Fish the TIP to find Zander – #zander #zanderfishing #deadbaiting
In this video, my primary focus is finding zander in new waters. Fishing the tip is a valuable approach for tracking down zander, and recognizing subtle indications on the tip can significantly enhance your chances of successfully discovering and catching them. Join me as I share my approach and provide some top tips for locating zander in unfamiliar locations.
As the autumn leaves fall and the air turns crisp it’s that time of year when my focus shifts onto one species in particular the Xander these elusive creatures have always captivated me their mysterious nature making each encounter a unique challenge Fishing for Xander can be quite challenging especially for newcomers in this video I’m going to guide you through my strategies for locating Xander in unfamiliar Waters I’m going to provide you with some valuable tips to make your fishing experience more rewarding So I’m going to be running through my approach to a new stretch of water this water in particular that I’m on today it’s on the lower server and it’s a water that I have fished before but for Bible so this is as new to me as it is to you guys
Now one of my favorite methods for searching a stretch of river has to be the tip and the reason for that is it’s one rod I can move swims I’m just traveling as light as a as I possibly can because the worst thing you can do
Is especially on the new water that you know nothing about you don’t know where the fish are I don’t know where they’re residing the worst thing you can do is bring a load of gear down set up in one or two swims and fish them for most the day
You need to be going and finding where these under are holding up and they’ll be spots all up and down the river and there’ll there’ll be also spots within a spot so you need to be on the Move fish each swim 30 to 40 minutes and then move on Now when you do land on Xander the bikes can come pretty quickly so in this swim that I’m in right now it’s quite a big swim I’ve not got any overhanging trees above me I’ve got freedom to cast in a number of different areas so it’s worth trying to just work the swim
Cast around every sort of 10 minutes while you’re at y here see if you can find some bites now what you’re looking for in particular on the bike front is almost like a chub rattle you’re not going to get these big slamming bikes like barbel you’re actually looking for just just
Little rattles on the tip just little plucks almost and you need to be hitting those bites pretty quickly don’t let it develop and the worst thing you can do is just pick the rod off open the by alarm and let it have a line it’s already felt something it doesn’t
Like at this point when you’re fishing the tip there’s going to be resistance no matter what you do Xander do not like resistance so whether you’re fishing with a lightweight a heavy weight it doesn’t matter because they’re still going to come into contact with the tip of your rod
So hit the bikes quickly set the hook because they will get rid of it and I’ve seen it on underwater footage and fish have come in there’s under sucked it straight into its mouth and without even moving away to actually give itself any resistance from the rig it’s automatically felt something it doesn’t
Like you know what I’ve got this theory that they do not like the feel of the hooks um they just stay on the spot not like a pike or pick it up and then start to move away with it they’ll they’ll stay on the spot and they’ll just start
Shaking their head and it’ll just be out of the mouth really easily it’s under very bony moves and they they can eject baits pretty easy so like I say if you hit the bikes quick it’s going to up your chances of actually Landing a fish you want to be looking for somewhere
That’s got depth a murky River Zander like hunting in lower light conditions but don’t be fooled in thinking that you’re only going to catch them at night because that’s that’s not true at all I have most of Mars under in the daytime just watch the conditions as long as the
Water isn’t completely jingleer and it’s not bright sunshine you’ll catch fish throughout the day I’m on my third swim so far this morning I’ve got here quite early on my third swim right now so what I’m gonna do is um I’ve had no join this one I’m just gonna have a little recast
Try a different area and swim and I’m going to get on my toes and I’m going to try and find somewhere else Foreign Lake I think I’m on about oh she’s found a snag no please don’t tell me it’s come off no you oh no no no found a snag right in the edge that was a Zander booga I can’t believe that so unfortunately that one got away
Kind of caught me off guard to be honest I wasn’t really expecting it it was kind of out the blue I was literally just thinking about moving to the next spot and all of a sudden tip’s just gone I’ve hit it didn’t feel a big fish I’ll be honest um
But once I got it near the edge there’s a bit of water on today I think there was when I checked there was two meters on this River last night it’s probably dropped a bit since but I have no idea what’s down there in front of me it’s got underneath
Something whether it just a lump of grass or some some trunk of a tree that’s under there I don’t know it snug me up a little bit and he’s managed to to wangle himself free so I’ve chucked it back in hopefully we’ll get another bite
But it’s a good sign it’s a good sign like I said I’ve I’ve been moving all all morning I think this is about my seventh or eighth swim now and eventually you will come across one there are there is going to be days where it just doesn’t happen for you but
