Fishing on Lake Ladoga: what kind of fish is found, where to catch, reviews

Fishing rules on Ladoga

There are no specific rules for fishing on Lake Ladoga. There are only restricted areas where you either cannot fish at all, or you can only fish at certain times. Otherwise, the fishing rules are the same for the entire Leningrad region.

The list of rules includes mainly prohibitions. However, quite logical. You must not litter on the shore or damage coastal vegetation. You cannot fish from unregistered vessels, except for very small ones:

rowing boats with a carrying capacity of up to 100 kg;
kayaks – up to 150 kg;
inflatable boats – up to 225 kg.

Staying near bodies of water with prohibited fishing gear is also prohibited. In general, fishing can only be done using gear with one hook. In some cases, there can be up to 10 pieces of such “single” gear. But nets, nets and electric fishing rods, that is, gear for mass fishing, are prohibited. Also, fishing in some places on Lake Ladoga may be prohibited year-round or in certain months.

Attention! When fishing, you must have identification documents with you.

The size of the fish, which must be at least a certain weight, and the size of the catch are also limited. The latter is sometimes counted in kilograms, but in some cases the number of specimens caught is also taken into account.

Attention! Catching any type of red fish is prohibited year-round.

Nearest populated areas:

Zelenogorsk city	Ilyichevo village near the station	Lebyazhye village near the station
Ozerki village near the station	Pervomaiskoe village near the station	Roshchino town
Serovo settlement	Solodovo village	Ushkovo populated area

What kind of fish is found in Lake Ladoga: list with photos and names

Due to the relative abundance of Ladoga’s inhabitants, there is no particular point in listing all the fish. Moreover, confusion often arises among the photos and names of fish living in Lake Ladoga. Sometimes this is confusion due to local names, sometimes it is malicious misleading of people. And in some cases, ichthyologists themselves still have not come to an agreement on how to classify a fish: as a species or as a subspecies.

In Lake Ladoga you can catch:

perch;
bream;
roach;
smelt;
pike;
burbot;
silver bream;
whitefish;
trout;
lake salmon;
other fish, including sturgeon.

Perch

Predatory fish. One of the most numerous species of fish in Lake Ladoga. It is found everywhere. The greatest number is where there is most prey, that is, in the southern part of the lake. But you can meet perch anywhere in Ladoga. Even in deep places.

Attention! In Lake Ladoga there is no such fish as the greenling.

Terpug is a sea fish. Lives in the Far East, Okhotsk and Barents Seas. Belongs to the family of scorpiomorphs, subfamily of greenlings. But since the greenling is very similar in appearance to freshwater perch, the latter can be sold under the guise of a greenling.

Bream

Prefers to stay on the southern side of Lake Ladoga. In the absence of humans, bream can grow up to 10 kg. But because of fishing enthusiasts, specimens weighing 2-3 kg are usually caught on a hook. Found in the bays of Lake Ladoga and Volkhov Bay.

Roach

A relatively small “herbivorous” fish that serves as a food source for larger predatory species. Distinguished by orange fins and eyes. Roaches eat the remains of plants, small insects and their larvae that live and winter in the coastal zone.

In summer, on Lake Ladoga, fishing for roach from the shore is organized in shallow places overgrown with plants. In winter, this fish prefers to stay in depth, staying closer to the middle of the lake.

Smelt

Industrial fishing object and marine life. But in Ladoga there is a lake subspecies of European smelt, which is called smelt. This is a small fish with an elongated body. The size of the smelt is no more than 10 cm, and the weight is no more than 8 cm. You can catch smelt with a fishing rod only for fun. But many do not deny themselves this pleasure.

Pike

It can grow up to 1.5 kg and weigh up to 35 kg. But due to the many fishermen, the pike caught usually have a length of up to 1 m and a weight of up to 8 kg. The fish has a torpedo-shaped body. Predator.

Prefers to stay in the coastal zone. Hunts from an ambush, which it arranges in thickets of aquatic plants.

Burbot

Predatory fish of the cod family. The burbot's body is covered with a thick layer of mucus. Leads a nocturnal lifestyle. Feeds in shallow water. Hunts small fish and frogs.

The peculiarity of fishing for burbot is that this fish bites best in inclement windy weather. Moreover, the colder the air, the better the burbot bites. The fishing season for it falls in the fall.

Gustera

To determine who took the bait, you will have to count the fish's pharyngeal teeth. Externally, the silver bream is very similar to bream. But the bream has 5 teeth on each side, the silver bream has 7, and they are located in two rows.

It can grow up to 35 cm and weigh up to 1.5 kg. But you shouldn’t delude yourself. Usually you come across specimens weighing only 100-200 g.

