|
After
catching my recent River Carp and also having some
fun with the Tench and Bream, from the same swim, I
fancied a go at some of the other occupants in the
swim. One of my previous Carp sessions had shown me
straight away that there was a few Zander present.
Whilst checking for weed in a margin spot, my
lowered rig snagged a fish on the way down. Straight
away I thought that it was a Bream, but soon popped
up a 3lb Zander, hooked fair and square in the
mouth! With all the fry in the margins, it must have
mistook the hook for one of them.
I rarely
manage to fit many Zander sessions a season,
but I wanted to change that this year. My first
couple of sessions in my Carp swim soon produced,
and on one occasion I managed 11 fish to just under
9lb in a night, all of which fell to the same bleak deadbait baited rod! I didn't have so much as a
sniff on a livebait which was strange. To be honest
though, this just reflected my results when I was
younger, most of my fish in years gone by came to
deads rather than lives.
With
a few fish under my belt, I fancied a crack at some
of these toothy predators on lures. I had recently
received a large selection of the new Fox Zander Pro
Shads, and they looked perfect for them. As I had
discovered the previous year, even though the
Fenland Rivers and Drains aren't hugely deep, they
still respond well to vertical jigging tactics below
the boat. With this in mind, I began jigging.
In
three sessions I managed three Zander, nothing large
with 3lb being the largest, but it had proved to me
that a great deal of water below the boat wasn't
needed. These fish all came in no more than 8 feet
of water, and were joined by many Pike and Perch
also.
I am
hoping to have another good crack at some Zeds later
on in the year, possibly even trying a couple of
daytime sessions for them. This is something I have
never had confidence in before, but if I could get
the confidence, that would be half the battle one.
We'll just have to see how it goes! |
