I hadn't been to this stretch of the Grand Union for a while, this was an area I concentrated on for a while as upon the discovery of the 'deep bit' which was an area of cover with decent depth, the Zander caught kept on getting bigger.
A 7lber eventually turned up after quite a few 5 pounders but it never quite delivered on the promise of a lunker.
The 'deep bit' sadly got a number one crew cut from the CRT strimmers and that swim was never the same again. It always throws up the old decent fish though and hence why I decided to return.
There is still cover here luckily and with the suspicion that the Zander are not moving around much and could well be holding up, roving around and fishing tight to cover can throw up a bite or two.
An eye grabbing smelt was the bait of choice and I've upped the bait size of late after been plagued by zedlets picking up the smaller offerings, where a bite develops and either the small fish is banked or the bait is pulled out from their firm grasp.
The first boat came through around 7.45am probably on a mission to get bacon and some freshly baked rolls to go with it. The problem here is that any boat movement it can turn in to a river almost and with so much debris on the surface the floats are often pulled out of their position.
I stuck to my guns though and fished quite a few swims before the first bite came which developed when the float was pulled off line and the smelt was being dragged slowly along the bottom.
They are scavengers after all and much like the other predator that swims here the pike its not in their nature to give up a free meal especially as something they possibly haven't seen before. I tightened up to the circle hook but again this was a tiny fish that fell off.
It didn't take long to get the next bite though, this a perfect cast tight to cover within minutes the float was being dragged from right to left.
This felt much better and was taking me all over the canal but I know from experience these are the spirited teenagers who want to give a good account for themselves. A scraper 3lber but it was a Zander at least as they have been as suspicious in their absence of late.
That was it though oddly, quite a few swims fished with out even a nibble I decided to ups-ticks and travel a couple of mile way to try and winkle out a Zed in the usual banker swim. It's an oxygenated swim at a lock mouth that usually holds a fish or two, not this session though, and I left the floats a lot longer in-situ than I usually do.
So tail between my legs again, not going well is it !!!!
For the next session it's out with the maggots and a pole float, getting a little tired of all this now....!!!!
0 comments:
Post a Comment