Homemade lure tricks big Trent zander
After a busy week at work, predator angler Andrei Adomnicai was rewarded with this immaculate
15lb 2oz zander from the River Trent.
Fishing in freezing conditions with a high river, the odds were against him, but perseverance paid off.
He told us:
“After an early 6lb pike I fished on through the cold. Suddenly, the lure was hit by what felt like a lorry and my heart started racing. The fish stayed deep, and after a good battle my friend netted a 15lb 2oz zander – caught on a 10cm homemade lure.”
Andrei Adomnicai – 15lb 2oz zander
Huge river pike is a "fitting reward" - Leigh Laffar
“I headed to a spot on my local river at sunrise and baited close to the near-bank snags with chopped sprats before casting out my floatfished roach deadbait over the top.
“By 4pm I’d not had a take, so I nicked on a fresh bait and cast it next to one of the snags. The float buried within seconds.
“Straight away this heavy weight charged downriver on a savage run. After 10 minutes of steady pressure I started to gain line and drew the pike to the surface, where I could see it was only lightly hooked on the bottom treble.
“Thankfully it went into the net on the first scoop, and at 29lb 4oz it was one of the proper ones, a rich and fitting reward for all those blanks I’ve endured this winter.”
Leigh Laffar – 29lb 4oz pike
Second-ever pike is 30lb-plus giant!
MOST newcomers to predator fishing start with a small jack, so imagine Calum Lonsdale’s shock when his second-ever catch resulted in this 33lb 11oz fish!
Having caught a small pike on a trip to the Norfolk Broads, the 24-year-old from Derbyshire was eager to try his local reservoir.
He said:
“The fish hit my Salmo lure close to the bank and over the next 15 minutes my heart was racing!”
Calum Lonsdale and his 33lb 11oz pike
Angler brought to tears by dream pike catch
LEE Wilson shed tears of joy when he banked his first 30lb-plus pike after a 20-minute battle.
Lee Wilson and his 33lb 2oz pike
The angler, from Dumfries and Galloway, struck into the 33lb 2oz pike on his local loch when his mackerel hookbait was engulfed from a deep spot 50yds from the bank.
Lee said:
“When I looked down at what I’d caught, the tears started coming as I realised I’d had my first ‘thirty’ after six years.”
This huge pike brought the captor to tears
Topping fish provide location of giant zander
TARGETING a shoal of topping baitfish yielded this menacing 16lb 2oz zander for Martin Hague.
The new PB fell to a small roach deadbait legered in the middle of the tidal River Trent, where he saw the silvers breaking the surface.
Martin said:
“I thought it was a pike at first, but after three good runs and plenty of head-shakes it surfaced for the first time and I saw I’d struck gold.”
Martin Hague and his 16lb 2oz Trent zander
Season's biggest pike smashes 40lb barrier!
A RELATIVE newcomer to pike fishing has become the envy of seasoned predator anglers nationwide by banking the largest specimen of the season at the jaw-dropping weight of 41lb 10oz.
The 41lb 10oz pike is the biggest caught so far this season
Despite only taking up this arm of the sport two years ago, 67-year-old Jock Galloway had a pretty decent personal best for the species of 29lb prior to attending last week’s ‘pike experience day’ at Loch Ochiltree in Dumfries and Galloway.
But halfway through his seve-hour session Jock obliterated his old PB when the popped-up chunk of sardine he’d cast around 30 yards from the bank was picked up by the giant predator.
He said:
“Line started to peel from my reel at a rate of knots. By the time I struck it had already taken a good 50 yards, so I knew I was attached to something special.”
It wasn’t until the fish neared the net 20 minutes later that Jock’s friend Jimmy Costley got a glimpse of the fish.
“Judging by the look on Jimmy’s face, it was a much larger pike than we’d first thought,” Jock said.
“It then made three or four surging runs before eventually sliding slowly over the net cord. The relief at that point was immense. At this point another club member, Martin Cluckie, came over to help us with the weighing.”
Wary of having such a large pike out of the water for too long, the trio quickly weighed it before Jock asked Martin to hold his catch up for the camera. Although he didn’t manage to get a picture with his prize, Jock wasn’t disappointed.
“The memory of just seeing a pike of that size is more than enough for me,” he added.
A 40lb pike is a truly rare fish
12-year-old and Father left speechless by monster pike
ZANE’S dad Leighton said: “With the pandemic going on, it’s not been safe for my 12-year-old lad, Zane, to get out of the house, so I treated him to a few hours’ pike fishing on the local river.
“I cast out a legered Bluey deadbait close to the bank for him and sure enough, the rod was away half-an-hour later. It was clearly a big pike and gave him an awesome fight – taking him all over the swim.
“He really struggled to hold the rod at first and I thought he was going to lose it, but he got there in the end and managed to guide it towards me and the net.
