this is re written by a friend and copied and stuck here.
i was looking forward to this weekend because i had invited young dan due to thinking he had not been out for a while and as he has had all the recent stress of moving house and not being able to get out and enjoy his past time i thought it would be great for him and to my surprise he was good enough to except my kind invitation for a spot of hardcore zedding on some remote fenland drain and beens it was some distance to travel he asked woody if he wanted to have a go so i was going to be joined by the pair of them .
now i was hoping the weather was going to be a bit milder than this artic blow that we are going to get and if it gets any colder i think we will find that the polar bears will start to migrate south.
so all the pre meet stuff was sorted with any specific gear that might be needed and the meeting time was finally arrange which was going to be early hours on friday morning .
i pulled into the meeting place and in the darkness with only the garage forecourt lights showing up my car i was suprised to see woody and dan were all ready waiting eager to get amongst the fish .
i greeted dan and woody and introduce them to paul and with time being of the essence we headed off to the drain i was taken them to fish for the week end .
we got out of the car and the wind was not as bad as they had predicted but it was funneling down the drain which would make the fishing a bit more difficult but i knew it was nothing the lads couldn,t handle .
i set about given them the advice that they would need to give them every chance of banking a fish and both seemed very impressed with the fixed patenoster i,de shown them ,
but you can never garrauntee that the fish ain,t going to do something stupid like not feed !! .
my mate was into a pike straight away which got every bodies confidence up this was going to set the pattern for the daylight hours for him and i hoped and my mate seemed to have alot of pike in front of him and caught consistently well all day .on the other hand not so for dan and woody and i was a bit concerned as i put them in a swim that has all ways done me proud and would have all ways choosen for myself but the fish just did not seem to want to fall to their rods .
here woody and dan hard at it .
woody got his lure rod out and put a small spinner bait on and cast out and straight away he was into a small but spirited fenland pike .
as the day got on i,de had couple of pike and then had back to back 13lb fish the second one had a a trace down its throat and with woody,s help we gently pulled his stomach out and then we were able to remove the trace so the pike could happily go about his feeding .
the day was getting late and it was time to turn my thoughts to the task in hand ZANDER!! i spent time with them and got them both marked and clip up the the far shelf and i was very confident that it would not be long before they would hopefully be into there first fenland zander.
i walked up to my swim and done the same and then we then settled down and generally chatted about what to expect and other stuff at around 6.30 pm i had a pick up off a zed and with the zander messing about i waited for the right moment and then struck solidly into the fish ,it done the normal head shaking and woody done the honours with the net we gathered around the unhooking mat and they got there first look my favourite fish it was soon unhooked and a couple of shot were taken of this 9lb plus zed and then it was released .
this got me thinking the zed were going to play ball and feed well and it would not be long before dan or woody would be into one .
another hour or so had past and nothing stirred in there swim or my mates and then suddenly i had another run i was quickly onto it and yet again another nice size zed around 7 and a half pound graced my landing net we again had it unhooked and back into the water for go off and reak havoc amonst the the silver fish population .
i was feeling a bit gutted to be honest that the zeds had falling to me so i made a decission that if any of my rods went they could take the runs just as for some reason the zeds were infront of me and they might not move through .
we all sat back down and carried on a social over a nice bottle of becks but i could not help thinking why the zeds were not coming from my favourite swim that all ways does me proud and it made me feel a bit dissapointed for the lads but i was now hoping one of there rods would fire off would fire off .
another hour past and yet again one of my rods burst into life this time dan came up and i got him to watch the stuttery and very tricky pick from the zed and it was very tentative and then is moved off given dan a steady pick up to strike into .the zander certainly did not like it as dan remarked while playing it in how much it was shaking its head and was nothing like playing a pike . soon i had it safely in the folds of the landing net and a very nice looking zed indeed , i was now really pleased on this difficult session that one of them now had a zander under his belt
we soon had it unhooked and then it was time to see how big dan zed was and the scales stopped at 9lb 13oz
soon we had a few photo,s and then it was time for dan to release his prize and show him it was a few minutes before it was ready and suddenly it flared it gills and with a quick flick of its tail showered dan in a spray of water and it powered off
WELL DONE DAN RSPT 9LB 13OZ
we got back to the fishing and i was half way to achieving my quest in catching them zander and knowing how zander can be it was certainly going to be still be difficult and the rest of the evening nothing still fell to there rods and i was very surprised and could not help feeling down that there swim wasn,t producing but i kept in my mind tomorrow is another day we finally turned in .