Whitefish

Whitefish is found everywhere in Lake Ladoga. There are 7 forms of this species. Some of them live only in lakes, others live in lakes and rivers. In Ladoga, the Yam whitefish is especially distinguished, which lives at great depths and is found in the northern part of the lake.

vendace

Belongs to the whitefish family. It grows up to 13-20 cm. It feeds on small crustaceans, therefore it is one of the lowest links in the food pyramid.

The body is strongly flattened laterally, making the fish look like a herring. The vendace lives in the depths. Doesn't like warm water. Prefers sandy or clay bottom.

Trout

She's a brown trout. Belongs to the salmon family, genus loaches. Fishing for lake trout, like other rare red fish that live in Lake Ladoga today, is prohibited almost everywhere.

Salmon

He's a salmon. The population of Ladoga salmon has decreased significantly recently. Catching this fish is prohibited year-round in any area of the lake.

Perch on Ladoga. Strategy and Tactics

Part 1 Strategy and Tactics

M. Balachevtsev

Strategy

Information

Information from Internet resources is a wildly unreliable source. And if you can still trust some information on specialized sites, then on social networks 90% of the information is pure garbage, and even harmful. I'm not even talking about various types of “stuffing”.

At one time, when there was no Internet at all, and only boys in crimson jackets had mobile phones, we used similar “stuffing” among our company. Now everything is great - you can read about any body of water on the Internet. And before... You look at the map. Military map, issued in 1953, 200 meters, exchanged for whatever was needed from any ensign. You see the lake. What kind of lake? Is there anything interesting there? There is a path to the lake, the train is 10 km away. It is clear that going to check it yourself is a whole undertaking. Now I jumped into the car and in a couple of hours on the shore. And before that there was a bus, a metro, a train, a bus again... But you can choose “help from a friend”)))

- Vasya, I accidentally heard on the train... Lake... Perch up to 300g and a lot

- No, I can’t do it myself. I have tonsils...

— The man said there was a path

- I don’t know for sure, but his box was heavy.

Here is such a “stuffing”. And some lakes were discovered just like that by our company. I used this myself and fell for such “stuffing” myself.

Now there are social networks and there is no need to substitute “friends” - you can substitute a huge army of unfamiliar readers of social networks. Well, for example... On Friday, by the evening, you or your friends found a fish somewhere in Cherny, for example, “near a pine tree” and it seemed that almost no one had burned it. It is clear that on Saturday there will be 200 people there and it will not be possible to fish normally. But no problem. We post on social networks (it would be nice also in a larger group) a couple of photos with the catch (even from last year) and write “This evening we found a fish in Ligovo. The fields are almost untouched." That's all. Tomorrow, “at the pine tree” there will no longer be 200 people, but only 100, or even less. And the battle will be in Ligovo. And if they burn it, it’s also not scary, because you can always say “the button accordion is not mine, the man showed it...”.

But this is not the main problem of receiving information from mass sources. The main problem is that such information is very late. I will talk about this below, but in today’s realities, a flock “lives” for a very short time. Previously, you could go to one clearing for a couple of weeks and successfully catch perch. Now it’s 1-2 days, sometimes 3-4. Then it is broken down to zero. And when you received the information and then went, there will already be a lot of people there and very few fish.

It’s a little easier on fishing sites. Every person there is not a faceless “Vasya”, but a very specific person. Yes, sometimes he’s a jerk, but if you communicate on this site, then you already know who’s a jerk and who’s adequate and whose words you can trust. However, there are incidents here too. For example, I have several friends. Very adequate guys. But when Sanya tells me, “The sea is just pike! Come!”... I always ask again, “How many pieces did you take out?” “Yes, there’s a lot of her there, I caught one and there were also exits, gatherings, attacks...” And the person is not at all to blame. He is normal. It’s just that either this is enough for him, or he simply cannot adequately assess the situation. The issue is the same with perch on Ladoga. A person could stumble upon a hole near a pebble with a school of local minke whale and lift 5 kg from one hole, after sitting on it for half a day. The fact that the people around him sucked hard - he either did not notice or did not attach any importance to it. The catch seemed normal and there were bonuses. But in fact, if you arrive there tomorrow, you won’t catch a damn fish.

Therefore, information must be filtered. And when communicating with the person who gave out the information, you need to ask about everything in great detail. Just not this idiotic phrase “What did you care about?” Well, it’s clear what the fuck is for the lure. And it doesn’t matter which one. When getting information about Ladoga, you need to find out the following:

Ideally, the navigation point for the start of fishing, the end of fishing, and the maximum intensity of fishing.
If there is no point, then
Distance from the shore
Characteristic signs (crack, hummock, large yellow tent left overnight)
How many pieces per hole on average?
How are the people around?
Morning day Evening
Number of people by the end of fishing
How did you get to the point (car, snowflake, on foot)? How's the road? How's the ice? Who swam?

