Wednesday 16 September 2015

Zander: Learning Curve


After my non-event fishing on Saturday it was great to join James after work for an evenings zander fishing on a local canal. It's fair to say when it comes to zander we are both complete noobs - and to cut a long story short we blanked.

But I think we both took a lot away from the trip - we found zeds - which I think is half the battle. James had one about 1½lb follow a lure and I had three of them together follow in a roach head, all of which were under a pound.

Then I had a run on the drop - nicked the bait. You can't fish a bait on the deck as it's loaded with crabs so we fished about a crab's claw-length above the bottom. But when we started positioning the bait higher in the water column James (fishing mid-depth) started getting runs - even briefly hitting into one of them. Fishing an hour and a half past our intended departure time - we really had run out of time.

I've come away with a bunch of ideas to test, after all it's a learning curve and I can't wait to get back - we'll get one!

10 comments:

  1. What about a phosphorescent lure on a second rod ?

    ReplyDelete
  2. They are there for sure, plenty of indications has got me wanting more, we will catch a few if we stick to it

    ReplyDelete
  3. Why not try dead crab? Of course the crabs will still have that, They'd eat their own arse if they could turn round quick enough! But maybe that's the zeds main diet?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can't imagine a zed (or pike) would take on a live mitten crab, but perhaps they might eat piece of dead one. Worth a try, we'd have an abundant supply of free bait!

      Delete
  4. In my very limited zander experience I've always caught them on the bottom, with lead, float and lure. But I wonder if they are much higher in the water here.

    Why would they be on the bottom, especially at night when the crabs are on the march, they would keep getting nipped - the crabs don't give a sh*t. And their prey, little roach and rudd are near the surface.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yes why not!, I'm going risk it and fish straight through mono (15lb) and single hook maybe a 4 or 2, hope the pike don't find it

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As long as they're barbless a pike would soon shake them free - especially with small baits and instant strikes.

      I'm sticking to the super-soft wire and a single size 4, probably got enough for 2 traces, need to get some more soft wire - I'll order a bulk spool.

      Delete