If you have been around the fishing scene for a while then you cannot have failed to have heard the name Bob Roberts. Once a very successful match angler Doncaster-based Bob has, in more recent years, earned himself a reputation as a specimen angler of some note, though it is a tag that Bob himself is not that keen on, he prefers to be known as an angler that catches big fish from time to time – and that he certainly does.
I first came into contact with Bob a few years ago when he wrote a piece about zander fishing in the Angling Times which I felt didn’t really promote best practice. As it turns out Bob stopped fishing that way on his own accord shortly after and ,to be honest’ I was probably a bit too full on about it at the time, not really realising Bob was only recounting the way that he had been shown by others.
It was certainly lessons learned on both sides and shortly after we vowed to have a session together on the Fens after zander sometime in the future. I doubt that either of us would have expected it to have taken so long to actually bring that session to fruition, but both of us are extremely busy people. Bob with his ever expanding website and range of barbel DVD’s that he has shot in conjunction with Stuart Morgan and which have been rated by many barbel anglers as amongst the best on the subject. Whilst I am always up to something!
So it was finally agreed that we would have a trip out in October this year. Sadly the unseasonably mild weather, whilst still seeing the zander very active, has also seen them spread throughout the rivers, not yet entering their winter quarters, so it was somewhat a matter of guesswork based on past experience that lead to our choice of venue and location. Still, we had two nights ahead of us and as Baldrick would say, “I have a cunning plan.”
Our first choice of venue was the River Great Ouse. This river is deep along the length that we fished at Ten Mile Bank and, as there are plenty of bream about there too, it was a pretty good bet for a run or two.
The first thing that I noticed about Bob’s set up as opposed to mine was that Bob was using barbel rods rather than a pike type rod. I asked Bob about this and his thoughts on the subject were that zander don’t fight particularly hard and in most of the zander fishing that he has done, he has not had to cast a long way or to use either big leads or big baits, so the use of a heavier test curve rods wasn’t really necessary, though one thing he did have reservations about the rods at times having the backbone to set the hooks.
I tend to agree with him about the latter point and, as I tend to use much larger baits than Bob, with heavier leads a barbel rod would have been hopelessly under-gunned, especially the 1.75lb test curve rods that Bob uses.
Our choice of baits was very different too. As a species that Bob doesn’t target that often, Bob is still at the stage of wanting to catch every zander that swims – and quite right too. On the other hand I have caught literally thousands of zander and these days I am really only interested in catching the really big girls on bait gear; though I am happy with any zander on lures!
So we quickly set up our homes and set forth to try and catch a few baits for the night and, of course, if you want a bit of bait what better to bring along with you than a top class match angler?
Bob duly lived up to billing and soon had enough bait for us. However, he was being rudely interrupted along the way by a horde of jack pike. By the time night fell Bob had half a dozen jack pike to swell his catch of roach, rudd, bream and even a rogue chub; something I haven’t seen caught from this end of the Ouse for many a year.
It wasn’t long after the sun had finally disappeared that I had a very zander like run, as it went off like a scolded cat. However the satisfying thump that I encountered as I wound down turned very quickly into that empty feeling of a lost fish just as fast. That was it for the night; no further runs took place and our anticipation of action around dawn was completely unfounded as we registered nothing at all, so Plan B was going to need to be swung into action.
Plan B involved a complete change of venues and so we pointed our cars in the direction of the A10 and headed for a spot on the River Cam that had been producing a few zander for some friends of mine in recent weeks.
After an hour long drive we pulled up onto the banks of the river – quite literally – as you can fish right out of the cars here and we re-erected our temporary homes. The weather had taken a big change too. The previous day’s warm sun with strong winds had completely changed to a cool, overcast day with the chance of rain and the strong wind, which had made us choose our location the night before, had abated too.
Bob busied himself with catching some more bait whilst I took the chance to have a bit of a chat about why he liked zander and his zander fishing on the River Trent. Bob told me that he had just caught a very nice zander from the Trent and, true to his playing down of the specimen angler tag; he told me that he hadn’t even weighed it, but thought that it was probably a low double. He also told me that he had been making journeys down to the Fens now for quite a few years, having developed an interest in zander caused mainly by their contrary nature!
As interesting as the chat was, it was soon brought to the end by a screaming Fox alarm, which meant that I had a run. Now it was a very stuttering run and at first I thought that an eel was responsible but, as I swept the rod back, the thump on the end indicated zander and the ripping run downstream made me remember what Bob had said about zander not fighting. Funnily enough I don’t think that this one had read the script!
There then followed a bit of amusement when Bob brought his net up to land the zander (mine being used to store the bait). Now Bob assured me that he had put carp of over 20lb in this tiny pan net but I have to say I wouldn’t have even put a decent bream into it! But with little other option and being too high up to hand land the fish I had to let him get a quart into the proverbial pint pot!
Thankfully he managed it without too many dramas and we were soon looking down at a sizeable zed which I thought would go double figures, though Bob wasn’t quite sure. In the end Bob was proved correct as the zed tipped the scales to 9lb 6oz – a very nice start, especially as it was soon followed up by a double figure pike soon after and all with an hour or two left before dark.
The good omens indeed carried forward and my rod was again in action shortly after darkness fell. Interestingly this bait was in really close to the edge mainly due to the very thick weed that was still present, thanks to the warm water and the lack of rain. Fortunately it was indeed another zander, this time a bit smaller at around the 6lb mark, but welcome all the same.
Although it was nice to be catching I always feel a bit guilty if a guest I fish with doesn’t get a fish or two and so it was with some relief that shortly before midnight Bob’s rod was finally away and the torchlight revealed that familiar glowing, cat-like eye that screams zander and sure enough another zander about the same size as my second fish was in the net and Bob was as happy as I was.
It would be nice to report that the rest of the night was a feast of zander fishing and once upon a time some of the rivers in the area would have been like that. However, with the current boom in the silver fish populations the zander here are now very well fed and three was somewhat of a result in itself.
We did get interest for the rest of the night though but sadly it was from the dreaded eels which were running back to sea on the harvest moon and with headless and pecked baits being the order of the day it was two bleary eyed zander anglers that met a cool, wet Fenland dawn.
Again the arriving dawn brought no last minute change of fortune and so it was that we made our goodbyes and Bob headed back ‘oop north’ whilst I headed for a much shorter journey home. Two anglers from very different backgrounds but now very firm friends, only fishing can do that.
