Deflated, literally....

In my very limited experience of Zander fishing (4 or 5 sessions) I've landed plenty on the lure but none on deadbait. I've had decent fish on, some for a reasonable time too but they not always been hooked effectively or they have managed to shake the hook. I switched from a thick'ish gauge circle hook to an off the shelf thinner gauge LYNX wire trace jobbie because I thought the circle hook might have difficulty penetrating the Zanders bony mouth.Danny Hale recommended I lift in the fish rather than strike which makes sense but again that didn't seem to help my hook-ups. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. Not for the first time I might add.

Yesterday's short 2 hour evening session didn't go much better either, I caught a couple of schoolies on the lure and not a touch on the deadbait sleeper rod. I'm also doing my bit to clear the canal from rubbish because I hooked and landed a tyre.Maybe a job moonlighting for the canal & river trust is on the cards.:)

With my mate Simon in tow and with the light reducing we called it a day and decided to pop to the local hostelry for a pint of UBU. I lifted the deadbait rod to feel some resistance and said to Simon,'no wonder there wasn't a touch on the deadbait, it's snagged'. This wasn't a snag though, because the snag was pulling back and I could see a half decent fish. The Zander had obviously grabbed at the roach on the retrieve the greedy git. Again the fish was on for 5 secs or so then, nothing, gone. I want to persevere with the single hook rings and not switch to a treble set-up just yet.  The deadbait attracted the bigger fish, no doubt about that, all very frustrating as I'd have a reasonable PB by now. I'm learning though, that's what fishing is all about.

Canal Fishing: A Practical Guide

A modern canal fishing book, who'd a thought it. It's written by Dominic Garnet and it's a good read so far, with some great pictures, Jeff Hatt gets a well deserved mention and so does Keith Jobling who appears in the record list. I think I spotted an error in the Coventry Canal listing though ?

A chance glimpse of the jotter...

I didn't fancy venturing too far Saturday morning, A belly full of South Indian Garlic Chilli chicken and various liquid beverages the night before my insides needed to be treated with kid gloves. I was in two minds two minds whether to go or not, I felt as rough as a badgers ****.

So a particular stretch on the Grand Union Canal was ideal, predators in residence and with my car in view from the bottom of the lock where I was fishing, for any bubbly belly repercussions I could make a quick exit. I had a sleeper rod out with a small roach deadbait and as I only planned to fish for a couple of hours I had my lure rod with me and a solitary Savage Gear 4play shad. In hindsight just one lure was asking for trouble considering the huge amount of snags to be found in the cut.

Anyway to the fishing with my first cast I hooked in to a fish, only a small schoolie but a nice start to the morning. Maybe the Gods were looking over me as my luck continued as a couple of very attractive girls who were walking their dog along the tow path, decided to use the lock paddles above me to pass from one side of the canal to the other. Luck you say, well yes because one of the girls was wearing a skirt so short there was every chance of a glimpse of the forbidden,being a betting man to be honest it was a dead cert. I'm a male, it's in my make-up. A few pleasantries were exchanged and upon passing with her topography in full view my day wouldn't get better surely ?

Well nearly, but not quite. No big fish were landed but there was certainly plenty of them. I've fished this swim a few times now and never had a Perch but the next 8 or 9 fish landed were half decent stripeys that were shoaled up by a calm area of water near an overflow. 2 more small Zander later in 2.5 hours of fishing I had a pretty good return.

This week, well I'm planning to venture out one evening for Zander again but I'm also planning to try for a big crucian and if it's warm maybe some tenkara fly fishing for Roach.

It's always nice to meet a fellow Blogger on the bank and during a relatively unproductive trip to a local reservoir last week I bumped in to Danny Hale of  http://riveranglersgowiththeflow.blogspot.co.uk/. Good to see you Sir.