By and large, this is enough to get to the point. Go out, catch some fish and return to shore without incident.

Global movements

Well, here you are on the ice. You don’t have a point, or you did, but there’s a hole there. And where? All around is white, sometimes there are few people, sometimes there are a lot of them. And some directions are completely bare.

There is a rule here... The more people there are, the higher the chance of catching at least something, but the lower the chance of catching a lot.

That is, if you come to a point where 300 people are already working, then there are definitely fish here and the chance of catching a little here is high. But immediately they will start cutting you down and very few people will be able to catch you normally in such a crowd of people. But in an open field there is very little chance of finding fish. But if you find it, then you can catch the trough.

If you are a beginner fisherman, then going on your own search for fish in an open field makes no sense. And you won’t catch, and you won’t learn to catch. Take a clean breath of air. And even if you find it... anything can happen... Once you catch a trough of fish, you won’t become a better fisherman anyway. And in the end, they won’t let you catch it - they’ll spot you, they’ll come and say hello. You don’t yet know how to catch secretly; you flap your paws like a crow’s wings. Don't start drinking tea when a snowball is driving by. In general, there is no need to go into an open field yet.

In general, it is best for a beginner to move to where there are people, but not very many of them.

This is where we can finish about the strategy for winter fishing for Ladoga perch. The most important thing here is INFORMATION. And if it exists and it is specific, then you will be with fish. And if it’s not there, then even if you’re a genius, it’s of little use.

Tactics

Speaking of tactics, we are talking about movements during fishing. That is:

Where to drill?
How long can you sit on an empty hole?
How long should I sit on the working hole?
Is it too far to re-drill?
Where to go?

Let's try to answer these questions. Let's start with “where to drill?” Essentially, we have a white field in front of us, with black dots of fishermen here and there. And if in the summer, while moving on a boat, we see either the terrain below us or fish on the echo sounder screen, then in the winter... Fortunately, an echo sounder that shoots through the ice while moving has not yet been invented. They come up with it and the fish are fucked. For now, only the echo sounder that is built into the head.

Well, it’s morning, there’s a field in front of us. Broken or not broken is not so important. It’s a new day and it’s not so important yet whether they hit a perch here yesterday or not. It doesn't matter for now. For now we are just collecting information about the situation. We got up and drilled, no matter where. But…

We always stand so that the water area you are interested in is in front of your eyes. You stand with your back to the wind (always) and watch. Yes, of course you fish, but the chances of hitting a fish from the first hole are negligible. I can count on my fingers the number of times I arrived at a pond and immediately started fishing. It is clear that if you have excellent information with a navigation point and yesterday evening they found fish here - then yes. And in 90% of cases, the first time we just observe.

There is no need to stand still. This whole crowd of fishermen is essentially one team with one common goal. Find fish. So help your team. Make it a rule - we re-drill every 10 minutes. That is, 10 minutes in one hole without a bite. And the transition to 50-100m.

But where should we go? As a rule, the people around are not idle people. Among them there are those who have information. And fishermen are like perches, that is, they also like to gather in schools. Therefore, it does not happen that the entire crowd is dispersed across the ice in an even layer. And people on the ice are the best echo sounder, which covers a huge area at a time. The only problem is to correctly read the readings of such an echo sounder. And be part of this echo sounder yourself (but, preferably, with a darkened screen).

Try to move so that you can see as many anglers as possible at all times. So that they would be before your eyes.
Always move to the edge of the main crowd of people. Not in the center of the crowd and not at the very peak. A little off to the side. There should be as few anglers ahead as possible in the direction you are moving.

Combining these two rules is not so easy, but it is possible. And we must try to do this. Why? It's simple. Keeping the crowd in front of your eyes, you will notice in time if someone starts to catch. At the same time, if you stumble upon a fish yourself, you will get a few extra minutes of quiet fishing.

Where exactly should I punch a hole? That is, to the right 5 meters, to the left 10 meters? Where? In the summer there are all sorts of edges, holes, but here it’s nothing...

You need to understand that perch in reservoirs such as Ladoga is not tied to the topography and is constantly moving in search of food. That is, behind schools of fry, ripus, roach and no matter what. The fact is that it is not tied to the terrain. And there is no special relief on Ladoga. However, the “bel” is still tied to the relief, or rather, even more likely to the soil. But not always either. There is also a fry that has little attachment to anything at all. And understanding all this ichthyology is just breaking your brain. In general, thinking for the fish is unnecessary. It doesn't matter why the perch was there. It is only important to understand how it stands here and where exactly it stands. And this is just experience. And no theoretical calculations will help here. Each new season will destroy the theory of the previous year. But over the years, experience accumulates, some statistics fit into your head, and now you are no longer walking stupidly into an open field, but going to a specific place... But we have stepped aside.

