What is better for pike perch, a whole fish or its pieces?
Let's try to figure this out. When and what does pike perch bite best? It is worth catching whole dead fish during the warmer months of the year. But when choosing bait for each month, you need to pay attention to its size.
When the water warms up as much as possible, and this happens in July and August, it is worth using the smallest fish. Even with tiny live bait 2-3 cm long you can catch a large pike perch during this period. This is due to the large number and high activity of fry during the hot period.
In September, May and June, the size of the fish should be slightly larger. Small fish with a narrow body up to 10 cm in length are well suited for fishing during this period. With the advent of October, the water temperature drops significantly.
Starting from this period, the predator goes to the depths and saves energy for wintering, hunting only when it is completely confident of an easy profit.
As the water cools, pieces of fish begin to dominate the bait. They emit a more intense odor, attracting the fanged predator.
Catching pike with dead fish
In winter, predatory fish do not show much appetite - not like in summer. In winter, you have to change your fishing tactics and try to guess the fish’s preferences. But I have been doing this low-activity winter fishing for a long time and have learned to enjoy it to the fullest. Moreover, in winter I prefer to fish with dead fish.
You may ask, do I fish with it in the summer? No. During the warm water period, from early April to mid-November, anglers have great success catching pike on a wide variety of artificial baits. Pike are very active at this time, and I believe that you should not miss the opportunity to fish in a more productive way. But as the water temperature drops, it becomes harder and harder to catch serious fish, and this forces me to switch to fishing with dead fish.
The second question might be: why a dead fish and not live bait? There is a simple answer to this too. Most large pike become scavengers, patrolling the lake bottom in search of easy prey. From the point of view of a large pike, there is no point in wasting extra energy on hunting when a rich table full of treats is laid at the bottom of the lake.
When fishing with dead fish, I often rely on the cues of nature itself. Let's take, for example, the grebe bird, also called the pochard or grebe. These birds are found in many bodies of water and can often serve as indicators of the location of fish for us.
In general, almost any bird that feeds primarily on fish can help you in this matter. If you notice an increase in the activity of fishing birds, this means that small fish have appeared in the area, which means that predators, including pike, are also staying nearby. And all birds that catch fish have something in common...
Not every bird's dive for fish ends successfully. Once following a great grebe, I counted twelve dives before it was able to catch its prey. Then I asked myself: how often does a fish, mortally wounded by its beak, escape its pursuer? I'm sure quite often. In the summer, in warm water, dead fish decomposes on the bottom very quickly, and during this period, pike have little interest in scouring the bottom in search of food. But when the water temperature drops, dead fish decompose much more slowly, which allows pike to check the bottom in search of victims who have recently said goodbye to life.
When fishing with a dead fish, the angler unconsciously makes a choice in favor of a large pike, since this method of feeding is more typical for large than for small pike. And this is also understandable: by eating carrion from the bottom, a small pike can reveal itself and become a potential target of attack by a larger predator. For this reason, small pike try to stay near reliable shelters.
I know there are many theories about catching pike in the winter, but for 40 years I have tried every possible fishing method in the hope of finding out which is the best. And I realized that in each season at some certain time a certain technique is more successful. And I can say: fishing with a dead fish really works and - yes! – it brings larger prey. Like me at one time, you will most likely even be surprised by the size of the fish living in your pond. But this method of fishing is not as simple as it might seem at first glance.
First you need to prepare for the day of fishing. What am I doing? What I always do is feed potential fishing spots. Since I never fish alone, I bait a fairly wide area, which allows me to install four, and most often six, rods. By the word “wide” I mean a section of a reservoir up to 100 m wide. Throughout the selected section, I throw pieces of chopped fish into the water interspersed with whole, medium-sized dead fish.
I buy most of this fish at the local market, the rest I catch myself; sometimes, if I’m lucky, I pick up something left right on the shore of a reservoir by other fishermen who are thoughtlessly destroying fish. Bought, found or caught - it doesn’t matter, it’s important to properly prepare it as bait.
