Circle hooks for zander.

[Trent Zanderman]

Hi all,
After a couple of years fishing for barbel on my local river trent and reaching my targets i needed more of a challenge.
Never ever seen a zander but hearing they have been comeing out on the stretch i fished i decided my goal was to catch my first zander.
Started lurking on this forum and thanks to all that have contributed i have learned so much.
And a really big thanks to headless his posts have really helped me on my quest for my fiirst zander.
Any how i set off for a two nighter on my local stretch of the river trent.
Arrived sunday morning with my scaled down pike tackle 15llb trace to a size 4 single Circle hook 3 inch dead roach tail hooked to straight running ledger 2oz lead.
Identical set up on the other rod apart from the bait that was lamprey section.
Rods had been in about one hour(time 10am) when the roach dead bait rod registers a run.
Expecting a pike and could not believe my luck when my first zed and bang on 9lb graces my landing net hooked in the sissors and a doddle for unhooking.
Second run at 2pm also on roach bait this time a pike at 13lb also hooked in the sissors.
Then it went quiet untill 11pm when the alarms registered a bite on the rod baited with lamprey this time zander 3lb 8oz also hooked in the sissors.
These circle hooks really seem to hook them in the sissors the hardest bit is not to strike but just reel
in untill you feel the fish then lean in to it.
I started thinking to myself this zander fishing is easy, two zander on my first attempt and one in daytime at 9lb.
Now i have come back to earth the next day i blanked and the following two 48 hour sessions have resulted in two jacks one chub and one eel and not a sign of zander.
I suppose thats zander fishing for you if it was that easy it would not be a challenge.

[MRG2000]

Welcome to the forum ....

A 9lb Zed ,is a cracking start to your zander fishing ,i`d be jumping for joy !!!

I dont fish freshwater ,but use circle for tope ,they are amazing ,,once you get your head around how they work ,99% of the time you get a hook up in the scissors,with fast moving predators..

[headless]

Well come to the forum mate...and Zander fishing

Like MRG2000 said, a 9lb Zander is a cracking start, well done mate.

I have never tried circle hooks before. keep us informed on your hook up rates.

You will have days when everything goes right and you think you have cracked it, only for the next session for you to wonder what you have done wrong.

Darrell

[Trent Zanderman]

Thanks for the welcome MRG2000 and Darrell.
Darrell i have only just started using circle hooks for my pred fishing after finding a supplier for the smaller sizes.
Very early days yet and only a small sample but all fished banked so far have all been sissor hooked.
My last session zedding resulted in about half dozen twitchy dropped runs so i dropped down bait size to small roach tail, next run resulted in me netting an eel.
Put the dropped runs down to eels.
Will be doing a few day sessions after pike on my local pits in the next few weeks,so will keep you posted on hook up rates.
All best
Steve

[Trent Zanderman]

Pic of first zander