“As soon as I scooped it up he just looked at me, speechless – the size of it was ridiculous! His largest fish before this was an 18lb common carp, so this will take some beating.”
Zane Ryan and his 25lb 8oz pike
10-year quest for double-figure zander ends with Trent monster
DARREN Clarke smashed his 10-year quest for a double-figure zander out of the park when he finally slipped his net under this pristine 16lb 9oz specimen.
Targeting a stretch of the tidal Trent where he’d caught zander from before, the 47-year-old specimen hunter banked a string of small zeds on legered roach deadbaits before striking into a much larger fish just before dusk.
“When it surfaced a rodlength out I knew that I’d had my ‘double’, but it was only when I lifted her up in the net that I realised this was a very special zander,” Darren said.
Change of species rewarded with huge zander - Scott Taylor
“AFTER years of pike fishing I decided it was time to target zander, so I joined the Newark and District Piscatorial Federation and planned a day session on the Trent.
“I arrived at the river for 6am and settled into a peg that had a nice flow with a perfect 4ft-5ft-deep hole in the middle for me to place a small roach deadbait. All was quiet until 10.30am, when I had a series of bleeps and taps on the rod, which were nothing like the pike bites I’m used to!
“So I picked it up, set the hook and I was in – my rod bent over and this big zander held bottom before It thrashed its head, trying to shake the trebles. Following a five-minute scrap I got the fish out of the flow and on to the surface. It was clearly a huge zed but I managed to net her first time.
“I’m going to find it hard to beat this 14lb 2oz beauty!”
Scott Taylor – 14lb 2oz zander
"I reckon this could have been a record zander"
A LURE angler has banked what he believes to be a new British record zander – but he’ll never know for sure as he didn’t have any scales to weigh the fish.
Robert Onicala, from Bedford, targeted the Great Ouse for a few hours after his nightshift, and although perch were his intended quarry, something much larger ended up taking his bait.
“I caught several perch in one spot before moving to a new stretch that I’d never fished before,” he said.
“I tried a few casts when all of a sudden something smashed violently into my lure!
“At first I thought it must be a pike, but when it came to the surface I was shocked to see it was a monster zed.”
For the next few adrenalin-fuelled minutes the 30-year-old prayed the huge predator wouldn’t snap his 8lb fluorocarbon leader, but despite a couple of powerful surges, Robert finally netted his prize.
He added:
“It was absolutely massive. I’m so gutted I didn’t have any scales or a measuring tape on me – I reckon this could have been a new British record.
“I’ve shown the picture to my friends and they reckon the fish is a metre long!”
The huge fish fell to a 2.8ins Keitech Swing Fatt lure.
Robert’s giant zander from the Great Ouse
Tough lure session ends with shock big perch - Adam Melton
“When lure fishing for autumn perch, I prefer to target the deeper water in the middle of a river, but by fishing a small slack during my latest trip to the River Thames I managed to bank a new personal best.
“It had rained extensively for the two days leading up to the session, so when I got to the banks at 9.30am I was greeted by relatively high water with poor clarity – but I’d caught in conditions like this before on creature baits. After tying on a crayfish-imitation lure to a 5g jighead, I began casting into the middle of the river.
“For an hour I roved along the bank, making loads of casts to areas I’d caught from before, but never managed a bite. The flow was just too strong – I couldn’t hold bottom and my lure was being dragged all over the place.
“By 10.45am I’d clipped on a ned-rigged Z-Man TRD lure (one of my favourite patterns) but even that failed to draw a response.
“I contemplated calling it a day, but by that point I was near a road bridge with a concrete wall leading up to it. The wall had a 3ft-wide slack area in front of it, with the main flow on the outside, which was now boiling. The slack gave me the best possible chance of presenting my lure well, so I decided to give it a go for 15 minutes before heading home. I flicked the lure out parallel to the bank, jigged it along the bottom a couple of times, then it was fish on!
“It was only 20cm long, but it was a good result on a tough day. After slipping it back I made the same cast, followed by another couple of twitches, before there was a thud on the line.
“I set the hook into a really powerful fish which stripped line and headed into the main flow. Judging from the surge of energy, I thought it was a pike, but the murky water meant I couldn’t be sure. You can imagine my shock when the fish surfaced and I saw stripes and a fat white belly!
“She went in the net at the first time of asking and straight away I knew I’d beaten my old PB of 3lb 6oz. After weighing and measuring her I got a few quick snaps before slipping her back.
“It just goes to show that even when the river looks out of sorts, there are still areas where you can catch the fish of a lifetime!”
Adam Melton’s 4lb 7oz perch
Great start to predator season with a new PB - Joe Atkinson
“My dad and I had our first trip of the predator season to Grafham Water, and began our day fishing an area where we’d had success last year. Targeting perch and zander, we drifted over the zone where an abundance of baitfish was showing up on our boat’s echo sounder.
