Sprinkle a teaspoon on your chicken and mix and coat the meat and then leave for 20 minutes, wash under water, pat dry and voilà, jobs a good'un.
Now a game changer in ones canal Zander fishing was the use of circle hook and the Sakuma 440 size 1's I use not only banked my PB for 11lb 8 ounces but also my canal PB pike of 17lb and 8 ounces. Two proper tackle testers right there and my short <8 foot rods coped admirably.
Another 11k steps covered to try and track down a canal carp but again as elusive as ever. The water is warming though and almost 14 degrees it didn't take long to spot some topping fish. After an early start and fishing an area I'd spotted some carp recently I decided to up-sticks and fish a rather featureless stretch where carp are also said to reside as well as Zander.
Anyway at first I thought they were bream spawning or even just rolling on the surface but no on closer inspection they were in-fact spawning Zander. Quite a lot of activity too even away from the mosh pit.
The first dangle of the small roach deadbait in the margins brought an almost instant bite and after a couple of bobs of the float a decent bite developed and a fish was on.
They are can often be very angry and aggressive at this time of year and this fish was taking line after a spirited fight. Not the biggest of Zander, probably not even 4lb but still a fantastic looking fish that looked like it had been in the wars.
A spawning injury not sure but it didn't seem to bother it in any way. With that fish retained in the landing net another quick bite and another Zander succumbed to the whole roach deadbait.
A chap walking his rather large dog stopped for a natter and was amazed I'd caught a couple of fish on this stretch as he hardy sees anglers on this bit of canal.
There is probably a good reason for that because I must admit it is a bit of a trek. That's what I like it though, away from the madding crowd so to speak.
A boat came through and the bites dried up so I left that swim rest and proceeded to the far end of the long straight where there is some nice thick cover.
No carp were spotted and the problem was any bread throw in to try and get any carp tucked away to reveal themselves was hoovered up by the greedy ducks.
The heron (Nic look away !!!) seemed to be very active indeed and took a few small fish whilst I fished and he patrolled the stretch.
A couple of decent looking swims with cover looked good for a bite from Zander but the roach deadbait was untouched so I decided in the end to retrace my steps and fish in the area that produced earlier.
Two more fish decided they would be up for a feed and again caught from the margins not next to cover.
The Zander are definitely on the move now with the water warmer but like I found today they can be very localised indeed and that can often put anglers off.
It's not easy all the time and the amount of canal I had to cover just to get a bite or four shows that it can be hard going but the rewards are there if you put the work in.
0 comments:
Post a Comment