Canal Roach - Can't Fish? Must Fish...!

This surprise early winter weather has brought my zander campaign to a premature halt as the prime hotspots are now covered in two inch thick ice and according to the weatherman, likely to remain that way or worsen, for the next fortnight or so. Before it got really cold I did manage to fish through the only watery gap I'd found in the ice for a mile or more in any direction, for roach, with lobworms, for about an hour or so before the surface began to freeze over once again and forced me off.

Canal Zander & Pike - Fishing for Irish Pearls

The Wednesday evening excursion up the cut with Lee was utterly devoid of action apart from my losing both sets of end tackle and a hundred yards of mono to the propellors of a boat that ploughed straight through my lines while I was distracted and taking pictures of a fish decorated bridge...

Canal Zander & Pike - My Quest for a Big Cut Zed - Neither Up Nor Down

It has befallen me that I should have to fish three consecutive evenings of the same week. How unlucky is that? Judy has an Ofsted inspection coming up and as she holds a managerial position at Henley College, she and every other person in a position of responsibility there (and in every other education establishment up and down the country) assume the behavioral tics of a pertrified spaniel on Guy Fawks Night.

Canal Zander & Pike - My Quest for a Big Cut Zed - An Upturn of Fortune?

Below there's a simple chart showing the weight in pounds of each zander of the total of eighteen caught since I began my campaign back in early October (ignoring those caught on lobworm whilst roach fishing) in sequence. It's not particularly spectacular, is it? But, as anyone who has fished the canal for zander will testify, it's what you have to expect.