You’re just going to keep putting the work in keep moving just keep believing eventually you’ll come across something where there’s one with the Xander there’s usually more they’re a pack hunting fish but it might be the case now because I’ve hooked one here and it’s got away
I’m gonna struggle to get another bite here for a couple of hours so this might be another spot that I’ll drop in a bit later on this evening maybe on the way back to the car um but I’m going to give it another 15 sort of 15-20 minutes here
See what happens and then I’ll get on my toes again and um and hopefully at some point today well we’ll have one to show you So before I cast this Rod back into the water I’m just going to quickly show you how I’m set up for these Zander so I’ve got a two and a half pound tescov rod I’ve got friends who use a 1.75 personally I like to use something that’s got a bit more
A bit more beef in it you know I want to be able to set them up properly I can still see the bites perfectly fine on this Rod not a problem at all it’s got a white tip on it as well you could use a barbell Rod or barbel quiver or
Something like that if you wanted to um I’ve got a mini pit star reel that’s got 40 pound braid on um I like to use Brian I prefer to use braid it’s a much lower diameter much higher strength which means it’s going to create a lot less toe in the water
And it also means if I get snagged up I can get things back okay I’m not leaving a baited Trace in the water now that runs down to a run ring this is a running rig and I’ve got a feeder on there she’s a four ounce feeder I like to use quite
Heavy heavy feeders especially if there’s a little bit more extra water and I can hold the flow better I was fishing with the gripper lead this morning but I decided because of the clarity of the water and how colored it is I’ve switched to a feeder because I want
To pack that full of Dead Chop fish which is going to give me an extra scent Trail it’s going to provide a hell of a lot more attraction than just a standard bait on its own in the lead now before I get down to my Trace I always leave
You’ve probably got about I don’t know 10 12 inches of coated braid there strong coated braids same strength as my main line and that’s just just as a sort of like a semi-stiff boom you could use like a really thick strong fluorocarbon there it’s just to give a bit of extra
Separation from my bait to the feeder rather than using two foot three footer Trace I’ll just use that extra bit of coated coated braid there same wasting wire now talking about rice I tile my traces up a little bit differently to what most people probably do um I actually only tie
The bottom three inches with the hooks on and then it’s attached to a swivel because nine times out of ten when you tie let’s say you tie a two foot rig up an 18 inch rig up what happens when you get snagged up you blunt a hook you might snap a hook off
The end of your Trace can get a bit kinked after you’ve been playing a fish or you’ve been caught in a snag and it’s generally the last three to four inches isn’t it so what I tend to do is I tie them up like that because if I bend open
A hook if I break one off if it gets kinked anywhere down here anything generally I’m not happy with I can just unclip that and clip it back onto my uptrice so this is just a Trice that I’ve tied probably 15 inches long just got a clip
On the end very rarely do I have to change this very rarely do I have to change this at all so I’m not replacing it with another two footer wire which if it’s kinked or if I’ve got hooks on it which are no good you’re probably going to cut off
The bits that are okay and then you’re going to discard the wire so this will just save you so much wire so it’s really simple I can just clip on another three inch trace and I can tie them really quick as well really easy like that now in regards to baits
I would say this is the probably the average size that I use six inches perfect size if you go much smaller than that I find you get a lot of pickup from smaller fish I don’t tend to cut baits in half I don’t just use a head section
As you can see I’m using trebles these are size six trebles and I’m very finicky when I pick my hooks because what I want is a really fine wire hook I don’t want a hook that’s really thick in the gauge because Xander have got such bony Mouse
There’s not a lot of skin to hook onto a finer sharper hook is going to land you a lot more fish so and also the other benefit of that is if you do get snagged up the finer wire gauge is much easier to open up and you’re much more likely to get things
Back rather than leaving a baited Trace in the water which is what you don’t want because if a fish picks that up it’s potentially gonna it’s a death trap isn’t it so you want to make sure you get as much as much tackle back as possible um
I always hook my baits this way up as well as you can see by hooked in the lip there’s just much more hook being exposed there rather than hooking it the other way the second hook the bottom hook just goes down the flank also means that when I retrieve this
It’s coming back the right way through the water so much more likely for this to be picked up on the way in as opposed to if it was coming in the wrong way backwards it’s a great thing you can rig and like that for sync and
Draw if you wanted to you could take the feeder off just put a little Sinker weight on it or something and just just sort of jig it back through the water for Pike and stuff which is is really really good um in terms of choice of bait
