Snakes alive !!

When your out and about fishing you sometimes get to see other wildlife apart from the fish your pursuing.  Wildlife that you probably wouldn't see otherwise,. I mean why else would you be standing by the side of a canal at stupid hours of the morning?  Sunday was just one of these occasions when I was privileged enough to see quite a rare sight, a grass snake that swam up to me and under my feet along the canal margin.

Shortly after I got treated to another sighting in the form of a small group of Muntjac deer roaming along the far bank seemingly unfazed by my presence directly opposite them, as I quickly fumbled in my bag for the camera they causally wondered along looking for tasty shoots to eat along the way.

Despite blanking and the occasional bit of drizzle it was a great morning to be up and out in the early British springtime.


Here's a little clip of the snake

Always time for a quick one...

5:00pm time to leave work.

Get in car and drive to the junction, beat the dithering old woman to pole position in my lane on the island, go right to head home, or straight on past the canal.  hmmm...  Follow the meandering traffic down the hill, got to hurry now.  Got to get to the canal bridge, I'll decide then, check my watch and the clock in the car,  shall I stop?.. is there time.. ?



10 minutes later .... Yeah, of course there is..



There was plenty of time for one of these,  and back home in time for tea.



Canal Zander - jigged

A bright and sunny Sunday lunchtime with on and off showers but a couple of hours free to myself,  I didn't fancy going far so I headed to the nearby canal. It's been a while since I successfully landed a lure caught Zander so headed to the stretch where I've succeeded before with the aim of trying out a fluorocarbon leader, as there are very few pike in this stretch.  I intended to attach this to a selection of light 2" jelly lures.   Unfortunately I had forgotten to put the bag of lures I had sorted out into my rucksack ! Luckily I still had some 3 & 4 " Kopytos in my other lure box in the car so dug them out from the dark corners of the box, dusted them down and fitted one to a 7gram jig head. 

It was a fair few casts before I finally had a take on an old 4" yellow kopyto that's done the rounds a bit, but hey if it still works then use it !

A bit overexposed... but you get the gist.

 

 

 



That was the only hit I tempted before I got a call from the wife asking if I fancied  heading out for a late Sunday lunch, Id already been out two hours and with a cold breeze biting my hands now, I happily agreed and headed back towards the car.

With the lighter evenings we have now,  I'm looking forward to squeezing in a few sessions on the way home from work so I can concentrate on finding more zeds and hopefully locate the perch ?