Zander

[John Davis]

Incredible! Just goes to show what's out there. As near-the-top predators, to sustain that weight of zander they would require a huge mass of smaller fish.
Typing that made me think that at the mill where I fish the mill stream used to be full of roach and dace and small chub but the dace and roach have all gone and there don't seem to be any chub under about 2 1/2 lb. I wonder whether the zander have exploded in numbers and eaten them all?

From what I've witnessed on my local Trent and Mersey canal the first fish to ''disappear'' are Gudgeon and Daddy Ruffe, in fact the roach fishing has improved. Gone are the days, or nights that is, I can put out a dead bait for eels. Even though I like to fish for Zander they are a pain down on the cut nowadays.

[Moving Shadow]

Incredible! Just goes to show what's out there. As near-the-top predators, to sustain that weight of zander they would require a huge mass of smaller fish.
Typing that made me think that at the mill where I fish the mill stream used to be full of roach and dace and small chub but the dace and roach have all gone and there don't seem to be any chub under about 2 1/2 lb. I wonder whether the zander have exploded in numbers and eaten them all?

From what I've witnessed on my local Trent and Mersey canal the first fish to ''disappear'' are Gudgeon and Daddy Ruffe, in fact the roach fishing has improved. Gone are the days, or nights that is, I can put out a dead bait for eels. Even though I like to fish for Zander they are a pain down on the cut nowadays.

That's true. No gudgeon at all where I fish, but there are a few ruffe, but they are rare and only found in one place.

What's interesting about the Coventry Canal where I fish it on the outskirts of the City, is that pike are rare. Small jacks here and there, but the large females all in one place and never seen anywhere else, and its not just me who's noticed this, loads of Coventry bloggers all report the same. I think this is to do with water clarity as that pike hotspot is at the entrance to a marina where clear water is found, elsewhere the water is usually coloured and suits zander. However, as you get nearer and nearer the City, the water clarity improves mile on mile due to very low boat traffic, and the zander population tails away to be replaced with pike.

This has a marked effect upon the roach populations. Where the zander predominate, the average roach is a pound and up to two pounds or so, but the population is relatively low. Approaching the city the roach population gets higher and higher in volume but the fish get smaller and smaller. This is, I think, due to the fact that zander have relatively small mouths and prefer small prey, pike having large mouths will eat large roach whole.

[Snape]

Incredible! Just goes to show what's out there. As near-the-top predators, to sustain that weight of zander they would require a huge mass of smaller fish.
Typing that made me think that at the mill where I fish the mill stream used to be full of roach and dace and small chub but the dace and roach have all gone and there don't seem to be any chub under about 2 1/2 lb. I wonder whether the zander have exploded in numbers and eaten them all?

From what I've witnessed on my local Trent and Mersey canal the first fish to ''disappear'' are Gudgeon and Daddy Ruffe, in fact the roach fishing has improved. Gone are the days, or nights that is, I can put out a dead bait for eels. Even though I like to fish for Zander they are a pain down on the cut nowadays.

That's true. No gudgeon at all where I fish, but there are a few ruffe, but they are rare and only found in one place.

What's interesting about the Coventry Canal where I fish it on the outskirts of the City, is that pike are rare. Small jacks here and there, but the large females all in one place and never seen anywhere else, and its not just me who's noticed this, loads of Coventry bloggers all report the same. I think this is to do with water clarity as that pike hotspot is at the entrance to a marina where clear water is found, elsewhere the water is usually coloured and suits zander. However, as you get nearer and nearer the City, the water clarity improves mile on mile due to very low boat traffic, and the zander population tails away to be replaced with pike.

This has a marked effect upon the roach populations. Where the zander predominate, the average roach is a pound and up to two pounds or so, but the population is relatively low. Approaching the city the roach population gets higher and higher in volume but the fish get smaller and smaller. This is, I think, due to the fact that zander have relatively small mouths and prefer small prey, pike having large mouths will eat large roach whole.

Yes I think the disappearance of roach, dace and smaller chub at the mill is due to cormorants and maybe herons. It is out of the way and little fished.

[Tony1964]

I was fishing my local Gloucester Sharpness canal last year and when the water bailiff came around for the tickets he told me that there are a lot of zander in the canal and that if I catch one I should kill it and leave it on the bank for him to collect later. :o

[Moving Shadow]

I was fishing my local Gloucester Sharpness canal last year and when the water bailiff came around for the tickets he told me that there are a lot of zander in the canal and that if I catch one I should kill it and leave it on the bank for him to collect later. :o

Cheeky! Wants them for the pot do you think? They are the best eating fish from fresh water other than the salmonids to my taste buds. Clean and meaty. Like bass, but without the tang of the sea. I knock just a few on the head every year, the schoolies around two pounds or three have the best flavour, small ones not so good, I think, and the bigger fish I'll put back to grow on for others to catch.

[John Davis]

Yep, zander appear on the menus in many places around the Gloucester area, so I bet the naughty boy was looking at making a quid or five off the back of your sport....And the zander are a very tasty fish indeed.

[Moving Shadow]

And very expensive too! Have you seen the price asked by fishmongers for a single fillet? About £10 for each fillet of 100gms. Top prices are, an astonishing £25 a pound.

[Tony1964]

Crikey, I never knew they were that expensive. I will bear it in mind next time. The bailiff told me to kill them as they are not an indigenous species and they are eating all of the smaller fish. I think you are right though, he may well have had another motive :think:

[Moving Shadow]

Yeah, makes you think whenever a four pounder is slipped back at a the loss of a potential £75 filleted!

Though you'd probably need some sort of license to enter into that kind of trade.

Or some bailiff type nod-nod wink-wink contacts...!

[Corneybury]

I attended an electro fishing event by the CRT on the Grand Union at Braunston earlier this week, and as one of their CRT Explorers team, on a freezing cold day, we were showing the local school kids what fish there were in the canal.

We got a number of very nice roach, some large perch, a few small bream, one bullhead and a couple of pike, but by far and away the most populous catch were zander of all sizes, from 2" to a couple of pounds. The CRT were very anti-this species a) as an unwanted introduced non- native fish, and b) apparently their eyes can pick up the infra-red portion of the spectrum, which means they can hunt at night, which in turn means that they decimate native fish populations. Our native predators, the perch and the pike do not have this capability, and thus the zander have an unfair advantage. The majority of the fish were re-introduced further down the canal, but I suspect the zander did not make it.

Funnily enough, although I have fished the canal several times off the back of my boat, I have still yet to catch a zander. Maybe this year when I take the boat out, I'll see what a large worm will produce.