perch hunt that turned upto a bagging session

Well as a few people know I’m mainly a predator angler so when the chance to fish the cob house fishery with Gary hickton of gazza’s fishing tackle for their big perch I  just couldn’t turn the offer down, so we set off at about 8am and stopped off at the local tackle shop to pick up some bait, I picked up 3pints of  red maggots which are a perfect big perch attractor and big tub of dendrabeona worms, when we got to the fishery we decided to fish listers lake as that’s where the big perch roam free we had a quick look around the lake and both settled on a swim which was near the end of the lake and had features galore which screamed big perch i.e. tree roots, bushes and over hanging trees. Once settled in the swim I went about setting up my Drennan series 13ft power carp waggler rod with a smalls shimano exage 2500rc  reel with 6lb maxima line to which I slid on a Drennan clear crystal insert waggler float locked in place with  shot and a couple of number 8 shot down the line to a 2lb hooklink to a Kamasan barbless size 14hook which was perfect for worms, maggots ,once the rod was rigged up I poured a good glug of  blood’n’worm glug onto the maggots and mixed them around to give them all a good flavour to draw in the prey fish which would hopefully attract the big stripeys. For the 1’s hour I just cast n the rig with the float shotted right down and catapulted in 5 or ten maggots every few minutes to create a bed of maggots and get the fish feeding when all of a sudden the float buried and a plump roach came to the net on the next cast a plump perch come to the net but it was a start, then for the next 45mins it was dead with not a bite then it was as if someone had rang the dinner bell as it was a roach or a rudd a chuck, gary at this point was into what looked like a small carp but once it rose to the surface it was infact a decent perch which went 2lb5oz on the scales

 which he took on double red maggot, I took a few quick snaps for him then recast myself but with a worm on the hook this time and continued to spray red maggots over the top when this time the float buried and the rod took on an all together different curve the fish felt heavy and kept running at 1^st I thought it was a very big perch but infact as the fish kept running I soon realised the carp had crashed my swim and brought a nice plump little common around 7lb to the net which was in perfect condition not a mark on it. Next cast I hit back into a small roach about 10ounce’s which was the average stamp of fish for the day with the odd bigger one,

 I continued spraying red maggots over the top of the float while feeding another area of the swim with corn as I thought if the carp were now moving in the perch would be long gone, then sure enough my float buried again to which a nice 1lb3oz rudd come to the surface and in the net, at this point I could see the roach and rudd just under the surface taking maggots on the drop so I knew at this point this was going to be it for the day and I was possibly just going to hit into rudd and roach for the rest of the session which I didn’t now mind as this was a whole new experience for me as I’m used to just sitting and watching the rod tip waiting for one fish so I was just going to enjoy catching fish till the end of the session, I decided to try a  worm over the corn line and within 10 minutes the float buried and I was into a nice little mirror carp 

of about 6lb but it was as if the fish was on steroid’s as it just didn’t want to come to the net it just kept running and taking line off the clutch after about 7 or 8 minutes I finally got it to the net and unhooked it and slipped it back into the lake, and that was the end of the action for me, we packed up at around 4pm and went home.
It was a totally different experience for me and enjoyable as a few people have said to me “you only know how to fish rivers and couldn’t go to a lake and catch” well I think ive proved them doubters wrong.
As what else would I do in close season? I’m open to ideas as what to do but I won’t be fishing for carp as it just isn’t my thing.
Follow me on facebook at the diary of a river Severn predator hunter!
Follow Gary on gazza’s fishing tackle for quality tackle at good prices!
I couldn’t do an end catch shot as the cobhouse don’t allow the use of keepnets but I would recommend the place to anyone looking for a good session as all the fish were in perfect condition and it’s a really enjoyable day’s fishing.

