The Close Season Zander Quest Pt.195 - Footlongs and Futurology

Cover has always held Zander, well why wouldn't it they are predators after all and somewhere to lay in wait ready to pounce on prey will always feature in their makeup. Fine cover and a a deep area like I did a couple of years ago you've got a chance of a decent canal Zed which is anything over 5lb or so, or 60 cm's to the length measurer. 

Cover offers some solitude away from the masses too, so at this time of year when its still cold much of the time they can lay up, expend little energy and stretch their legs and rest their fins.

Certain swims will always hold fish too, this stretch which has been very good to me in the past being home to two of my biggest canal Zeds. Oddly one came from cover, the other in a shallow turning bay where you would question why would a big fish be happy there. It's back probably not far off sticking out of the water.

They don't need much water over their heads though and that's half the problem, swims I'd walk past with my rods in hand will no doubt contain fish.

We've not had rain for ages and the water level on this stretch is a good few inches down and up till the last couple of weeks has been almost clear, in-fact in some swims you could see the bottom the entire width of the canal. 

Luckily the boats are starting to move so as soon as it colours up the Zander are up for a feed. There are no secrets here to be honest, fish as many swims as possible and after ticking the swims off eventually you will be rewarded.  I was surprised to see an angler here because I've largely got to myself but it's someone I've bumped into here quite a few times and he was here for some pleasure fishing and was struggling for bites until some plump roach saved the day.

I on the other hand was getting plenty of bites, all from small fish though, in-fact some of the smallest Zander I've caught in a while. Two of the fish not much bigger than the roach deadbait itself, which I'd usually not think much of it, but bare in mind this stretch has been electro-fished in the past and these fish are the up and coming school year that I'd like the catch when they reach retirement. 

I caught 5 in the end if I recall, plenty of bites where many were fish either dropped off or they let go of the bait or clearly had eyes far bigger than their bellies. 

Still I started out with Zander journey with these fantastic fish and I still love catching them such their character. Shame them are persecuted still and recently the tact changed with their classification so they need to watch their backs even more than they ever did.

I'm going to give the hot-spot a rest for a while so the next handful of sessions will be at an area I have fished but know hardly anything about. Bites can be sparse but if a big'un shows itself it will likely be a good'un. So back to bigger baits again, back to the head turners.

What dreams are made of ? lets hope do, wish me luck !!!!