When it comes to freshwater fish, for example, roach, less often perch, we do not have any special problems. The bodies of these fish are quite strong and are not easily damaged. I put the fish in bags of 5 each, and sort them based on size - small to small, large to large.
Saltwater fish are much, and in some cases much more delicate. For example, sardine is just a wonderful bait, but how brittle it is! It is impossible to bring her home safely from fishing. That’s why I also sort fish into whole and damaged ones. All damaged fish are used for bait, and whole fish are placed in bags of 5 in the refrigerator.
Read: Catching roach on lakes in winter
When talking about pre-feeding, I mean a very substantial amount of bait: 5 kg of fish may look too bulky, but given the width of the fishing area, this is not a lot at all. In addition, I feed the area at least twice a week, and sometimes more often. The goal is to lure a large carrion pike here and keep it here for as long as possible.
Excellent food falls on pike like manna from heaven. If I were a pike, I would never swim away from this underwater paradise. Usually, if the attachment was carried out correctly, you can get the first bite almost instantly.
Selecting suitable sites is not so easy. The pike definitely has its own preferences, and in winter it chooses other places for parking - not those in summer and autumn. The first clue is the easiest to notice, and I already mentioned it: look at the birds, watch their behavior, how actively they feed and in what area.
Keep in mind that although most of the fish you will see from birds will be small, this does not mean that pike will not be interested in small baits. In this respect, pike fishing has something in common with fly fishing for trout. If the trout is focused on a particular insect, the angler selects the appropriate fly to catch. The same thing often happens with pike. Even a large pike can be focused on small prey, both live and dead, and completely ignore the large bait you offer.
I have often made this mistake myself in the past. I was sure that to catch a large pike it was necessary to use only large bait, until I accidentally had to use small fish for this purpose. The result simply amazed me!
The next thing to think about is the depth of the reservoir and water clarity. Pike hunt or search the bottom in search of carrion at really great depths. I use a simple method to determine the depth at which it is preferable to fish. Our best bet is a bottom layer of water between a third and half of the lake's maximum depth.
The bottom topography is more important. If we found a bed, say, from 4 to 8 m, we can be sure that the pike is patrolling its area. The deepest part of this dump will be our fishing spot, but often the best point turns out to be just the edge of the dump. If a stream, river or canal flows into a lake, this is only a plus, but, being near such an area, I try to fish a little further from the place of confluence.
Often the influx of a reservoir creates a small edge or even a spit. Feed and fish where you find pronounced changes in the bottom topography. An echo sounder will help you in this matter.
Today, many fish finders have built-in GPS and Bluetooth functionality and can be mounted on so-called radio-controlled boats, often used in carp fishing. You can launch the boat directly from the shore and remotely determine the best fishing point. Of course, you can also use a regular echo sounder mounted on a rubber or aluminum rowing boat.
If you don’t have an echo sounder, a large float and a large sinker will help you. Of course, working with them will require more effort from you than when using an echo sounder, but, nevertheless, it will allow you to study the bottom topography in no less detail. The advantage of this method is that with it you can find out not only the bottom topography, but also the maximum casting distance, and therefore determine the available fishing points.
To explore the bottom topography using this method, prepare the following installation: put a sliding sinker on the main fishing line, and attach a large marker float to its end. Cast. Pull the line so that the marker float comes into contact with the sinker, then start measuring the depth: gradually release the line in even sections (30-50 cm each) until the marker float appears on the surface.
Now you know the real depth of the fishing point: it is equal to the total length of the released fishing line.
In addition, you have become aware of the area of complementary feeding. Using a catapult you can place bait near the fishing point. If you are feeding from a boat, then everything is even simpler: add an echo sounder - and it's done! From the boat you can lower the bait directly to the chosen fishing point.
The next thing we have to do is pick up the gear. Of course, you can catch dead fish using very simple gear. A long and powerful spinning rod, any bite alarm - what else?
