Mostly Zedding!

What have I been up to the past few weeks? Mostly Zedding, that's what. As well as fishing some of my usual Zander holes I've also tried a few new stretches of canal where I've heard of a few good fish coming out. Luck has been on my side and I've banked several fish, mostly small, I'm trying hard for a double and my best so far this year is a lovely conditioned six pound six ounce fish which is the largest I've had for a while.

 

Six pound six.

I fished an old haunt last week, a stretch of canal that has been very kind to me in the past and I was hoping to hook up with an old friend. I'd seen some swims that screamed 'Zander' on a walk along this stretch a few weeks ago and after having a rove around to check a few out I decided on one spot to settle down on and fish for a couple of hours into darkness. I thought it was going to be a quiet session but I wasn't alone for long, within the space of half an hour a stretch of bank to my left as long as a nine second sprint by Usain Bolt became occupied by five other anglers and by the look of things we were all after the same target. It became so uncomfortable with dead fish flying all over the place as anglers tried to hit their spots in the dark, with all the noise and commotion any decent sized Zed in the area would have packed their bags done a runner up Beduff. Something else that I'm never comfortable fishing around are overhead electric cables, they just happen to cross this stretch of canal at the best fishing spot in the area, whether that has anything to do with how well it fishes is another question to ask.
The drizzle filled air made the cables fizz and buzz overhead adding to the uncomfortable feeling I had about fishing this spot especially as now I wasn't alone. This feeling was soon forgotten when one of my glowing bobbins twitched and rose up towards  the rod gently and slowly, it was like a Zander take but in slow motion, I picked up the rod and waited for things to move, nothing, I tightened up and felt some resistance but it wasn't a fish of the variety I was after, it was a crayfish.

Zed bait?

Through the rest of the session I kept getting tugs on the bait which got rather annoying as I'd never come across this many Cray's in one area but having seen the amount of dead fish being thrown in the water in this stretch I'm not surprised there's so many. As soon as the bait settled on the bottom they were on it, might have to bring Cerys down here for a spot of 'crabbing'. I stuck it out for the rest of the session in the hope that a Zed would find the remains of my bait but ended up blanking.

I wonder if Crayfish would make a good Zed bait?

Rationed Luck and Junk!

My big Pike last week has put a dent in my run of luck; On Friday I was rationed to a single Zed on a visit to one of my favourite stretches of canal. I'd walked a fair distance to the spot that is usually a dead cert for a fish on the bank and it didn't disappoint. After this spot I made my way back giving each likely looking fish hold a good twenty minutes before moving on, I realised that it's been a while since I fished like this, cutting the gear down to the bare essentials making it easier to move around, I had a bag on my back, a stool, two rods and a net, a great way to fish.

Just the one.

I stopped at another spot that's been very good to me in the past and two baits were chucked to where I usually catch, a cross wind was moving my rigs downstream and with the floats nodding away I could see that the baits were just dragging bottom. I noticed one of them stop but it remained motionless for far too long for it to be a fish, I tightened down only to find that I was fastened solid to some bottom debris, "Not the mattress" I thought and walked up the bank to give a different angle to the pressure I was applying to the tackle, it worked, a big heavy weight was slowly dragged in to the bank, I lifted it out of the water and my first thoughts were that it was the part of a car as I could see the red lamp lenses and a few electrical cables but when I put it down on the grass all became obvious, it was the rear cover from an electric buggy.

What the!

Bait!

It was nice to see a few Zebra Mussels stuck fast to the plastic and it’s a good indication as to what bait to try for the Carp along here, the whole thing went back into the near margin but I think I should have tried to put it back in the main run where it came from as it was probably one of the fish holding features that made this spot so good. A couple of seasons ago I moved something similar to this in the canal near to the Foleshill Road, it was a big plastic shop sign, before hauling it in off the bottom this swim was another of my 'hot spots', I dropped the sign into the near margin as it was too big to lift out, since then I've never caught a Zed from that spot.

Despite the lack of bites I continued fish along this stretch until I couldn't see the floats anymore, might have to give these sliders a spray with some glow in the dark paint I’ve picked up.

What's the weirdest piece of junk you've hauled in from the depths?

Has it had an affect on the fishing there?

Something Alarming - Part 2.

My new Pike alarm has altered slightly and I think it looks much better, it's been fitted with a new and much louder buzzer, red LED's and it now screws onto buzz bar on my pod, it's also had it's first proper outing for Pike.

Now very loud.

I'm not going to make a big story out of this as I only had the one take all day and Barry fared better with two Pike and a bag of Zander. It was only the second chuck on this rod and the bait had only been on the spot for a few minutes, the take I had was vicious with line being snatched from the clip, the alarm worked great and was certainly startling as I wasn't expecting such a quick take but the scrap that followed was even greater. As soon as I lifted into the fish, the rod took on a curve and I could feel that this was going to be a good one. Several line stripping powerful runs followed with the fish almost tail walking at times, it took a while before it was safely in the net and on seeing it's size the numbers started rolling in my head.

 

It's a bit of an anti climax when you catch the biggest fish in the lake on the second cast of the first outing of the new season but I couldn't help smiling as I'd upped my PB, only by two ounces but I'd upped it.

 

My biggest Pike is now eighteen and a half pounds, next target has to be a twenty!