Arranged to meet Tim on the Trent and Mersey Canal for hopefully another mixed predator session. Finished my chores, cooked and ate Sunday lunch with the family and was away down to Burton by late afternoon. Arrived just before 5 pm to find our usual spot vacant. The canal was carrying quite a bit of colour and floating debris, not suprising given the Trent was up again, but things looked hopeful for the zander at the very least. Tim arrived a few minutes later and we soon had four deadbait sections spaced out along the far margin. Had toyed with the idea of going down the route of mini snap tackle to sort out those pesky little zeds, but didn't fancy the idea of leaving a set down a big perch's throat or the consequences of hooking something big, so stuck with the size 6 Korum S3's. My left hand rod was the first to go, resulting in a perch of about a pound and a half. Tim was away next, cranking in what he believed to be a small jack until a big perch rolled on the surface causing a squeaky bum moment! Turned out to be another cracking canal specimen of 2lb 11oz (first glance at the line pattern and split anal fin seems to indicate it was a different fish to the one I had two weeks ago).
That's not a jack, Tim!
We both had a couple of missed runs as it got dark before I landed the first zander of the night - less than 1lb of it! Tim then pitched in with a pike of about 9lb. Soon became obvious that it was not going to be as frenetic as my previous trip with just two more zander, biggest about 2lb, falling to my rods over the next couple of hours. Tim had actually started packing up about 9 o'clock when I had another twitchy run on a roach head. Again, it was a case of mistaken identity as the weight but lack of any real fight led me to I believe I had a decent zed on the end. Was therefore a bit suprised when a pike popped up onto the surface and was bundled into the net and onto the bank by Tim (where it promptly woke up!). Was a short, but very broad and solid fish of 13lb 12oz - the first canal double I've had for a very long time.
And that's not a zander!
Whilst it had been a lot quieter than the last trip I was pleased to sneak in a predator "treble" again, particularly with an enforced break coming up (well that does include a week in France, so not all bad!).
No comments:
Post a Comment