Zander Run!

An early morning start and a new location, a small river feeding into the river Thames. I had looked at this river during the closed season and it looked like it should be full of pike and perch, and who knows perhaps a zander. On arrival the water was so low and clear we could see the bottom all the way across, and even more disheartening we couldn't see a single fish.

We decided to give it a couple of hours and I cast out a float fished roach deadbait. On the second cast my float rested briefly against an overhanging bush before going down and shooting across the river... where it bobbed back up again and was ignored. The only run of the morning, probably a jack pike or perch but I'd like to think it was a zander. Dan didn't have a touch on his float fished lobworm so we decided to leave and return another day after some rain has brought a bit of colour to the water.

We moved further up the Thames and had about 20 perch on float fished worms, no monsters but at least we avoided a blank.

It's been a really slow start to the season, and talking to the local anglers I don't think it's just me, the Thames just isn't fishing at the moment. I am going to resist the temptation to park myself on the local carp pond (for the time being) but I think I'm going to wait for a change in the weather before hitting the Thames again. I hear the river Wye is fishing...

<- Here is a self-taken photo of me with the largest perch, I think I need practice / to read the instructions!