The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

I remember there was a spate of zander captures from Stanborough in the mid-late eighties. Mostly small fish around a pound or so, but voracious consumers of maggots and worms.

I'd love to catch one. Although I've caught some amazing roach and perch fly fishing at Grafham I was never lucky enough to connect to a Zander.

I use to catch Zander in my local Ashby Canal up to the 3lb mark.

About 10 years ago the water board was to electrocute a three mile stretch and me and a friend followed on the towpath. In that 3 mile stretch they took out over 900lb of Zander, I couldn’t believe it.

I hope you filled the freezer Mark- the shoalies make fabulous eating- not unlike sea bass.

Zander make for great sport. They'll drive you mad though. Endless knocks and bumps and strikes into nothing. And if you're NOT getting bites you're in a better chance of a big solitary double. Maddening.

With my folks living almost in the Lower Severn there really is no excuse for me not holding the record. Must put more time asde for these fabulous creatures. I loves em. So much I named my son Zander. Poor sod.

The Idler wrote:I hope you filled the freezer Mark- the shoalies make fabulous eating- not unlike sea bass.

Zander make for great sport. They'll drive you mad though. Endless knocks and bumps and strikes into nothing. And if you're NOT getting bites you're in a better chance of a big solitary double. Maddening.

With my folks living almost in the Lower Severn there really is no excuse for me not holding the record. Must put more time asde for these fabulous creatures. I loves em. So much I named my son Zander. Poor sod.

I've been told that the best fish for eating to come out of Grafham is not the trout or the perch (not that I would take the perch) but the Zander. One reason why anglers are only allowed one per rod per day. It would not surprise me one bit if Grafham produced a fish in excess of 20lbs and I understand they have been caught up to 17lbs.

One from October 2011 (I had a hell of a headache that day.)

Had a few hours on the Warks Avon fishing a mill pool weir and managed a jack pike and a 4lb 10oz zander. My second ever zander and a pb.

Spot on mate, well done!!! :hat: :thumb:

Mark wrote:In that 3 mile stretch they took out over 900lb of Zander, I couldn’t believe it.

:o Incredible! Just goes to show what's out there. As near-the-top predators, to sustain that weight of zander they would require a huge mass of smaller fish.
Typing that made me think that at the mill where I fish the mill stream used to be full of roach and dace and small chub but the dace and roach have all gone and there don't seem to be any chub under about 2 1/2 lb. I wonder whether the zander have exploded in numbers and eaten them all?

That's a pound and three quarters of zander every ten yards, which around my local Coventry Canal stretches is about right, in fact the average fish is around that weight, bigger fish are quite rarely seen, five pounds being a really good fish, double figures almost impossible to find.