11 years old Sam caught his first Zander over 5 years ago now and 7 years as angler in total he has banked many since he caught his first.
With the weather warming up nicely he asked me to take him in to dark to add another one to his list. Locally however and to be honest a bit further afield those Zander haven't quite switched on yet so bites are at a premium.
There is probably a good reason for that because spawning won't be far away and their minds are on other things. However since I've been fishing for canal Zander year on year those bites are definitely harder to find and it's not just me that have noticed that, the likeminded have to.
Cover removed in huge quantities certainly won't help matters and looking back at this blog it's quite shocking really just how much has been going on. Some of the stretches I used to fish I just don't bother fishing now as that cover that used to hold fish has gone from full and vibrant to literally barren.
We'd only have two and half hours or so to try and winkle out a fish but at least half an hour of that would be in the dark which is often bite time for Zander not moving around that much. On route to the main swim to get the deadbaits out we dropped in to the lock swim where the reeds over at the far side tend to hold fish.
What we didn't expect was a bite on the bread after ten minutes or so, where the float was confidently moving from left to right and dragging under. I struck in to the 'unmissable' bite hard, where I failed to hook up and the rod smacked Sam slap bag in the face 😆 Whoops !!!
After another 'unmissable' bite missed the swim went dead so we moved up further up the stretch when ten minutes later after getting the smelt deadbaits out, a boat appeared round the corner with it's engine cranked up to the max.
Sometimes this can get the zander moving of the bottom to get out hunting but not in this case the floats remained motionless. Anyway with dusk arriving over at the far side a predator of some sort was chasing a bait fish making a considerable wake on the surface.
Nic from Avon Angling was keeping me in the loop of his exploits fishing for Zander on another stretch and where he was fishing was completely dead, at least here there was signs of fish, he ended on a blank with nothing to show for his efforts.
Once the bats appeared and I fully expected one of the floats to bob in to life but they were motionless, the Zander or pike for that matter were not showing whatsoever and once the head torchers were needed this was now or never. The temperature had dropped considerably by this point where Sam's hand were starting to get cold.
The Iphone's low light camera making out this picture lighter than it actually was. You can see the focussing torch illuminating one of the floats to the left.
I decided on a curfew time before we got there so at 8.40pm we were heading back to the car with a tail between our legs. Another Zander blank to add to the collection but I'm sure a month from now things will be different. I'm less likely to to sole Zander trips these days, a Zander rod is often on a sleeper now because other species have been on my mind of late because I'm intrigued on what else I can pick up in these untapped waters.
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