Tag: fishing

Vertical jigging for Zander – the lure

Well it has been a while since I wrote an article on Zander fishing and I thought I would write on on the more technical aspects. Now I warn you I am no expert on Zander fishing and only caught my 1st one last year, whilst pike and perch were easy I really struggled with Zander and only thanks to the help of Juul from www.fishingamsterdam.com did I manage to break my zander duck and now I feel confident, not expert by a long way but if the zander are biting I can be confident of a fish.

The main issues that I had in the past that prevented me from banking a zander were in 2 areas

  • Lure setup
  • Jigging technique

This article will deal with the 1st of these 2 items, namely how to set up your lure and end tackle.The 2nd article will deal with the actual fishing style it’s self.

IMPORTANT NOTE, THIS ARTICLE DEALS WITH A SETUP THAT IS UNSAFE IF YOUR WATER CONTAINS A LARGE AMOUNT OF PIKE AND IS SUITABLE ONLY FOR VERTICAL JIGGING. IF THERE ARE PIKE PRESENT USE A WIRE / HEAVY (80LB) FLUOROCARBON TRACE BOTH IN THE LURE AND TO ATTACH THE LURE TO THE MAINLINE.

Wow, now that is off of my chest lets continue with the rest of the article.
Continue reading “Vertical jigging for Zander – the lure”

Long term Review – Trakker Pioneer Ultralight

Normally when I review products it is when I have had them for a short while and I have used them long enough to formulate an opinion on them, this review is different in that I have had the item in question for 2 years now and I have used it heavily hence I feel that it is now long overdue for a comment here. Continue reading “Long term Review – Trakker Pioneer Ultralight”

My 1st Shark !

Ok well not really my 1st as I have caught dogfish off of the Kent coast and a small sand shark off of the coast of South Africa but this was the 1st one for quite a while.

As you know I am in SF at the moment, and whilst I was over here I thought it rude not to try out some of the fishing that the bay offers.  A brief skirt around the bay ( well around pier 39) led to the website of San Francisco Boat Rentals run by Captain Tony.  An early morning start led me to the boat at 9am sharp ready for a days shark fishing.  As I arrived I could see that the tide was really high, amazingly high. As we went out into the bay and started fishing I could see that the water was moving at an amazing rate, indeed a poor sailing boat was having some issues making any headway into the current even with its spinnaker out.

To summarise the day, I had a really good time and would recommend Tony’s charter services to anyone, whilst the fishing was slow I am certain that this was due to the amazingly high tide and the conditions that it produced as with that much current the fish were probably not feeding all that well.  Anyway only 1 fish was caught ( loads of crabs though) to yours truly and it was a tiny, fin perfect spiny dogfish. After a brief photo op, the shark was gently returned to the water whereupon it swam off strongly.  Sadly itg didnt bing friends and it was the last and only action of the day. If the weather / tide changes over the next few days I might try again…. however there are vineyards to be visited 🙂

spiny dog fish

Check out the Golden Gate Bridge behind me, catching a shark ( even one so small) in these sorroundings is a memory I will treasure forever.

The world’s smallest Zander

Some of you might know that I really want to break my zander duck this year. Never managed to catch one, have caught loads of pike and perch ( many whilst Zander fishing) but so far no such luck. A mate of mine also has the same issue and today whilst out carp fishing managed to catch his 1st Zander…

zander

When questioned if that zander counted his response was ” well is is 100% more Zander than you have caught”, good point :o)

Oh well the quest will contine now that I know that there are at least 2 other zander in that water. I will catch one !

Fill it with Maggots !

Well after managing to blank last weekend I am determined to catch next weekend.  I have decided to use the technique known as “fill it with maggots” I have ordered 10L of maggots ( yes that is 10 Liters) for the grand sum of 55 Eur, expensive but not an impossible amount. Myself and Mick will also fish Bosbaan where there is always a chance of a take or 2. I believe that if we fish with 5L per day each we will create a feeding frenzy of epic proportions… either that or a maggot drowning incident of titanic like proportions. Oh well it will be fun fun :o)

The rigs I plan to use will be leadcore with an inline lead. I will set this up helecopter style with the inline inner rubber section chopped back. The swivel at the end of the lead core will have a Korda running lead clip attached. Through this the knot of the PVA bag will be trapped. The rig will then be hooked into the outer section of the PVA bag.

It will be either an epic catch or an epic bream catch, i know that i will be using crushed barb hooks to allow me to unhook anything in the margins if needed.

bunch_of_maggots

Beginners – is this what we have come to ?

Just back from a 2 day camping trip by the lake, so tranquil that it is not interrupted by a carp….  😦  Oh well

Anyway, there were some guys in the next swim to me who had just started carp fishing 1 month ago. They were asking loads of questions and me being me I had no probs in sitting there and running through different rigs etc why to use back leads how to fish silt. We sit there chatting for a while in “the Q’s carp clinic”  😀  and one of them says he needs to recast. The kit they have looks like handme downs but perfectly up to the job, if a bit missmatched in my tackle tart eyes. What did amaze me is that in stead of recasting the guy gets his bait boat out and drives the rig about 70 yards…. I asked them why they had a bait boat and they just thought it was what carp anglers use….

I have no problems with bait boats ( mine is on order and here in May) but I would have spent the money on an unhooking mat, reels with a bait runner and end tackle before buying a boat.

Oh well is this what we have turned into ?

fishing again…

well dependent on how the ribs hold out, i will be fishing again tomorrow night. I am itching to try out the reels but despite my beliefs that I was on the way to recovery moving some heavy boxes today made me realise how injured I am. Here’s hoping that it all goes OK, that there is a swim for me and that the rain holds off. any way I will be here hopefully

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New reels… who says getting older is a drag

thanks to my lovely wife, I now have a brand new set of Fox Stratos FS 12000e’s to play with.. not my birthday yet but wow are they smooth. Going to go to the tackle shop tomorrow to get line put on ( they can take 450M each) as I cant be bothered to wind in 1.5 km of line.

crl032

I love birthdays for once you get to just receive presents rather then have to also buy them.