Actually, the morning was dedicated to fish for zander / pikeperch, but as we all know zanders are touchy and when they are not in the mood to eat, it is hard to catch them. We were fishing the very early morning hours from the dark until 07:00 in the morning, only catching some perch but not the targeted fish. The Mud Digger with its 9cm, slim and long body with the high frequent action, is a perfect allround-bait during summertime, when a great number of little fish is around and all predator species hunt them.
Because fishing is always fun and the days without big success belong to it as well, we already accepted that today was not a glory day. Being outside, watching the sun rise, experiencing nature and paddling through the morning, feels good enough. Just one week ago I had lost a huge fish and we don’t catch big fish every week. So the morning was – as expected – calm.
After we tried several hot spots under a bridge, we weren’t expecting any good catch anyway and finally fished a very unlikely place to catch a zander: shallow water, (1 meter depth), muddy ground, submerged plants everywhere….. The Mud Digger in colour Chartreuse was digging the mud… when suddenly a hard strike knocked my rod. I really didn’t expect a fish, (we were trashtalking on the boat) but the bite woke me up immediately. After a hard hookset, I felt a really strong fish on the other side of the line. Zander? Never. Bigpike? Maybe. During the first escape, the fish took several meters of line and then anchored itself on the ground. At this moment I knew that I caught another big catfish, rewarding me for the one I lost the last time. Because my equipment was laid out for light fishing (power braid medium, 7 KG) I had to open up the brake and let the catfish go. Also the hook of the Mud Digger is relatively fine, made for good entering into the fish mouth, but a catfish of over 10 KG size is to handle with care on relatively light tackle.
Finally, after further runs into the brake, we managed to land a hand in its mouth and to paddle our way to the shore. Getting the fish into the canoe was simply impossible. What a big surprise, catching such a fish on a small bait. Light fishing is simply effective in summer.
Fishing log or Fishing Notebook :
Month : July
Location : Leipzig, Germany
Fish targeted : Pikeperch
Fishing conditions : hot and sunny
Fishing depth : 1m
Water color : eutrophic water
Lures used: Mud Digger Chartreuse
Technic used : slowly jigging
