- Joined
- Jul 10, 2019
- Messages
- 669
Had a days fishing yesterday on my local when a member of the committee come along. We were talking for about 20 minutes before we got into a chat about predator fishing. The conversation shifted from Pike to Zander when I'd mentioned that I'd had a weird situation a few weeks prior with what I believe to be a Zander, The fella told me if I did catch it immediately knock it on the head. This kind of threw me off guard and my immediate response was 'Why?'
The conversation went something like this;
Me; Yeah I believe theres one in here still. Few weeks ago I was fishing with a couple of fellas watching me at the fence and when I pulled in the roach I had on my line and the elastic started firing off then went slack repeatedly. This happened 2 times I kept pulling the fish out of whatever it was mouth before I eventually left it hoping I'd somehow hook it thinking it was a Pike (They shouldn't be in the Pond, And come from the connected drain). The elastic fired off once more and I struck and had nothing, But the roach surfaced dead and I saw it lunge out of the water once more. I initially thought it was a Pike but it in that moment I thought it was a very big Perch because I saw the spines as clear as day. Upon pulling the roach in the amount of damage done to the roach seemed pretty excessive for a Perch and when xxxx mentioned it might be a Zander I kinda ran with that as an explanation as the colours and size didn't match up with a Perch. The size form there especially.
Him; Well It was netted last? year?
Me; No it was the year before wasn't it?
Him; Yeah and they took out one Zander.
Me; Yeah they told me they did but they couldn't net the entire thing.
Both; Random talk about lillypads preventing the whole thing being netted.
Him; Well if you do catch it, Knock it straight on the head!
Me; Why?
Him; Because it's in the rules. Because they're not native species...
Me; Neither are Carp (Defensive bitch move I'll admit)
Him; Yeah, well I mean some Carp are.
Me; No they're not.
Him; Well Zander are destructive. Unlike Pike they destroy everything and attack fish for fun. They'll eat anything and everything and attack them alive. Pike will mostly scavenge..
Me;
censored
Trying not to be argumentative
Me; Well if I catch it I'm not killing it, I'll just put it back in the drain where it come from.
Him; Or give it to xxxx, He loves them!
Me; Haha okay then!
Both; Talks about random stuff.
Whats your opinion on this? I've never caught a Zander but it's definitely on top of my to-catch list. I think they're stunning fish, And so far they've done nothing but evade me! I know they're not native fish and I don't know a massive amount of their behaviour but I feel as though his information on their behaviour and views were kinda skewed. Maybe I'm wrong, Maybe they are as bad as he made out.
Thoughts?
The conversation went something like this;
Me; Yeah I believe theres one in here still. Few weeks ago I was fishing with a couple of fellas watching me at the fence and when I pulled in the roach I had on my line and the elastic started firing off then went slack repeatedly. This happened 2 times I kept pulling the fish out of whatever it was mouth before I eventually left it hoping I'd somehow hook it thinking it was a Pike (They shouldn't be in the Pond, And come from the connected drain). The elastic fired off once more and I struck and had nothing, But the roach surfaced dead and I saw it lunge out of the water once more. I initially thought it was a Pike but it in that moment I thought it was a very big Perch because I saw the spines as clear as day. Upon pulling the roach in the amount of damage done to the roach seemed pretty excessive for a Perch and when xxxx mentioned it might be a Zander I kinda ran with that as an explanation as the colours and size didn't match up with a Perch. The size form there especially.
Him; Well It was netted last? year?
Me; No it was the year before wasn't it?
Him; Yeah and they took out one Zander.
Me; Yeah they told me they did but they couldn't net the entire thing.
Both; Random talk about lillypads preventing the whole thing being netted.
Him; Well if you do catch it, Knock it straight on the head!
Me; Why?
Him; Because it's in the rules. Because they're not native species...
Me; Neither are Carp (Defensive bitch move I'll admit)
Him; Yeah, well I mean some Carp are.
Me; No they're not.
Him; Well Zander are destructive. Unlike Pike they destroy everything and attack fish for fun. They'll eat anything and everything and attack them alive. Pike will mostly scavenge..
Me;
Me; Well if I catch it I'm not killing it, I'll just put it back in the drain where it come from.
Him; Or give it to xxxx, He loves them!
Me; Haha okay then!
Both; Talks about random stuff.
Whats your opinion on this? I've never caught a Zander but it's definitely on top of my to-catch list. I think they're stunning fish, And so far they've done nothing but evade me! I know they're not native fish and I don't know a massive amount of their behaviour but I feel as though his information on their behaviour and views were kinda skewed. Maybe I'm wrong, Maybe they are as bad as he made out.
Thoughts?