21/10/2011 - Trent and Mersey Canal

Met up with Tim again for a late afternoon/evening session on the Trent and Mersey Canal near Burton upon Trent for another bash at the zander. Arrived to find that we'd been beaten to the "prime" peg opposite the marina entrance by a matter of minutes by a husband and wife team, so dropped in a bit further up, trying our best to avoid the huge piles of dog eggs littering the towpath. Soon had various deadbaits positioned upstream and downstream. Tim got out his whip and his bread punch and was soon doing a passable imitation of a matchman, pulling out some clonking roach from the very first trot down. The deadbait rods, however, remained silent. Had to do the "zander hokey-cokey" a few times for passing barges. The last one was a hire boat that came in diagonally through our swims and pulled up just the other side of Tim, whereupon a chap jumped off and started hammering mooring pegs into the bank. Don't you just love 'em?! Saw matey down at the marina peg catch a couple of decent pike, but it wasn't until it was fully dark that we had our first fish in the net, a perch of about a pound to Tim (yet another one on deadbait). At about 7 o'clock the crew from the hire boat decided to go for tea at the pub and just as they walked past my left hand rod the alarm stuttered into life. Was quickly onto it and felt a reasonable fish kicking on the end. Turned out to be our target species and just as Tim was netting it my other rod shot off. Hit that one as well and soon had another, smaller zander in the net alongside the first.  

Quick fire brace

Got the rods back out quickly hoping that was a sign that the zander were on the prowl, but it went quiet again. The only other action was a pike of about 6lb to Tim. He seems to be developing a relationship with this fish, recognisable by a distinctive sore on one flank, as he has managed to catch it now on three different trips from three different spots! At 8.30 pm, having had no further indications, we packed up and walked back to the car through the dog egg minefield. Unfortunately, a strange smell in the car and a quick check when I got home revealed that I hadn't emerge unscathed!