This meant a trip north was needed, a hundred miles or so from my Surrey home.
We just don't have the canals or rivers with a decent enough stock of these spiny beasts to target them specificly. Apart from the river Thames of course, which is not easy to fish from the bank in areas that the Zander like to hang out, thus far more accessible from a boat.
With my perennial fishing pal Mr Wheatie bagging his first zander the other week along with plenty of plump 2lb Perch, I pestered him to set up a trip north.
Our last minute plan was to meet up with a couple of Paul's old "Lure Nuts" friends Nathan & Garry (both seasoned lure & predator anglers) at a small midlands canal just before daybreak. In turn this meant a 4am alarm was set & a two hour drive for me, not something I'd do every weekend but this could be a special trip.
A supposedly very early nights sleep ending up being just four hours & most of that sleep time was full of zandery dreams.
The early morning brought a dose of reality to my mindset as these zander have seemed ever so elusive for me & at times, I felt they were almost un-catchable..... my bogey fish.
Scores needed to be settled & with a war like mentality as I drove into the darkness with thoughts firmly locked on the upcoming battle of wits.
My chosen tactics for the impending conflict was of course the now infamous "dropshot"
Paul did well with his first Zander on the winning combo of dropshot fished grass minnow & we'd be stupid not to use this as our first port of call.
A was met with a bleary eyed welcome at 6am from the guys & with sunlight yet to arrive, we stumbled off in search of some water.
Paul's great plan was to walk a couple of miles or so, pointing out good spots along the way, then stopping at a certain lock & making our way back. We would be casting out regularly at fishy holding areas, such as overhanging trees & bushes on the far bank, turning circles (for the many canal boats) as well as parked boats & of course the many locks & bridges dotted along our route back to the cars.
As the sun poked his head just about over the horizon, I had my first proper sight of the canal. Very narrow in places but far from a uniform canal, with regular width changes with plenty of features, yet relatively shallow & with very poor water clarity.
All in all it looked great & with a clouded sky & warmish temperatures for this time of year, we all cast out into the unknown murky depths.
After a fish-less first hour, without even a tap or inquiry, I plugged away with my grass minnow as the other guys chopped & changed with tactics & lures.
We thought if we all tried something different & found the winning method on the day then perhaps we could all get on it & share the spoils.
Of course with best laid plans, it was bound to fail & fail we did, until........
Nathan has a pluck on his lure & a tap on the rod tip from a deep lock, unfortunately resulting in a short lived fight. A glimpse of the fish at around 2lb was all we saw, as mr zander won this particular battle.
After closer inspection it showed he was never really hooked with the last inch of the lure missing.
But it showed something was feeding....At Last !!!
With renewed hope we all cast with purpose & gave it our full concentration & luckily I was next to taste some action.........
A cast to a small far bank tree resulted in a slow yet positive take, I'm sure he'd followed my minnow from the cover of the tree & took it halfway across the canal.
With my new 1-8g rod bending very nicely I thought the likely culprit was a good sized perch, with the classic head shaking, ponderous fight.
I rapidly changed my mind as it rolled on the surface & my legs went weak, it's a zander. The fight then picked up a bit & it started to give me more of a darting battle. But that was short lived as I deployed the landing net, then I had a problem.......
The powerful magnet I used to hang the net on my back was now stuck fast on the metal corrugated edge of the bank, as i wrestled one handed with the net, I feared I might lose the fish but today seemed like my lucky day as I landed my prize with gusto. I parted the net to see a bristling creature looking at me with his huge predatory eyes, the Zander monkey was finally removed from my back.
Within twenty minutes Nathan also had a Zander on the bank, dropshot again but he had scaled right down & used an S sized grass minnow.
On a rock hard day any fish is so welcome
Our hard work seemed to be paying off at last but, unfortunately that was the last fish of the day for anybody.
We were all surprised that even a small perch or three didn't arrive.
Both Paul & Garry deserved a fish or two with their dogged commitment but it just wasn't to be today.
I would have loved to celebrate my fish with the other chaps but I didn't feel it was the time or the place to so. I've been in that position far to many times to mention & trust me it's the last thing you want to do.
So with those thoughts in my mind, I decided it was time to tackle the long drive home. Great to meet new friends & you know what this means chaps ?
We have unfinished business on this canal & we will be back soon.
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