Most anglers dream of catching small fish and big fish. When they go fishing, they constantly dream of catching large specimens, but dreams come true, but very rarely. Basically, the catch contains small individuals and no matter how hard they try, they cannot catch a good fish. As a rule, all the blame for failure falls on the fact that there are no large fish in the reservoir. At the same time, they notice that some fishermen carry only large specimens, not paying attention to the statements of some “losers.”
Choosing a suitable location
The outcome of the entire fishing trip may depend on the choice of a promising place. As a rule, large fish behave very carefully and try to stay at depth, being at a considerable distance from the shore. In order to catch only “large fish”, you will have to try and study the topography of the bottom of the reservoir. To do this, you can use a marker float.
Usually large fish are found in hard-to-reach places, such as snags or rubble of broken branches. In such places the fish feel safe. But it is quite difficult to fish such places due to the high probability of hooks. To fish in such places you need powerful tackle.
If the reservoir is not wide and you can throw it to the opposite shore, then there is every chance of catching a big fish. This is especially true if there is vegetation on the shore. In this case, we can say with confidence that at some distance from the shore (opposite) there are piles of old branches in the water. The bait is delivered to the border between suspected rubble and clean water. The fish will certainly find the bait and try to eat it. In this case, you need to constantly monitor so as not to miss the bite, otherwise the fish will try to pull the tackle into the branches. If she manages to get the tackle behind an underwater obstacle, then a fish escape or a breakage of the tackle cannot be avoided.
Predatory fish
Predatory species include those that eat other individuals. They all have a healthy mouth and many sharp teeth. The most prominent representatives are: pike, perch, catfish, burbot, and pike perch.
Pike
Pike is the largest representative among predatory fish. The body is long, dark green or black (depending on the habitat), has many stripes, spots on the side and a dull white belly. Weight reaches up to 35 kg, and length – 1.5 m.
This is one of the earliest fish to spawn. Pike traditionally lay eggs in March. This happens in thickets at a depth of up to 2 m. It reproduces within 2-4 weeks.
Pike lives in any rivers, lakes and a wide variety of reservoirs. It cannot survive only in small closed reservoirs, where the water freezes right down to the bottom. Fish are able to live both in deep and shallow waters.
Pike are caught using live fish or various artificial baits, depending on the time of year.
- Spring. During this period, the best bait will be: worm, caddis, leech. Suitable for large specimens: live bait, frogs, river lamprey.
- Summer. Best to use: perch, roach, gudgeon, bleak.
- Winter. Most suitable here: crucian carp, perch, roach.
In open waters, artificial baits such as spoons, wobblers, silicone or foam rubber, oscillating or rotating baits will be good. And in winter, this predatory fish will bite well on a vertical spoon and balancer. Read more about choosing lures for pike fishing with a spinning rod.
Perch
The perch has a hump-shaped body, dark green in color, compressed on the sides, which have dark vertical stripes. The weight sometimes reaches 4-5 kg.
It is found in small and large rivers, as well as flowing and standing reservoirs. Small specimens are usually found in shallow waters, but more serious ones can be found in deep areas.
The perch biting period is observed after spawning (early September). Autumn fishing with spinning rods is quite successful. During this period, artificial spinning baits, live bait or whitebait are good.
There is no bite during spawning.
If you fish with a spinning rod, then pay attention to such equipment as a retractable leash. A very effective spinning rod for catching perch and pike perch.
Som
Catfish live alone. They are of considerable size. The weight reaches 300 kg, and their length can be up to 5 m. A distinctive feature of the catfish is a large head with a wide mouth. He has a pair of long mustaches above his upper lip and several short ones above his lower lip.
Catfish are found in large reservoirs in the central and southern parts of the country. He lives in deep holes. It emerges from them in the spring, when the water temperature becomes warmer. Before summer he may visit factories or bays.
