Isn't it Dark

It was a "Thank Funk its Friday" feeling when I left work at midday and headed home to pack for the first zander trip of the autumn.

After busying myself with household jobs whilst packing for a evening on the river, it was soon time to do half of the 120 mile round trip.

The drive to the river was lovely, the sun was shinning, the music playing, and the drive flew by and soon I was parking up next to one of my favourite fen rivers. The river looked in good nick, and there were signs that autumn was here. The weed and lillies were starting to die back and there was a hint of colour in the water.

I soon had the bait snatching pole in my hand and started to feed the margins in order to caught some fresh bait for the zander dinner table, but it was hard graft, but after 4 hours I had managed to catch seven baits sized roach and the odd rudd.

With the sun starting to set over the river, and with the bait catching done, it was time to ease into predator mode for the evening/night. Rods were pre rigged with my faithful zedding rigs, a simple running ledger and a CD rig.
Both rods was soon baited up, cast out into the flow and set up on the delkims with my homemade drop off indicator. And so it was time for tea.

The sun soon set and the darkness wrapped around me on the river and all was quiet. For the first time in what seemed an age, I looked up at the night sky and saw how beautiful the stars were out in the middle of no where. The plough was clearly visible and felt at peace after a hectic week at work, all seem right in the world for the first time in a long time. The rod hooped over nicely for a split second and then the line fell limp. It as off.

I cursed my luck, as a run on this venue can be hard to come by. I reeled in to find the bait gone.

The rig was soon back out in the margins with a fresh bait and I settle back into start gazing mode, but the alarm on the second rod sounded continuously and I rushed to the rod with line again peeling off. The speed of the fish ment that again I simply closed the bale alarm and tightened up to the fleeing fish. It was on this time and the rod hooped over nicely. It felt heavy in the flow and had some spirited runs before some of the weight disappeared with a head shake, but there was still a fish there.
It was soon over the net and at the second attempt it was in. I lifted the fish up the bank to the unhooking mat and a first double of the season was mine. Sadly, not a zander but a pike. I went to unhook it, but the it had shed the hooks.

The pike was soon back in the river and away. But as I went to bait up, I noticed that one of the trebles had been straightened. How odd, must have been a duff treble. The trace was soon changed, rebaited and recast out.

Whilst the baits were soaking, I decided to look at the old trace. The trace looked good, but the Owner ST36 which has been ever so reliable was indeed straightened, so it was consigned to the bin.

9pm came and on the margin rod was bleeping away, something had disturbed the bait. Less than a minute later, it was bleeping feverishly and the line was pooled from the drop off, but it stop.
Not wanting a deep hooked fish, I picked up the rod and wound in some of the spilled line and held a large loop in my hand. This was pulled and I wound down and connected with a fish.
It wasn't a big fish that was fore sure, and it didn't have the usual fight of a pike, in fact it felt like a perch. There was no fight and the head lamp caught the magical eye of my quarry. A zander.
Not a big zander, but it was a fresh young fish, a good sign that they were indeed still about and breeding.

The schoolie was soon unhooked and returned, but again when rebaiting, I noticed that the top treble had been straightened again. Duff treble again, or even a duff batch.
Not wanting to loose a fish, a brand new trace was tied with some Partridge trebles that I had laying about in the tackle box.

Went comparing the straightened Owner, next to the other Partridge trebles, it could be clearly seen that the gauge thickness of the Owners was drastically thinner.

The rest of the night was quite uneventful, one more pike decided that the fresh roach was just to tasty to be left out all night. By midnight, and with bed calling I packed up and headed for home.

Hit and Miss

Saturday saw me venturing off to fish one of the big reservoirs for zander and hopefully pike. But there was a issue, a storm front was heading our way.

I arrived like most nice and early to find the gates still locked even though we have been advised to get there early. But this wasn't any issue because it gave me chance to catch up with fellow Pikers Pits members Predator and Mickey D, who just happened to be on the water the same day as me.

Finally, the gates opened and we were soon paying for our tickets, loading the boat, and despite being one of the first on the boat, we we the last to get out (Martin brought everything including the kitchen sink).

We finally ventured out and got ourselves sorted and headed for the iconic tower.

After anchoring up we got to work with the lures, Martin was jigging, whilst I preferred to work crank baits through the depths.

The crank soon worked its magic and I was battling with a reasonable size fish to the boat, but alas the fish shook the hooks lose at the surface. I suspect it was a large trout, but we'll never know.

Martin then score with the jigging and was soon scrapping with another fish, this one didn't throw the hooks and a nice size brownie was netted.

A quick snap and the trout was returned.

We then decided to move closer to the tower as we'd see a couple of anglers boat fish.

Once we have finally anchored up (after undoing 7 knots that had reduced the anchor rope by 5 feet) we started fishing again. The crank bait was soon in action again and I felt a number of hits as it came up the water column. As the lure it the surface, a large zander crashed out of the water missing the crank by mm.

We worked the tower for a good hour, but nothing materialised so we went for the first drift of the day.

To sum up the day, we drifted, we anchored up and we searched the water for more fish, but alas nothing else came to the boat. I did have a number of his on bottom bounced shads, but most resulted in shad loosing there tails.
But 3pm, with the storm nearly upon use, we headed for shore. Just in time really because by the time we had put the boat in, the swell was dangerous. The rain lashed down and the wind was up to 50mph.

