Zander, Chub and Dace fishing.

Zander are probably my favourite species of fish. Growing up in the 90's I saw pictures of massive Fenland Zeds in the weekly mags and was inspired to try and catch one. On my first trip (20 plus years ago) I was lucky enough to catch two including a double weighing 12lb! Well, in all those years I still have not caught one bigger. That will be my target next Autumn. Fingers crossed.

A pb eluded me again this season, but I did catch some lovely Fenland Zeds on the few trips I had. I have really got the lure fishing bug and had a few trips to one of my local Rivers to see if I could tempt anything. Even a small one on a lure would be a great result. I found bites were not hard to come by as there has been a boom in Zander numbers in recent years. They are mostly small fish but there are good fish among them. The section of River I was fishing is very snaggy. I had to try weedless presentations to try and reduce the amount of lost lures. 

After a couple of fruitless daytime trips I decided to have a night session. I was using a UV shad and flavouring the lure with Ultrabite to give myself any extra edge I possibly could. I got to the River an hour before dark and worked my way along the River until I got to my favoured area. There were a couple of moored boats that I had bites at previously and this is where I would concentrate my efforts. It was now dark and I had a hit on my lure. I was not using a stinger due to the snaggs so I was expecting to miss a few. The next cast I had a hit and when I struck my rod took on a healthy bend. I drew the fish closer to me praying the single hook would stay in place all the way to the net. After a minute the Zander was in netting range and I engulfed it first time. Although not a big fish, this was my first night time lure caught Zander so the size was unimportant to me. 

I had a couple of trips bait fishing for Zander. One of these trips did not start so well with my chosen venue not "feeling right". I decided to switch to a different Fenland river and it turned out to be a good decision. There was a storm raging and I was questioning my sanity to be out. It was absolutely brutal! I was just about able to fish a quiver tip and make out the odd bite. I used an open ended feeder with the Marine halibut pellet method groundbait and soon had a few fresh baits. A fresh dead Roach was mounted on two size 10 VMC needle point x2 strong hooks. This was fished with a feeder full of chopped fish and glugged with a generous amount of Dynamite baits xl liquid predator for massive amounts of attraction.

My first bit of action came an hour after dark with a small Zander of 2lb. It was a good omen that the Zander were on the feed in the rough conditions. I stuck it out and a couple of hours later had had a take and pulled into something much heavier. After a minute I saw a pair of shining eyes in the torchlight as the fish went crazy as it hit the surface! It was shaking its head violently to rid itself of the hooks. Luckily the hook hold was good and engulfed a large zed in my net. I knew it was a good one a let out a wahoo! The reward was an immaculate beast of a Fenland Zander weighing 11lb! After a false start and difficult fishing conditions this certainly made it worth the effort.

Dace are a species I have not targeted for many years. I use to fish one of my local Rivers in my younger days catching Dace by the dozen. In fact one of these Rivers use to hold the record for the species. So a plan was made to meet my mate Giles for some socially distanced maggot bashing in search of some silver darts. I had dusted off my center pin reel as it would be perfect for the fast running shallow water. I stood in the water in my wellies and soon had a 4 gram chubber float gliding down River. A bite first cast and a fat Dace was soon handed out of the water. It was almost a fish a cast with a mix of Dace, Chub, Roach and even a beautifully spotted Brown Trout. Some of the Dace were sizable specimens with some being long and some being short and fat. I would love to catch them at the end of the season as who knows how big they will be a couple of months later?

My first Chub session of the season was on one of my local Rivers. I was taking my neighbour as he had never caught one before and I wanted to help him out. Mince and steak are used a lot on this River so I wanted to try something a bit different. I would use a standard tactic of liquidised bread in the feeder and flake hookbait. But what I did do was add some Dynamite baites XL liquid predator to give the bread lots of attraction. 

It was heading towards Dusk when we set up opposite a couple of boats. I was casting as tight as I could without hitting the boat and upsetting the occupants. I would leave the bait out for 15 minutes before casting again. Just as the light had almost gone completely my tip hooped over which was the signal for me to strike! I hit into a solid fish and did not give it an inch as I needed to stop it going under the boat. I soon had it away from the boat and heading towards the waiting net. Thankfully there were no marginal snags in this swim so I had the fish netted in no time at all. A big chunk of Bronze was placed on the mat, unhooked and weighed. At 4lb 15oz I was very happy and slipped it back after the obligatory pictures were taken. Unfortunately that was the only action of the evening, but at least my neighbour saw a big Chub, even if he did not catch one himself.

A bit further afield is the River Lea. I caught my pb of 7lb 2oz here last season and it is home to much larger specimens than this! I wanted to try something different as I was bored of sitting and waiting for a fish to come along. A friend of mine, Simon, had been catching some lovely fish trotting maggots. This was something I had not done before so was excited at the challenge. Fishing 4lb line straight through to a small size 18 hook and single maggot was about as different as it got compared to 10lb line, 2oz lead, size 6 hook and a boilie! I would be feeding maggots glugged in Dynamite baits XL liquid worm as I thought this would add so much attraction to the maggots that the Chub would not be able to resist them.

On my first trip to the River float fishing, the conditions were great. It was a cool day so the small fish were less active than normal. I hoped it would give the bigger fish a chance to get to the bait first. I tried a few swims without success, but this did give me a chance to practice trotting the float down the River until a fish slipped up. The fourth swim I tried a Chub did do just that. I pulled into my now sunken float and my rod took on it's full test curve! I had the clutch done up tight as I was trotting the float past some snags and did not want the fish finding sanctuary in them. I just held the rod bent double until I managed to pull it clear. From then on the fish just plodded in front of me for a few minutes making the odd surge. With no marginal snags to worry about I was happy to let the fish do this. It went in the net first time and a chunky fish was beaten. At 5lb 8oz I was very happy my first attempt had been successful. It could have been more successful, but not long after I started fishing again my rod snapped! That was the end of that then.

