The Close Season Zander Quest Pt.174 - Insipid and Interramification

The Skull Candy Crushers bass transducer has been cranked up to maximum this working week as has the volume button, so much so the iPhones Sounds and Haptic Notification Warning popped up mid week to say I'd exceeded ones recommended limit for audio exposure. 

Oh it's like that is it ? well for someone who has had a nightmare over the last few days with IT, lost work, lost hours, his patience well and truly tested, anything to numb the neurons needs to be clung on to big time. Let me be the judge and jury of that decision thank you very much. 

But then it's 2021, where I'm told how many glasses of wine I can have or cannot have and when I can leave the house and who I can meet....

Luckily Derek Hall came to the rescue in one particular desk banging incident, the hour long mix a much needed distraction, and Derek's mixes are always a good bet for some repetitive beats with some proper low frequency impact to raise the dead. 

Now talking of patience and repetition this Zander quest of mine is certainly a tester of that because there is lots of waiting and starring at motionless floats in the leapfrogging approach I use. 

As long as you get in a bit of a rhythm though much of that is forgotten however, and to make that easier what does help, is fishing with the minimal of gear.

I've whittled it down over the years so moving from one spot to another isn't the hindrance it once was, I barely know I'm carrying stuff half the time. I've more than enough gear to tackle the Zander on the turd tainted Warwickshire canals and any situation that may arise whilst bankside. 

What I am finding frustrating though is many of those spots I loved and cherished over the years are basically no longer fishing holding spots. 

Zander love cover and last year those CRT jobbers seemingly after consuming huge quantities of alpha-methylphenethylamine, were rather over enthusiastic with the secateurs and have have removed goddamn huge lengths of it, like they were paid by the metre or something.

From feature-filled to featureless...., from wild and natural to uniform and insipid. 

For this post work afternoon session I was at a section of canal that oddly goes against the grain. To put it bluntly it was a section of canal I would walk past until the discovery from a fellow Zed head, that it does indeed hold fish, in certainly times good numbers too. 

The theory he had was that this visually rather boring length of canal could well be warmer than neighbouring stretches because of the man made containment and the huge amount of aggregate bound together by a hydraulic binder. Concrete to the layman.

This time of year though Zander could well have other things on their mind and if I look at my blog archives the first 4 to 6 weeks can be tough on the Zander hunt. They can often be seen spawning in and around tangle branches and one tree in-particular I know year on year they are they.  

It's not all about the fishing is it though, as when I'm confided to ones backside much of the day bashing the CAD out to re-fill the ever diminishing coffers. anything to get the blood the flowing, to keep the gout at bay needs to continued with.

So anyway better get fishing !!!!

Overcast and a cool wind 2 hours in swim after swim I was biteless.

The canal is still clear the half a smelt and small roach could be seen wobbling through the water column probably a couple of feet in some swims.

Believe you me that ain't good for Zander fishing and after covering a mile or so stretch I retraced my steps and decided to fish one particular area that seemed to more turbid that the water around it.

Crud on the surface, a dead fox belly up not exactly selling it am I, but I know from experience just by looking at the swim it could well hold Zander.

15 minutes in the left hand float with the smelt on starts to bob and a at last an enquiry from a fish. It seemed to lose interest in the bait for a while but then it jumps in to life again and the fish it taking it confidently.

I let it run for a few seconds and then checked the drag and struck in to the solid fish. AY-Up!!! this feels decent. The fish run it carted to the left with the rod bent double and I had to follow it down the canal as I didn't want a hook pull. The problem was I'd left my landing net and after a second run I was a good 20 yards from it.

It was the first decent Zed I'd hooked for a while and when I had it under control I released the drag and retraced my steps with the rod held high to get the net.

It came up in the water with a large swirl and yeap, a nice fish with a dark back. It was soon in the net and was showing a bulging belly which is encouraging.  Not massive it went 5lb 4oz on the scales but I'm not going to complain I'm happy with that.

It had been in the wars though, its face with various scars and scrapes and by the looks of it one of the residents Otters here, had gotten hold of it.

Another fish came from the same swim a 3lber this time, so not a bad trip out. I could have fished in to dusk but wasn't feeling particularly brilliant so I cut the session short, put my feet up having covered quite a few miles and chilled with a bottle of Champion.