Canal zander - The cost of fuel and effect on fishing.

Yesterday I had a choice of fishing venues to try, not fixed in stone, but the three choices I was considering were, the River Severn at Worcester for zander, the River Derwent for chub and perch, then lastly the local canals for zander.

Both the Derwent and Severn involve a round trip of about 100 miles, the travelling does not bother me, but fishing a number of times each week as I do the cost of that trip at near £20 needs to be taken into account.

The Derwent might provide a perch of near or even over 4lb, then the chance of possibly a 7lb chub, both of these weights being the top end of the day dream, but there to be caught.  The Severn already holds the zander record and it is quite possible that another fish swims there to beat that figure again, certainly a fish to beat my best of 16lb-5oz is in the waters I am fishing.  The canals cannot compete with this, and the target sights have to be lowered considerably.  Realistically my dream canal fish would be a double, 10lb or more of zander from a canal would be as big an achievement as the 15lb plus specimen from the Severn, maybe even better than that!

Decision made, I went to the canal with minimal tackle to allow a very mobile approach.  Two rods, landing net, tackle bag and chair, I was ready.  My bait would be lamprey on one of the rods and small 4 inch roach on the other, a small float set slightly overdepth would give bite indication and the rods would be laid along side the tow-path with the bait runner set to give line, just in case.

I was not alone, 100 boats and 200 dog walkers passed me by as I leap-frogged along the canal, it can be surprising how far you travel in this way, ten minutes in a spot and move, another ten minutes move again.  There are very few features so the move is done more by distance than to a particular spot, no worry the zander don't seem to be packed in any definate area, probably being on the search for food all the time.

                                                           Not big but pleasing to catch.
A warm day, though the wind did get up to quite a blow, I had just one take from a medium size zander, but pleasing to have avoided the blank.  Next trip out will be to more distant locations, no doubt that 50 mile run somewhere will come into the equation but that's my fishing life.

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