Closed Season Zander Quest Pt.2 – Beers for Fears

More often than not if I do fish the cut at dusk I tend to have a mate in tow. Apart from the obvious safety in numbers aspect it means a two and half hour session after work can be followed up with a natter and a pint of Mad Goose, it breaks up the monotonous week too, which isn’t a bad thing. The towpath as the light fades puts the fear in me and respect goes to those that don’t have an issue because certainly when targeting Zander it’s one of the best times to catch them. If I do fish on my own I tend to stick to well lit areas and fish to the end of civil twilight and no more. Fish well in to dark on the cut, bugger that. I’m always looking over my shoulder and for that reason don’t enjoy it.

Canals in their nature are more coloured than rivers so fishing in the dark or dusk doesn’t matter so much, with their huge eyes and great vision they are perfectly at home in their murky environment and will feed in spells throughout the day, however for me I’m trying to get as much bank time as possible so these short midweek sessions are ideal as I get to fish prime time and also it doesn’t affect the family life.

For this session I decided to visit a stretch on the Grand Union I’d not fished before, feasting one’s eyes on Bing Maps it showed a promising area as it showed some possible fish hold features amongst the humdrum and it also had a pub in dart throwing distance. It was smack bang in the middle of Midlands Zander territory meandering its way through the centre of town. Not my usual choice of swim but it had a larger than normal area in a couple of places and was hoping the extra hunting space would suit a bigger fish. I was hoping to target a loner, an anomic if you like, a bigger fish happy to be away from the schoolies I’m trying to avoid.

I intended to fish roach sections on both rods, one was a float set-up where I’d use a betalight for the low light conditions and the other my standard running rig on a Delkim. I’ve found with deadbaits if there are Zander in the locality they will quickly find the bait so after twenty minutes without a bite I’d refresh the bait and also move it to a different area. For this session though I planned to leave the baits for a bit longer than usual as there area I planned to cover was far larger than normal but it would give more time for a fish to find them. This Town stretch doesn’t see huge amounts of boat traffic so it’s a bit clearer than the usual places I fish and less liked by the schoolies from what I’ve found as I’m sure they feel vulnerable. Being clearer means Pike might also be about, ironically in my bank time when targeting Zander I’ve never caught a Pike.

Bait in my experience will catch more fish than a lure however ironically my Canal PB of 5lb 4oz came to a small 2” firetiger coloured shad.

So how did the session go………………?

Well not brilliant to be honest, in and around the boat turning bay two deadbaits were positioned and refreshed 3 times without a touch. Even the lure rod didn’t receive a touch, take or a tap. We moved more in to the heart of the town and found a more secluded spot and eventually found a few fish. Biggest probably wouldn’t even make 2lb the smallest a disappointing 1lb. All three taken on deadbait with the lure only managing a fish on for a few seconds.

I shall not be returning, far too busy for my liking, walkers, dawdlers, bikers and joggers. At least some of the lycra wearing eye candy was half decent. But I knew trying to catch a specimen Canal Zander its needle in haystack stuff.

Next session planned is a 5 hour session on Saturday….

Shanghai AC match - Tunnel Barn Farm - 10.04.15

I’m not a match fisherman, it’s not my thing but these Shanghai AC matches are a great way of networking and keeping in touch with fellow automotive contractors, the ‘jobbing’ market is a small pool of people who move around and networking is a must. (to be honest, it’s a good excuse to go fishing).

Huge bag weights seems to where it’s at in modern commercial match fishing, and I for one cannot see the appeal, overstocked pools with hungry competing fish with multiple keepnets required to hold the huge quantity of fish, fishing ? hook a duck springs to mind.

600lb match weights, really. Think about that for a minute………600lb

I remember the first time I fished Tunnel Barn which was a few years ago, it was the height of summer and there was a match angler sitting on an island bridge on House Pool with his legs dangling in the water, with a whip and a few pellets and he was catching wet lettuce F1’s by his feet like there was no tomorrow. It was literally fish soup.

Last year we fished it again and despite booking certain pegs on one of the pools, one of the regulars was insistent that he had a certain peg and we had to fish around him, this miserable chap was whacking his pole on the water to attract the fish, tutting constantly at our inferior tactics whilst clearly his blood pressure. I bet he has fished the same peg twice a week for years and has names for individual lipless F1’s.

2 years to the day we fished house pool and it was bitterly cold and was won by Steve Breese with 22lb with many struggling to even muster up a bite, today was 20 degrees, madness. It’s still cold overnight so the the water certainly is nowhere near summer temperatures when huge bag weights at Tunnel Barn can be achieved.

Although I’m at polar opposite to the match fisherman and it’s ain’t my favourite mud puddle I enjoy these monthly matches; it’s about fun, catching up and a bit of banter……. I’ve even for one of the matches decided to target the specimen >4lb Perch that bottom pool reputedly holds, I didn’t do very well, no perch just carp.