first light saw woody and dan into pike and this is what i wanted to happen and hoped during the day they would get more action.
now after the brilliant day my mate paul his swim was certainly quieter but he still manage a few pike with a cracking 16lber that dan gave him a hand with .
again dan,s and woody swim was quiet regardless there was visual signs of pike striking all there efforts to get them to feed but the pike just would not pick there baits up it certainly was a much colder day .
i myself just stuck 3 dead baits out and left them as i was going to concetrate on the zander later on .
i was watching dan and woody working really hard and both deserved more than they got as they really did work very hard .
HERE,S DAN STRIKING INTO A TAKE SADLY IT DROPPED OFF
soon we were back to dusk and again rigs were changed or re tied up and a few changes were made in the hope the zander would play ball .
again i was feeling confident as this swim had,nt produced last night but i felt it should this evening .
it was ceretainly very cold and it wasn,t at all going to be easy but both were feeling confident and lovin the fixed patternoster i shown them they were well up for it .
once they were settled in i went about getting my sorted and after my tea we could settle down again for a bit of a social but i was not feeling at all well and i was soon in the bushes trying to decorate them with what i had eaten .
i gave my apologies and had to turn in i was really not well and around seven o,clock yet again a zander started to show interest in one of my rods and this time woody came over ready to have it but sadly for him the zed aborted the take .
the rest of the evening i was out of it but in the morning it was apparrent the zeds had not visited there rods and i felt a bad for them but they seemed to have had a great week end in the extreme weather conditons
i certainly felt the weather was not totally in our favour and tried as much as i could to get the zeds for them but sometimes its does matter how hard you try or where you are fish just can rip up the script.
it started to snow and we all packed up and made are way back to the car,s in the now blizzard conditons .
i hope you lads got back really safely and i hope you are not overly dissapointed and hope i can get you to have another go at some time
i personally feel a bit gutted for both of them and i,m truelly sorry you didn,t catch from your swim i had choosen for you .
the conditions certainly were not the best for us and i think both were aware of that .
i suppose if it was easy for us when we went it would be boring
i was looking forward to this weekend because i had invited young dan due to thinking he had not been out for a while and as he has had all the recent stress of moving house and not being able to get out and enjoy his past time i thought it would be great for him and to my surprise he was good enough to except my kind invitation for a spot of hardcore zedding on some remote fenland drain and beens it was some distance to travel he asked woody if he wanted to have a go so i was going to be joined by the pair of them .
now i was hoping the weather was going to be a bit milder than this artic blow that we are going to get and if it gets any colder i think we will find that the polar bears will start to migrate south.
so all the pre meet stuff was sorted with any specific gear that might be needed and the meeting time was finally arrange which was going to be early hours on friday morning .
i pulled into the meeting place and in the darkness with only the garage forecourt lights showing up my car i was suprised to see woody and dan were all ready waiting eager to get amongst the fish .
i greeted dan and woody and introduce them to paul and with time being of the essence we headed off to the drain i was taken them to fish for the week end .
we got out of the car and the wind was not as bad as they had predicted but it was funneling down the drain which would make the fishing a bit more difficult but i knew it was nothing the lads couldn,t handle .
i set about given them the advice that they would need to give them every chance of banking a fish and both seemed very impressed with the fixed patenoster i,de shown them ,
but you can never garrauntee that the fish ain,t going to do something stupid like not feed !! .
my mate was into a pike straight away which got every bodies confidence up this was going to set the pattern for the daylight hours for him and i hoped and my mate seemed to have alot of pike in front of him and caught consistently well all day .on the other hand not so for dan and woody and i was a bit concerned as i put them in a swim that has all ways done me proud and would have all ways choosen for myself but the fish just did not seem to want to fall to their rods .
here woody and dan hard at it .
woody got his lure rod out and put a small spinner bait on and cast out and straight away he was into a small but spirited fenland pike .
as the day got on i,de had couple of pike and then had back to back 13lb fish the second one had a a trace down its throat and with woody,s help we gently pulled his stomach out and then we were able to remove the trace so the pike could happily go about his feeding .
the day was getting late and it was time to turn my thoughts to the task in hand ZANDER!! i spent time with them and got them both marked and clip up the the far shelf and i was very confident that it would not be long before they would hopefully be into there first fenland zander.
