An Urban Zedventure - Part 1

Friday's short evening session was on the canal in Coventry along a stretch I fished a lot last year and boy does it look different, the last time I was down here the factory on the opposite bank was still standing, even though it was in the process of being demolished it still cast a dark shadow over this stretch of water, it's now one big open site and makes this section of canal look completely different. I began the session a bit further up under some tall tree's, I caught a few smaller fish here last year so I was curious to see if they were still in the area.

I gave the spot half an hour but the resident tackle monster grabbed and ate a couple of traces so the snags the zed's used hide amongst are still there. It was time for a move and I headed back towards the city to try a few overhanging bushes I'd seen on my way up the canal and after trying a couple of spots without any takes I arrived at one swim that provided me with a few runs last year but no fish so I had to give it a go.

I positioned two baits either side of the large bush then began to watch the bobbins, after a while the left rods bobbin dropped to the water then slowly rose up to the rod, I hit it and had the first Zed of the day shaking it's head in a bid for freedom. I was using a single size two hook on this rod, another experiment to see if the unhooking would be easier as I'm finding deep hooked Zander very difficult to work on when removing trebles, the single came out without any problems and after a quick pic it was back in with it's mates.

A fresh bait was recast to the same spot and I brought in the second rod to check the bait and reposition, I glanced down to keep an eye on the first rod and noticed that the bobbin was in the water with quite a bit of slack line, I'd only just put this rod out so put it down to the line settling and proceeded to cast out the second bait, it's a good job I was keeping one eye on this rod as the bobbin rose up rapidly and slapped against the blank forcing the baitrunner to give a little line but by the time I'd reacted, got to the rod and struck the fish had dropped the bait and was long gone.

Both rods were repositioned and I settled back into the rhythm of keeping one eye on the bobbins and the other watching for NED's, a boat passed which forced another bait reposition but I never think this is a bad thing as I think Zander like it when the waters been stirred up and it was only moments after the boat had passed through that I had another take, the bobbin again dropped to the water before being pulled up, no messing this time, I was on it and struck into what felt like a much better fish, it put a good bend in the Avon and went all over the place before sliding into the net.

The single hook had done a great job sticking into the top jaw so no tool kit for this one, I was interested to see how big it was but was rather disappointed when it only pulled the scales round to three and a half pound, the fish posed nicely for the camera before being returned.

It seemed to be getting dark a bit earlier than usual because of all the cloud but the orange glow off the city lights meant I could try another cast or two but I'd had all the fish for that session and when the drizzle started I headed home.