Read: Catching perch with a goat
If your approach is more serious, I recommend paying attention to equipment for carp phishing. Carp rods are excellent for catching pike with dead fish.
True, here you need to pay attention to several details. Carp tackle usually involves the use of bait, equipment and sinkers, which together rarely weigh more than 100 g, and this allows for confident long-distance casting. As for fishing with dead fish, the weight of the dead fish itself is added to the weight of the equipment and sinker. This will at least double the weight usual for carp anglers.
Knowing this, the angler must use a really powerful casting rod. In general, I would advise using a rod with a test starting from 3 Lb. The additional length of the rod will allow you to achieve a greater casting distance. A 390 cm long rod with a 3.5 Lb test is perfect for our purposes, especially when the only way to deliver the bait to the desired point is by casting. If you can deliver the bait there using a radio-controlled boat or bring it in by boat, then the rod can be shorter and with even less dough.
Unfortunately, today not a single manufacturer produces fishing rods of the required length for a baitcasting reel, so you will have to deal with spinning reels. But if they are equipped with a “baitrunner” system, they will be perfect for our fishing.
Carp anglers often lay out an incredible amount of line when casting, but we don’t need that much. A casting distance of 50 m will be quite enough, so it is not necessary to use super-capacity spools, so often used by carp anglers.
If you are a devotee of carp fishing and want to extend your active fishing season, you can try your hand at catching a predator with a dead fish, using large reels and capacious spools suitable for your usual trophies.
To understand whether the reel is suitable for our purposes, it is necessary to understand that pike is not a carp at all. When hooked, a pike struggles and resists in a completely different way than a carp. Don’t expect our toothy beauty to make long runs that exhaust a large amount of fishing line. You will have to deal with a short but very violent fight, most often occurring close to you.
We'll also need fishing line, and just like with rods and reels, there's plenty to choose from.
I fill my spools with 0.20-0.22mm thick cord. If you are fishing in snags or grassy areas of a reservoir, you must use a shock leader with a 40 Lb (18 kg) test, the length of which should be twice the length of the rod.
Also, be sure to use a shock leader in the steep sections I mentioned earlier. I don't think you'd want to see your line rubbed against a rocky bottom.
For me, the only material for a shock leader is BERKLEY Trilene 0.40 mm fluocarbon. The bonus of this line is that it is practically invisible in the water and has excellent elasticity.
One of the most reliable ways to connect a shock leader to the main line is the Al-bright knot. We will need to secure the rods in stands. When fishing from a rocky shore, a rod pod can be very convenient, but I try to use free-standing stands if possible. The reason is simple - it gives me freedom in choosing the direction of fishing and the ability to space the rods at a distance sufficient to prevent overlap. Whatever we use, in any case we are faced with the task of throwing the baits as far as possible from one another. I also try to make sure that the baits are at different depths, but always a little further than small drops. Depths may differ by 5-7 m.
But my companion, for example, chooses a point to supply bait in the same way, but prefers to fish at other depths. When I'm fishing at 8 and 12m, his lures may be at 10 and 15m. If the fish are particularly active at one of these depths, we can re-set the rest of the rods to get better results.
I know that winter fishing with dead fish may seem like a dull and sluggish task to some, but in fact it is quite labor-intensive work that requires patience.
Now let's talk about equipment. Although there are many rigs for winter pike fishing, as well as ways to skillfully present bait to pike, I always use only one system, which I came up with myself many years ago. Believe me, it works wonderfully. Unfortunately, you won’t find one like this on sale, and you’ll have to make it yourself. But it's not difficult at all.
Read: Perch fishing in winter: promising places, gear and bait, fishing techniques
The basis is steel driving material. Don't skimp on length. My installation is at least 60 cm long. You can use simple 7-core material, but I prefer reinforced 7x7. To fasten the elements I use steel sleeves, although the 7x7 leader material can be tied with ordinary fishing knots. Nevertheless, rigs with sleeves seem more reliable to me.
