A few summer Zander sessions...

Since the last post I've been out a few times and although I've caught fish, there has been nothing too exciting to report.  I'm also finding it difficult keeping a focus on the challenge points.  I still have a few species to attempt yet which should not be a problem in catching them but I'm strugling to get motivated for them.  I'm also conscious that time's slipping away for a some of the summer species especially eels and catfish also crucians and big rudd. I will have to get my act together if I'm going to try to claw a few more points back on the board.

I'm still itching to catch a river zander and my recent attempts on the trent have been fruitless although I did seem to have a fish pick up the bait on my last river session. Winding down  to feel for the fish,  I felt nothing!  This is an area of the river where they are more of a rumour than a fact, and hence not exactly prolific, so I shall probably try some more likely areas as we head towards the Autumn to give myself a fighting chance at least.

I have also been trotting for roach and bleak, which kept me occupied for a couple of hours building up a fresh stock of deadbaits and quietly hoping for a bigger sample of roach - although one never came I was really enjoying trotting a line in the upper layers of a deep 10 ft stretch just before dusk, watching fish topping all around and competing for my regular introduction of casters. Some of the roach I saw were certainly pushing the pound mark, however I could only manage a string of their smaller brethren like this one above. There were some monster bleak too.

A specimen bleak?

Friday 12 Aug 2011

A canal side Damsel fly

Having not caught a zed for a while I popped down the Birmingham Fazeley canal for some easy gratification.   I found some moored boats in my first choice of swim and from my position near the bow end of the furthest boat, I was still able to cast to the far bank trees where there would certainly be some zander lurking,

My home made bobbins are set to sit just on the waters surface to help stop them swaying in the wind, I find it so much easier watching two of these together, rather than two floats along the far bank.  I can get straight onto the bites, sometimes setting the hook as the bobbin is still rising towards the rod blank.  With a float set up I have had more deep hooking issues than with this method, although it is very important to keep a taught line when using a ledger rig so that the take is registered straight away. The bobbin doesn't always rise up very far, in fact any movement can be a taking fish. It's harder to explain than to see in real life, but you soon learn to tell the difference between a gust of wind moving them and movement by a fish. The bobbin may only jerk or vibrate which in my experience will be a fish picking up the bait. You should treat it as a take and don't wait for it to develop further, but wind down and feel for the fish then strike it.  If the bobbin is moved by the wind it will just sway from side to side and settle back to it's starting position. Of course on most takes the bobbin will rise straight up to the rod confidenltly, making these pretty unmissable.

I usually give it no more than half an hour before moving to the next area as the fish will generally take the bait within 10 minutes or so if they are there or in feeding mode.  It was soon time to move on so I decided to head for the next patch of trees about a 100 yards down the tow path.  Gathering up my gear, as I pulled in the second rod I noticed that the roach dead bait had some tell tale slash marks in its flank.  Oh well at least I could come back and try here later if I had no success further down.

The rods were straight out in the second swim, it took literally 10 minutes before the left hand rod was away the bobbin dancing a jittery dance towards the rod.  I hooked into a solid feeling fish, zander tend to have about 30 seconds of strong fight in em before giving up and surfacing before reverting to some hectic head shaking in an attempt to shed the hook. Sometimes  it works too -  as I found out when this one shed the hook as I drew it towards the net !

about 2lb or so

I soon had another take on the same rod in the same spot, again this one shed the hook.  It was third time lucky before I got one in, although it fought harder than the previous two  even taking a little line before I netted it.  I checked the single hook which was still sharp the fish being hooked clean in the scissors, so I was happy to re bait and cast back out to the spot.

I had fish number two on the bank shortly after,  the biggest of the night but still only about the 3lb bracket.  It was interesting that all the fish came from a small gap at the end of the trees, any cast made by the other rod was ignored.  This might be explained by the theory about these fish packing into a tight shoals all huddled together. A cast made anywhere else nearby, and you would think there were no zander to be found !

bigger at about 3lb

The final take of the night came about 11 o'clock from the same spot again, this fish slipped the hook again, such is the fate of a zander angler sometimes.  I don't like to use trebles as they just make life too difficult especially with these smaller canal fish. You could argue that I would land more fish with them maybe, but when I started out zander fishing a few seasons back  I still lost fish on trebles anyway, and got in some right old trouble with deep hooking and trebles getting caught up in the net.  You get none of that problem with a single hook.  There must be the perfect single hook out there for my style of fishing I'm sure, one that will never lose me a fish, but as yet I haven't found it.  For now I will have to hope my luck holds out if I ever hook into that monster zed I'm waiting for !

