choices are some times made easy

baitmaster · #1 11-13-2006, 11:22 PM

well with my car being off the road at the moment due to a technical problem i,m having to share my missuses car but tonight i had to wait till the school run was done so it meant i would be getting down to my given venue just around dark .
so of i went traveling down and i had three spots in mind these were chosen as i all ready knew the swims so setting up in the dark would not be a problem .
on arrival i could see there was some one in choice one so i had to think again as choice two was a bit of a drive i decided to go for choice three .
it did not take long to get there and i was soon sorting out my rods and bit these were soon baited up and cast out my traps were set .
now tactics were two on ledger stems and i changed the other to a sunken float set up as i wanted a bait up in the water about 2ft off the bottom .
the kettle was on and while i waited i got my unhooking gear and scales out ready when i get any zeds .

i sat back with my coffee staring up to check how the weather was looking and the clouds were building up nicely just how i like it for zed overcast .
there also was a stiff south westerly blowing which was funneling down the drain but was not causing me any concern with my bobbins .
i was feeling pretty confident although lately the fishing has really been hard going and i,ve had more blanks than i would have liked .
but now with the weather back to to being over cast and mild i felt things would now be back on the up .
the first hour past with out a twitch and all my baits were checked and recast out and i sat back and waited another 30 minutes had past before i got a run on the sunken float paternoster but it was aborted .
i quickly checked the bait no marks on it so out back it went and i settle back waiting for a better run nothing happened and i was starting to think was this going to be another hard session with little reward .
it was about 8.40 pm i got a pick up on my paternoster i went over to it watching and waiting for the bobbin to dance up to the rod there seemed to be a very long pause then it shot up i leaned back with the rod to be met with a solid resistance of something below the surface with the water being so clear i did not want to use my light and directed the fish over the waiting net once i took it up to the top i put the light on and could see it was a short but plump pike very nicely marked to i soon had it unhooked and weighed it at 13lb i took a couple of shots and soon released it back into the water and it skulked off to sulk in the reeds .

i redecorated the hooks with another roach and flicked it out along the marginal reeds to my left and checked other by twitching them back and then sat back down hoping a zed would show .
about ten minute past and my wait was over and my right hand margin rod was off with a fierce take and i did not get time to get to my rod before the bobbin was at the top and the bait runner was going .
i again i struck in the the fish and my rod bent over i moved to a better position to play the fish again i kept my headlight of but desperately wanting to see if it was a zed it felt like a zed and it also felt a good fish and it was a while before it came up in front of me and then is shook its head and i knew it was a zander i guided it carefully to the waiting net and a sit slipped over the draw string i thought it looked a good fish .
i soon was at the top and parted the mesh to see a cracking fresh looking zed it was only just hooked and i soon had it unhooked i weighed the fish and the scales stopped bang on 10lb YES! i thought another double .

i soon had a few good pics and took it back to the waters edge at it was off no messing spraying water up every where as it shot off .
i rebaited and had the rod soon back in position i went back and made another coffee and sat there thinking about the last 20 minutes which had produce me two good fish,its interesting to see both pike and zed feeding around the same time but its not unusual on the drains for both to be feeding at the same time
i fished on till eleven and felt i was going to get another zed but it did not materialise but i was not disappointed anyway
soon i was packed up and back at the car and heading home a happy zedder again .

tightlines
Kevin