More successful fishing occurs when the water becomes warmer than 10 degrees Celsius. By spring the bite gets better as the temperature rises. After spawning, it is worth catching it near holes, but when it gets hot, it feeds at night. During the rainy season, catfish eat well during the day. Before winter, the bite becomes inconsistent, and catfish often change their preferences.
Catfish is an omnivorous fish. For spinning fishing, jig baits and wobblers are suitable. In the spring, dung worms or small live baits are suitable for bottom fishing. In summer it is worth using both large insects and small fish. By autumn they switch to frogs, crustaceans and pieces of meat.
Burbot
Its body is elongated, dark brown-green in color, with dark and light spots on its sides. The weight of burbot reaches 25 kg, and the length is up to 1 m.
Spawns between December and February. Lives in quiet and clean waters, closer to the bottom. Likes to hide in shelters. It prefers larvae, worms and small fish in food.
It usually bites in winter, starting in autumn. The best catch will be at night or in bad weather.
In winter, on ice, fish are caught using the following methods: snitching or girder. In cold spring and autumn - feeder, donkeys, elastic band. From the boat to the rings.
Zander
Schooling fish. The body is oblong, dark green on the back with bright black vertical stripes, the abdomen is light. Weights reach 20 kg or more.
Pike perch are not found in shallow waters that are muddy or overgrown. He loves clean and spacious bodies of water. Prefers rocky bottoms and holes. Large species live at depths, in pools. In shallow waters it can only be found during periods of spawning or hunting.
Walleye can be caught all year round.
Suitable for fishing under ice: crucian carp and roach. For open waters it is worth taking: minnows, river lamprey or also roach. Night fishing - bait from frogs and crayfish. Detailed article about ice fishing for pike perch using a spoon.
Silicone and foam fish and oscillating spoons are suitable baits for spinning (in spring and autumn). In summer it is worth using wobblers and spinners, and in winter - balancers and vertical spinners.
You can read how to catch pike perch on a retractable leash in a special article.
Lure
There is nothing special to do on a pond without bait, especially if you want to see large specimens of fish in your catch. Moreover, the bait should be enough to lure the fish and try to keep it in one place. The bait doesn't have to be expensive. All you have to do is cook the porridge, add flour and you can go fishing. As an option, you can add a pack of purchased mixture to your homemade bait. In any case, it will be cheaper if you use only a store-bought mixture.
The bait is delivered to the fishing site using any available method. This could be a hand throw. Naturally, you can’t throw it far with your hand. Therefore, you can use a slingshot or a special feeder, such as a “rocket”. This method allows you to deliver food over a considerable distance.
If funds allow, you can purchase a special remote-controlled boat and deliver bait in this way, combining business with pleasure. With the help of a toy boat you can bring bait to any distance.
At the same time, it should be remembered that the bait does not start working immediately, but after some time. Sometimes you have to feed the fish all day and only in the evening or the next morning a positive result is possible.
Therefore, catching big fish requires a serious investment of time and money. If one of the fishermen managed to catch a large fish, then it was rather an accident and luck, if he did not bait the place.
Bait
If you purposefully catch large fish, you should create conditions in advance so that small fish do not take part in the bites. To do this, you should take a hook of the appropriate size and attach bait to it, which will be too tough for the “little things”. To do this you need to take:
- corn;
- peas;
- worm (crawling);
- barley;
- boilies;
- frog (for catfish).
First you need to select a hook of the appropriate size. Hook number 10 is perfect. To cut off small fish, several grains of corn, peas or pearl barley are placed on the hook. The hook must be completely filled. You can leave a little free space so that in case of a bite, the nozzle can move out, freeing the tip of the hook. At the same time, the hook tip may peek out, but no more than 1 mm. Then the hook can be successful and the fish will be reliably hooked.
