My first Zander! Yipeee...

Coventry canal, Sunday morning, 6.30am. Meeting with my mate Steve. Target species - Zander. For me, never seen one before, or even purposefully fished for one for that matter. Technique, deadbait tails on the float. The morning was very bright with the odd cloud occasionally blocking out the sun, not ideal. However, plenty of barges churning up the silt left us fishing in a brown soup, perfect for zander?

It has been years since I fished the canals, the last time was when I had a barge, pre-baiting for a week with tins of sweetcorn, me and my mate filled a keep net with bream that day.

Today though, it was fishing for Zander, my first take came as a surprise to me - it was very gentle, the float bobbed up and down a couple of times, then slowly drifted off to my right. It was tempting to strike too soon, but my mate Stebe said leave it a few seconds just to make sure it had taken the bait. We were after all fishing a single hook. I gave a slow retrieve and then sank my hook - he was on. Not a big fish, but gave a small fight – Steve had him in the net and on the bank quicker than I could say 'bloody barges!' There it was, my first Zander. Approximately 2lbs of lean mean munching machine - and a nasty pair of nashers on him too. I was delighted! Although the fishing was a little slow I did manage a second take about an hour or so later - he felt about the same size as before, however, he had the better of me and threw my hook and bait.

An interesting looking fish - definitely a predator in appearance. Long and slender like the Pike, a very small mouth by comparison - but a set of nashers designed for making light work of anything offering itself as lunch!

A great mornings fishing - thanks Steve!

Perfect Perch

I spent the week with the family camping in the Lake District . We stopped on a site called Hill of Oaks which enabled us to pitch up the caravan 12ft from the lake in a beautiful oak wood. It also meant I could take a small portable fishing boat, leave it moored up on the lake side – perfect!

I'd packed my fly and spinning rod with high expectations of catching perch, pike and with any luck a small brownie.

The boating was great, the fishing not so. I tried everything from small spinners, to large sinking lures trolled behind the boat, mornings and evenings with only a modest perch of about 1 - 1 1/2 pound to show for my efforts. I did put in a lot of practice with the fly rod perfecting my cast, but again, nothing took. It was the first time I had seen small shoals of perch hunting in the clear waters and have to say it more than made up for the poor bag. Had I switched to maggot on a float I am sure I would have bagged up.

Boys at the Bowl...

A rather enjoyable evening at the Bowl lakes in Southam. Five of us sat on a rather large peg fishing for Carp, and me (being difficult) fishing for Pike. Chris (pictured - green cap) managed two nice carp in the 10lb range, I had one short run by I guess a Jack, and the others didn't get a sniff. PVA bags for the carp fisherman, and for my sins, dead bait just free lined on the bottom. A thoroughly enjoyable evening though, with the usual fishy banter - apparently it had been a quiet weekend all round - even for the bivvy boys who were on their third day - across the other side of the lake just out of shot!

Trout Christening

I've taken the plunge and bought myself a fly rod and reel, both made by Sonic from a company called Carillon at the Game Fair at Ragley Hall along with a small selection of 'fluffy hooks', net and retractable gizmo for holding line clippers. My first outing was with my mate Chris to Heathcote Lakes in Leamington for a few hours fishing. As a complete beginner with a bit of an idea of how to cast, I did struggle with a strong wind coming directly from behind me. A few pointers from Chris had me casting out with reasonable confidence, and although the lake was swamped with a green algae, we did see a few trout jumping and making their presence clear. We were both fishing with floating line, 6-7ft leaders on 4lb line. After a couple of takes and having the first fly completely bitten off, I changed to an 8lb leader. Sinkers were the order of the day (apparently) and because of the colour of the water with this spongy green algae we opted for a white fly with gold bead eye. I think they look like fry swimming through the water. Slow figure of eight retrieves had Chris catching first and myself not far behind. It seemed the fish were feeding at the bottom end of the lake, left of the pontoon, and that was were the fun was to be had. We braved the wind and rain, I think I've caught a cold, but I sure enjoyed every minute of it. Back for more? Definitely!

Bright eyes - aah, leave it alone will ya!

A nice brace - lamped on the golf course in the rain.

There were these 3 squirrels living in a tree....

and I bagged them with my Air Arms.

From days shooting on a rather prestigious estate in Warwickshire. Over the course of 12-18 months me an my shooting bud Cal bagged over 128 tree rats - the trees have never had it so good!

Squirrel nutkins - 70 yarder this one!