Begin Zander fishing with softbait

Zander fishing with softbaits is a technique that requires a few subtleties to successfully capture your first fish! Let’s see here the basics to successfully start Zander fishing with softbaits !

Zander comportement

Zander is a fish found in reservoirs and rivers. It is a fish that lives mainly at the bottom and can be found at all depths, depending on the season and the temperatures. It is an aggressive predator that feeds mainly on fish.

Hunts a lot at night, Zanders are quite active in the morning and the evening, although it is possible to catch them throughout the day!

In general, to fish them, you have to pass your lure close to the bottom and quite slowly. To do this, there are several techniques and animations of soft lures that allow you to catch zander!

This fish attracts many fishermen not for its combat which, except on very large specimens, is not very rich in sensations, but rather for the very dry and very violent touch it inflicts on the lure!

This set  bigger hit and slow fishing gives anglers a nice adrenaline rush!

Animations to start zander fishing with softbait :

There are 3 main different animations for tracking Zanders with softbaits, each of them having its own little subtleties. These animations must be alternated regularly in order to find the one that is most effective at the time of your session !

  • Linear fishing :

Linear fishing is the simplest technique to set up and often the most effective! Indeed, the greatest difficulty of this fishing is to the choose of the weight of the jig head. This must be heavy enough for the lure to stay within 30/40 centimeters above the bottom but not too heavy so that the lure does not hit the bottom too regularly. All this for a fairly slow recovery speed, while keeping the rod high. In rivers with current, the choice of the grammage is even more important, it is then necessary to cast 3/4 upstream, and bring back your lure towards you while accompanying it so that it descends the current above the bottom.

  • Scratch fishing : 

Unlike linear fishing, you have to choose a jig head weight large enough to track zander in scratch fishing. As its name suggests, this technique consists of really scraping the bottom with your lure to lift the substrate and thus attract zander! By tilting the rod more or less upwards, the lure will scrape or pass just above the bottom. This animation must be done while bringing in quite gently and marking breaks on the bottom during which it is not uncommon for the zander to come and grab the lure!

  • Vertical fishing :

Reserved almost exclusively for fishermen on board (belly-boat, kayak, boat…) vertical fishing is a technique which consists of keeping your lure above the bottom, plumb under the boat, and using the displacement of it to make it swim. This movement can be natural with drift or current, but also artificial using an electric motor or fins in a belly-boat! The big advantage of this technique is that it allows you to quickly find the effective parameters such as the depth and the fishing speed, which will then suffice to reproduce drift after drift to chain the bites! 

3 essential softbaits for zander fishing:

Bien que beaucoup de leurres de notre gamme soient très efficaces pour la pêche du sandre, nous avons décidé ici de revenir en détail sur les 3 les plus utilisés et surtout les plus complémentaires, avec des actions de nage différentes. 

Zand Finess

The Zand Finess is a lure that does not have a paddle but a V-tail that hovers and springs into action at the slightest touch. This little tail emits fine vibrations that really do not leave Zanders indifferent!

It has the advantage of triggering the most finicky fish, and above all of offering something different, which other fishermen use little or not at all, which is often the key on spots where the fishing pressure is high!

Mounted on a hoof jig head, the Zand Finess can be used vertically but also for scratching, with long breaks during which it is not uncommon to have hits!

The Sandra, with its stocky body and its large sickle that turns when retrieved, is an ideal lure for linear zander fishing! The vibrations and the “voluminous” effect that it returns triggers a lot of zander bites!

The 12cm size is a real master key, but it is also possible to hunt down zander with the 16cm size, with the hope of breaking a record! To fish effectively with the Sandra, it is important to find the right weight for the jig head, which will allow it to stay in the same layer of water during a simple slow recovery above the bottom.

Sandra

Zand Shad

Leurre souple Delalande Zandshad

The Zand Shad is a lure which, as its name suggests, was developed specifically for zander fishing! Its thin body allows it to accept all types of rigs, and the finesse of its tail coupled with its enormous paddle allow it to swim even at very low speed!

The real beats generated by the caudal fin of the Zand Shad make the zander react enormously, which trap it very easily thanks to its flexibility!

Its low volume and therefore its reduced water displacement compared to that of the Sandra for example, makes it possible to trigger the zander even when they are only slightly active!

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