.

So the session, well convenience and a bite was required so an early start to an area that is home to my PB of 9lb and another fish of 8lb 10oz. Here it is a matter of roving around, fishing sections of cover and usually you drop on to fish.

The water temperature had dropped 4 degrees to 14 degrees or so, so they could either put the fish off the feed or put them on it.

Yeap you guessed it, they were off today !!!!

Three lure fisherman who came for a reccy where biteless and vowed never to come here again, but I know otherwise. A tiny fish was caught quite early on, and two smaller fish followed at the tail end of the session. I persevered though and eventually something that gave a bit of a fight turned up, less than 3lb but at least it put a bend in the rod.

Now the fish came when the boat activity was at its greatest, sometimes this can shift the fish off the bottom where they have been laying up, and also the baits can be dragged off their position giving the predator no choice but to show him who is boss.

The carp were suspicious in their absence, in-fact I only spotted the back of one when I know that in certain spots they are always home. Not a good sign however though was when walking back to the car the towpath was littered with large scales. I couldn't see the carcass but I suspect it didn't have a very good ending.

Quite an enjoyable session to be honest, the weather was nice and fresh after the previous nights rain and by the end of the day, having also visited the local village fete I was nearly twice my daily step target having covered nearly 5 miles in the morning, who says fishing is a lazy mans game.