Braid for Pike / Zander fishing ?

[kestrel]

I could do with some advice for using braid for Pike and Zander fishing. A couple of years ago I used braid for deadbaiting and whenever I hooked a zander they bumped off ? I lost nearly all the fish I hooked, I went back to mono and the problem seemed to go away. I want to go back to braid, any tips / help would be appreciated.

[zedhead]

I use braid exclusively for my piking and zander fishing, with no problems at all, braid offers the distinct advantage for zandering especially as the finicky bites can be detected far better than with mono. Are you sure your hooks are up to the job? they become blunted very easily when using frozen deadbaits.

Always carry a hook sharpener and aslo a good quality hook, like owner trebles.

[kestrel]

I use braid exclusively for my piking and zander fishing, with no problems at all, braid offers the distinct advantage for zandering especially as the finicky bites can be detected far better than with mono. Are you sure your hooks are up to the job? they become blunted very easily when using frozen deadbaits.

Always carry a hook sharpener and aslo a good quality hook, like owner trebles.

 

Hi Zedhead, I think they were sharp, I was using decent hooks , Drennan ,Fox etc. I will get a hook sharpener next time I'm in a tackle shop. I don't think it was the rods as they were only 2 1/2 lb test curve. I always assumed it was the braid as it has no stretch, it was kind of scary hooking a decent fish with braid as you feel every head shake etc.

[Dick Dastardly]

Ive never had a problem with Zeds or Pike on braid.Been using it for a long time now.

 

You say you were using good quality hooks so they would be sharp.Dont be fooled in to thinking that hooks are sharp enough from the packet or stay sharp no matter what the brand.

 

Got to admit that I would have looked to the rods first as well.You say 2 1/2lb TC but are they fastish taper carp rods or more through actioned predator rods?

 

What set ups ie rigs,hook size, bait size etc were you using and when in the fight were you losing them?

 

I definately loose less pike/zeds on braid than I did on mono due (I think) mainly better hooking in the first place.I tend to play both species quite hard as well,maybe this helps?

[Russell Fitzpatrick]

i too use braid for both pike and zeds,never really had a problem,i did bump and lose a few fish, a change to a single size 2 korda wide gape sorted that out!

 

on my close in rod i use 15lb mono,really for no other reason than i had to strip the braid off one night and havent yet repleced it.

 

i never use mono for trotting/drifting float fished baits only for float legering will i use mono with floats,no control lack of feel and more omportantly braid floats well!

[kestrel]

The rods I had at the time were Fox warrior carp rods 2 1/2 lb, maybe that was the reason. I now have a couple of proper pike rods , rated at 3lb ,heavier but they have a much softer through action . For deadbatiing ,I used a 2 oz running rig with a 20lb wire trace with 2 semi barabless hooks. The hooks were drennan or fox sizes varied between 4 and 10. Small roach or lamprey section were my prefered baits.

[Dick Dastardly]

See how you get on with the new rods.

[kestrel]

See how you get on with the new rods.

 

Thanks guys ,I'll have a go with the braid again soon as October comes , it'll be interesting to see whether the through action rods make a significant difference. I hope they do.

[Russell Fitzpatrick]

rods i use for both pike and zander are 2.75's but they are quite soft,made of a glass fibre mix i think,deffo not carbon,always been ok for carp and cats too!

 

good luck kestrel i'm sure you'll be alright!

[bingbong]

i just brought wychwood rogue2 in 2.75lb , will this be not much good for pred fishing then ????