The Close Season Zander Quest Pt.212 - Panpharmacons and Paroemiographers

This stretch of canal where big Zander reside is a bit of an eyeopener where all things fishy are concerned. The biomass of fish quite incredible really from the tiny to the titanic. I'm sure any swim I'd park my backside would produce fish in numbers and of quality that would raise ones eyebrows.

Over those sessions I've been fishing it predators have been the main quarry but one of those sessions I cobbled together a pole float attached to my 14ft Acolyte float rod with centrepin and fished in the margins with much success. Rudd and roach bream hybrids succumbed to the grubs and a sprinkling of ground bait and bread slop.

I'm no Jon Arthur where over 5 hours he will be feeding and fishing over an area with the diameter of a side plate, where my accuracy is likened to pinning the tail on the donkey, where the donkey has been tethered to a 5metre rope. Still I'm not about to win a competition, but it just goes to show here the canal is different, much different to what I'm used to.

For this session with Nic from Avon Angling UK in to dusk and beyond I'd try something different here and that would be to fish large pieces of breadflake on the hook and fish a small feeder with liquidised bread as feed. I'd have a deadbait out on a sleeper and when dusk came I'd add another rod to ones armoury. 

Half a smelt on one rod and a roach on the other, both on light running ledger set-ups with bite alarms and bobbins on a long drop for bite indication. I prefer fishing an over depth float set-up for Zander but as I'd be more confined to an area and would be fishing in to dark it made sense to set ones stall out a little more permanently.

The weather is picking up nicely now and with mid twenty temperatures due in the middle of next week and in to the weekend, hopefully that bought of rubbish weather is well and truly behind us. Oddly I've not picked up one of the bigger Zander that reside here because well one of the problems is the body of water really is quite vast and the lunkers could be anywhere. 

It only takes one bite to conclude the quest though, and if that ever happened this place will always stay on my radar because of the fish are next level. I bet you would be hard pushed to find a better stretch of canal in the Midlands, but those that do fish it I'm sure do keep things under their hats. If it wasn't for Nic discovering it on the off chance it would never feature at all in my fishing. 

I've spoken to the odd silver fish pleasure angler here over the time I've been fishing it and they have let slip little snippets that only add to the fact that this stretch is something special. 

2lb roach, shusssshhhhhhhhhhhhh !!!!

Predators need food and here, well the supermarket shelves are full to the brim, the quality Waitrose not Farm Foods. Heck for this session I'd even have my chair with me and let me tell you, a chair on a fishing session doesn't happen very often especially in this closed season Zander quest. It's also quiet here, limited footfall and ok the boats can be frequent at times but nothing that puts the fish off, they are used to it. 

The evening started off very warm indeed but as soon as the sun set we were both reaching for extra layers in-fact when I left heading towards midnight it was down to 9 degrees.

The fishing well, I caught the only Zander more or less within half an hour after getting the baits out, only a small schoolie though and oddly after taking a picture for the blog it hadn't taken. Oh well luckily it wasn't anything bigger.

The fishing was hit and miss oddly and even Nic was struggling for bite where the fish fed in fits and starts. I caught a rudd and a skimmer on worm but packed the rod way to concentrate on the deadbait rods. We had an hour spell where small Zander were in the swim and both of us has fish on that dropped off and also had a fee aborted runs each. Clearly a school had gone through, sadly not followed by their parents.

Nic will still getting bites albeit not in numbers he is used to here. Some nice fish though decent bream bronze and silver and plenty of fish in between.

I decided to call it a day when even the bats went back to bed, again another disappointing session here. With only a couple of weeks left of the closed season I might have one more try here in to dark and beyond and maybe another roving during the day. For me I've always faired better in the daylight at this long stretch so lets see what I can manage before I get back to rivers again. 

Ones patience tested once again !!!!