We do not have (we do not see) the bottom topography. But there is ice relief. And different ice transmits light differently. Does perch need relief? Prey is hidden in the terrain and he can hide in it himself. But when there is no relief, then this relief becomes heterogeneous ice. Transition of light and shadow. Border. We stand in the shadows and look at the light. I do not see you. You see everything.

If the ice is pure black and there are spots of snow on it, then we drill at the border of these spots
If the ice is covered with snow, but there are pieces of clean ice, we drill along the boundaries
If the ice is flat and there is a hummock or a snow bank on it (they generally transmit light very poorly), we drill along the boundary.

At not very great depths, special attention should be paid to hummocks. The hummocked ice from below has a very uneven structure and small fish often hang out in this structure. Well, the perch is right there.

It is worth drilling into the hummock itself if the depth is up to 5 m.

But you started fishing in an open field, so what? And 5 minutes and you will already find yourself in the center of a crowd that has cut you off. What if there are tall hummocks nearby? Not only are the perch hiding in the hummocks, but the fishermen are also smart.

If there are high hummocks nearby, drill so that the hummock covers you from the main mass of anglers. This will extend the life of the hole until the “ear-eared bugs” attack.

In general, where do hummocks, cracks and snow drifts come from? They are taken mainly because of the bottom topography. Yes, there are random ones, purely weather ones. But from year to year there are cracks in the same places and hummocks in the same places. It seems that the differences in depth are nothing at all - about a meter per 300m, but apparently this is enough. That's why

Cracks, like hummocks, are a difference in depth, and if you don’t have a depth map in your navigator, then let the crack be a guide
The same hummock. And if there is a hummock on the shallows, there are very often pebbles under it.

We got hooked on the fish. One hole, then another. Clean field. A man in a yellow overall sat on the left. And now on the right. We go forward, but there are no fish there. We need to go back. Where is this “back”? It's a field. The eye catches on the fishermen, but they don’t sit still...

A crack, a hummock, a dark spot, a snow drift - all these are landmarks to which you can somehow link your movements. You can go back and try a different direction.

Well, we have more or less figured out where to drill in a free search, while you haven’t caught a fish yet. However, almost all these rules work and are already in the process of fishing. But during the fishing process, other rules of movement begin to work, which may turn out to be more important and run counter to those listed.

But first, you still need to catch a fish... And for this you need to understand how much time to spend on the hole. I have already said that if there are no bites, then it’s 10 minutes and we move on. Always? No not always. The following situation is possible, for example. You received information that yesterday there was a perch bite at these coordinates and there weren’t very many people there. And here you are today. There are a lot of people around. Everyone is sitting. In the rest of the water area, as far as the eye can see, nothing is caught. People sit and walk slowly. Dogs and snowmen go back and forth. But in your place (where you came based on information) there are no people, and they will pull out the perch. Not all. But some people pick up a fish every 10 minutes. And what? Should I leave here? No! This is exactly the time when you can experiment with spinners. When can you study the operation of an echo sounder (if you have one). Essentially this means that the fish are there, but they are very passive. And by choosing a spinner, retrieve and presentation for such a passive perch, you will gain confidence in the correctness of your technique and gear. Therefore, in such a situation, the time without a bite on the hole can be increased to 15-20 minutes. And then re-drilling is also not very far away, about 20-50 meters.

However, this is a special case, although not rare. And in this particular case, we are simply waiting for the “exit” of the perch, that is, a sharp, abrupt increase in its activity in the same water area. It may hatch right there, or maybe 100 meters from you. Maybe 500m. Therefore, when staring at the echo sounder screen, you need to have a second eye on the back of your head in order to react to this “peck” in time. And don’t forget about the rule - “sit facing the crowd and with your back to the wind.”

Okay, so you caught a couple of perch... So what? Are we sitting and trying to catch the third one? May be. Or maybe not) While you were catching those two perches, you had to watch the situation in the process. So when is it worth leaving a hole where there was (is) a fish, and when is it worth staying? Everyone here, of course, has their own cockroaches. My cockroach has developed a rule like this

If I catch more/better than 50% of the people around me, then everything is fine and I fish further.

But this rule only works during the non-biting period. That is, when none of the surrounding fishermen are working in “elevator” mode.

If there are more than two such elevator operators within sight, and I don’t have an elevator, but it’s just biting, then we don’t fuck the mumu, but run further, to look for the same elevator.

By and large, you should always try to catch at the level of the first 30% of anglers. If you feel like you are losing to them, then you need to do something. Change something. Because, in fact, you will lose not 30%, but 60% (you simply don’t see how the remaining 30% are caught).

