'Zander curry in a hurry'

Strange what you find on the net...you could almost cook it bankside. An historic disbanded British waterways recipe by the looks of it and enjoyed during their wholly unsuccessful Zander cull.

The Classic Zander Curry In A Hurry

For the sauce, blend

• 4 garlic cloves
• A thumb sized piece of fresh ginger
• 2 medium onions
• A handful of coriander stalks
• 14oz's of fresh spinach
• 1 tablespoon of garam masala
• 1 teaspoon of ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon of ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric
• 2 chopped tomatoes
• 2 Red Chilli's

Fry a teaspoon of black mustard seeds in some oil, then fry 18 oz's of boat diesel and brown trout infused Grand Union Canal Zander till coloured. Add the sauce, some 2" chunks of capsicum and a cupful of water. Simmer for 25 minutes.

Serve with some basmati rice and a side of Andrews liver salts.

ZZZ - Another PB

Lee from http://thisanglinglife.blogspot.co.uk/ was right Zander, Zander, Zander was all I could think about this week and especially as I was given some information about the possibility of some huge ones in a particular short stretch.

This time I planned to use two rods, a float set-up and my lure rod which was successful last week. With another two miles of the Grand Union Canal to cover I moved along the towpath, placed the small dead roach deadbait under the small pike float secured by a single circle hook into some likely looking fishing holding areas and then work the lure in and around the swim. Ten minutes without a fish I'd move on.

 

This stretch was dark moody and largely devoid of any features, there was the odd fish moving around but looked lifeless. I know the bigger Zander are likely to be more active at night but as it was an overcast morning I thought if there were some fish in this stretch I'd hopefully hook in to one of them. I alternated between lures, the smallest a fiiish minnow and the biggest a fire tiger shad 5.5" long.

After a biteless 2.5 hours and having walked the whole stretch for the final hour I decided to drive back to the spot where I caught my 1lb 15oz PB ( you have to start somewhere ) last week. The car-park is handily a stones throw away from the  swim I wanted to fish so after arriving at the spot within 5 minutes I was fishing. I'm certainly glad I made the move because within an hour I caught 6 Zander, upped my PB to 2lb 1oz and lost a much much bigger fish at the death that bumped the hook. Promising indeed. Strangely not a touch on the deadbait, all on the small minnow lure. As the evening are lighter I might give a couple of short sessions a go. Make hay and all that.

Sole-Searching

The Grand Union canal is 137 miles long and Sunday I fished around 2 miles of it. I don't like to travel far for my fishing and today was no different, 10 minutes door to door, I'm certainly spoilt for choice where I live. The well kept banks and paths look like they are part of a pensioner’s pastime, complete contrast to the Stratford-Upon-Avon canal I’ve fished where a mountain bike is a must and so is a tetanus jab.

 
Having never fished it before I decided to have a rove around with just a few lures to try and catch a Zander that are known to reside within the cuts murky depths. Rod was a slightly over-gunned, a 8ft 6lb Savage Gear Bushwhacker with an Okuma RTX30 spinning reel.

Unlike many of the local Coventry bloggers I’ve never caught a Zander so a fish caught would be a bonus and a PB. The first cast I made was around a lock mouth, I felt the lure drag the bottom and then hook up on something that gave some solid resistance, not a fish but when it surfaced it was a manky shoe, not a great start. As I was unhooking the shoe a Carp launched itself clear of the water, looked a double too and at least confirmed there was some fish in the vicinity. Canals have plenty of features and that’s the areas I targeted. The method I used was to cast out, allow the lure to hit the bottom and then with the rod held at 45 degrees with the tip chattering to indicate direct contact with the lure I slowly retrieved it. Frequent jigging of the rod gives the lure more visual interest.

I tried a few lures and for a couple of hours or so I didn’t have a knock, the water clarity seem to worsen from when I started so I switched to a small lure with a firetiger pattern. That was the change that was needed because after a few grabs of the lure after a few retrieves a fish grabbed it. It was a small Zander too, only 10oz’s or so but not having caught one before it was a PB. I was off the mark.

The canal was teeming with wildlife, kingfishers, swans, moorhen, coots and mallards, it’s a nice environment. The canals pounds look interesting and I might give them a go in the future, a couple of them look the size of Meriden village pond. After a two mile walk and only one Zander caught I proceeded to return to where I started. About a mile in to the walk back the canal appeared darker, the boarding mature trees helped but the sky was noticeably duller. Again casting in to the lock mouth I felt a couple of knocks, it didn’t feel like catching bottom and a second cast a fish hit the lure and the line was being dragged around all over the shop. It certainly felt like a decent Fish but when it broke surface it was smaller than I thought. However at 1lb 15oz and only the second Zander I have ever caught the schoolie was still a PB.

As a reccy session it went pretty well but I think when I fish for them again I might try some of the small Roach deadbaits I have in the freezer and fish in to dusk. I might badger a mate to join me as even though it’s not known as a dodgy area I don’t like the idea of fishing the canal towpath in the dark. It’s not a busy stretch of canal either, that’s a bonus. I was the only one fishing too, maybe there is a reason for that, only bank time will tell.