resistance was futile

[baitmaster]

well with the weather turning alltumnal the other day my thoughts turned swiftly to the on coming zed season which i normally start from the first of september as long as the weather is cool .
any way after richard had put a zander forum on here that was that the rods had to come out and resistance was going to be futil at best .
so with my new found excitement and enthusiasm i through my zedding gear in the car shot off and got some maggots to catch some bait and took a couple of deads to in a feezer bag .
i soon found my self on the fens and how good it felt. but as it was early evening i could not relax as i needed to catch a few baits i walked down to the drainby the bridge and spent half an hour knocking out a few baits with this done it was back to the car to get my zedding gear .
i could not wait and was on my way to my spot and having to work my way through the jungle that has grown up through out the summer.
soon i came to my spot i wanted to fish and i had to trample down some of the overgrown vegetation once this was done the rods were out waiting to be baited .
i decided to go with a simple running ledger rig for the dead bait and the middle rods was fished with a sunken float paternoster and the third was on a ledger stem .
so the dead bait was sent to the far margin with the sunken float rod wasput just over a third of the way out the bottom of the slope and the last rod was flicked down the margin to my left .with this all done it was time to fire up the kettle OHH NO! note to myself check i have lighter to light stove oh well no coffee tonight .
so i just sat back on the slope waiting for dusk to settle in and see if my decision to come was right .
then suddenly the dead bait rod gave a couple of bleeps to signal something was happening then it went up just at that moment it drop it and isat by the rod to see if it would pick it back up sure enough it did the bobbin went straight to the top with out stopping .
i swept the rod back and it was met with a solid resistance i look up at the rod it was nicely bent over and then the tell tale shake .
it stayed deep and it was not going to give up with out a fight and it tried to hide in the near side lillies but i manage to keep out some how while trying not to lose my balance as i was teatering right on the edge of the drain .
at this point i was now not sure weather it was a zed as it was fighting hard and i actually thought this is it its the big one! then in the half light it popped on the surface thrashing wildly trying to have one last go at shaking the hooks but there held firm and it was soon safely in the net .
i quickly gather up the net and took it up the top to get a better look at my first zed of the season .
it was soon unhooked weighed a couple of shots were taking of it and then i put it back i took one last lookas it dissapeared into the depth
the rod was rebaited and i sat back down and waited to see if any more action was going to happen .
another note to myself make sure the battery for camera is charged up as the red light came on so i was unsure weather i would get any more pics.
about 15 minutes past then my rod to the left in the margin sprang into life and i had to scramble through the jungle to get to it i struck again and sure enough i hooked up i knew it was a zed from the distinctive head shake it to tried to get in the near side lillies that lined the sides of the drain but as it was not a big zed i did not have to much trouble in taming it .
once again it was quickly unhooked weighed and luckerly for me there was enough charge to take a couple of quick pics of the zed.
a lovely little bait munching zed of about 4lb
]
once againit was soon back in the water and the rod was back down the margin .
i was really excited with the prospect of more zeds coming but alas a short feeding spell an hour after dusk was all that i had and for the next couple of hours nothing happened so happy with what i had i decided to call it a day and head of home .

tightlines
kevin

[pingu]

kev nice to see you in amonst your faves
know the big ne will come
dave

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Thats better ken with a zander in his hand

[Norfolkboy]

Well done Kev, can't wait to try for one myself now. Although I'd probably spend a lot of the time catching the bait

Great to see you with a zander in hand yet again

[fishypaul]

well done kev,bet you feel a lot better now

[BaggieRich]

Here we go then. It's started. Brace yourselves for a steady stream of Zander over the winter.

Well done Kev. How good does that feel????

And an 8lb fish isn't bad for starters eh? Just wait till you pull out one twice that size!

Nice one mate.

Rich.

[Greenheart]

Nice one Kev, cracking first fish for the season. Bet you were ready for a cuppa by the time you got home. You will have to watch more of those survival programmes on the discovery channel & learn to light a fire by rubbing two sticks together LOL My digital camera uses disposable batteries. I always have to buy bulk packs as they don't last long when using the flash. Well done mate.