Zander Bait size

[Kev Berry]

Talking to a guy today who has had zeds to 17 plus out of somewhere beginning with T.....he uses big baits, 8oz plus if he can get them.
Reckons he has had more big zeds on big dace than using roach.

[Emma Hamilton]

With the possibility to fish a couple or more rods I'll have different baits/sizes on most of the time, things can get skewed as baits in use are generally what you've collected, you cant always collect baits of the sizes big or small that you want! What you can do is cut bigger baits up and fish bits of flesh. I'll normally muck about during a trip with one rod fishing dead bits, happy I've got some blood and guts in the water.

I wouldn't be too fussed on bait size, decent zander will chomp anything they can get down their necks if they are feeding well. Ive found there are often days when a dead bait will out fish live baits and vice versa. Bait size for me is less of a consideration overall.

The sea bait thing is interesting as very few big zander that I'm hoping to catch have tripped up on a sea-dead bait, I've not tried them but may be missing a trick. I really should give them a go.

rob

[Stewlaws]

Talking to a guy today who has had zeds to 17 plus out of somewhere beginning with T.....he uses big baits, 8oz plus if he can get them.
Reckons he has had more big zeds on big dace than using roach.

No shortage of decent dace in there though Kev, everyone I had was far better than the stamp down here ...

[Kev Berry]

Talking to a guy today who has had zeds to 17 plus out of somewhere beginning with T.....he uses big baits, 8oz plus if he can get them.
Reckons he has had more big zeds on big dace than using roach.

No shortage of decent dace in there though Kev, everyone I had was far better than the stamp down here ...

Theres been more than a few getting very close to a pound Stew, cant bring myself to use them that size

[Mark Phillips]

With the possibility to fish a couple or more rods I'll have different baits/sizes on most of the time, things can get skewed as baits in use are generally what you've collected, you cant always collect baits of the sizes big or small that you want! What you can do is cut bigger baits up and fish bits of flesh. I'll normally muck about during a trip with one rod fishing dead bits, happy I've got some blood and guts in the water.

I wouldn't be too fussed on bait size, decent zander will chomp anything they can get down their necks if they are feeding well. Ive found there are often days when a dead bait will out fish live baits and vice versa. Bait size for me is less of a consideration overall.

The sea bait thing is interesting as very few big zander that I'm hoping to catch have tripped up on a sea-dead bait, I've not tried them but may be missing a trick. I really should give them a go.

rob

I can recall being slated when I started to talk about catching zander on seabaits. I even had letters going in to Pike and Predator taking a swipe at me from a few faces, one actually called my captures flukes. Then at a PAC meeting where said accusers were present, I put up a few slides of zander on seabaits and the room went a bit quiet. LOL. Definitely not a go to bait for zander, but on certain waters they work and do catch the bigger fish as well. One of the Fen rivers I have fished does zander on herring often enough that I will always put one rod out on that when targeting zander. Chances are, if one picks it up, it'll be a double. Then there's a few drains where sardines have done well. Still waters that see a lot of pike fishing will produce zander on seabaits - instinctively they know it is food I guess. But elsewhere I wouldn't bother. I've got pass the fluke capture thing that gets aired, as I have quite deliberately fished with seabaits for zander and caught. Not just me, there's quite a few people I know who do that. But, yeah, I'd pick and choose where to use them carefully.

[The great Gavino]

Some great insights here. Turns out we’ve all caught them on basically everything!

[The great Gavino]

With the possibility to fish a couple or more rods I'll have different baits/sizes on most of the time, things can get skewed as baits in use are generally what you've collected, you cant always collect baits of the sizes big or small that you want! What you can do is cut bigger baits up and fish bits of flesh. I'll normally muck about during a trip with one rod fishing dead bits, happy I've got some blood and guts in the water.

I wouldn't be too fussed on bait size, decent zander will chomp anything they can get down their necks if they are feeding well. Ive found there are often days when a dead bait will out fish live baits and vice versa. Bait size for me is less of a consideration overall.

The sea bait thing is interesting as very few big zander that I'm hoping to catch have tripped up on a sea-dead bait, I've not tried them but may be missing a trick. I really should give them a go.

rob

I can recall being slated when I started to talk about catching zander on seabaits. I even had letters going in to Pike and Predator taking a swipe at me from a few faces, one actually called my captures flukes. Then at a PAC meeting where said accusers were present, I put up a few slides of zander on seabaits and the room went a bit quiet. LOL. Definitely not a go to bait for zander, but on certain waters they work and do catch the bigger fish as well. One of the Fen rivers I have fished does zander on herring often enough that I will always put one rod out on that when targeting zander. Chances are, if one picks it up, it'll be a double. Then there's a few drains where sardines have done well. Still waters that see a lot of pike fishing will produce zander on seabaits - instinctively they know it is food I guess. But elsewhere I wouldn't bother. I've got pass the fluke capture thing that gets aired, as I have quite deliberately fished with seabaits for zander and caught. Not just me, there's quite a few people I know who do that. But, yeah, I'd pick and choose where to use them carefully.

Interesting that you say that, Mark. I remember all that from the 90’s too.

[Fentiger01]

I can remember a good mate way back in the early noughties quietly racking up a good stack of doubles on Herring during a winters campaign on a certain drain. I targeted another drain with Herring during a late winter campaign a year or two later and managed to get a few, all over 8lbs. Not a go to bait perhaps as Mark says, but there does seem to be circumstances under which they will work.

Never say never I reckon.

[ADAM-F]

My experience agrees with much of what has been said. Particularly about picking up the better fish. I cant recall catching any zander under 6lb on sea baits.
A couple of points with the use of sea baits which can be very good under the right circumstances.
They seem to be more effective in the winter than the summer.
They perform better on venues that see more pike fishermen, I guess the zander must get accustom to picking up discarded sea baits.
They also appear to be better in coloured water and in such conditions can been more successful than natural baits.
Finally which links to the thread nicely, if you want to catch on sea baits it helps if they are made to a size more acceptable to the zander. The best sea bait for me has been headless sardine which makes the bait in the 4-7 inch range.
Best of luck if you give them a go.

[ecko]

Above size i prefer the baits fresh, if i coud chose size and species a roach about 6", kill it at the spot, (live bait is not allowed in the Netherlands) take a filet and the head of and pierce the blatter, so it absolutely lays on the bottom. Debarbed single hook goes trough the tail end. Presentaton is beneath a overdepth set float with a long antenna, which hangs tilted in the water, when a fish takes you see it imediatly. Also some change in the current caused by the wind does not cause you're float to sink directly (they are overweigted a bit ; 5 gram weight for a 3 gram float, 7 gram weight for a 5 gram float) Most of the time i'm fish with what i could catch for bait.

I've read about eel-chunks somewhere, anybody gave that a fair try ?