Monday 4 April 2016

Closed Season Zander Quest Pt.27 – Trotting for Zander….?

DJ’ing, white labels and the love of repetitive beats was big part of my life, not so much these days I might add, well apart from the annual pilgrimage back to Ibiza.

I do remember clearly though Section 63 (1)(b) of the 1994 Criminal Justice Act as it gave police officers the power to remove people from events at which music “wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats”


Madness…..

My fishing is anything but repetitive, it’s what I love about this past time, however sometimes being repetitive is a must. Having now trodden miles and miles of poo riddled canal towpath in 4 different canals with relatively mediocre results amongst what like seems like hundreds and hundreds of small Zander. Now having caught a half decent one why wouldn’t I concentrate on this area rather than venture to pastures new to most probably back catching the schoolies again.

It would be stupid wouldn’t it….?

If there are some larger lone wanderers here….?

The more I fish for canal Zander I realise they are difficult to work out, the patrol routes, spawning times and feeding times, where they hang out during the day, where the big fish are likely to be, do they like low pressure, high pressure, cloud cover, bright sun. Some days you'll catch, some you won't it's that simple.

It’s all a mystery, one thing I do know is you need to have a bait or lure in the water....

I’m sure to catch a big one, its luck, pure luck.


I can fish a set of lock flights near me and catch Zander no problem, but they are a captive audience, it’s like fishing for them in a commercial fishery, nice to get a bend in the rod but not exactly exciting.

I gave it an hour in ‘Mick’s Bush Swim without a touch before the first boat came through then got back in the car and met up with Danny again to fish a small stretch of water I’d dabbled with a few times with mediocre results, it has always been on my radar though and has plenty of potential.

It was clear from the start it was going to be one of the sessions we have from time to time….


Danny lost a small Pike on the dropshot and caught a small schoolie on a deadbait and I didn’t even manage a fish with two deadbaits leapfrogged along the near and far cover, I lost a small fish right at the death but it was hard work, even a wander to try and find some less turbulent water was fruitless.

The problem is here is prior to the boats coming through you can anchor baits down nicely but as soon as one of the locks is open on the rather large pound of water the flow literally turn in to a river. The floats are dragged out of place with the surface covered in debris, even the lure fishing was difficult.

The water bounces back and forth too so the huge volume of water, is always on the move, left, then right, and repeats over and over again.

To be honest, it was a nightmare....

We even thought about suspending the Roach deadbait under the float rigs and try a bit of trotting for them but a heavier float would be needed as the flow was just too strong. I thought about a running rig with a 3oz bomb and fish with rods high or even with a backlead.

We cut the session short, but it was lesson learnt, and we’ll know for next time.

It was clear either we needed to fish much earlier or fish in to dark when the boats should be less active. Maybe that's what the other Zander anglers are doing because I hardly see another angler over last year and this years challenge on the all the areas I fish.

Where is everybody ?


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