Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.87 (Canal Zander)

Now Zander excel in their hunting style in murky and heavily coloured waters, so heavily boated canals such those in the Midlands are an ideal habitat for them. On those lockdowns forced upon us back in 2020 I couldn't believe the difference it made to the clarity of the water, when those narrowboat tiller ticklers also had put their feet up.

Those weeks went by with very little boat movement and when the silt and crud settled eventually the canals went clear, yes clear !! You see when we were eventually let back out again for some 'exercise' nice of them wasn't those canal towpaths were a godsend for to get some normality back.  

Huge shoals of roach, cruising carp, COVID carriers? meandering zander ?

Who knows because we couldn't fish them until they were back to their usual turd turbidity again. Zander love dark and dingy, cover, beneath boat hulls and gloomy corners so I bet it was a shock for them as it was for me as an angler. Despite what the press have you believe having targeted them for a good number of years now they are actually quite a shy species.

 

Zander are  however fantastically well adapted for life as a predator. They have a sleek body, capable of great acceleration through the water, and big grabbing teeth to grab and hold prey fish. 

But their best trick is the reflective lining to their eyes which means they can see in very low light levels and feed well from dusk through to dawn not bad for an animal that hunts by sight. It follows that this is the best time to catch that big zander!

Or is it ?

Well it's certainly not in my neck of the woods, in-fact not for the want in trying those in to dark sessions just haven't paid dividends for me, even when chasing the 'big'uns'. 

Let's be honest here there is no need for fishing in to dark when the waifs and strays venture out. Could I be missing something ? shall I give it another go ?

Errrr, nah !!!!

Those canal zander do seem to be up for a feed whenever really and throughout the day when the boats traffic is as its most too. 

That feeding time does vary mind you hence why leapfrogging stretches of cover does seem to be a good way of approaching canal zander fishing, because drop a bait on their noses that's a difference story. 

Put a kebab in-front of darts wonderkid Luke Littler he's not going to refuse now is he !!!

Anyway only a short after work session this to try and get a bite or two. I gave the first area a good go in a couple of places but those floats didn't move an inch so I decided to move lock stock and barrel over to the section where I caught the fish on the last session.

A boat had just come through after taking an age to get through the lock but it didn't take long to get a bite in the chocolate brown water once that had passed. 

Only a head shaking small schoolie though but a fish is a fish is a fish etc. Anyway I moved from cover to cover but that was the only bite I managed sadly. To be fair I only fished a couple of hours as I'm sure if I stuck at it I'd managed another couple of bites but I was happy with my fishing fix.

So what to do over the weekend ? well I fancy some float fishing and maybe have a deadbeat out in ones peripheral vision. I love the fact you don't know what's going to turn up on the canal once that float goes under and I've had some nice fish over the years.