Thanks for reading my 5^th article on a totally different way of fishing to me
Jay

The day I reconnected with the Severn Zander

After a long blank 96 rod hours and even with confidence low I decided I was going to have another crack at the river Severn after the big Zander, but this time I was going to try a new peg that I’ve always walked past on previous visits. I made my way down to the river at about 12:00 with my friend Dan who doesn’t fish but he asked if he could come along with me on this session, as we made our way down I noticed how good the river looked it looked spot on for a Zander or two with the flow sluggish, the wind blowing gently and the air temp quite warm, I was quite hopeful of catching. I set up my 12ft barbel rod with a 3oz quivertip, screwed on my shimano baitrunner 5000 loaded with 12lb fox warrior XT mainline then slid down on a 1ounce grippa lead and a bead then attached my 20lb Drennan wire trace which was attached to a size two single Kamasan hook to which I lipped hooked a small dead Roach onto the hook I normally only use a chunk of a fish for bait but thought I’d try something different,.

Here is the final result:
13lb 6oz river Severn Zander

I cast out at about 12:15pm to the edge of the flow, tightened the line to bait and place the rod in the rod rest and sat on my unhooking matt to watch the tip for a few hours ,hoping a Zander would pick up the bait. After about two hours nothing had happened so I decided to reel in change the bait to another small roach lip hooked and cast back out to the edge of the flow but this time further upstream and placed the rod back in the rest as I continued to watch the tip the wind picked up which made it a bit difficult to spot bites so I decided to touch ledger for a while with the line between my forefinger and thumb I could feel for a bite and strike with the rod with my right hand if a fish picked up the bait, after about 30 minutes I hadn’t had a bite and by now the wind had died down so I put my rod back on the rest and decided to watch the tip again when I had a very slight twitch on the rod tip almost instantly after placing the rod back down, so I picked the rod up wound down and struck in hard to my delight I was met with solid resistance after about five minutes of playing the fish I realised that the way the fish was fighting staying deep in the flow just shaking it’s head that this could be a big fish, as she finally broke the surface I saw the huge head of a big old angry Zander shaking it’s head violently trying to throw the hook but I was just praying that she wouldn’t drop off, I turned to Dan and said " this is a big fish mate" as I finally slipped the waiting landing net under the fish after a hard fight once in the net I even let out a huge yesssss! I then lifted the net onto the unhooking matt and peeled away the mesh of the net to unhook her and to my surprise I could see she was a big fish indeed which was neatly hooked in the side of the mouth I slipped the hook out and placed her in the weigh sling that Dan had already zeroed for me with the scales, at this point the adrenaline kicked in hard and I was shaking like a leaf as I realised I could have another potential personal best Zander on the bank, I lifted her up off the matt and when the scales settled on 13lb 6oz I couldn’t believe it as not only had I beat my personal best this was my 3^{rd double figure Zander of the predator season and what a way to get my confidence back up after it being so low with the blanks, I had to weigh her three times though to make sure I wasn’t dreaming as after 96 long hours of blanking on previous sessions, it was a shock to the system but a huge weight off my shoulders Dan turned to me and said "what a fish mate well done " after a few quick snaps I placed her back in the river and held her in the flow till she swam out of my hands and back into the murky depths, I recast out and even did a little dance on the bank I was so happy to have caught a new personal best plus a quick handshake and off Dan and a random passerby who had stopped to ask what I’d caught as he’d never seen a Zander before, then continued to watch the tip for another hour with no success we decided to call it a day at about 16:00 so I packed up and made my way back home with a huge smile on my face, to celebrate with a cold can of coke and a sausage sandwich, few people may think I’m mad still targeting Zander after 96 hours of blanks but it just goes to show dedication pays off.}

