Zandermasters Round Two

Zandermasters, one of the best competitions around, zero profit, unsponsored and with a good crowd of familiar faces.

I’m no zander expert by any means, but after a 5th place finish last year I was pretty confident that I could pull off a top 10 finish. Armed with the usual lure selection of fork tails and shads from 4-6″, 15-35g jig heads and a selection of fast action rods it was time to go play the game.

We started strong and about 1-2 hours into the 5 hour competition I had landed around 8-10 fish, hearing reports of what others were catching I thought I was doing alright. Combine this with the fact that last year I only caught in the last 1/3rd of the comp and finished on 11 fish, confidence was high. Until the engine died.

Match the hatch, Sakura drop fork

The engine wouldn’t start, the choke had failed, stuck on and was flooding the engine with fuel. Nothing for it but to call the lodge and request tow, I gave our exact location with buoy numbers and the direction of our powerless drift. 10 minutes later, no rescue, called the lodge and apparently the rib had been sent out. Another ten minutes, still no rib. One hour and five progressively angrier phone calls later and the rib arrived. What if we had had a more serious problem? Dangerously slow response time if you ask me.

50cm+ exactly what you want in a competition 

Back out on the water we had 2 more hours to make up for lost time and catch up with the leading anglers. Landing fish averaging 30-35cm with the odd 50+cm thrown in was helping build up a good score, but the lost time had cost us. Back on land scores were counted, good to see Andy Mytton take first place. Having chatted with Andy earlier, we were looking forward to fishing after the competition, when the light drops and the fish move shallower.

I like messing around and seeing what I can do with lures that are far from what most people would use, today I had brought a few slow jigs with me. I tried for ages to land a zander on one and despite one solid hit I failed, next time I’ll bring lighter ones, the fall rate from the 60g jigs was just a little too fast I think. So out came the Sakura Skoons, a spoon I am confident I can catch zander with, and along with a few bonus trout I managed a few more zander.

Zander aren’t just on the bottom…