Closed Season Zander Quest Pt.28 – Illicit Encounters

A 9lb Canal Zander

A muddy canal towpath, two anglers talking Zed

Two approaching figures

She’s slim with office attire, pencil skirt, fitted blouse and inappropriate footwear

He’s suited and booted, tie and cufflinks

They pass with a coy acknowledgement, a nod of the head

In clear view, he’s scaled the metal fence, beyond the thicket, in to a clearing

Her skirt hitched up, foot on the first rung, then the second,

His hand extended to aid the tricky manoeuvre

Eventually out of sight, out of mind

20 minutes later, they return

Her hair bedraggled, blouse untucked

He red faced, a look of propitiation

I fully expected for this session on my tod for them to return treading the same towpath, but this time lugging a windlass or grasping a punnet of blackberries ?

I didn’t happen….

Perseverance is the key and this stretch I’d fished before quite a few times and I knew it had potential despite the blanks and mediocre results. The larger specimen’s transient fish? Most likely, you just need to work out where they are likely to hold out to see if one has had a short pit stop on its journey through.

For this quick after work session I’d positioned to my left one deadbait next to a moored boat, the other to the right with the rod elevated to avoid the crud on the surface was positioned slap bang in the middle of a relatively shallow but large swim.

The deadbait wasn’t the best, sections of Roach that had been sat in my car and had been defrosted and refrozen a few times. They had that distinctive smell that meant they could do with binning. The more I fish for them I feel it doesn’t matter too much. The pungent smell may even add to the attraction, who knows, they still catch fish.

20 mins in, more or less the duration of the Illicit encounter, the line on the right rod starts to tighten, I thought at first it was a boat upstream heading this way but no, this was a bite. The sensitive float showing every movement, every vibration.

The bite was slow but confident, I reeled in the slack, lifted the rod and leant hard in to the fish….

Fish on….

The first bend of the carbon I realised this was a decent fish, it was taking line like no other Zander has before and I had to tighten the drag to get in control of it.

I turned it and eventually it showed itself with a huge boil on the surface, Jesus, now that’s a good fish.

It must have caught sight of me as now it’s powering off again, very Barbel like as I don’t think this will give up easily. I need to abate its bid for freedom so more pressure was applied to the rod and eventually the fish is turned again and I feel in control.

The landing net was positioned and it’s headed towards the net, but I’m too eager and the short handle not quite long enough to reach the fish so I’ve hit the tightened fluorocarbon instead…Arrrhhhhhh

It’s off on a run again, this time with less vigour, I’ve turned it, another huge boil on the surface but then it’s going to my right, the line slackens and then it launches itself from the murky depths and the whole fish is visible as it violently shakes its head as it tail-walks for a couple of seconds for a last gasp effort. The rod bent double, the line which is now singing, is being lit-up and dazzling in the bright spring sunshine.

I thought this was the time I’d lose it such was the ferocity of the fight, I’d never had a Zander fight like this before.

It’s given it all and eventually I squeeze it in to the net.

Wow, wow, wow

Now that’s why I go Zander fishing, what a scrap…

I rested it in the net before photographing it and weighing it….I couldn’t see any signs of spawn it just felt fat and like it had been getting his head down to feed. I gave it a good rest before returning it safely, awesome.

So 9lb on the nose and shattered my PB again….

I’m now getting somewhere with this Zander lark, now where’s that double.

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 ?

Closed Season Zander Quest Pt.26 – The Ultracrepidarian Poop Picker

Twas mid afternoon, I’m tackle abound and the ultracrepidarian poop picker is seemingly acting like a gate keeper when I approached the bridge over the canals recent hallowed waters.

The poo filled black bag was held aloft and was swinging from his hand like some sort of trophy.

Walking poles, really! My face has bigger contours.

His Boxer puppy didn’t look too impressed either, I’m not sure if was because it was because the bulging bag was shaped like a pair of dogs bollocks and his were about to go walkabout, or the fact his owner was trying to engage me in conversation about fishing.

“you’ll never catch anything decent outta there fella”

“canals, they’re all buggered”

“I stopped fishing them 20 years ago, got fed up of them, nothing like what they used to be”

"Fill a keep-net no problem"

“I only fish commercials now, I often have hundred weight in these conditions, F1’s you see, they are inbred's or something like that”

“I’m retired now so I can fish when I like....a.n.y.w.a...”

Ok,thanks for the letting me know, but I’ll give it a bash. got to go, you never know I might be lucky. !!!!

I should have taken his advice...

5 swims, far bank cover, lock mouth, reed bed, lock mouth and cover again not even a touch.

The boats didn't help to be honest, a precession of them every 10 or 15 minutes or so which meant the baits didn't really have time to settle. The fairly static canal turns in to a torrent very quickly, even the 6 gram drilled bullet was enough to keep the bait anchored.

Zander can be funny feeders at times, get it wrong and you'll go biteless for the session.

There are Zander here I know that but they were having none of it today.

So another blank on the quest for a cut double, on to the next session then.