We attach a swivel to the front of the system with a sleeve. We cut the leader material 10 cm long, make a loop out of it and put it on the main tackle through the sleeve. We retreat 8-10 cm and fix the loop. Next, we attach two tees No. 4 or No. 6 to the main leash of the system. The upper one remains sliding, and the lower one is fixed with a separate sleeve. Next, we need to thread a loop through the ring of the upper tee, throw it over the tee and tighten slightly. The rig is ready.
Now we take the dead fish and, moving the upper tee a little, thread its tail into the loop. Then we pass the upper tee through the tail of the fish and tighten the loop. We fix the lower tee in the head area. Now the nozzle is securely fastened and ready for any long cast; there is no way for it to fly off the rig. When fishing, the fish will be directed head first, and the stings of the hooks, accordingly, will be directed towards the hook.
If you follow the correct casting technique, there is no fear that the hooks of the equipment will catch on the bottom when they reach the bottom - this happens very rarely. Usually, as you dive, the hooks take the desired position.
The correct casting technique is familiar to carp anglers and spinning anglers, who often use complex equipment. At the very last stage, it is necessary to slow down the line running from the spool, allowing the lighter part of the equipment to “lie” in front.
It should be taken into account that the bottom in some parts of the reservoir may be muddy, and the bait will sink into soft soil.
Then it will be difficult for voracious scavengers to find it. In such cases, I use a sliding float rig. In practice I use polystyrene beads. It is important to achieve such a result that the fish, fixed in the rig and supported by a float, lightly touches the bottom with its snout.
Make the following installation. First, place a sliding sinker on the main line. Install a sinker stopper. Secondly, put on a float - in most cases, beads with a diameter of 3-4 cm are sufficient. I know you might think that this float won't be enough, but it's not. Thirdly, tie a rig with a dead fish to the main line. And in order for the bait to take the desired position above the bottom, the sinker must be fixed with a locking unit at a distance that is at least 10 cm greater than the installation length. So, for example, if the installation length is 60 cm, the stopper for our sinker must be fixed at a distance of 70 cm from it.
So, all of the above has been done. We just have to wait for the bite...
If you catch it this way for the first time, you will probably have doubts: will this idea work out well? I have to say that when I did this myself for the first time, I had the same feelings and was not at all sure that it would work. And it worked, and how! And this despite the fact that the fishing was done with carp gear, and the fish and bait were completely different.
With modern fishing techniques, carp detect themselves. This trick doesn't work with pike. Sometimes she can swallow a fish without moving an inch to the side, and I have witnessed this several times.
It is important to carefully monitor the operation of the bite indicator. Check any signal, even the shortest one. To do this, pinch the fishing line between your index finger and thumb. Believe me, even in cold weather you will be able to feel if something is happening at the other end of the cord. Fortunately, bites are most often confident and leave no doubt about what is happening.
Prepare for the hook: lower the rod tip almost to the water and slowly reel in the line until you feel tension. Make a confident hook with the rod. The length and springiness of the rod will do the rest of the work for you.
I would like to especially emphasize: never make a power hook with a slack fishing line, this will either lead to the main fishing line breaking or to poor hooking. Once the fish is hooked, don't slacken the line while retrieving it and try not to let it go through snags or anything like that.
If you managed to do everything I’ve talked about here, then your fishing for large pike is almost over. And now you know that catching dead fish in winter is not as boring as it might seem at first glance...
Fishing with live bait
In what layers to catch pike perch?
The time of year affects not only the use of each type of bait, but also the type of water in which to fish. Everyone can experimentally select the depth at which they will fish for pike perch.
But still, proven rules should not be neglected. It is best to lift dead whole fish 20-30 cm from the bottom, and its pieces are best served directly to the bottom.
You need to deviate from such recommendations in the case when there are no bites for a long time.
Methods for catching pike perch with dead fish
Also, the gear for catching pike perch has some differences. They depend directly on the condition of the reservoir.