Drawn to the pool again..

I headed out early on Sunday morning, well 5:30am is early enough for me. The morning was misty and overcast on arrival and looked perfect for a perch or two.  The float was set and cast against the raft of duckweed gathered by the overhanging branches of the tree opposite.  The worm soon attracted attention from a small perch.

My gaze was soon drawn to a large bow wave that rocked the river, with very little flow it was more noticeable because of the flat calm surface.  I was aware that something quite big was in the margin to my immediate left and heading toward me.  The unseen thing moved closer, there were masses of bubbles moving forwards underneath my rod, then past me and to the right of my swim.

It was an eerie experience but I realised quickly what it was.  I grabbed the camera and rushed quietly round to the next peg to see if I could catch the otter surfacing.  My bumbling movements blatantly obvious to the shy and secretive creature as it had completely disappeared.  My first encounter with one of Britain's once rare and elusive mammals.  Now not so rare but still quite elusive, as an wildlife lover and angler, I couldn't help having mixed feelings about the encounter.

The top pool beckoned, so I headed up there to see if I could tempt any more Silver Bream.  Another string of perch followed with this 8oz fish the best of them.

 

I also added to my list of species from this pool with some Bleak and the tiniest Minnow I've ever caught on rod and line, bringing the tally to 7 different species so far.  The Silver Bream didn't show this time.

Bleak (but not in appearance)

A 'minnow' Minnow

Hi Ho Silver slime-ing

I'm having a bit of a fishing bonanza this weekend while the wife and mother in law have taken the kids to her caravan.  :)

I spent the late afternoon into evening fishing the lovely pool on a local river again. This time the aim was to fish caster in the feeder and see what turned up.  I'd really hoped to get some chub but that was not to be, in the end it turned out even better really.

First came another procession of Perch like this one...

These persisted for an hour until I started to get some silver action, first a Bleak then a chublet, until finally about an hour before dark I hit something that fought back a little. When it surfaced I thought it was a nice Roach until I saw the anal fin, I knew straight away what it might be.

Sure enough when I got home I checked it against the pictures on Jeff's site Idler's Quest  to verify what I had suspected.

The large eye and long pale anal fin were all clues leading to......

....my first Silver Bream ( that I'm aware of )

A lovely looking little fish, not massive just a few ounces maybe 3oz.  My scales are way too over gunned to to give an accurate reading. 

I continued fishing and caught another ...

  

                                                                    and another !

That was to be my lot as the perch started making another appearance before darkness fell.  The last few casts finished up with some gudgeon for good measure before I called it a night happy with my little haul of silvers.

That's another species ticked off the list.

The Silver Bream (Abramis bjoerkna or Blicca bjoerkna)

Silver Bream Identification Ref: (Jeff Hatt / www.idlersquest.blogspot.com 2009)

Thanks Jeff, I would have assumed it a skimmer or hybrid if I hadn't read your posts on the subject previously.

Trent again and things get bleak...

Thur 17th September 2009

I started off fishing for bits to use as deadbaits for Zander, and quite enjoyed myself hauling in small chublets, perch and even a few bleak, my first of the species that I can remember! These were all dispatched and unceremoniously shoved in a carrier bag ready for use later. I set up the dead bait rod next using a simple running lead rig with a 20lb wire trace and two size 8 trebles. I left this in until a while after dark. Meanwhile I had a Barbel rod out too with either source flavoured pellet or halibut boilie on.

I eventually gave up on the dead bait rod and decided to concentrate on the Barbel, as I had spoken to two lads a few swims up that had been bivied up for a day so far and had caught a couple of Barbel each the night before. I now had two rods out with boilie or pellet on but managed just one small chub of about a pound all evening. I was quite satisfied with the session though as I worked out how to tackle livebaiting for perch in this swim, it's perfect for it with a nice depth slow margin flow and lots of bait fish. I had caught a few 1/2 pounders while fishing for bits on red maggot, so fiqured there must be the odd bigger fish lurking down there in the shadows.