The Close Season Zander Quest Pt.208 - Tiller Ticklers and Tocodynamometers

With a day of cold rain coming down most of the day I was in two minds whether or not to bother for this morning session. Zander in my experience can switch off in these sort of conditions but having been shackled to ones CAD screen for most of the week, I'd probably only regret not going out.  

Believe you me leaving a warm bed with a couple of large plumb pillows to start trudging a damp and muddy canal towpath with landmine dog poo hazards its a decision not to be taken lightly. I've a Zander Quest to conclude, and that cannot be done from the top of the wooden hills. 

Now before the boat traffic started in anger I fished 5 or 6 swims without even a nudge on the float, in one swim where the nearside bank has lots of reeds on retrieve of the smelt something grabbed it like it would a lure, the bite being felt through the carbon quite clearly. 

I've had this quite a few times over the various sessions in this quest of mind to be fair  when a deadbait has been pulled over or in-front of a Zeds head and with their predatory instinct they grab it. A bite often develops if you leave the bait to flutter to bottom after the initial enquiry was made, and exactly that happened and after a few bobs on the float soon it was off down the turbid canal.

I knew exactly what it was though before seeing the fish, yeap an excitable schoolie, still it gave an encouraging scrap and at one point was trying to mimic a chub as it was trying to get under my feet. It was soon in the net though and like many of the fish I've caught of late, fins and jaws all over the shop like Mike Tyson in his prime. 

Another similar size fish came soon after but sport wasn't exactly like it was this time last week. I'm sure the drop in temperature wouldn't have helped matter sand once the tiller ticklers started up in anger which sometimes can help, I just wasn't feeling it and decided to cut the session short.

You see when a boat goes by and stirs up the silty bottom often the Zeds come out from where they are laying up on a bottle necking fish chasing mission nothing materialised in more than one swim.  

Tough going but to be honest not unexpected. Still with a trip to the hallowed swim tomorrow morning before the heaven opens again hopefully something bigger to test the rod will be up for a feed. 

Fingers crossed !!!!

The Close Season Zander Quest Pt.207 - Bootstrappers and Bouleversements

The couple of short sessions I fished last Friday afternoon and Sunday morning was on a stretch of canal dear to me and to be honest I was really encouraged by the returns. With a session to the hallowed stretch planned where the clock wasn't against me this evening session in to dusk would at least tick that fishing fix. 

I started my canal quest here initially and picked up some cracking fish and eventually I was rewarded in that heyday with an 8lb 10oz fish as pictured in my Blog banner, and then not long after a huge Zander of 9lb graced one net. However I'd stopped fishing it over the last few years, only having a dabble here and there when time was against me.

Now last week one 300 meter stretch was full of fish, every tasty looking swim with cover produced a bite or two. Despite only fishing a few hours I was in to double figures of Zeds caught and each and everyone was a feisty fighter.

They didn't like being hooked at all, fins and fists everywhere like a hallucinating Tasmanian devil on another acid trip, despite not being that big in stature they all gave a cracking account for themselves. 

With mediocre returns at the hallowed stretch on the Saturday morning for 4 pike and a small schoolie I returned to the stretch albeit a couple of miles South of the Tefal Head and managed to catch another 4, where I also missed a few bites and had a couple of dropped runs. 

The best fish in that session was a nats nadger under 5lb which was good for this stretch even back in its heyday. The Zander rarely did break the 4lb mark here, it was usually schoolie after schoolie after schoolie and then, wham, a 7 or 8lber.

 Those fish seemed to dwindle off in numbers big time and catch rates really tailed off and those lunkers became more elusive then ever, where in the past if there was any stretch I fish that would throw up a decent fish it would be here more often than not.

Its incredibly shallow here, so shallow in-fact it was a bit of an eyeopener in lockdown with the narrowboats having to follow suit the water almost went gin clear. The roach shoals could be seen in numbers and carp well, there were plenty of them to be seen. 

The only change recently though has been the colour, it's gone back to having hardly any clarity whatsoever to proper turd turbid again, the Zeds now confident in venturing out in their habitat, just how they like it and they were now as happy as a dog with two tails, and why not !!!!, they are here in no fault of their own, for them luckily the canal is utopia where apart from the resident otter they are top dog. 

Incidentally I bumped in to an elderly gentleman who fished this canal 30-40 odd years ago and its changed dramatically in that time, it used to be clear, weedy and full of tench and most of the other species apparently, the only change the boat movement. nothing like what it's like today, seldom did he see one, if he did it was steam powered, not the oil spreading narrowboats that frequent the waterway today. 