thanks for reading my 3rd article feedback welcome

with a special thansk to daniel capilliena for the pictures

facebook page: the diary of a river severn predator hunter

Jay Crutchley

A guide to Quivertipping for zander on rivers

Recently I’ve had a few people ask me how to quivertip for zander, as I fish for them this way and since I adopted the quivertip style thanks to a friend putting me on this method for zander my catch rate has improved landing zander to 10lb 12oz which I feel I wouldn’t have done if I hadn’t of converted to the Quivertip for them, so I thought I’d write a quick guide to give people an idea how to successfully quivertip for zander. As I’ve found zander so finicky on the Severn I use a 1.75lb test curve barbel rod with the 3oz quivertip and a shimano 5000 baitrunner loaded with 12lb mono or 30lb braid. For the rig I use a 1oz grippa lead as I find it holds bottom on the severn nicely and offers less resistance to the zander as they don’t like resistance, but I will jump up to a 1 ½oz lead if there’s a bit of extra water on the river, for the trace I use 20lb Drennan green pike wire with a size 2 single Kamasan hook to which none of these components have let me down so far you could use tiny trebles if you don’t have confidence in single hooks say size 8’s or 10, so now you’ve got the idea of gear I’ll move on to bait, for bait I use either a small 2/3oz roach, bleak, eel sections, lamprey, Rudd, skimmer, trout or a small chunk of any of these bait’s as zander have small mouths there’s no need for big baits. But when I say chunk I mean it could be tail, head or middle section as zander will snaffle it up if it’s small enough for them to grab.

now you’ve got gear and bait sorted time to move onto the river it’s self, whether it’s the severn, Trent, Ouse or a canal you fish this method will work quite comftabley but you may have to use a bigger lead on the tidal Trent as I doubt a 1oz would hold bottom quite as well on the severn, 1st of all look for a swim with overhanging trees a bridge or any other features to fish to even deep holes as zander will hold here and pounce on the prey fish as it swims past their noses, it’s best to travel as light as possible so you can spend an hour in each swim rather than just sit and hope, when you’re in the swim try recasting to different spots every so often like the crease of the flow where 90% of my zander have come from but never ignore the slacks or margins as there just may be a fish or two sat there waiting to pounce, once you’ve cast out place your rod in the air at a 45degree angle like you would barbel fishing with a slight bend in your tip. Now you’ve got the gear, bait and cast out sorted it’s time to watch for bites which can be interesting as bites can be anything from gentle taps to vicious takes on the rod tip, if you think you’ve had a bite hit it st8 away as you don’t get many chances with these zander as there so finicky, people will say zander don’t fight even on the quivertip but believe me you know when you have one on as they just hold in the flow and stay deep, but the bigger ones tend to just stay in the flow and shake their heads hard trying to chuck the hooks, it’s important once you’ve hooked into one to keep the pressure on and pump the fish up to the waiting landing net.

Well that should give you a rough idea into the world of Quivertipping for zander as It’s helped me improve my catch rate and I hope It helps to land you a monster or two!
just a few point’s I’d like to make here:

1.dont get me wrong you very well could hook pike on this method too hence the stepped up 1.75lb test curve rod, and before people say you wouldn’t land a big pike this way if it picked up your zander bait, you’d land it if you played it carefully as a friend of mine landed a rouge 23lb pike this way so it can be done,

2. you don’t have to use 1 ounce lead you could use a bigger one if you prefer but my choice would always be a 1oz grippa.

3. Always carry a sizeable landing net, unhooking matt, forcipes, long nose pliers and bolt cutters.

4. This method could very well work on still waters but as I don’t have any near me that old zander I couldn’t give people an honest answer.

5. Also I’ve heard people use feeders with this method loaded with chopped up fish small pellets and Groundbait to draw in the prey fish as the zander will follow

6. The reason I don’t sit behind alarms and wait for a run is the reason being by the time the alarms gone off the zander has already dropped the bait in my expercaince

finally thanks for reading and hope it help’s feedback welcome

jay crutchley

The diary of a river severn predator hunter

Quivertipping For Zander On The River Severn

On my way to my local tackle shop to pick up some supplies I was running low on, such as swivels, hooks, leads, beads, starlites and some more wire trace for the up and coming zander session I was planning, I had to pass the River Severn so I managed to have a proper look at the conditions of the river for later in the day. To my amazement it looked perfect for some big zander and the weather was in my favour! Once I got to the tackle shop and picked up what I needed for the next few sessions I made my way home to go and collect my gear and get ready for another session after zander, only this time I wasn’t going to start on the lure gear like I normally do. Instead I was going on deadbaits from the off. I made my way down to the Severn arriving at about 14:00pm to be greeted by my friend Mark who was already fishing. We had a quick chat and he told me to start setting up, however after seeing mark and a few others I fish with quiver-tipping for zander I thought I’d give it a try as zander seem to be finicky biters on the severn. For this reason I rigged up my 12ft 1.75lb test curve barbel rod with the 3oz tip, and screwed on my shimano 5000 baitrunner loaded with 12lb fox warrior XT line, which I slid my 1oz running grippa lead down followed by a rubber bead to buffer the lead and tied on a Drennan 7 strand green pike wire 20b trace with a size 6 swivel and a single size 2 Kamasan B980 hook which I had pre tied at home.

