Canal zander rigs?

[JoeNickel]

I'm spending a bit of time in the Midlands - a mate has said there are plenty in the canal. I think they're not much size - 2-4 pound, maybe. Quite fancy giving it a go though - I've never even seen a zander, much less caught one.

Any tips? I'm thinking float fishing, small (ideally fresh) deadbait, sprat-sized. Float just large enough to suspend the bait. Maybe a large loafer would do. Light trace, 2 x small trebles?

Presume braid is best - do I need to scale down from the 58lb J-braid I use for piking? I could chuck on a few yards of something finer if they're tackle-shy.

Best fished mid-water, or on the bottom?

And is unhooking the same as pike - left hand thru the gill plate to open the jaws?

Any / all tips appreciated! Cheers

[cookiesdaughtersdad]

Ideally I would fish livebaits for small zeds but these small fish may in fact be mature and older than they appear and so readily take dead's.
If deadbait is the way to go I would generally fish them on bottom and fish a bottom end only float just over depth, large Drennan crystal wagglers work nice and take a snap light for after dark.
Could be worth a go suspending them and any small inline float should do, fishing two rods can cover both options.
I wouldn't go to fine on the trace material as you will be retying one for every small pike you catch and couple this with a pair of size 8 barbless trebles but if you keep your bait size down, use just one hook, possibly a large single.
Personally, I would use the heavy braid for the usual reasons.
As for unhooking, pike and zander are built differently, zander being part of the perch family but yes you can hold the bottom jaw to assist unhooking.
Last tip via Rob Shalcroft, for photographs blow on the zander and their dorsal fins will often come up!

Cheers, Alan

[Steve C]

A soft action low TC rod for small Zeds best Joe or you'll find they drop off with all the head shaking

[TidalD]

Hi, I do a fair amount of Z fishing on the midlands canals, usually a couple of hours into dark, more success on deads than lives, small slim float with a starlight tube, braid mainline, small drilled bullet or Olivettes just to get the bait down, 12-24 wire titanium trace and a circle hook, 1-3/0 depending on the size of deads, I always use wire because of the pike and Eels, hit the takes straight away, don’t let them run and run, have done well on roach, gudgeon, and small smelt/ sardine section.