Room for a small one ...

Friday 05th Feb 2010

I've not been able to get out fishing for a while, so having a few hours available this afternoon I decided to head for my local cut for a Zander session. I was fishing an area in front a long reed bed in the hope that there would be some fish about. I had only used lures in this area before but today I would be float fishing deadbaits.

I had some baits that had be in my freezer for a few months, (well since the late summer anway), and as I'd caught, killed and froze them myself, I thought they might be ok still.   

They were a bit on the soft side but I thought I'd give them a try and hooked on a nice shiny Bleak and cast it out. I put a frozen Roach (shop bought) on the other rod in case the bleak was past it sell by date ! The Roach had been purchased from a tackle shop on the way to the canal.  Unsurprisingly the Bleak was not touched, but a few ripples had started to appear near the Roach rods float. It slowly but surely drifted into the boat channel where it stopped moving, the bait obviously hovering off the deck now. I reeled in and recast the Roach, still intact, back to the spot where I saw the ripples knowing the bait would be back firmly on the bottom again.

Back to the Bleak rod  - and nothing was happening still. The Roach rods float however was on the move again and this time it bobbed, moved , bobbed again,  moved once more - by now I was winding down. I pulled into the fish and felt it shaking its head furiously. It was only a small Zanderling of about a pound or so, but I took a quick photo or two for the blog and slipped it back.

Confidence was now up and I'd been fishing for only half an hour, but after trying several more swims along the canal it was the only action of the session. Still something was better than nothing as they say, and you never know when that BIG one's gonna come along.

The weather was pretty mild compared to recent temparatures, with an air temp of about 9 or 10. The water was only 5c though. I had packed up by seven and was heading home planning the next session in my head and noting some swims I'd probably try.