I got on the phone right away and ordered a new top section for my rod. It was on a 48 hour delivery so I was definitely going to be back soon! Well, the day after the new top section arrived I was back on the River for an afternoon session. I employed the same tactics feeding the glugged maggots and carried on where I left off. Soon after casting in I had a bite giving me an action replay of the last trip. A 5lb plus chub was landed and it did not stop there. I had another two 5lb plus Chub in the next few hours up until the light faded too much to see the float. I left very happy as I had got to grips with a new method and best of all, I did not break any rods this time!

My next Chub trip came about due to accidentally hooking, and losing a good Chub while lure fishing for Perch. It was a deep pool on my local River and not a swim I had Chub fished previously. I knew there was at least one good fish there so it was worth a try for a few hours after work. I cast a feeder filled with minced steak glugged with the XL liquid predator, and a cube of the Frenzied Krill luncheon meat on a size 4 hook.

Dusk was starting to fall, and from previous trips I knew this was prime time and confident of some action. This confidence was proved right as after a few casts around the swim my quiver tip hooped over signaling a take! I had already been snagged on a previous cast and of course this fish knew where that snag was! It headed straight for it so I just put the brakes on to steer it clear of danger. Once this was successfully done I managed to net the fish with no issues. It was a chunky looking Chub and certainly a better than average sized fish. It weighed in at 5lb 2oz and definitely a sign I should give this swim more attention in the future.

Gravel pit hauling and summer river fishing.

Like most anglers I had been waiting for the no travel rule to be lifted (early Spring) and I knew exactly what I would be fishing for. The 5 day forecast was predicting temperatures in the mid teens and Crucian were hopefully be waking up from their Winter slumber. 

I got to the lake just before first light and I was surprised how cold it was. There was a strong wind which made it feel cooler than it was. I knew it was going to warm up so chose a swim on the end of the wind hoping the Crucian would arrive when it warmed up.

I was fishing the method feeder loaded with Dynamite Baits green lipped muscle method mix with a trimmed down pineapple and banana pop up as hookbait. I cast the feeders every 15 minutes to build attraction in the swim. 

By lunchtime I had seen no fish activity at all let alone had a bite. I was starting to think my chance had gone when all of a sudden one of my rods absolutely ripped off! I thought it would be a Tench but the fight told me it was a good Crucian. I gingerly played it to the net and sure enough a big Crucian was soon netted! At 3lb 8oz I was over the moon. It was also a personal best which was the icing on the cake.

I had a few spare hours one Spring evening, so headed to a gravel pit that holds big Rudd. I knew bite time was just after dark so arrived a short time before this. I cast out the method feeder several times to get some attraction on the spots. 

Just on dark the first bite came and it was a chunky Rudd on a method feeder loaded with green lipped muscle method mix with a trimmed down pineapple and banana pop up as hookbait.. I placed it in a keepnet as the feeding spells can be hectic. I cast the rod out straight away and it was off again maybe one minute later! It was a short but productive feeding spell and six 2lb plus Rudd were the result. The best two weighing 2lb 8oz! 

The Rudd were great action for short evening sessions. But I fancied a longer day session or two and try for the Bream and Tench. I knew the Bream would be catchable during the day, especially when a good amount of bait had been put out for them.

I spodded out a mix of frenzied mixed particle, margin mix groundbait, source pellets and 12mm source boilies. I fished one rod on a cage feeder loaded with the spod mix. The other rod was a method feeder loaded with the green lipped muscle method groundbait and a yellow washter hookbait. 

It took some time for the first bite to occur as hookbait colour was very specific. I tried white and red but yellow was what they wanted. When the bites started they were steady all day with around 10 Bream, Tench and an interesting hybrid too. The Bream were a great average size ranging from 6lb to 8lb plus. The biggest and best looking was a striking two tone specimen.

I've been baiting for the carp on my local river with frenzied particle mix and complex T boilies. I had done a night the previous week and had a small common. The rudd are never too far away from the baited area so I trot flake dipped in the XL liquid strawberry over the top of it when the activity increases. 

Well I did just that and one evening I hooked into a heavy fish at close range. It instantly tried to snag me in the cabbages in the near margin and I tried to keep it out without putting too much pressure on the hook and line. I lost a big fish that did the same thing the week before! After some very strong surges I finally bundled it into the net! 

Weighing in at 2lb 13oz it was my biggest rudd of the season so far. 

The river carp fishing had been really slow. Just the one small common came along over a few weeks. The Tench were definitely there as they were boshing in the swim most evenings and mornings. I decided to fish for what was there and put a method feeder out to try and catch them. I was using the silver x carp method mix with the F1 groundbait added to it. Hookbait was a white wowser. 

That evening I had a take and a strong fish managed to bury itself in the prolific weed. After steady pressure was applied for a few minutes a ball of weed popped up and soon scooped into the net. As I peeled the weed away a gnarly old looking Tench was looking at me with its red eyes. I did not weigh it but took a few pictures as it was an interesting old character!

After dark the Bream took over and several chunky fish were netted. They averaged a good 5lb with the biggest around 7lb. I reeled in and got some sleep before casting out again at first light. It did not take long and I was playing another feisty fish that was almost certainly another Tench. It was indeed and after I netted it I could see it was a bigger and lovely looking fish around the 5lb mark. Again it was an interesting character with a strange white fin. Something I have never seen before on a Tench.

I enjoyed this session so much and plan to target the river Tench properly next season. And who knows, the Carp might turn up too?!