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Zander

The Zander also known as the pikeperch is now an established UK freshwater fish species: Stizostedion lucioperca. Originally a native of Eastern Europe but introduced to England, Germany and France since the 1980's.

The Zander is a predatory fish, hunting predominantly at dusk and dawn in cloudy water where it seeks out small bream, bleak, roach, rudd, perch etc. Growing to about 130cm (over 4ft!), it is considered a sporting fish by anglers - although we believe a pike of the same size offers more of a fight! A good fish is around 60cm (2ft).

The colouration varies slightly from light brown to greenish-grey on the back, becoming lighter below the lateral line. The tail and dorsal fins have dark spots.

Zander are now found in many rivers, canals and lakes where they can upset the environment's natural balance of native aquatic life found there. Because of this danger, it is illegal for people to keep, release, or sell certain non-native fish species without a licence.

In inland Europe the Zander is an important food-fish with considerable efforts made to increase the native stocks by rearing in hatcheries. The Zander is easier to fillet than a pike as it doesn't have the 'floating' bones along the lateral line.

The UK Environment Agency has made efforts to stop the spread of the Zander, using bubble nets on canals and using electric netting but this does not seem to stop the spread.

We caught a Zander on the Coventry Canal at: MAP