The drive home was colourful, which main roads being flooded and visibility poor. I was happy to be in that night.

If at first you don't succeed

Its been quite on the fishing front the last week or so. Its not that I've not been out, more like the better quality of fish have either not been feeding at all or just failed to latch on to bigger fish.

Been fishing the rivers for bream most of the time and caught some reasonable numbers of them to 5./12lb, but the bigger fishing have not stayed in the swim along enough, so a tactical change will be required.
I think the quality of the bait and ground bait has been sound, the problem has been that I have just not put in the quantity of bait to hold these hoovering beasts in the swim long enough. So I think I will be taking double the amount of bait for my next session in a couple of weeks time.

Also did my first evening/night zandering trip of the season, mainly because I have had the time in the evening to get to the river.

The afternoon/evening was a stormy event with heavy rain and claps of thunder and lighting all around me. But as the evening got later and the sun started to set the evening became still and bright.
I had tried to catch some fresh roach, but bites were impossible to come by during the storm and by the time that the storm had passed over, the float was difficult to see. Good job I had a decent stash of bait in the freezer.

Two rods were baited and fished on either marginal shelves for the first few hours, but no runs materialised during the season, well not from Zander anyhow. A Great Crested Grebe whom has been cruising up and down the river during the season gathering small fish for her chicks was out and hunting, when the alarm beeped and the bobbin lifted. I did strike and very quickly the grebe appeared at the surface and quickly chucked the bait to one side as she scooted off.

The far bait did get some attention from the eels during the early evening, but I suspect they were bootlaces from the jangling bobbin.

The rest of the evening was uneventful and by 10:30pm, it was damp and cool so I headed for home.

The traditional pike season start of 1 October is only a matter of 12 week away, so whilst having some free time to spend in the tackle room, I soon started sorted the out the old traces and seeing if any of the traces were salvageable. Most had blunted or rusting hooks and the wire was in need of replacing too, so armed with new wire, hooks (4,6 & 8 hook sizes), size 8 swivels and long rig tails I started to making up a selection of new traces for the season.
Next job will be a complete line change on the mono reels. The braid is new on the pit reels, so that just will be checked for any abrasion and replaced if needs be..

Also been looking to lighten the load out of the day pack again, with an aim of lightening the load by at least 2kg. One easy step is to reduce the amount of clutter from the pockets of the pack. So gone are the endless bits and pieces of useful junk that I hauled around last season.

I'm also reducing the amount of spare floats, leads, spools, etc etc that I carry about. In most cases the stuff I've put to one side has not been used in two seasons!!!! So I probably won't need it for this season.

So then that just leaves, bait and food......how much of each should I take? Well the huge flask is being ditched for a 1litre version and the vast food mountain will be reduced to the 1lite food flask and some energy bars. Also the bait will be reduced, so I only take 3 section or whole fish of say 3/4 types. It quite interesting that from the records I've kept that the vast majority of fish I caught over the four season have fell to 3 baits. So these will be the three I take, plus a change bait for the odd occasion that I fish a pressured area.Of course this will be dependent of the venue too.

TL

Catching some zzzzz's

Morning all,

Sorry I have not blogged sometime...been busy fishing, fishing and writing for others.

There is a new online emag call Pikers Pool....which is a emag run by under by members of the pikers pit...

Here is my first article for the emag here Pikers Pool, Catching some zzzzz's

TL

Preparing for the Season Ahead

So its less that a month to go to the glorious 1st October, sadly I won’t be on the banks that weekend as I be at the Pike Angling Club Convention at Kettering.


I will be helping out on the day so give me a look.

But just because I’m not fishing on the 1st October hasn’t stopped from think and preparing for the pike season ahead. The first big job was to pack my bait freezer with all sorts of standard and non standard baits. So a bulk order duly arrived at the beginning of August. The only bait I will not be using this year is eel section. This is a decision by me in support for of the N.A.C preservation campaign. My stocked bait will be supplemented with a supply of freshly despatched roach, rudd, & skimmer bream from a pond were I have an agreement to remove up to 30 fish for the winter as bait. This fresh bait will be used in the first part for September on a couple of trips for Zander.

New lines has been bought, Berkley Big Game (17lb mono) and Hi-Seas Hi Viz floating braid (65lb) and loaded onto the reels.

Trace wire (Mr Softee), hooks, swivels have been bought, and I’ll end up making new traces the week before my first trip. New batteries will be fitted in the camera, thermometer and backbiters. Check nets, weight sling for any hole.

One rod has been replaced with a new rod from Mr Lumbs' stable. I purchased one of his 12 foot 3.5tc Baitcaster rods (BB350) for long range fishing or as a drifter rod. I hope to add a second BB350 in the coming weeks.

So if you haven’t thought about it yet, you better get your gear together and see what needs doing. Its only 2.1/2 weeks away after all

Tight lines for the season ahead

New Page Added - Tackling Zander - Michael Hastings (PAC)

Hell All,

The first guest writer of the month is a friend of mine Michael Hasting of the PAC. When he's not working his socks off, pike fishing in the winter your will find is fishing time is split between Tench and Zander.

Michael has very kindly written his way of Tackling Zander. Hope you enjoy it