This representative of cyprinids is found mainly in areas overgrown with aquatic vegetation reaching the surface, on rivers with weak currents. It chooses sections of rivers overgrown with floating algae as a feeding place, and here it often hides from other predatory fish. In addition, it can be found at the confluence of rivers, near small islands in shallow areas, on the edges of the edge at changes in depth, in shallow water in bays.
The baits they prefer include the following: various insects, all kinds of flies, ants with wings, grasshoppers, dragonflies, beetles and their larvae. The favorite vegetable attachment for ide is peas.
- Peas
Gear selection
As a basis for ide fishing, a regular float rod or donka is used.
Float tackle is more preferable for catching ide, but it can be:
- for long casting;
- fly fishing rod with blind equipment.
These two options for float gear involve completely different fishing styles, so anglers, as a rule, choose the one that they like best and is better mastered. Let us dwell only on the general parameters of float gear for catching ide.
Long cast
A good option is a float rod designed for long casting. The length is suitable for rods from 4 to 5 meters, carbon fiber, which provide better fishing in the retrieve. Sinkers are selected in different weights, depending on the current in the fishing area.
Long cast fishing
The fishing line is chosen from 0.14 to 0.16 mm in diameter, with the obligatory presence of a leash with a diameter of up to 0.13 mm.
Hooks are selected based on the type of current bait, mainly numbers from 14 to 8.
As for floats, it is recommended to use specimens from 2.5 to 3 grams with a carrying capacity, self-loading. The main thing is that only the tip of the antenna is visible from the water.
Blind equipment
If the fishing spot has a drop off near the shore, the best option for catching ide would be a fly rod with a blind rig. The length of the fishing rod should be such that the hook with the nozzle is on the lower edge of the fall. For medium-sized rivers, in most cases, an eight-meter carbon fiber rod is sufficient.
Dump. Upper and lower eyebrows.
Blind equipment can be lighter and thinner than that used for long-distance casting, but you need to remember that ide is a large and strong fish that resists very stubbornly when fishing.
Blind equipment
Tackle with blind equipment does not have a reserve in the form of a supply of fishing line on the spool. When hooking a large fish, the rod stops as if on a hook, the ide slowly floats along the bottom as if not noticing the hook caught on it. All hope lies in the skill of the fisherman and his endurance.
A leash with a fishing line of 0.12 mm can be considered optimal - with it there is a chance to overcome an ide weighing more than two kilograms.
Catching ide with peas
Fishing ides for peas is an old Russian method of fishing, undeservedly forgotten by many metropolitan fishermen, overly keen on fashionable foreign novelties. But many provincial fishermen still catch ides in the summer using this fishing method.
Here, for example, is how they catch ides on the Vetluga River (a tributary of the Volga) in the Kostroma region. The Vetluga in those places is a typical ulcer river: the width is 70–80 m, the flow is calm, the depth is small—river depressions of 3–4 meters are rare and are already considered “pits.”
Before talking about the gear and method of fishing, it is necessary to focus on the bait, steamed peas, because its proper preparation is a necessary condition for successful fishing. Vetluga ides ignore other baits - worms, various larvae, bread crumbs, falling on them very rarely; only in early summer do roaches bite well on the worm.
Here is one recipe for preparing peas for catching ide:
In a liter glass jar, pour a quarter of the container with dry peas, rinse, then fill it to the top with raw water (preferably river or lake, well water will also do), throw in a good pinch of salt (so that the bait does not sour in the summer) and keep at room temperature for 12 hours . After this, pour the contents of the jar into a small enamel pan, cover with a lid and put on fire. As soon as the water boils, reduce the heat to low, so the peas are cooked in a closed pan at a low boil.
It’s hard to say how long it takes to cook. If the peas are fresh (last year's harvest), then half an hour will be enough, and if they have been lying around for two or three years, then it will take an hour and a half.
We check the readiness of the product as follows. After half an hour of boiling, we take out a dozen peas with a spoon, wait until they cool down, and then squeeze one at a time between the thumb and forefinger: the peas that have “reached condition” should be soft and flattened, and not fall apart into halves. We throw the “substandard” ones back into the same pan, they will be used for bait.
