Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.97 (Canal Zander - A Near 7lber)

Those windows of piscatorial pleasantries must be grasped with both hands especially when you lead a busy life like I do. I only had a couple of hours after work but luckily a stretch I have been fishing was 'almost' on the way home.

So rods and landing net on the roof 'ski holders', gear and deadbaits in the boot (for nearly 9 hours) I'm all ready to go.

I hotfooted it to the canal after CAD bashing and Buffalo Si from River Masters was there with a mate of his, one of the managers of a local Angling Direct. They had been there for a good while and were struggling for bites with only one fish caught between them.

Hmmmm...

Could be a tough one this especially with the boat traffic that was pretty frequent apparently. Anyway I decided to leave them to it and fish above them in an area where I have done pretty well recently. 

I've done enough of this Zander fishing to know you need to get on your toes and try and find the fish however section after section of cover there was nothing doing whatsoever, There was a boat moored a hop skip and a jump away so I decided to give that a go instead.

Both deadbaits, one smelt and the other a roach were fished tight to the hull and I after about 10 minutes the left hand float with the smelt on jumps in to life and I have a bite.

That was quick !!!!

Anyway the float after not doing much suddenly shot under the surface and was heading towards the underneath the hull of the boat. I tightened up in to a decent lump where after carting to the middle of the canal it came to the surface with a huge boil.

Nice, another decent Zander on again. After giving a decent scrap I managed to get it in the landing net where it was showing the marks of being in the wars. 

Another cracking canal Zander going 6lb and 14 ounces on the scales 💓

So that's 3 different 6'lbers (I've checked the pics 👀) from a 100 metre stretch is a bit mad really. It's certainly a hot spot at the minute. Even though the others were struggling today, it just goes to show you are only an underarm chuck away from a right old lump. 

A very nice looking fish and with the temperature now just over 12 degrees it won't be long when the bukkake commences. It could be a day, or two weeks off. The next session I can muster up is Wednesday for a few hours, fingers crossed I can catch another one as they seem to like me at the minute.