Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.94 (Canal Zander A Brace Of 6's )

Now I'm not quite sure how this film passed me by, but with the Wife and kids away for a couple of days I needed something to keep me in good spirits and this is where 'The World's End' came to the rescue, oh and a serotonin boosting concocted curry from scratch, with a garlic naan and garlic rice to go with it !!

It's a 2013 apocalyptic science fiction comedy film directed by Edgar Wright from a screenplay by Wright and Simon Pegg, and this was the third and final instalment in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, after Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007). Jesus, that long ago 👀

Some recognisable actors too, such as Simon Pegg (obviously), Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, Rosamund Pike and Pierce Brosnan. 

The film focuses on five friends who return to their hometown in order to reattempt a pub crawl they failed twenty-three years earlier, only to discover an alien invasion is afoot in the town.

Worth a watch anyway if you've not seen it. Brain out entertainment (quite literally) and it was washed down with the nice nice spicy curry and the surround sound elevated to curtain twitching levels. The Wife cannot do so much spice as much as me, so I usually cook a curry to suit my palate when she is away. 

Anyway the curry, a special one this, well back when the Royal Bengal in Coventry used to be good (many years ago post clubbing and pub going) they used to do garlic chilli chicken dish that year on year was exactly the same whenever you ordered it. Strips of tandoori chicken in a tangy and pungent chilli sauce with copious amounts of green chilli and loads and I mean loads or fresh garlic.

Sadly the place is a shadow of its former self probably a victim of their own success and there are now far better curry houses to spend your hard earned money. It used to be rammed all the time but then the cost of living doesn't help, I think many curry houses are struggling these days, so if you're mediocre anyway diners vote with their feet. Maybe their chefs went elsewhere ? who knows. But since the refurb things definitely changed. 

I used to love that dish and from time to time usually when I'm cooking just for myself I recreate it the best I can. To be honest this most recent effort could definitely be improved upon because despite using a whole large garlic bulb it would do with some more. 😀

I added quite a bit to the fried basmati rice though with some onion and that was very tasty indeed but one thing I always remembered about the Royal Bengal dish was the amount of garlic it contained, serious amounts, enough to keep vampires away and those ladies of the night that roamed the streets of Earlsdon back in the day.  

Soooo easy to make though and can be knocked up in no time. No 'Just Eat' to be seen here, then again where I live those choices are non existent, probably not a bad thing I suppose.

Anyway enough waffle, good old Buffalo Si from River Masters said "get yourself down here" because he was catching a load of Zander at a section of canal local to me. He was heading towards double figures and wanted me to get in on the action too.

It didn't take me long to catch the first one either where after a bite where the fish dropped off, I flung the bait back out again and within seconds it was going again. This time the float buried right under the surface where I tightened up to a solid fish.

It was giving a good account for itself as well but thankfully with a boat on the way I managed to get in in the net. A solid fish too and one of my biggest from the canal for a while going exactly 6lbs on the scales. 

The cover is pretty sparse here but after moving to a swim where I've caught the most zander from in a single session ( 7 I think) what I didn't expect was something similar to happen. You see after missing another bite the roach went back out again where after a couple of minutes the float went under the water in almost an instant. None of this messing around nonsense that Zander often do.

Anyway I tightened up in to another solid fish that went it felt the hook shot off to my right where it made one heck of a distance on the surface, wow another decent fish.

A proper battle this and after landing it I could see why, a proper angry Zander with a huge paddle for a tail. This a slightly longer fish and proper solid and went 6lb and 12 ounces on the scales. A cracking fish from the canal and not even from the 'hallowed' either but my neck of the woods.

We continued fishing where I was bitless and Si was still catching. I could have stayed longer but I decided I had my quota and vowed to come back another day where I'd spend a bit more time fishing the section.

I won't forget that session for a while and thanks to Si for letting us know that he was bagging up. Us because Nic from Avon Angling wasn't a million miles away and he was also catching Zander. I assume they are starting to group up for spawning hence the numbers.

The water needs to warm up for that, but it won't be a long way off I wouldn't have thought. The wind was pretty chilly and it also made the fishing a little difficult as it rippled up the surface, but they were certainly on it today that's for sure.