“I started fishing with 15g jigs around 4ins long, and it didn’t take long before I was into my first fish, a new personal best of 12lb 2oz, beating my previous one that had stood for 20 years! The insane numbers of fry made the fishing challenging, but we added two more zander to 6lb and some small perch. It was a great start to the season.”
Joe Atkinson – 12lb 2oz zander
Huge perch falls during Classic match
THOM Hunt was the envy of all anglers competing in this year’s World Predator Classic when he boated the largest perch of the contest at 4lb 6oz.
During the first day of the weekend-long event on Cambridgeshire’s Grafham Water, the lure-fishing fanatic struck into a string of big fish when he targeted marginal weedbeds with crankbaits.
“On the Saturday I had an unbelievable session and caught perch of 3lb 12oz, 4lb 3oz and 4lb 6oz,” he says.
“It was a hard competition this year, with 100-plus anglers fishing, so to manage a brace of fours about an hour apart but from different areas of the lake was incredible!”
Thom’s catches ensured that he and his boat partner finished fourth overall in the competition.
Thom Hunt and 4lb 6oz perch from Grafham Water
Only bite results in 16lb 5oz zander!
Martin Jauncey couldn’t complain when on a recent session on the River Severn his only bite came from an awesome 16lb 5oz zander.
He told Angling Times:
“Zeds typically love roach deadbaits and I did fish half of one on one rod, but I also legered a lamprey section into the middle of the river on an another.
Lamprey bleed for a long time in the water, so I just thought it’d give me an edge, but they offer something different to what the zander normally see on this river.
Half-way through the session, I realised my plan had worked as I received a single knock on the lamprey rod, which I picked up fast.
I waited for another knock before striking, as I know that zander can drop the bait quickly.
I wanted to make sure it had the bait fully in its mouth.
The fish didn’t run a lot so I knew it wasn’t a pike – It was just like dragging-in a heavy weight as it stayed very deep.
I don’t normally panic in my fishing but it was a rush to get it in the net when It first surfaced!
I’ve caught a number of 15lb-plus zander in the past and my personal best is 20lb 2oz, but for me it never gets old seeing a fish of that size slip into your net.”
"I was desperate to catch that big zander...and did!" - Harry Langley
“I walked up and down my favourite stretch of river for ages without a bite, switching lures every now and then to find the colour that the big zander really wanted.
Eventually I clipped-on a Fox Rage Zander Pro pattern and almost instantly landed a little jack pike. It was a good bit of action, but I was desperate to catch that big zander!
A few casts later I had an aggressive take but the fish didn’t seem too big at the start.
All of a sudden, this huge zed went crazy and gave all she could to shake the hook, but she was soon safe in the net.
It was mission accomplished, with a 12lb 2oz Zed”
"I reckon this pike will be a future British record" - John Goble
“For years I’d wanted to improve my Norfolk Broads pike best of 35lb 10oz and after hearing of a few thirties caught recently I knew I had a chance.
“My mate and I set up in a likely spot and I decided to fish with two rigs – one with a roach livebait and the other with a free-lined section of lamprey.
“After half-an-hour I hadn’t had a bite but I accidentally backed into the rear rest holding up my lamprey rod, which ultimately moved the bait out of position.
“Before reeling in I twitched it a couple of times and then WHACK! Pike on!
“I backwind all my fish but this one kept the handle spinning, and coupled with the bend it imparted in the rod I knew it was a monster.
“When It surfaced I shouted ‘oh my god’ before my mate netted it first time – it was a proper magical moment!
“It was so long! I didn’t realise how big it was.
“My mate said: ‘You’ll never believe it… it’s 38lb 2oz and 49 inches long!’
“I’m 75-years-old and not in the best of health so I’m super elated to have caught this pike.”
Trout is the golden ticket for pit pike!
A 200-acre Lincolnshire gravel pit has provided Mark Doodson with one of his best-ever predators – this 26lb 8oz pike.
The impressive specimen is one of the biggest pike to grace Mark’s rods in recent seasons, as he continues a 25-year quest to beat his current pb of 31lb.
He told Angling Times:
“The fish was in outstanding condition and truly a sight to behold – I was completely blown away.”
A golden trout deadbait fished into a deep hole just 10 yards out secured the run from the pike.
Mark also caught two other double-figure pike during the same session.
Big zander falls on full moon
PEARL-coloured lures fished under a bright full moon is a deadly combination for huge zander according to Tom Watts, who hooked into this 15lb giant during his latest session.
It was the largest of five zeds for the Doncaster, South Yorks angler, who lure fished deep areas of both the tidal and non-tidal Trent in the same evening.
He said:
“The high barometric pressure and a fairly new moon seemed to put the zander on the feed!
“All five gave very aggressive hits but were only really interested in the pearl-coloured lures for some reason”