Now there is one near 2 mile stretch on this canal that I'm sure will hold some unknown fish. The problem is with a £50 joining fee and annual subs of >£100 my pocket couldn't justify the expense despite the potential it may hold. The rivers the club has look decent to be fair but I'm unlikely to fish them.  

I could do what "one of the good guys (apparently)" did when he accidently strayed on to, sorry sneaked down to after a well planned reccy on to one of the WBAS syndicate flowing waters and became a poacher, trespasser and local lockdown rulebreaker in one foul swoop. As my Wife says, and I agree I should always "practice what I preach", so at the moment its off ones radar. 

Luckily there are still areas that I've hardly fished on this stretch and this session would be one of them.

You see I'd cover some cover so to speak to try and winkle out a Zander and then finish up at a turning bay I've never fished in anger before. A turning bay where the last time I was here a huge wake disturbed the surface where clearly a decent fish was present.

 Despite me leaving a deadbait out for a good while a bite never materialised, a carp quite possibly, or a Zed lunker ? only one way to find out. I managed a small schoolie on the last bit of cover that snaffled the small roach before heading to the turning bay where I set my stall out.

The sky was clear the wind non existent and before the sun set and dusk came there was quite a few fish topping.

Its very shallow here and a jaws like wake moving under the surface a fish around a pound or so launched itself clear of the water escaping the predator I assume. 

The floats went out illuminated by torchlight and I settled in to bat city, the movement of bats was quite incredible really with one than occasion being brushed by their wings.

An hour in to pitch black eventually the far side floats bobs and then moves from right to left when a decent bite develops.

 I tightened up but I pulled the bait out from the grasp of a small fish, Hmmmm. 

5 minutes later a huge splash to my right around 10 yards away, another carp ? I stayed longer than my intended finishing time but no further bites materialised.  So a carp sleeper rod next time ? I think I'll give it another go next week, I'm sure something big will slip up, only one way to find out. 

The Close Season Zander Quest Pt.206 - Bluebells and Blennophobia

Now the sight and scent of a bluebell woodland is a joy I look forward to every year. In late April and through most of May, bluebells cast a haze of enchantment, beguiling our senses and persuading us to believe once more in magic. In the village I live we are lucky that a wood we discovered in the first lockdown is awash with them, a huge carpet blanketing the ground. 

Until the 1970s, the bluebell’s Latin name was Endymion non-scriptus (it is now Hyacinthoides non-scripta). In Greek legend, Endymion was a beautiful but mortal youth who was lulled into an eternal sleep by his lover, the moon goddess Selene, so that he would never grow old and die.

In folklore, bluebells were said to ring when fairies were summoning their kin to a gathering; but if a human heard the sound, it would be their death knell. 

Not surprisingly, it was considered unlucky to trample on a bed of bluebells, because you would anger the fairies resting there. There’s an interesting belief that wearing a garland of bluebells will induce you to speak only the truth.

The bluebell is present everywhere in Britain except Orkney and Shetland, and its range extends across western Europe from central Spain to the Netherlands. 

The UK contains up to 49% of the world’s population of bluebells; although they are threatened by habitat loss, a number of large-scale planting schemes are helping to combat the decline.

The bluebell is one of the ‘indicator species‘ of ancient woodland, meaning woods that have been in existence since at least 1600; the Woodland Trust considers that some bluebells may even mark remnants of the original wildwood that covered Britain after the last Ice Age.

The bluebell is the flower of St George, as it usually starts to bloom around St George’s Day on 23rd April. Its sap was once used in bookbinding because it would repel attacks by insects, and in early times it was also used to glue the feathers on the shaft of an arrow.

All parts of the bluebell plant contain toxins, and the leaves have been known to cause digestive problems in cattle and horses. Touching its sap may cause dermatitis. 

Now talking about digestive problems, the spinach mushroom and paneer curry I'd eaten the evening before really was repeating on me for some reason and the solitude and sanctuary of the nearby canal was most welcome to the whole of the Newey household especially the one I share a bed with.

The rain was on and off throughout the short session but enough time to winkle out a Zander or two. I'd gone completely the other direction to the tefal head and there is always Zander when it's coloured especially when there is cover in patches here. 

4 graced the net and I lost one that dropped off, the biggest a roach head under 5lb and one of the best condition Zander I've ever caught. It gave me a merry old dance as well down the canal, who says they cannot fight ? 

There were signs of them spawning in one of the swims, this a completely different canal network to where I've been fishing recently. 

Its nice to know they are still here in numbers as I was getting worried for a while, Next week is going to be busy and I'm meeting up with a mate for a curry and a beer INSIDE, I tell you INSIDE, but hopefully I'll get up to the hallowed swim Thursday and fish in to dark again, Wire traces as the ready !!!!