How to catch a zander or walleye?

Depending on where you live (Northern America or Europe) you have a beautiful and smart fish in your waters. This fish grows big and anglers loves to catch it especially using different artificial lures like crankbaits, slashbaits or softlures. In America you have walleye and his close cousin (slightly bigger) lives in Europe.

Both fish live in similar habitats, they have common feeding patterns and habits. In Poland we hunt for zander usually using boats in big dam reservoirs or fishing from the shore in big rivers like Odra or Vistula. Both approaches are very different and very attractive for me. 

I love to starting my boat at summer sunrise in the morning fog to start fishing on the shallows near to the shore where zanders come to feed at night and are easy to catch in the first hours of the day. I usually look for places 1m(3ft) to 3m(9ft) deep and use softlures on very light jig heads - 5g - 10g. If zanders are there you can ecspect a lot of bites at any minute. If after 1 - 2 hours of trying ou won't find them usually you should move to deeper places with lot of underwater structures or sunken trees etc. Those are places where zanders spent the day hiding in the shadow (they don't like bright light) and anglers are able to catch them all day long in short periods of activity. Depending on the depth of your fishery you should look for places 4m(12ft)- 15m(45ft) deep and use much heavier jig heads (10g - 40g). If you use thin braided line you can use lighter jig head - fishing is beeing more finesse and also more effective if zanders aren't very active.

 Fishing for zander in the river is for me the whole new thing. People fish for zander in rivers during whole season, but for me it starts with the first frost - usually in late september or october. I look for deep spots with some current, and I'm using big softlures on heavy jig heads trying to catch a zander especially during the dusk and down, but also during the whole day if it is cloudy and dark. Lot of people are catching zanders in rivers also at night. I'm trying that sometimes also with some result, but this method is slightly different - you look for shallow spots near to the shore were predators are hunting for the prey. Best lure to use in this conditions are long and thin (imitating bleak) slashbaits or crankbaits.

There is many ways to catch a zander, I presented only my observations and expieriences that I gained during more than 10 years of hunting for big zanders. I caught thousands of those beautiful fishes with lot of big ones more than 90cm (36in) and 7kg (15lb). If you have ANY question or you would like to catch a big zander in polish waters - write me in the comment or on my e-mail.

And for the end - here are some affordable (with free sipping) effective zander lures tested by me. This way you won't have to invest a lot of money and you will be able to try zander/walleye fishing on your own

AliExpress.com Product - MEREDITH 5PCS 10.5g 10cm Lures Fishing Lures soft Fishing Baits Cannibal Soft Lures Shads Fishing Fish JX62-10 AliExpress.com Product - YTQHXY 65mm 1.9g 20Pcs/lot Wobblers Fishing Lures Swimbaits Silicone Soft Bait Double Color Carp Artificial Soft Lure YE-93