However, you should not forget that the hole from which you catch perch at the very least may be your last. Therefore, it is extremely important to monitor the whole picture on the pond. If not on a body of water, then at least within a radius of 500 meters from you. Exactly 500m is the territory that you can easily control without binoculars, walkie-talkies and phones. Just a normal observation. And it will depend on the general biting situation whether you should catch 1 perch every 10-15 minutes on this hole or is it better to run 100m and catch 15 perch in the same 15 minutes.

I have a simple rule here

If more than 2 people within sight have a “lift”, then the perch has become more active and there is no point in trying to torture single fish.

In recent years, crowds of spinners and jigs are increasingly being caught in the same area. Previously, the spinners walked further and worked along the edge of the unbeaten field, and the “bump shakers” lived closer to the shore. Now, with the development of technology, everyone is caught in the same places. So... If the jig works in elevator mode, then this does not count. You can always distinguish a jig from a spinner even from the back. Watch both of them and the difference will be visible.

The jig always fishes while sitting. The spinner's hook is wider. The jig fish lasts longer. The jig fisherman spends time re-planting the bait. The jig fisherman sits bent over the hole, and the spinner does not look at the fishing rod.

If there are no elevators in the area and the fishing is happening here and there, with a couple of fish per hole for everyone, then there is no point in leaving a hole that is only slightly working. Again, it is in this situation that one can and should study the operation of an echo sounder. But don't forget to pay attention to your surroundings.

However, if the pause in biting is more than 10 minutes, then you still need to move. And where to?

If the choice is between an undamaged field and a damaged field, the choice is obvious! Let's go where the perch haven't been touched yet.

That is, we try, if there is such an opportunity, to drill from the edge of the crowd, in an unbeaten field and not moving too far from places where something is biting. We walk and look for holes where there is at least some reaction to your bait. And we follow people.

Well, now the most important thing is that the distribution has begun somewhere. It’s great if the action of killing striped fish began right here, near you. But this doesn't happen often. Most often this happens somewhere 200-500 meters from you. And if you don’t have a snowball under your ass, then you will find yourself there when all the action begins to fade. And I will consider precisely the case when you do not have technology. Because if you have it, the actions will be the same. And don’t fly into the middle of the pile between the fishermen and don’t try to quickly drill 5m from the angler who found the fish.

Fish, as a rule, are found by those who do not sit in the pile, but jump to the side. Therefore, between the main heap and the distribution point there is always some kind of clear clearing. And a crowd will run across this clearing from the heap to the distribution point. Drilling right in this clearing will get you trampled to hell.

In addition, most often, if a perch is found at one point, this means that at that moment there is a general activation in the reservoir. And this is the best time to look for “your” perch.

Therefore, walk half the distance to the distribution point, but do not go into the pile itself. Move a little aside from the main path and start looking for your fish.

At this moment, the swinging time of the hole is sharply reduced. That is, if there is no reaction on a hole for more than 5 minutes (previously we talked about 10 and 15 minutes), we leave and look further. Move in long dashes (50-70m) towards the distribution point and walk around it a little around the perimeter. Don’t forget about the wind – we always approach the crowd facing the wind.

At the same time, we don’t look into the echo sounder, don’t look at the fishing rod, don’t look at the sky and don’t admire the clouds. We do everything automatically, and our gaze is aimed at the distribution point, where a fair amount of people have already gathered. And here it is very important to understand the general direction of movement of the heap and keep an eye on those who have strayed from the heap, but continue to catch. In essence, your task is to become just such a stray from the heap or, for starters, to take part in a non-main distribution.

Of course, you can also fish in the heap itself. Yes, this is morally unpleasant and it almost never leads to very good catches. Yes, you can cut close to the catcher, drill between the catchers. Catch sidelong glances and absorb the general negative energy of the hungry crowd. And now the roar of snowflakes and the rattling of dogs are added to this. In general, it’s not very pleasant.

A little to the side there may not be such a massive distribution, but it will be quieter there and if you do everything correctly, you will catch longer.

That is, try never to get into the thick of things. Stay on the sidelines and look for fish yourself and make friends (gently!) with those who find fish on the sidelines.

Well, now about the main thing... The distance at which it is possible, necessary, safe and meaningful to get close to the fishing person.

To do this, let’s remember the term “radius of action of the spinner,” which I once voiced. Roughly speaking, this is the area from which you use a spinner to pull the perch under the hole. For example, let’s take a clear field and the perch is evenly distributed under it. You came and drilled into the center. From what area will the perch approach your spoon? It is clear that this is a purely empirical thing. That is, based only on experiments and experience, and not on scientific laws and calculations. Therefore, based on my experience of many fishing trips, I define this “radius of action of the spinner” as follows.

