'Not Quite' The Close Season Zander Quest Pt.145 – Tyranny and Trigrymates

There are reports that Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrats’ former leader, could be parachuted into the House of Lords. The most anti-democratic of retirement homes, it is this, the potential perpetuation of Jo Swinson’s political career, even after a humiliating defeat.

So we, as voters, have chosen to take power away from Swinson and all that she and her party represents, only for that power to be given back to her by our political class. She would then be able to sit in the Lords, alongside 800 ( yes you heard right) of other unelected appointees, hereditary peers and even 26 bishops.

There you see apart from claim £300 quid a day and all the creative expenses that goes with the territory, she would be able to check, amend and even block the will of directly elected MPs. We as the hoi polloi have had enough of that haven't we after the so called democratic debacle over the last three years whatever side you sat, the will of the people was ignored, roadblocks put up and lawyers appointed.

The best day care centre for the elderly in London !!!!

Politics is all she knows is what riled me, maybe stuffing the wire into bras in a knicker factory for a while for a bit of grounding could well do her some good rather than happy to scarper off quickly and put her feet up at the aristocratic tyranny.

The House of Lords is in enough trouble at the moment without having her foisted on them. It's the world's second largest legislative body after China's People's Congress, what happened to the two out one in policy that was banded around last year, that went quiet didn't it.

Errr, what am I rambling on about, better go fishing to get the mind back to where it should be !!!!

Now talking about greedy and in numbers the rivers are where my allegiances lie, however for this session I was back down the canal chasing the elusive double figure canal Zander that swim among the schoolie humdrum. The rain putting a kibosh on anything flowing sadly so the overdepth float rods were dusted off, the smelt removed from the freezer, a towpath to be trudged.

As I type this, this is the flood map showing how bad it is again !!!!

Now a recently acquired book meant I could fish a stretch of canal new to me. A mile and a bit of virgin water to try and locate some Zander. This particular canal is home to two of my biggest fish, 9lb being my biggest, 8lb 10oz my second biggest. Oddly though the number of fish seemed to have tailed off and I've been fishing an entirely different canal for most of my sessions.

What keeps me coming back here though is that I'm sure there is still a lunker in these special waters. If I'm ever to conclude this quest of mine, I need to fish places like this because I might be missing something. A quick google showed some nice cover where often I find the Zander holding up and it's a matter of leapfrogging cover to try and drop on them.

At this time of year though much of the thick cover has died back leaving a load of tangled branches and evergreen bushes about the only feature you can fish next to. Now this section sees lots of foot traffic and after 3 hours without a bite leapfrogging dog poo city I was in two minds to go somewhere else, but I stuck with it and it paid off.

I ended up retracing my steps and fished a swim where it scream Zander, as someone who has caught plenty now you just get an eye for these things.

I left the floats longer than usual, nearly an hour and sure enough the right hand float bobs and starts to move. Then it stops and then a thirty seconds later it does the same again, this time the bite develops and I strike in to a solid fish.

I knew it was a half decent fish because it was talking line and I was following it down the towpath. After giving a good account of itself the fish was in the net. Not in the best condition but they have seen some sights these fish when they get this big.

Not my biggest but the indicator going round to 6lb on the scales it was still a specimen from the canal and I went home happy with that especially as it is the biggest thus far recorded on the 2019 bloggers challenge chart.

To be honest I didn't gel with the area, the towpath busy and very open. I prefer the more secluded and quiet areas to fish. I might give it another go though, maybe in the closed season when I'm forced to.