Sometimes they use a hair rig, when the nozzle is attached separately from the hook, and the hook is left free. As a rule, such equipment is used for carp fishing. The equipment used is a feeder with a reel. Since the carp sucks in food, it sucks in the bait along with the hook. Finding a foreign object in his mouth, he tries to free himself from it, but it is not so easy, and he ends up hooked.
Patience
This is something that many anglers lack. As a rule, the tackle is checked very often, depending on the bait used. This period is about 5 minutes and depends on the speed at which the bait is washed out of the feeder. But to catch a big trophy specimen, you need to leave the bait in the water for a long time. But some experienced anglers leave the bait in the water for 2-3 hours and wait. In this case, the tackle is checked if:
- in case of idle bites, when the bait is damaged;
- if the bottom is muddy, then there is a possibility that the bait will swim and the fish will not be able to find it;
- if you want to replace one nozzle with another.
When the gear is in the water for a long time, you have the opportunity to do your own thing on the shore. As a rule, this is work on preparing the camp and creating proper living conditions in it. After all, this type of fishing requires being on the pond for several days.
To create conditions for such fishing, you should know for sure that large fish live in this reservoir.
How to look for a fishing spot on trophy fishing
We continue to publish on our portal articles by Christophe Kuderman, who is one of the most famous carp anglers in Europe.
His specialty is catching the largest carp. He has broken records more than once and is the only trophy fisher in the world who has caught big fish in completely different water areas, in different parts of the Old World. In this article we will talk about such a concept as watercraft. An excellent English word that can be translated as “water knowledge”, “water craft”, in general, this is the essence of carp fishing. The ability to read a body of water, the ability to place equipment where needed. The ability to correctly build tactics and fishing strategy.
Location means the area we generally choose to fish. Micro location means a small area in the chosen location where we are going to place our rigs. In other words, a location is an area measuring 30 x 30 meters, and a micro location is an area measuring about 2 x 2 meters. These dimensions may vary depending on the size of the lake and its structure. When it comes to large lakes, locations can be several times larger. But the micro-location still cannot be larger than 5 x 5 meters .
When choosing a location, we must ask ourselves, “What do we already know about the chosen lake?” Before fishing, it is important to know the main characteristics of the lake and collect as much information as possible from those who have already fished there. This helps a lot in the beginning when we start to put together a picture of the lake in our head. This is the beginning of a journey whose ultimate goal is to find a micro-location.
I want to warn you right away so that you do not trust information from other fishermen too much. Often not everyone has good intentions; often people themselves do not understand the mistakes they have made.
When gathering information, always put depth first . This will allow you to reduce your search time. Let's say there is no point in going to the depths in the spring. You should be looking in shallow water where the carp are going to go spawn. In these places, the water warms up quickly and after a hard winter, carp needs warmth and natural food. It will stay near shallow areas of the reservoir.
also need to take into account the direction in which the wind is blowing . A warm southerly wind is best as it greatly influences the movement of the carp by mixing the water and changing its temperature. But keep in mind that in the summer it is difficult to find carp based only on the depths in the reservoir. He could just be everywhere. Therefore, it is best to choose a medium depth. As autumn approaches, the carp tend to drop deeper, so you can find them somewhere between the average depth and the deepest parts of the lake.
Most anglers have a stereotype that they need to look for the deepest part of the lake, but mine says that this is not always true. It is true that carp live in deep water, but they do not feed there. And we need precisely feeding places for carp . It is important.
After depth, structure is an important aspect. First, you must clearly understand how things work with underwater obstacles. Fallen trees, weeds, stumps, snags are what you need to pay attention to. In these places the carp feels safe. These places are also rich in fish food. But they are not the best locations for fishing. You must understand that fish prefer to rest in these places .
I once went fishing in France, where carp were congregating under a large tree leaning over a lake. The carp stood there constantly. And many anglers threw their rigs there. But no one ever caught the carp. The nozzle lay almost at the fish’s mouth, but there was no result.