I take it equal to 10 meters for a depth of 5 meters, a 5cm spinner, and zero relief. As the depth increases, the radius increases, and as it decreases, it decreases. As the size of the spoon increases, it grows, and when it decreases, it falls (this is why on Ladoga there is no point in looking for perch with a 3.5cm spinner). The more uneven the relief (edges, stones), the smaller the radius.

In total, we have a spinner range of approximately 15 to 5 m. Where 15m is a flat table at 10 meters depth and you have a large three-sided table hanging. And 5m is a depth of about 1.5 meters, pebbles at the bottom, a difference in depth and a small Maralistic.

Now imagine that in that open field with evenly distributed perch, a person sits in the center and catches. How far should you approach him if he has already collected fish under his hole from a radius of 10 m? That is, having drilled a hole 5m from it, where will you end up? To empty space! Yes, of course you will take away some of the fish from him, but first of all he will not be happy about it. Secondly... And why the hell take it away when there’s already plenty of it. If you drill 10m from the fisherman, you will also not have a strong advantage, because you will only be able to collect half the fish.

Therefore, on average, we drill from the fishing angler no closer than 20 meters (the throwing range of an ice drill by an experienced fisherman). That is, double the radius of action of the spinner.

This same radius is needed for something else. For search. In the situation “for a depth of 5 meters, a spinner 5cm, zero relief”, when searching for fish, each subsequent hole should be no closer than double the radius. That is why it NEVER makes sense to re-drill by 3 meters on Ladoga. Whereas on a small lake at shallow depths on a dump, sometimes you need to make a hole even a meter deep.

Another important point regarding this radius. It depends quite a lot on the activity of the perch. If the perch has hatched everywhere and is actively eating spinners, this radius increases. And when the passive is complete, the perch is covered in leeches, the majority of people switch to jigs - the radius decreases.

And remember the main rule

By drilling a hole closer than 10m from the fishing angler, you will certainly catch “something” (except for possible pussies). But as soon as you did this, you immediately halved the bar for your possible daily catch! You will never have big catches if you get close to the fisherman.

Therefore, it is necessary to monitor successful fishermen, but only to assess the activity of the fish and understand the general direction. And don’t run after them like they’re tied and don’t drill them in the ass.

The most important thing when moving around a body of water with a large number of fishermen is to understand what is happening with the bite now, at this very moment. Your actions will depend on this. Situations can be very different. The perch can be kamatous, barely moving and not wanting to eat our lures. It can be active, but gathers in small flocks. Or maybe he can be active everywhere and really eat.

And the more actively fish are caught in the water area, the more actively you should move. Do not drive or run from crowd to crowd. And look for it yourself, focusing on these same crowds. If you get caught here and there, then actively drill! Don't sit on the hole for too long! Drill clean places!

And now about the fishing technique...

Where to fish on Ladoga

The main thing in life that fish love is food. There is more food for “herbivorous” fish in the shallower southern part of the lake. Many fish feeding on vegetation and small plankton attract predators. Therefore, it is more profitable to catch fish in the southern part of Lake Ladoga, although many species are distributed throughout the entire reservoir. The only question is quantity.

But for amateur fishing, the number of fish is irrelevant. This data is important for those who fish commercially. You can catch whitefish, pike, and sometimes “visiting” catfish in any part of the lake. The place where you really can't catch fish is the middle of the lake. But all recreational fishing takes place no further than a few kilometers from the shore. Even in winter.

Fishing tactics on Ladoga in winter

If you and your companion had single bites on Ladoga or caught a perch, try drilling the area crosswise, starting from the “biting” holes. Based on the echo sounder signal or bites, you can determine the size of the school and try to stir up a school of perch in each hole. An echo sounder will help you find a place where there are signals from at least several fish at the same time. In such a hole, even the most passive perch can be provoked to actively bite. You just need to choose the spinners and play with them correctly.

When the bite starts in one hole, the surrounding perches will most likely swim closer and may also get hooked.

The pace of fishing on Ladoga is often fast, and the holes quickly become empty. When fishing in a crowd, if the bite has died down, there is no point in sitting on the hole with a spoon for more than five minutes. The more passive the perch, the more important it is to get the lure “under its nose.” The holes are drilled very tightly, at a distance of 2-4 m from one another. Often, on the one hand, there may be no fish 3-5 m from a catchable hole, but on the other hand, several fish are caught on the first stroke. There are no recurring schooling fish spots every year, but there are large areas where schools of perch are most often found. For exploratory fishing, more and more Ladoga spinners are acquiring snowmobiles.