I then attached my bait, which was half a roach then at this point I was ready to cast out. Mark had his rods positioned downstream so I decided just to cast straight out into the crease on the edge of the flow, where a 1 ounce lead would happily hold bottom. Once I’d cast out I positioned my rod with the tip high in the air on my bank stick as you would barbel fishing. After about 45minutes I had a rattle on the tip, so I struck and was met with thin air which resulted in a missed bite, so I reeled in but as I did marks rod tip tapped and he landed a nice looking zander of about 8lb. He slipped her back, and I cast back out, but this time I cast just a little more upstream. After watching the tip for another hour it was getting dark pretty quick, so I reeled in and attached my starlite, which would aid bite indication in the darkness as I don’t use alarms as with these zander you don’t get many chances to hook into one. I cast back out straight back to the same spot as I had earlier, when marks rod went again and landed another nice zander of again around the 8lb mark, to which he added another 2 of 7lb in the space of 15minutes. I lay on my unhooking mat watching my rod tip when around 19:00pm I had a vicious tap on my rod tip, which caused the rod to bounce off the bank stick and hit me in a rather awkward place, however rather funny too. This sort of bite is usual for zander, as normally they pick up the bait and drop it without giving you a chance to strike, so I picked up the rod and struck which was met with solid resistance to which at 1^st I thought was a pike which had picked up my bait, however after about 5minutes I gained control of the fish. The fight went on and the fish was still trying to power off upstream. Mark had the landing net in his hands ready to land the fish and once I had her near the surface the water just exploded where the head of a big old angry zander broke the surface. Mark scooped her up in the landing net and carried her over to the awaiting unhooking mat. Once placed on the mat, we peeled away the mesh and I unhooked her while mark got the scales and sling zeroed ready for weighing. She was hooked nicely in the side of the mouth making easy unhooking, then placed in the weigh sling and lifted off the ground. “10lb 8oz” was soon read out, which was not only an elusive double figure zander, but my 2^nd ever zander and my 2^nd double in the space of 8 days! After a quick snap she was placed back in the water to return to the murky depths of the River Severn. After she was realised there was a few handshakes and definitely a few smiles as I was over the moon at landing my 2^nd double and being on a quivertip of all methods. I cast back out to the same spot, as with zander where there’s one zander, there’s always more. 20minutes passed with no more action when I had a fast tap on my rod tip which resulted in nothing on the strike, so at about 20:30pm I decided to call it a day and packed up my gear. I soon said goodbye to mark and made my way home with yet another big smile on my face as I’d gone and landed another double figure zander to which many anglers I know who have been angling for 10 years or more and not had the pleasure of landing one of these fine specimens. For this reason for me to land two doubles in the space of 8days was quite a personal achievement as I’d never thought after only fishing for 18 months that I’d land a double figure zander, let alone two, so it just goes to show if you put in the time and effort you’ll be rewarded with great rewards. So next time you go out, may your next fish be a monster!

Here is the end result 10lb 8oz River Severn Zander:

Here are a few quick tips I’ve found really useful when zander fishing lately:

1.      Search for deep holes and over hanging trees and features

2.      Ask around the local match anglers if they’ve had trouble with pike or zander as those spots will always be good to have a crack at

3.       finally use small baits and fresh as baits as possible as zander seem to prefer small baits if not chunks of fish to which both of my fish have fell to

A few people who read this are going to have their own opinions on me quivertipping for zander but all feedback is welcome positive or negative as it’ll all be took on board!

