venue 3 ( The middle level )

[baitmaster]

The middle level

the middle level drain what else can be said about a drain that is well documented and has had many articles written on it .
personally for myself its been kind over the many years i,ve fished it but it does bite back occasionally and make you wonder is there are any fish in it at all and back in 2004 i spent 6 weeks of fishing it for not even a run but thankfully for me on new years eve brought me a welcomed fish of 9lb+.
the level starts from three holes where it joined to the pophams eau and the sixteen foot drain its run for about 7 miles where it ends at the pumping station at st Germans.

the middle level is not very wide at all being around 30 to 40 yards wide and in the summer this like the channel in some area,s gets thick reed lined edges also get lillies growing along the edges too and it does look very pretty indeed in the summer .this also gives good cover for the silver fish which are easier to catch during the warmer months and are wide spread through the length of the drain .
which is in total contrast to this drain in the winter it really does look bleak in the winter with relatively no bank side cover and is not the best place to be when the wind gets up and can get uncomfortable sometimes and you have really want to be on this drain and anglers who have fished it will know what i mean.
also when the bank side vegetation dies back the bait fish move and seem to disappear from some area,s and becomes a bit more difficult to catch but they normally can be found through the winter round the bridges that cross the drain .
the drain varies slightly in depth but its normally found to be around 12 to 16ft .

now and again this drain get run like all the drains during prolonged wet periods and during the winter months and in these conditions you can normally just fish in close even with heavy leads in the edges as the flows can be very strong .
but in my own experiences on the level unless we have had exceptional rain its run for about 3 to 4 hours at a time and normally during the day but it does get runs at night.
i have had some good times immediately after it has stopped pumping and these conditions do make good zander conditions especially if the water is coloured on one session i can remember catching a double figure zed and a high nine with in ten minutes of the drain being stopped .
but i,ve seen it gin clear even after the drain has been run but although these conditions apparently are not suited for catching zeds during the day as long as it not a bright evening good zandering can still be had however .
i must admit in the above conditions my largest zed off came off this drain (14lb 10oz ) and came while on a evening session where you would have said the conditions were all wrong and since that day i,ve fish it with a totally different out look and have had good success too .
this is controlled by KLAA for its entire length form the junctions with the 16ft drain to st mary,s bridge (st Germans ) you can,t fish the last couple of hundreds yards above st mary,s bridge at st Germans due to this being out of bound by the middle level commission cause of the pumping station .
there is also one other exception where you cannot fish and this is at the aqueduct cottage where it is private .

again there is good access to this drain by the number of bridges that like the channel cross in various places along its length infact there are 8 road bridges but there are also a couple of old iron bridges crossing the drain one is at parsonage farm the other just below pingles and are mainly now used for farm traffic also there and some ruins of other bridges that i think where blown up during the war and there remains can still be found in various spots a along its length too.
i suggest any one wanting to tackle these drains or any other drain to get themselfs a ordanance survey map for this area o/s 143 .
this drain has on many occasion broke the zander record and out of the top fifty list 26 of these fish have come from the level itself but a lot of these are the same fish .
It still today holds the record with a fish caught by D lavender at 19lb 5oz back in mar 1998 to my knowledge this is the only British record to be caught on video aswell .
to this day the level still does some very good fish and gives the visiting angler a very good chance of a double but you have to work hard to achieve this .
i,ll be surprised if it ever fishes as well as it did and throw up them lumps like it did during the end of the nineties but you never know .

tightlines
kevin

[BaggieRich]

Great artical mate. Thanks for taking the time to put your thoughts down.

It's posts like this that make this forum great. Details which help other anglers find their feet on a new water. Much respect to you mate.



Rich.

[fishypaul]

well done kev

[Norfolkboy]

Great write up Kev, and a nice water it is too. Must get a zed from there some time.

[Rob M]

Great write up Kev!

Rob

[pingu]

another top review there kev well done

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Great angler is an angler who is willing to share information and look after our fish for generations to come

Cracking read again kev and thankyou for putting the time in to help other enjoy zander fishing the way it should be

[gullyworm]

Kev ,just wondered why you think a big Zed wont come out again?
Also what happened to the record fish?
Cracking article as ever mate

[baitmaster]

i just think certain variable have to be in place such as there has to be a sustainable food source for a prolonged period of time for a fish to grow to a potentially record size and also there has to be less predators which at the moment the middle level seems to have more than normal this is probably because there also has been a good spawning years for the silver fish so this also will allow a better predation from pike or zander and inturn will also breed successfully only if the zander or pike had a lower spawning therefore being less competitions for food and the silver fish carried on having successfull spawning and substaining the food source would it be possible for a very big zed indeed or dare i say it a 20lb + fish .
i would like to see the level produce another monster and history shows that the level has a pedigree to achieve this but there are some other waters away from the home of the zander that are probably inform to throw up a huge zed .
and only time will tell if the current trend of successfully spawning from the silver fish will sustain the current levels of predators which are now present and allow one to become of record size . but this is only a assumption and i can only hazzard a guess as to what i think will happen .
but if in the current trend a fish could possibly get to with in the record size and then gets caught near the end of season while carrying spawn then it could possibly go over 20lb .
now as far as the record fish that D lavender caught in 1998 goes a zander had a life span of around 13 to 15 years and a fish of the size the record fish
was probably at the higher end of its life span and is no longer alive

i hope this explains your question john

tightlines
kevin

[Twiddler]

I'm more and more impressed by your venue reports.....and it makes me more determand to try zandering in the near future.


Keep the venues reports coming Kev

Claudia