For the match I had two rods set-up, a bomb rod that I intended to fish close to the island towards the end of the match to try and pick up a bigger carp, and a light float rod that I intend to fish at tight as possible to the margins. There isn’t really science when catching F1’s they tend to hook themselves and I’ve found the tighter you can get to the inside the better. They seem to come up in the water to feed so I intend to swop between half depth and shallow. Bait was maggot, pellet and corn with a few small pellets fed little and often.

As soon as the match started Dave Roberts was the one to watch, it was catching straight from the off. I was getting indications on the float when fishing the margins but they were must have felt resistance on the float because they were reluctant to take the float under. I was getting indications on the float when fishing the margins but they were must have felt resistance on the float because they were reluctant to take the float under.

I decided to whack the bomb rod out to the island and switch to a lighter float and lighter hook-link. Within ten minutes I had a half decent F1 on the bank but then after half an hour without any bites I switched back to the lighter float in the margins. This was the change required as I started to catch some fish. Rich Gould to the left of me was also fishing the margins, albeit with the pole and he was catching well too. The last hour I picked up some better F1’s and was looking at a reasonable weight. Dave Roberts would win it though, but until the weigh in we didn’t realise it was a club record. The fish seemed to be in better condition which is good but still, you can see just how much the pools have been stocked. The reputed 140,000 fish is probably right.

Zander Thursday evening for a couple of hours, cannot wait.

• Peg 2 - Steve Breese - 48lb 12oz
• Peg 4 - Mark Youds - 28lb 8oz
• Peg 6 - Dave Bennett - 67lb 3rd
• Peg 8 - Simon Champion - 36lb 8oz
• Peg 10 - Dave Roberts - 172.5lb 1st (club record)
• Peg 12 - A. Breeze -22lb 4oz
• Peg 14 - Rich Gould - 78lb - 2nd
• Peg 16 - Mick Newey - 60lb 12oz

Closed Season Zander Quest Pt.1 - The Oppidan Invader

After returning from sunnier climes the first session of my closed season double figure canal Zander challenge I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy task, 15 or so miles of canal to explore and not one inch of the towpath I’d trodden. In less than ten minutes drive I could rock up at a certain banker swim I know very well, whack out a headless Roach and within an hour have a few fish on the bank. Out of the countless I’ve caught at the banker swim and other swims in throwing distance the biggest only went 3lb, I don’t want schoolies I want their parents. For me it’s very much unchartered I’m expecting to blank more often than not, they ain’t that easy these Zander, especially when targeting the bigger ones.

My PB canal Zander of 5lb 4oz was lure caught so for the first few sessions I plan to use a two rod approach, a light lure rod donned with a highly successful fire tiger coloured lure and then a float set-up with a headless Roach as a highly visible sleeper rod. I aimed to try and cover up to a mile or so in each session, and then suss out the areas where in the future I’d target specifically with deadbaits. I use Roach exclusively, and to be honest condition doesn’t really matter. You would think they would prefer a fresh bait but manky ones that have been frozen and defrosted repeatedly work just as well. They are voracious feeders, they don’t mess about.

The tried and tested Jeff Hatt recommended Mustad ultimate bass 2/0 hooks (with the barb flattened) would feature in the float and running deadbait set-ups. I’ve such confidence in the pattern I couldn’t really think of using anything else, they transformed my hook-ups and believe you me using other hooks really did lead to frustration with many a fish managing to lose or shake the hook. The fish banked rate went from 1 in 7 landed to 6 out of 7.

A 5 hour weekend session and a one evening in the week would mean plenty of hour’s banktime, for me as a multi species angler, a carpet bombing approach is a bit alien to me if I’m honest, but it’s an incongruous fish, and needs a bit more dedication from my usual dabble here and there. It’s a mobile pursuit targeting canal Zander so travel as light as possible. I have a folding landing net, two rods, and a small shoulder bag . In my experience apart from the problem of finding the fish, there doesn’t seem to be a pattern in their feeding. First and last light is a good time but then I’ve had them feeding in short spells in bright sunlight in the middle of the day.

So how big do these canal fish go, well amongst the many ridiculous made up weights, over estimations , forgotten scales and ridiculous arms out small head big fish pictures , doubles certainly do exist I’ve no doubt about that but I would suggest needle in a haystack stuff. As the local midland bloggers have discovered you could spend literally hundreds of hours for a half decent 5lber and then someone could rock up at a swim put a bait in the right place, at the right time you could catch an elusive double, a lifetime capture if there ever was one. Sadly time doesn’t equal success in this game.

The first session just over a mile, I managed to find some Zander and despite it being bright and sunny I managed 6 fish from 4 different swims, nothing huge sadly, the biggest was a nadger under 2lb and took a liking to a deadbait as I was playing a fish on the lure. 6 fish caught with 5 on deadbait (all runs landed) and 1 on the lure. I’m looking forward to the next session.