With the shortening days and cooler temperatures of September come some good conditions for freshwater lure fishing. The weed growth is starting to die back and the waters are still running clear before the first floods of winter arrive. This is a time of plenty and the predatory fish often have a good feed up in preparation for the lean times of winter ahead. The freshwater lure angler can do well at this time as the fish are feeding hard and very active as the water temperatures are still up.
And so it was, last Saturday at around 5am with a slight autumnal chill in the air that my good friend Scott and I left his house on the Hants/Surrey border. We were meeting Rhys, another of Scotts friends, who had a small boat and the plan was to head up to the River Thames for a morning of lure fishing with the hope of some pike or perch to put a bend in our rods.
We travelled up to Weybridge and launched the boat before heading upstream to a lovely looking weirpool to start fishing. Pike love weirpools and are often to be found in the deep swirling water on the look out for unsuspecting prey fish to ambush. Rhys told us of some pike in this pool that were more than happy to oblige on previous visits so there was every chance of a hit or two.
Things were a little slow at first with a few small perch coming to the rods of Rhys and myself when Scott hooked into a better fish that put up a fair amount of resistance. As I peered down into the clear water I got a glimpse of a pike flashing deep below us and it looked to be a good fish, at least a scraper double. The fish soon tired and was wallowing on the surface, it had taken a large rubber perch replicant lure with a curl-tail. It was a fine looking fish with lovely markings and very welcome indeed.
After having worked the pool thoroughly we moved on and started to fish the areas of overhanging trees and moored boats on the main river by drifting past them with the current and carefully casting our lures. Conversation turned to the Zander, a predatory fish that was introduded to the UK and is infact an alien species. None of us had ever caught one before and although the Thames is known to have a population of them, very little is known about their numbers or locations. We all agreed how great it would be to catch one though - something new and exciting!Now, fate and the tempting of it is not something I usually take much notice of but what happened in the next 20 minutes may make me rethink this one! We were busy fishing away between some moored boats when Scott got a take on his lure, the fish stayed deep at first and then swirled at the surface. I caught a glimpse of a deep body and the back of its head and it looked to be a good fish. It flashed once more and Scott shouted "It's a ZANDER!!!" and indeed it was - a good one too! We could not believe it, especially as we had just been talking about how nice it would be to catch one minutes previously!
The fish was soon netted and we took it over to a mooring platform to get it unhooked and snap off a few frames for the album. It was an old fish by the looks of it, covered in scars and scrapes and a very reasonable size for your first Zander. Scott was chuffed to bits as were Rhys and I, the circumstances of the capture of this fish were quite extraordinary and special after all.
We fished on for a few more hours and took another small pike and some perch before heading back to Weybridge. It had been a great morning out and nice to do something a little different as most of my freshwater angling is generally done from the banks. Fishing on a river like the Thames you just never know what is going to turn up, as the monster Zander proved. There must also surely be the chance of a few huge pike too, in a river of that size they've got to be there somewhere........we'll be back!
The remainder of the weekend was spent on foot, roaming the weirpools, canals and streams of the Wey Valley in Surrey. We wandered miles in search of various predatory species and managed to come across the usual pike and perch along with some cracking chub all taken on spinners. The weirpools really are very productive spots and by carefully covering the water with our spinners we were able to take fish from just about every one we fished. It's a lovely way to fish with just the rod and a pocketful of lures.....nice and mobile.
At one spot we stumbled across a couple of crayfish traps that someone had set and pulled them out to have a quick peek. They were stuffed with the red signal crayfish - yet another alien species - and it just goes to show how bad the infestation is becoming in some places. These crayfish should not be here as they were illegally introduced from the USA and now they are at plague proportions. They upset the ecosystem and cause all sorts of havoc in the food chain, their only saving grace is that they are pretty tasty.....
We also spent a little time trotting maggots and worms under a float for trout and grayling at a couple of spots. At one spot in particular we could see a small group of around 5 or 6 grayling all competing for our maggots in the crystal clear water and it was lovely to see their reactions. They were'nt very easy to catch though, totally ignoring our bait at first. It was'nt until I scaled the hooklink down to 3lb breaking strain and a size 18 hook that we got a bite......but I lost the fish. Then almost straight away I got another bite but it turned out to be a little brown trout doing a good impression of a grayling! Scott then took the rod and promptly hooked the biggest in the shoal.....and lost that one too! Thats why it's called fishing and not catching!! Not to be outdone though, we tried at another spot and eventually took our grayling along with some exceptionally good looking dace.
To sum up, it was a cracking weekend in great company with some excellent fishing to match. In fact, the fishing far surpassed our expectations with the Zander being the high point of the weekend. I think it's safe to say a good time was had by all. The only disappointment was that we did'nt come face to face with a big perch or 2, but hey - that's fishing! Tight lines!
