Bernd Ziesche | Wednesday, 17 March 2021
Last week I was still studying Zander and exchanging my findings with several Zander experts.
One question I always had about Zander was:
How close do I have to put my fly to the fish to have the Zander attack my fly. Finding the answer automatically leads to another question:
Will the Zander SEE, FEEL, HEAR or SMELL his bait?
From all my tests and exchanging my findings with other experts their findings I am pretty sure, that SEEING and FEELING are mostly the keys here!
We have to differentiate between those Zander not being in a feeding mood and those hunting for bait (usually not more than 30 min per day).
For catching those not being in a feeding mood we have to put our fly very close to the fish - about 30 to 100cm! Often it has to be close to the fish for quite a while to eventually suddenly provoke a take. Also a slow movement often works best - especially for the bigger ones!
Instead those Zander hunting for bait are coming from several meters to my fly. That I could prove several times! Since fly colors clearly can make for a change in reaction, it seems, that SEEING is quite important here. In this situation medium speed often (not always) works best.
In general it's fair to summarize, that the colder the water is, the slower we have to move our fly.
In order to successfully catch Zander we have to understand both these situations and how to best match our strategies to each of them.
In 2021 I now caught over 100 Zander, which proves quite a significant progress in understanding Zander.
Great week to all of you!
All my best
Last days fishing...
