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Tag Archives: zander fishing

New PB Zander!

Double figure zander 13lb

The 2021/22 season hasn’t been my best! I haven’t fished as much as I’d like or for the range of species I would have liked, and my results have generally been poor. Far more blanks than usual and a lost Derwent barbel, which still haunts me, that felt huge and snapped me off due to my own stupidity. The one redeeming feature of the season so far has been my relative success with a very unlikely species – one which has probably given me more blank hours than any other – the zander. For whatever reason I’ve been on a bit of a roll with them. As I’ve stated in the past, I love zander but it’s often a one-way relationship – they don’t reciprocate. When I target zander it’s in the hope of a bite. I don’t expect to catch one so it always gives me a boost when I do, even small ones. There are some exceptions, of course – for example: Predator Hat-trick and Zander Saves September – but my blank rate is usually quite high. I think I had only ever caught zander on consecutive sessions once, but I’ve now had a zander in four consecutive …

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Home-made buoyant leger stems – DIY tackle tutorial

DIY Tutorial make your own buoyant leger stems for pike & zander fishing

It’s often good practice when predator fishing to keep your mainline up and off the deck, to avoid bottom debris (especially around autumn time when there are lots of fallen leaves & twigs) and ensure a truly low-resistance presentation. Many anglers achieve this through the use of pop-up/buoyant leger stems to attach their leads when deadbaiting. Buoyant run rings and pop-up leger stems might also be useful in carp fishing and other specialist angling. For example, a floating run ring could be the perfect way of attaching a surface controller float when floater fishing for carp; whilst a buoyant leger stem could be used an alternative to a sunk float – to allow a running lead rig to be used over weed (instead of a fixed lead on a chod rig, for example). Buoyant leger attachments have been on the market for years, most notably in the form of Middy’s Buoyant Leger and Fox Leger Stems. Annoyingly, the Middy ones have become difficult to find and the Fox ones tend to just fall apart! They’re way too fragile for me to use with any confidence, so I started modifying them. Then I thought, instead of paying so much for a …

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2011 – That was the year that was

Andrew lands an Errwood reservoir rainbow trout

I haven’t posted a “true” blog post for a while now, I seem to have been abusing this blog and using it mainly as an interactive advertising board for other things I’ve been up to. My own fishing has been very disappointing lately (more on that later), and I turn 30 in a couple of weeks, so I’m in quite a reflective mood and thought this was an opportune time to fill in on how 2011 was for me in fishing… 2011 started off very slowly for me. A multitude of reasons have left me spending far less hours on the bank than I would have liked to, but thankfully most sessions I’ve made the most of the time I had and caught some reasonable fish. I only had chance to fit in one session before March, but then managed a couple more river sessions before the season ended.  The only fish I landed during this period were a few pike, topped off by an 18lb 13oz beauty, which I blogged about here. Once the rivers closed, my fishing mainly went on a self-induced hiatus. Buying my first home became the priority and despite ours being a relatively straight-forward purchase (so we were assured by the estate agents!), …

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Predator Fishing Article – Zander, Pike & Eel – on FishingMagic

Eel with a liking for deadbaits - predator fishing UK

Just posted on FishingMagic today is an article about my recent predator session, where I managed to bag a trio of Pike, Eel and Zander, all after dark:  https://www.fishingmagic.com/predator-fishing-andrew-kennedy-nets-a-hat-trick/ (I’ve since also shared this post on my website here: River Predator Hat-Trick) I was testing out a new specimen unhooking mat from Cyprinus and the review of this well-made mat is also on FishingMagic here:  Cyprinus Beanie Mat Review

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A River Predator Hat-Trick!

Pike zander & eel fishing river Trent

I got this season’s predator campaign off to a great start last week, when I tackled the Trent near Nottingham.  After fishing elsewhere all day to try and catch perch, river carp and barbel, I arrived at the river about an hour before sunset, having caught none of the species I‘d been trying for.  I hadn’t managed to catch any fresh deadbaits either, so all the zander bait I had with me was a frozen pack of 5 small roach.  It was going to be tough to make them last, but targeting zander I was only expecting a couple of runs anyway. My simple deadbait rig for zander, incorporating a buoyant leger boom I setup two rods with low-resistance run rings, which I’d adapted and added some small pieces of foam to pop the rig up and keep the line out of the Autumn debris on the riverbed.  There are similar items on the market, called leger stems, but I’ve never been happy with their quality so I make my own.  They’re simple and cheap and I’ll go through exactly how I put them together in a future feature.  The run ring rests on a run rig rubber, which incorporates …

