Zander Fishing in Spain

[Portland Pirate]

I am looking for some advice on trying to catch Zander in Spain.

Most of the freshwater fishing in the area that I live is done on Embalses (man made lakes) that are fairly large in size. Normally around 4 to 5km in length by 3km in breadth, with some much larger. A lot of them have a good number of Carp, Barbel and Zander in them as well as Black Bass.

I am looking to target the Zander, so any advice would be welcome. A few points to note. Night fishing and the use of live baits is illegal in Spain ( though proving a bait was live after a mauling by a Zander would be difficult) The most prolific bait fish are Bleak.

Do they like smelly baits as Pike do? Are lures good for them?

Regards Sean.

[baitmaster]

Zander prefer to hunt in low light conditions, so dawn and dusk will be your best option as night fishing is illegal. Use artificials or dead baits. Spinners, vibrating lures, and plugs also work very well. you might want to try a small dead bait (bleak) mounted on a jig head i would think would work very successfully, especially as bleak are so abundant over there , Use a wire trace and i would suggest also minimum 10lb line.
i would expect the best time for you would be like here september onwards but due to never actually fishing for zander in spain the seasonal weather through out the year would be the only factor i could not help on
Fish for them as if you are fishing for pike . If using deadbaits then stick to the freshwater fish.
simple running rig tactics with large run rings wil probably suit your dead baiting
If float fishing use thin pencil floats which offer very little resistance. Zander really hate resistance and could drop a bait if they feel any. Zander do run regulary into double figures and occassionally over 20lb the locals do eat them but i ,m sure you will fish catch and release

tightlines
kevin

[mark barrett]

hello mate,

i was over in spain earlier on this year fishing for zeds on the ebro at Caspe.

I aint 100% sure about some of your information, because i was under the impression that livebaiting was allowed but with certain size limits, bleak being completely exempt.
i stand to be corrected on that one, and indeed it may be regionalised too, but though we didnt use them, i am pretty sure we could have done.

What Kevin has said is pretty reasonable advice, however if there are cats in any of the water then forget the low light feeding. in my trip out there and in the opinion of the guides, the best days were the brighter ones, as the cats were less active and everything out there is cat food!

I am if there is sufficient interest doing some trips out there this year in conjunction with catfish capers, so that may be another option for you.