Zander can be caught all day but they are intimidatet by too much light. They hug the ground with only a very slim strike zone of just a few inch. Night fishing however is a completely different ball game. They then become active and hunt all over the water column. I try to keep the lure as shallow as possible, together with the surface feeding bait. Say, 1-3 feet max. A silver/black color casts a better contrast against the sky than chartreuse but still reflects flash to the sides.
Featureless the canal is only on the surface. It has been widenend and partially reconstructed multiple times. I use the navionics software on my cell phone to mark catches. Good spots are hard earned and well kept secrets. The ground is surprisingly different, with respect to both snags and fish. Problem is the zander usually chase their prey over the smooth sole until they can press them against the embankment. They do the same with the lure and dont strike until you come very close to the snags, no matter where you pick the fish up.
Even at night, most strikes come over the embankment - but some dont. Since everybody uses light, floating cranks, it is hard to tell how a decent far casting seatrout lure will work that reaches out where the big ships churn through the bait.
Zander is one of the very few fresh water fisch I eat, it`s as good as it gets.