i walked up to my swim and done the same and then we then settled down and generally chatted about what to expect and other stuff at around 6.30 pm i had a pick up off a zed and with the zander messing about i waited for the right moment and then struck solidly into the fish ,it done the normal head shaking and woody done the honours with the net we gathered around the unhooking mat and they got there first look my favourite fish it was soon unhooked and a couple of shot were taken of this 9lb plus zed and then it was released .
this got me thinking the zed were going to play ball and feed well and it would not be long before dan or woody would be into one .
another hour or so had past and nothing stirred in there swim or my mates and then suddenly i had another run i was quickly onto it and yet again another nice size zed around 7 and a half pound graced my landing net we again had it unhooked and back into the water for go off and reak havoc amonst the the silver fish population .
i was feeling a bit gutted to be honest that the zeds had falling to me so i made a decission that if any of my rods went they could take the runs just as for some reason the zeds were infront of me and they might not move through .
we all sat back down and carried on a social over a nice bottle of becks but i could not help thinking why the zeds were not coming from my favourite swim that all ways does me proud and it made me feel a bit dissapointed for the lads but i was now hoping one of there rods would fire off would fire off .
another hour past and yet again one of my rods burst into life this time dan came up and i got him to watch the stuttery and very tricky pick from the zed and it was very tentative and then is moved off given dan a steady pick up to strike into .the zander certainly did not like it as dan remarked while playing it in how much it was shaking its head and was nothing like playing a pike . soon i had it safely in the folds of the landing net and a very nice looking zed indeed , i was now really pleased on this difficult session that one of them now had a zander under his belt
we soon had it unhooked and then it was time to see how big dan zed was and the scales stopped at 9lb 13oz
soon we had a few photo,s and then it was time for dan to release his prize and show him it was a few minutes before it was ready and suddenly it flared it gills and with a quick flick of its tail showered dan in a spray of water and it powered off
WELL DONE DAN RSPT 9LB 13OZ
we got back to the fishing and i was half way to achieving my quest in catching them zander and knowing how zander can be it was certainly going to be still be difficult and the rest of the evening nothing still fell to there rods and i was very surprised and could not help feeling down that there swim wasn,t producing but i kept in my mind tomorrow is another day we finally turned in .
first light saw woody and dan into pike and this is what i wanted to happen and hoped during the day they would get more action.
now after the brilliant day my mate paul his swim was certainly quieter but he still manage a few pike with a cracking 16lber that dan gave him a hand with .
again dan,s and woody swim was quiet regardless there was visual signs of pike striking all there efforts to get them to feed but the pike just would not pick there baits up it certainly was a much colder day .
i myself just stuck 3 dead baits out and left them as i was going to concetrate on the zander later on .
i was watching dan and woody working really hard and both deserved more than they got as they really did work very hard .
HERE,S DAN STRIKING INTO A TAKE SADLY IT DROPPED OFF
soon we were back to dusk and again rigs were changed or re tied up and a few changes were made in the hope the zander would play ball .
again i was feeling confident as this swim had,nt produced last night but i felt it should this evening .
it was ceretainly very cold and it wasn,t at all going to be easy but both were feeling confident and lovin the fixed patternoster i shown them they were well up for it .
once they were settled in i went about getting my sorted and after my tea we could settle down again for a bit of a social but i was not feeling at all well and i was soon in the bushes trying to decorate them with what i had eaten .
i gave my apologies and had to turn in i was really not well and around seven o,clock yet again a zander started to show interest in one of my rods and this time woody came over ready to have it but sadly for him the zed aborted the take .
the rest of the evening i was out of it but in the morning it was apparrent the zeds had not visited there rods and i felt a bad for them but they seemed to have had a great week end in the extreme weather conditons
i certainly felt the weather was not totally in our favour and tried as much as i could to get the zeds for them but sometimes its does matter how hard you try or where you are fish just can rip up the script.
it started to snow and we all packed up and made are way back to the car,s in the now blizzard conditons .
i hope you lads got back really safely and i hope you are not overly dissapointed and hope i can get you to have another go at some time
i personally feel a bit gutted for both of them and i,m truelly sorry you didn,t catch from your swim i had choosen for you .
the conditions certainly were not the best for us and i think both were aware of that .
i suppose if it was easy for us when we went it would be boring