Also, we must not forget about islands, ledges and plateaus. These relief places with differences in depth are the road along which carp move around the lake. Also, different water flows gather here and the food that the fish is looking for accumulates on the edges.
To find points in large water areas, it is more convenient to use a boat and an echo sounder, but a marker rod also allows you to perfectly explore your swim . When I go to small bodies of water, I don’t shy away from looking for a fishing spot the old-fashioned way from the shore. Therefore, do not rely on heavy equipment. It is quite possible to successfully catch big fish without swimming in the water area.
So, a good starting location will be shallow water in the spring, medium depth in the summer, and an average between the deepest depth and the average depth in winter and autumn. Be sure to explore the islands, the area between which is full of edges.
The most important part of fishing. Here you should under no circumstances spare any time or effort. The problem is that really good micro is really hard to explain. I can only give general information. Because there are so many lakes and rivers of all kinds that each represents a unique case.
After you have found a promising location, you need to select a micro-site on it. This is where it will be difficult to control a marker rod. The best way is to sail a boat, tap the bottom, or even dive. You can also use special prodding sticks, which are produced by many companies.
Using auxiliary tools you can find a 1 x 1 meter area. This is especially important when you are fishing among grass. Finding an area in the middle of the grass that is clear of algae is a great success . If there is no relief, as they say. The bottom is a completely monotonous topography, then you need to try to find a small window of another bottom . For example, a small hard spot in the middle of a muddy bottom. Or a small muddy area in the middle of a gravel bottom. And so on.
Initially you should look for a hard bottom. But if the fish don’t bite from the hard bottom, you can try moving to a soft area. By soft area I mean a section of muddy bottom, with a mud depth of no more than 5-15cm. Moreover, it should not stink and there should be no fallen leaves there. Rotten leaves and grass on the bottom are the main sign that the carp have not fed in this area of the bottom for a long time . Otherwise the bottom would be clean.
The silt should also not be too deep, otherwise our bait will be pulled down by the leadcore and sinker. Carp absolutely avoid deep silty areas because they mean that all the dirt and debris collects in these places.
I repeat that I mean precisely the areas of the bottom where the silt is no deeper than 15 cm. The first reason is that the correct silted area is difficult to find . The second reason follows from the first - anglers rarely fish on muddy bottoms, and accordingly carp are less careful there. This is a safe place for him to naturally feed. Especially bloodworms. In such places I really like to use a floating bright citrus boilie Pineapple Banana, which I attach to a sinking nutritious boilie.
So, if our rig is not working on hard bottom for a long time, it could mean that the carp are feeding on their natural food. We have to change gears and start catching carp from the mud.
If we catch carp from a hard bottom, then we have three options: sandy, clay or rocky bottom. For me personally, the sandy bottom is the best place. It is easiest for carp to find our bait there. Clay bottoms are similar to sand bottoms, but on some lakes they are really hard to find. Most often it is just a microscopic area. Its advantage is that plants never grow on it. I prefer to avoid rocky bottoms, except when fishing in gravel pits, where this type of bottom is common to the entire reservoir. The problem with a rocky bottom is that there is a high chance that you will damage the hook tips on the rocks.
The border between soft and hard bottom is a very good choice . I place the nozzle right along the border. Not soft and not hard, but in the middle. The combination of sand and silt is very good. Small fish are bolder and will feed from the hard bottom. Large fish will stick to the boundary between soft and hard bottom. Just where our nozzle lies. Thus, we will divide the fish into small and large.
- Exploring the depths of the reservoir
- In summer we choose average depth, in spring shallow water, in autumn and winter - the average between the deepest and average depth
- We explore the relief in these parts of the reservoir
- You should not fish at great depths, near snags - the fish do not feed in these places. Brovki - the road along which the carp moves
- We are looking for hard areas of the bottom of a small area
- If they don’t bite, we look for muddy areas where the mud is no deeper than 15cm
- We are trying to fish on the border between the soft and hard bottom.
