A Spring Zander

Fri  2nd April 2010

I'd been desperate to get out fishing for a number of days, but for one reason or another I'd not been able to get out till today.   With the Easter weekend arriving I was determined to fit some in one way or another and finally got out and down to the canal by 6:30pm, later than I would have liked but still well before last light.

In my haste to get down there, I'd forgotten my box of floats for the Zander fishing I had planned !
So a running ledger set up was the only alternative for the first rod, baited with a small roach mounted on two trebles.   The other rod had a zeppler pike float still set up on it from my last pike session, so I attached a chunk of roach to a single size 4 hook and cast that in too.

An average fish for me of about a pound or so.

I wasn't happy with the way the float was lying so brought it in to adjust it.   While attaching another piece of roach to the hook, I happened to glance over to the tip of the other rod and saw it was being pulled round.   I was reaching over to the grab the rod when the alarm started to beep indicating a fish taking some line.   On winding down sure enough a fish was on.   The resulting zander was landed and un hooked, it was another small fish of about a pound or so.   It proves that you need to keep an eye on whats happening as you can't just rely on the alarms.   The fish was hooked quite deeply but thankfully I was able to get in under the gill cover and remove the furthest treble.   I was a bit paranoid about missing another take and deep hooking another fish, so before dusk had turned to dark,  I re rigged the float rod as a running lead set up and cast it to the near side of the boat channel to attract any roving fish.

                                 setting a trap                             

   

There were no more fish to report and after darkness fell I moved near to a bridge to try and intercept any fish moving in or out of the nearby marina.   This area also failed to produce any fish but I did have a couple of rattles on the tip that seemed like indications.   Actual proof they were indications from fish were left inconclusive !

 Anticipation.....

I would have liked to have caught more than one fish,  to up my average if nothing else.   Landing a larger fish in the 5lb + bracket is my next target, so I am thinking of moving to a new stretch to see if I can improve things.  Although there are some reasonable fish coming out of here, up to 6lb in recent times and larger reported in the past, the average size here is only say a pound.  I need to fish a spot were this average is somewhere nearer to my target.   The hunt will continue !

Weather 6:30pm to 10:30pm

Cloudy / Light rain showers
Wind - Southerly
Pressure - rising  997 - 1000 hPa
Temp - Air 7c
Water  - 9c