Thank you for reading,

Jay

Zander hunt on the River Severn

I was sat at home sorting through my lure gear in the late afternoon, when all of a sudden I had a gut feeling that for some reason I should be on the River Severn. Even with the rain hammering down outside and showing no signs of slowing, I set off and made my way down to my local stretch of the river. I arrived just after 16:00 hours and was greeted with a very coloured river, which was carrying a bit of extra water, making conditions against me. But  after the last few sessions I had had down there losing a few big fish, I wasn’t to be defeated and set up as I normally would with my 9ft lure rod and open face reel. The reel was loaded with 28lb power pro braid which I attached a 20lb trace to and clipped on a salmo boxer lure in the fire tiger colour, which when cranked hard on the impact with the river I knew would get me down to the bottom of the Severn. I thought was a perfect choice on a session like this. On the retrieve I let it float up a little before cranking back down to the depths, and after 3 or 4 casts I felt a thump on the rod tip which at 1^st I thought must of been a floating log or some other debris that was floating down stream, however when I pulled the rod sharply up I could feel that it was in fact a fish. I continued to reel it in I could feel the fish start to fight, but just has it broke the surface my possible first ever zander unfortunately dropped off as I reached for the landing net. I reeled back in feeling once again disappointed and changed over to a bright orange Savage Gear soft lure on a 15gram jig head, which I thought would be brilliant in the coloured water, but after 5 or 6 casts with no success I changed the lure to another colour, however again with no success. After going through 3 boxes of lures I had not had another take. It’s always important to take a good selection with you to see what the fish want as this will often be the difference between catching and not catching.

 

 I thought about packing up and looked up to the sky in the pouring rain and thought to myself “ is this zander ever going to come?” It was becoming a bit dark at this point to continue using the lures, but as I was de-rigging a voice said through the darkness “caught anything jay?”
 I recognised it to be mark and 2 mates who I fish with normally on short evening sessions when time allows, and as I was telling mark I’d lost a small zander earlier on in the session, he suggested I stay on longer, but stick a dead bait out. However, not having any dead bait gear on me I had to improvise and use my lure rod. I rigged up like I would when I was lure fishing, but this time I connected a size 2 single hook to the trace via a swivel and bead to buffer the free running 1ounce lead I had on the braided mainline. I put half of a dead bleak on, which mark had kindly given me, and this is where it got interesting! I cast out and realised I had no bank sticks or anything with me, so I was forced to touch ledger while mark and the other 2 set up and cast out on their zander set up’s. Holding the braided mainline in my left hand and the rod in my right hand I felt for any bites. After about 15 minutes, one of the lads had caught 2 zander, the biggest being about 5lb. All of a sudden I felt a sharp tap on the line and rod tip, so I struck and as I did my rod arched into a full on battle curve as a fish made a break up stream for freedom. After a short, but hard fight the fish broke the surface and mark said “there’s your 1^st zander Jay,” but I chose to ignore this until the fish was safely in the waiting landing net. As I slipped the fish over the net I peered into the net with my head torch, and I could in fact see my 1^st ever zander defeated in the net! As mark had her in the net I got the unhooking mat, tools, sling and scales ready, then we lifted her on to the mat and peeled away the mesh of the net to unhook her. Once the hook was out I slipped her into the sling which one of the other lads had zeroed and had waiting for me, then mark lifted her off the ground.When he read out 10lb 10oz, I was amazed and over the moon as it was my 1^st zander and indeed an impressive looking fish. A few snaps later I placed her back in the river with her head held in the flow until she powered away out of my hands. After mark and the 2 others gave me a few handshakes and a few ‘well done’s I called it a day, packed away my gear and said thanks and bye to mark and the 2 others. I made my way home cold, muddy, and so wet that it had looked like I’d actually been swimming and not fishing, but had a huge smile on my face. I couldn’t help but think what the next session would bring…

Here is the end result, all 10lb 10oz of her:

I would just like to point out that when fishing for predators such as pike, zander and even perch it’s important to have the correct unhooking tools with you such as, forceps, long nose pliers and cutters in case you have to cut the hooks to help with unhooking. Also a decent unhooking mat is essential to cater for the impressive size some of the fish can go to. Plus to protect it from the ground if the banks are gravelly or concrete. Lastly, if you’re not confident at unhooking predators make sure you go fishing with someone who knows what they’re doing for a few sessions until you get the confidence yourself.


Thank you for taking the time to read my 1^st article feedback welcome!