Still water. If you have to catch a predator in more or less stagnant water, it is recommended to use float tackle. Having initially measured the depth of the promising location, you should fix the float at the required distance. In this case, the bait will always be supplied to the desired depth.
Flow. Catching a fanged one in the current will, naturally, require additional weight for bait. A jig head is perfect for this. It will deliver bait well to a promising place, and in order for the bait to float up a little later, you should insert, for example, a ball of foam plastic or some other floating material into its body. This material is best placed in the mouth of the bait.
Installation of equipment for pike perch
The easiest way to fish in still water is with a float tackle. In this case, there are no problems with installing the fish. You just need to measure the depth at the fishing point and fix the float at the required distance.
Thus, the bait will always be supplied at the required distance from the surface of the water. If you are fishing for pike perch in the current, then you cannot do without a heavy weight. There will be no problems with delivering a piece of fish to the bottom.
But how can you make a whole fish float to the required distance?
For these purposes, a floating element is introduced into the body of the bait. This could be a piece of foam or other highly buoyant material. The easiest way to administer it is through the mouth, after making the surface of the material smooth.
In this case, the resistance when inserted into the fish will be minimal. At the required distance from the hook (20-30 cm), you need to place a rubber stopper and a bead to slow down the sliding weight.
The line will pass through it without the slightest resistance, which is very important when catching a cautious predator.
Bottom tackle for live bait from the shore (Video)
With a dead fish on the rig
Judging by my observations, bait fish that go into a tailspin when retrieving them bring noticeably fewer bites than those that hesitate. Therefore, the fish on the tackle should not be bent too much.
After a pike bite, hooking must be done immediately. If you wait too long, the pike will spit out the bait. And not because it will get stuck on the hooks, but because when retreating into the grass, it can tighten the line around the algae and feel its resistance.
The rig must have the following qualities:
- give the bait fish an oscillating rather than rotating movement;
- hooks should be as invisible as possible;
- reliably hook a pike;
- do without lead loading;
- be easy to manufacture.
Rig without loading
Manufacturing
There are many designs of pike rigs for fishing with dead fish.
A double hook with a spike is made from a regular triple hook. To do this, with the help of pliers, one pry is almost completely unbent with the sting slightly at an angle to the shank of the hook. The barbs on the tips of the remaining hooks are pressed, and the points are additionally sharpened so that they are sharp, like needles.
When hooking, the straightened hook is pulled out of the fish’s body and the hooking force is transferred more to those two hooks that should pierce the pike’s mouth.
Usually, with this type of tackle, bait fish 10-15 cm long are used. For smaller or larger bait sizes, you need to select the appropriate hook sizes and change the distances between them.
To catch pike with dead fish, you can use any other type of gear - it’s very easy to make them yourself or use ready-made ones.
Tackles with fish
Watch a short video that shows how to make one of the rig options for pike. The so-called “Draskovic rig”:
Catching Pike-perch with Dead Fish and Thin Tackle
Tackle for catching pike perch should be highly sensitive and create only minimal resistance when biting. Otherwise, the fish will immediately throw the bait.
To reduce resistance, it is important to use a reel with a free line release. The fanged predator does not immediately swallow the bait. Therefore, after a bite, you always need to give him the opportunity to pull a couple of meters of line from the reel.
This is followed by a sharp and strong hook. This is done in order to pierce the bony mouth of the pike perch with a hook. The fishing line for bottom fishing for pike perch should be soft and not very thick.
The only exceptions will be when fishing is carried out on the bottom with a lot of obstacles.
Finding places to catch dead fish in winter
If all the tricks did not lead to bites, then feel free to move to another place. Glades or channels between dry reeds or reeds are considered very promising.
When searching for pike in a pond, you should make at least 10 holes in a row a few meters apart in the most promising places and fish them one by one. If there is no bite on one hole, you should not linger on it for more than 5 minutes.
Installation of a diverter leash for catching perch
Catching roach in November with a float rod >>