Roach generally is my is one of my go-to’s but don’t be afraid to use seed heads uh smelt in particular is a really good bait and if you can get your hands on some bleak that is a really really good xender base but um you might have to go and catch
Them yourself don’t just think you can buy them um from a taco shop I’ve never seen them if you know where you can where you can buy some please drop it down in the comments so I can buy some myself because I’d love to get my hands on some Bleak fantastic Zander bite
So yeah don’t be afraid to use bigger bites you don’t have to use little sections Xander won’t just pick up small bites that’s just a common misconception with this fish um it’s a load of potatoes theaters as we say in the block country it’s it’s a fallacy now pick up anything
If you’re in the if you’re in the right area and you’ve got a bait on you stand a chance right so I prefer to use shovels I know other people use single hooks circle hooks just experiment find what works best for you I’ve not used a single look well
I’ve not used a circle hook I probably would try it at some point down the line just to see if it works if it’s any better but for me that’s that’s what I use and um generally I won’t use anything smaller than a six um and a four
Um six and a four for me even with a bait of this size size four hooks absolutely fine don’t be afraid to use big hooks so with that said um I’m gonna get this back in the water see if I can find some more fish we’ve lost one today probably gonna fish up
Until the last hour of light uh hour into dark did you see how we got on so unfortunately that stretch of the seven didn’t throw up any more bites and so two days later I decided to go on to the river Avon which turned out to be
The wrong decision because when I got there the river was absolutely Gene clear which to me in the daytime it’s really really difficult to get bites when it’s that clear so I made a conscious decision to move over to another stretch of the river 7 iron fish before
And yeah I managed to hook into a fish and as you’ll see now the results I I also managed to lose that fish as well we seem to have got one oh please stay on for the love of God stay on I have worked so hard to get this fish
Sorry I’m just praying to God that it stays on I do do not find a snag I’ll tell you what don’t feel too bad either because I want to give it too much stick I just want to take it nice and gentle there it is I think it is a Zander
I don’t think it’s massive but it’s not massive it’s quite small actually but it’s a fish I’ve finally got one who finally got one there it is and he’s just come off oh my God ah well that’s disappointing now unfortunately after losing that fish um which does tend to happen quite a lot
When you’re hooking loads of small fish they have a real Knack of shaking the hooks right at the net um two days later on the weekend I thought I’ll have another go on another stretch of the lower seven and um well this one actually turned out to be
Pretty pretty good so we’ll have a little quick look at that now oh yeah boy well there we go three different Rivers God knows how many different swims and boy has it paid off big time 15 pounds and eight ounces I think it was absolutely made up that’s a new PB for
Me as well what a fish awesome wow
20 Comments
That's a cracking idea with the way you tie your traces mate. Like you point out, I am forever wasting 12-18 inches of wire after landing fish or trolleys.
Mega mate!
Great stuff mate. Worth the graft!!
Mega fish
That was a brilliant vid
I’ve fished dead’s for zeds for a good couple of decades and you’ve given some good tips there I normally fish canals for them midlands had them into double and on lures my fave fish Shame about electro fishing
Thank for sharing 👍🏼🍺tight lines 🎣
As you’ve extended the trace with braid won’t it take longer to get a notification on your rod as the fish can swim nearly 2-3 foot in each direction before coming into contact with the lead. With a Small roach and a pike could get deep hooked, have you had many ?
Nice video mate.. i fish that area for zed.. started using single circle hooks for zed a few seasons ago.. definitely improved hookup rate.. use them for pike now.. 100% better and kinder to fish.. nets and hands.. tight lines.. 👌
Great video and tips
Keep them coming.
Sound tips.
Cracking fish matey. I’ve never had a go at fishing for zander, but I’ve just kitted myself out and I’m putting in some sessions in the coming weeks. You’ve inspired me, great video and some great tips. Keep them coming 🎣
Zander and bleak go together like peas and carrots. Nice video mate, I'll be using some of those tips as Zander are somewhat of an enigma to me.
That was interesting, really enjoyed that and very informative. Like the idea of the trace, might be an idea to use a titanium lure trace for the uptrace then, i’ll look into that.Tight lines
Great video. Just how I fish the Trent for Zander here in Newark!!
Great fish and video, well done.
Inspirational video and a fantastic fish to go with it – well done on your PB. I'm going to follow your guidance on my very first target for Zander next week.
Like it bro .. but no silicone tube on that snap link no ?? Nothing to lock that latch down ??
Nicely produced and very helpfull! 🙏
Just subscribed, very informative video. No Zander in my area but they are well worth travelling for. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing. Great vid.
How do you crimp that top hook the way you did mate great idea that