On Ladoga, the most reliable way to increase your chances of getting a bite when moving in a crowd is to fish only next to those anglers who have freshly caught perch near the hole. There is no question of any nods, since there is no time to look at the fishing rod, it must convey the bite of the fish with a blow to the hand. By the way, owners of snowmobiles sometimes look not for fish, but for clusters of fishermen and call their motorized comrades over the phone.

How to fish on Lake Ladoga

Theoretically, you can fish from the shore. But if you want to catch something larger than a roach, it’s better to take a boat. You can fish not only with fishing rods and spinning rods, but also with reels. It is convenient to make a path on a rowing boat, luring out large predatory fish. In winter there is no other option but the holes.

River fish, including catfish, sometimes enter the lake. The way of hunting this fish is different from others. Catfish are usually caught from the shore, but the gear is left overnight. Fishing for catfish in Staraya Ladoga may be more successful, since the city is located on the Volkhov River.

The golden mean will be fishing in Novaya Ladoga. This is a fishing village located at the mouth of the Volkhov. If you wish, you can go out into the lake, but there is also a chance to catch pure river fish.

But if Novaya Ladoga can be classified as a fishing spot on the lake, then Staraya Ladoga is not one of them. But the Staraya Ladoga and Novoladoga canals have the most direct connection to the lake.

Fishing on Ladoga in summer

There are several most popular fishing spots on the lake:

Novoladozhsky Canal;
Staraya Ladoga Canal;
Zagubskaya Bay;
skerries.

In the Novoladozhsky Canal, which is functioning today and is full of water, you can catch up to 10 species of fish. The most common ones found there are:

perch;
pike;
zander;
white bream;
roach.

The most common trophy is perch. There are good access roads to this canal.

If you don’t want to jostle among the crowd of fishermen, you can visit the Staraya Ladoga Canal. The access roads to this fishing spot are inconvenient. The canal itself has become shallow and overgrown, making fishing from the shore almost impossible. Optimal use of the boat. In this channel you can catch:

ide;
crucian carp;
roach;
ruff;
pike perch;
pike.

A spinning rod or a float rod is usually used in the canal.

The warmest place on Lake Ladoga is Zagubskaya Bay. The water here warms up to 20-25 °C in summer. The best way to catch pike here is on the girders. But perch, bream and roach are also common trophies.

Skerries or small rocky islands on the lake are attractive with many coves and shallow pools. The islands are accessible for land transport only in winter. In summer you will have to use a boat or speedboat. Roaches, breams and perches live near the islands. Pike ambush them in the reed thickets. At depth, burbot, pike perch and vendace are caught. You can occasionally catch red fish, but this is not recommended.

After studying the map of the depths of Lake Ladoga, you can choose a place for fishing where there is the highest probability of catching the desired type of fish. Only the place for fishing for perch on Ladoga does not matter, since this species lives everywhere and is found even where there is almost no other fish.

You can appreciate the delights of fishing in summer on Ladoga in the video:

Winter fishing on Ladoga

Winter fishing is more dangerous than summer fishing due to the characteristics of the lake: the middle almost never freezes. In addition, strong winds blow through the Ladoga water area in winter, capable of tearing solder away from the shore.

But near the shore, the water freezes to a great depth: up to 60 cm. A strip of strong ice 10-15 km wide forms from the shore. Further, the ice becomes thinner and completely disappears towards the middle of the lake. To catch common winter trophies: perch and roach, there is no need to go far from the shore. These fish winter at a depth of 3-6 m. You can also catch pike in the reed thickets. But amateur fishermen usually boast about winter perch fishing in videos from Ladoga:

Bite forecast

White amur

There is no bite for grass carp. Grass carp are found in deep places.

Loach

There is no loach biting The loach is found in deep places

Chub

There are no chub bites. The chub is found in deep places.

There are almost no chub bites. The chub is found in deep places

Average chub bite Chub is found in deep places

Sluggish chub bite The chub is found in deep places

Good chub bite The chub is found in deep places

Sluggish chub bite The chub is located at shallow depths

Good chub bite The chub is found in deep places

Minnow

No minnow biting Minnow is found in deep places

No minnow biting Minnow is located at shallow depths

No minnow biting Minnow is found in deep places

The minnow bite is worse than average. The minnow is located at shallow depths.

Good minnow bite Minnow is found in deep places

Good bite for minnows Minnows are found in deep places

The minnow bite is worse than average. The minnow is found in deep places.

Very good minnow bite The minnow is located at shallow depths

Very good minnow bite The minnow is found in deep places

Good minnow bite Minnow is found in deep places

Average minnow bite The minnow is found in deep places

Very good minnow bite The minnow is located at shallow depths

Very good minnow bite The minnow is found in deep places

Good minnow bite The minnow is located at shallow depths

Gorchak

There is no bite for the bitterling. The bitterling is found in deep places.

