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 1st 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 2nd ever zander and my 2nd 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 2nd 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
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