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Locating Predators – How to Locate Pike, Perch and Zander on Rivers, Drains & Canals

Double figure pike caught from feature fish on rivers, drains & canals

The majority of my predator fishing (although the term “predators” could be expanded to chub, catfish and eels, in this instance I’m talking perch, pike and zander) is spent on the banks of rivers, drains and canals. I have never done too much predator fishing on stillwaters, so rather than pretending I know something I don’t, I’ll leave that article to a more qualified person. That said, many fish-holding features are universal, so many that can be found in rivers, drains and canals can also be found in the margins of ponds and lakes. The relatively natural waters I concentrate on offer anglers a constantly evolving challenge, where fish can potentially move unimpeded for miles, making use of any features they come across, as safe refuges and ambush points. With the changing seasons and natural events such as floods, these features – and the significance of them – can change frequently.  This offers anglers both a challenge and a helping hand when locating predators on such venues. Predators can have very prominent feeding spells and often the only difference between a great day and a blank can be as simple and clichéd as being in the right place at the …

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Zander Saves September – Perch Fishing, Zander Fishing

Locating specimen zander fish on rivers, drains & canals

Well, after my last post virtually declaring September as a “lost month” as far as my fishing results were concerned, a good fish comes along and gives me a slightly more rose-tinted view of September 2010 after all! I travelled a little farther afield than usual and endured a gruelling day fishing for perch, with very disappointing results. The weather was overcast all day, the river was fairly clear and to be honest, I considered the conditions to be perfect for perch fishing.  However, the closest I came to catching a big perch was a missed take on a spinner early on, which felt like a perch and also felt heavy. Then an hour later I was lure fishing in a shallow, gravelly run when I got an amazing follow. The bow-wave created was huge! It zig-zagged behind my lure and took one final swipe, but missed. I’m pretty sure I saw the mouth of a perch as it made that final grab and I’m also sure that a pike would have had the small lure well down its throat long before that anyway! After a few hours of throwing lures around and failing to catch even a micro-perch, I …

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How to Tie a Wire Trace for Pike & Zander Fishing (Video)

How to tie a wire trace for pike & zander fishing

How to tie a wire trace (instructional video) In this YouTube video I show you all you need to know to tie strong, reliable, safe 2-hook wire traces (also refered to as “snap tackle”) for pike & zander fishing with deadbaits. I go through the tools and components you need and then show you how to tie a wire trace from scratch. I have used this type of quality home-made wire trace for the majority of my pike & zander fishing, for over 20 years and caught countless predatory fish using them. I also wrote a step-by-step “how-to” article on making a wire trace here. Related Video: How to unhook pike safely If you are relatively new to pike fishing, you should also view my video to show you how to unhook pike. These fragile predators need good fish care and handling skills to ensure they are not damaged in the process. Approaching the unhooking process with confidence is a key part of this, and hopefully my short video will help with this. More DIY fishing tackle making tips & hacks I’m quite a hands-on guy and I’m regularly tinkering with things to improve them, adapt them or make them …

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Finally! (But was it worth the wait?)

Zander on a soft lure from the River Trent

Well, I finally got myself out fishing last Thursday! After hearing of a few pike starting to be caught around the country, I gave into my urges and decided I’d target them.  After speaking to the bailiff on a stretch of the tidal Trent, I opted to try there. I haven’t really done much fishing in general on the tidal, let alone pike fishing, but I made my decision based on the water clarity being better than the non-tidal stretches, and the changing tides forcing fish to alter their positions, which would hopefully result in them spotting my bait in the process. With such cold conditions being set in for so long this winter, every species of fish will be lethargic – even those more associated with winter – so the fish will need a reason to move, be it hunger or the changing tide.  By doubling the possibilities, I’d double my chances… I thought! S..   L..   O..   W..  was the general pace of the day. I arrived, just after dawn (Hit the “snooze” button a couple of times too many!), to find I had the entire stretch to myself. Awesome; a whole stretch of prime-condition river filled with undisturbed specimen pike just …

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