Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.81 (Canal Zander)

Now Life is resilient. The first living things on Earth appeared as far back as 4 billion years ago, according to some scientists. At the time, our planet was still being pummelled by huge space rocks. But life persisted anyway. And throughout Earth’s history, it’s seen all manner of cataclysms.

Disparate doomsdays from supernovae blasts and asteroid strikes to huge volcanic eruptions and sudden climate shifts have killed countless lifeforms. And at times, those mass extinctions have even eliminated most species on Earth.

Yet, life has always rebounded. New species emerge. The cycle repeats. Now canal Zander have survived relocation from the Fens, been one of the lucky ones that have the makeshift bankstick priest from the seat box frequenters and more recently, those anode wavers that fill their coffers by selling them on mass to Billingsgate market.

I’ve been fishing for canal zander locally for a good while now and probably over the years caught >1000 of them and still till this day I love fishing for them. I started fishing the lure for them but when I switched to fishing deadbaits is where my fortunes turned. It suited my fishing as well, leapfrogging swim to swim where you would know within 15 or 20 minutes of there were fish in the swim or not.

The smallest of pike floats (I used 6g) fished overdepth with a drilled bullet and a large hook (size 1 circle Sakuma 440), with either a smelt, a small roach, or a chunk of roach for bait, ones catch rate improved significantly.

Larger fish started to appear where a 9lber out of the blue meant the quest for a canal double didn’t look out of reach where 6 years later after 5’s, 7’s and a couple of 8 lbers I completed the quest with a fish of 11lb and 8 ounces which remains my PB.

For this session with 25 miles of petrol left and 23 miles to drive to walk in the morning I headed down to a most convenient stretch that has always held Zander. In-fact the 9lber was caught on this canal albeit a good 20 minutes walk from here. It rarely sees anglers but then what canal does these days.

It didn’t talk long for the first run which I subsequently missed but the float went on another mad run where I tightened in to a fish. Not a big fish, a schoolie in-fact but they don’t like being caught and often go off on a mad run which defies their size.

Soon in the net though where I went on the rove to try and find more fish. The oxygenated lock produced another bite where after casting tight to cover the flow lifted the float and slowly dragged it away from the cover, where the movement of the bait I’m sure triggered the predatory reaction of another Zed. A fish of similar stamp again and in mint white plump belly condition.

It was certainly a mild evening, and the Zander were at least feeding but that was my lot. I fished another few swims where I’d caught them from in the past and up to duck and a bit beyond, but it was only one area that produced bites for me today. Still not complaining, a couple of small Zeds and a nice ramble to work off the Sunday roast.