Zander Fishing, Old Bury Hill Lake

Last Knockings and Knocked By a Duck

Bury Hill Fisheries, Dorking, Surrey. RH4. UK

Old Bury Hill Lake 

After many attempts this year trying to catch a Pike, from twitching Sprats through fallen trees in river's back waters, and sitting on popped up big dead baits in gravel pits, to lure fishing crystal clear lakes and trotting baits down several miles of muddy river, All had left me scratching my head with a string of blanks, I had come to the conclusion that maybe 1.) I'm either not very good at catching Pike. nah....that's not it at all, but the reality was I do need to venture further afield and find pastures new. Going way back to my teen years I remember going once to a fishery with a friend, we hired a punt and Pike fished a big lake, I cant remember if we caught back then, but I found out it was Bury Hill Fisheries, and after some research I discovered not only was full of Pike but they also had Zander there, maybe one of the only waters in the South East to hold them. My mind was made up also instantly, I had just been in Germany lure fishing trying to catch my first Zander, and fate had just presented another opportunity to target them, and if they didn't play ball then maybe the Pike would, and decides I had another plan for catching a Pike, of which I am counting down the days till the water opens for the season.

Small Baits And smaller Hooks

I arrived at 7am, and intended to fish all day till closing time, letting me fish early morning and evening of which would give me the best chance to catch, upon arrival I paid my dues, and asked for some advice on where to fish and was shown a detailed map with the depths, I decided to fish deeper part of the lake due to the cold weather, and was advised to use small sections of fish of which I had plenty, small Bream, Sprats, Roach, and mini Mackerel. The Fishery had a rule of no trebles, so I had made up a small selection of wire traces with size 6 barbless hooks from my carp tackle, some with 2 hooks, some 1 hook  and some with hairs. I decided to fish 3 rods, 2 ledger, and 1 float, I had a different bait on each rod, the float was fished just off the bottom and the wind drifted it along the inside ledge nicely, whilst the first leger rod was about 10 meters out, with a couple of fish cut into small sections catapulted out around the bait to act as ground bait to put scent and draw any passing fish to the area, whilst the 2nd ledger was cast at range and fished close to the island. The weather was sunny with a gentle breeze, and the water was slightly coloured, and as I sat there, I felt a confidence of getting a run that I'd not had in a long time.

Wanted  For Theft

Being a weekday it was quite, for the morning at least I had the whole bank to myself, I leap frogged the rods and slowly worked my along the bank searching the water for some fish, the only thing i seemed to catch was a male mallard who decided to stay with me the whole time I was fishing, he done me a favour by keeping the other other ducks away, even though I shared my snacks with him he wasn't just innocently keeping me company and had an ulterior motive. If I gave him my back for 5 minutes, he would steal a fish out of my bait bag, but he never got to eat one, as a ever watchful Heron would immediately swoop down, scaring him and indeed myself, and aggressively snatched what ever fish he had stolen, Natures law perhaps? or maybe they were in collusion, who knows,but a effective robbery that I suspect had been perfected over a life time.

Happy Days, A New Species

Although I had fished a large amount of water, I still hadn't had any takes, and with 4 hours remaining I decided to walk back to fish the other side of the lake. but apon getting closer I could see that a few anglers had arrived and were fishing the bank I was heading to, and being spoilt for water all day, I decided to keep to myself, and fish just to the left of where I started out and work myself  left this time. I had dropped into the lodge for some mackerel oil, which I injected in to the baits, hoping it would give off a large scent trail that any close fish could not resist, but still no runs at all, With 10 mins left to fish I recast all three rods for the last time, again to different locations, As I wondered what else I could of done differently to get a run, I had used three methods trying four different baits covering a very large area, but all had seen no action then just as I stood up to start to pack up, I noticed my float disappear and reappear several seconds later, I ran to the rod, the float then started to quickly move across the water and headed straight towards the lodge, it disappeared, so I struck. The fish was on, and it carried on swimming straight towards the lodge hard taking line, fearing that if it swam under the lodge I would lose it to the wooden supports I played the fish hard and managed to stop it just short, and after a few minutes had the fish in the landing net, My first ever Zander!! a old battle hardened fish with a fearsome set of teeth on it, which luckily I didn't need to get close to as the size 4 barbless hook had fallen out after I had landed it, and was lodged in the net. I'd forgotten my scales on this occasion but estimate the fish to be around the 7lb mark, the fish still had a lot of fight and I struggled to hold him still for a picture, as soon as he went back into the water he didn't want to hang around and immediately broke free of my grip and strongly swam off. Well what can I say, I felt I deserved that fish, and was over the moon about it, Sticking it out and sticking to the game plan had payed off in the last seconds, now I've always said one fish can save the day as this proves it, a new species to my belt and a decent sized one too, a good day even though I still got a chicken to pluck with Pike, that time is coming, you hear me Pike "I'm coming for you!"