There is almost no bitterling bite. Gorchak is found in deep places

Sluggish bite of bitterling Gorchak is found in deep places

The bite of bitterling is worse than average. Gorchak is found in deep places

There is no bite for the bitterling. The bitterling is found in deep places.

The average bite of bitterling Gorchak is in deep places

The bite of bitterling is worse than average. Gorchak is found in deep places

The average bite of bitterling Gorchak is in deep places

There is no bite for the bitterling. The bitterling is found in deep places.

The average bite of bitterling Gorchak is in deep places

The bite of bitterling is worse than average. Gorchak is found in deep places

The average bite of bitterling Gorchak is in deep places

Dace

No dace bite The dace is located at shallow depths

There is no bite for dace. Dace is found in deep places.

There is almost no dace bite. Dace is found in deep places

Sluggish dace bite Dace is found in deep places

Good bite for dace. Dace is found in deep places.

Good bite for dace Dace is found in deep places

Very good bite for dace. Dace is found in deep places.

Very good bite for dace Dace is located at shallow depths

Very good bite for dace. Dace is found in deep places.

Very good bite for dace Dace is located at shallow depths

crucian carp

There is no bite for crucian carp. Crucian carp is in deep places.

There is almost no bite for crucian carp. Crucian carp is found in deep places.

The bite of crucian carp is worse than average. Crucian carp is found in deep places.

Sluggish bite of crucian carp Crucian carp is found in deep places

The bite of crucian carp is worse than average. Crucian carp is found in deep places.

Average bite for crucian carp Crucian carp is found in deep places

Sluggish bite of crucian carp Crucian carp is found in deep places

Average bite for crucian carp Crucian carp is found in deep places

Good bite for crucian carp. Crucian carp is located at shallow depths.

Carp

No carp biting Carp is located at shallow depths

No carp biting Carp are in deep places

Almost no carp are biting. Carp are found in deep places.

Sluggish carp bite Carp are found in deep places

Carp bite is worse than average Carp is located at shallow depths

Sluggish carp bite Carp are found in deep places

Rudd

There is no bite for rudd. Rudd is found in deep places.

No rudd biting The rudd is located at shallow depths

Sluggish bite of rudd The rudd is located at shallow depths

Good bite for rudd The rudd is found in deep places

Sluggish bite of rudd The rudd is located at shallow depths

Good bite for rudd The rudd is located at shallow depths

Good rudd bite The rudd is found in deep places

The rudd bite is worse than average. The rudd is located at shallow depths.

Good rudd bite The rudd is located at shallow depths

Good rudd bite The rudd is found in deep places

Bream

No bream biting Bream is found in deep places

Sluggish bream bite Bream is found in deep places

Average bream bite Bream is found in deep places

Good bite for bream Bream is found in deep places

Average bream bite Bream is found in deep places

Good bream bite Bream is found in deep places

Good bite for bream Bream is found in deep places

Good bream bite Bream is found in deep places

Tench

No tench are biting Tench is found in deep places

Muksun

No muksun biting Muksun is found in deep places

There is almost no muksun biting. Muksun is found in deep places.

Muksun bite is worse than average Muksun is found in deep places

There is almost no muksun biting. Muksun is found in deep places.

Good bite for muksun Muksun is found in deep places

The average bite of muksun Muksun is in deep places

There is almost no muksun biting Muksun is located at shallow depths

Good bite for muksun Muksun is found in deep places

The average bite of muksun Muksun is in deep places

Lake whitefish

Lake whitefish are not biting Lake whitefish are located at shallow depths

Lake whitefish are not biting Lake whitefish are found in deep places

Lake whitefish are not biting Lake whitefish are located at shallow depths

Lake whitefish are not biting Lake whitefish are found in deep places

Sluggish bite of lake whitefish Lake whitefish are found in deep places

Average bite for lake whitefish Lake whitefish are found in deep places

Lake whitefish bite is worse than average Lake whitefish are found in deep places

Very good bite for lake whitefish Lake whitefish are found in deep places

Good bite for lake whitefish Lake whitefish are found in deep places

Good bite for lake whitefish Lake whitefish are located at shallow depths

Average bite for lake whitefish Lake whitefish are located at shallow depths

Very good bite for lake whitefish Lake whitefish are found in deep places

Good bite for lake whitefish Lake whitefish are found in deep places

Very good bite for lake whitefish Lake whitefish are located at shallow depths

lake trout

No lake trout biting Lake trout are found in deep places

There is almost no lake trout bite Lake trout are found in deep places

Lake trout bite is worse than average Lake trout are found in deep areas

Very good lake trout bite Lake trout are found in deep areas

100