If seven or eight out of ten peas can be crushed well, then the peas are ready; if there are fewer, then you need to cook more, but be careful not to overcook them. A sign that the peas are overcooked is the floating skin. So, trying several times, we bring the product to readiness. After this, remove the pan from the heat, wait for the contents to gradually cool, then drain the water and sort the peas: whole and large ones will be used for bait, damaged and small ones will be used for bait. You can carry cooked peas for fishing in a glass jar or in a plastic bag; they will be fragrant and retain their quality for about a day, and then begin to harden. Peas should not be left in the sun, as they may turn sour.
If we are going to stay on the river for more than one day, then we take with us a jar with a portion of dry peas, fill it with river water at the right time, put it in the boat under the seat, and cook it over the fire in the evening.
We also mix a little peas into the bait.
If for some reason we don’t have time to pre-soak the peas, we do this: pour dry oats into the pan and add dry peas there - the mixture will cook normally and will be quite suitable for attachment.”
Having prepared the bait correctly, you can go fishing. You can catch ides using the Vetluga method from the shore, but it is much more convenient to do it from a boat.
The tackle is a half-bottom with a sliding weight, mounted on a telescopic rod 4–6 meters long, without a reel. Lines are used with a diameter of 0.2–0.22 mm, its length should be approximately equal to the length of the rod. A leash is not used - the hook is tied directly to the main fishing line.
Sliding sinkers are used - sometimes it is a drilled large buckshot, but more often it is a lead cylinder with a longitudinal hole, the diameter of which is two times thinner than an ordinary “olive”. The movement of the load along the fishing line towards the hook is limited by a stopper - a piece of nipple rubber with a piece of a match inserted inside. There is one hook on the tackle, No. 7 according to domestic numbering, preferably forged.
Sometimes a float is included in the equipment, but not in the usual quality - it hangs on the fishing line below the end of the rod, without touching the water, and signals bites as a guard. But much more often, Vetluga fishermen determine a bite by touch (although the fishing line is not pulled very tightly by a weak current, and if you are unaccustomed to it, it is not easy to feel an ide bite) or by the movements of the flexible end of the rod.
Fishing most often occurs from a boat placed on two anchors along the current on the river fairway, in a place with a flat bottom and a depth of 1.5–2 m. Fishing is considered more successful if nearby (but not in the fishing zone itself) there are shelters suitable for fish - snags, flooded bushes, etc. Having anchored and making sure that the boat is motionless, they throw bait - clay-sand balls with the same peas mixed in - directly in front of the bow of the boat.
The peas are planted one at a time, piercing the pea with a hook right through in the very center so that the sting comes out, then they put it back into the pea. If it is not roaches that bite, but larger ides, two peas are attached to the hook at once - the first is simply pierced through, and the second is planted in the manner described above.
The most difficult moment in fishing is timely hooking. Experienced hookers usually hook the hook at the moment when the flexible tip of the rod begins to slowly bend towards the water, without waiting for a pronounced jerk.
When fishing for hooked ide, a landing net is needed - the fish's lips are weak and it is not recommended to drag it into the boat on a fishing line. The head of an ide brought to the side is raised above the water, after taking a breath of air, it stops beating for a short time - it is at this moment that it is picked up by a landing net.
Fishing with peas lasts almost the entire summer season - until the end of August, when ide switches to feeding mainly on animal food.
With approximately the same gear, ides are caught on other rivers of central Russia. The gear is no fundamentally different from Vetluga: long rod, main line 0.3 mm, leash 30–40 cm long, hook No. 5–7; sinker - an “olive” drilled and sliding along the fishing line with a stopper. The bite alarm is either a float raised above the water and hanging half a meter below the end of the rod, or (in places where the current is stronger) the flexible tip of the rod itself.
Bait options
For these purposes, standard balls of bait are made, up to 60 mm in diameter, which includes worms cut into pieces, maggots and other larvae mixed with soil.
Bait balls
In the summer, plant-based bait is considered the best, with the obligatory addition of various larvae; the diameter of the balls is made small, up to 5 cm. It is advised to throw the bait more often, and in sections of the river with a fast current, make larger balls.
Peas
Whole unshelled peas
For bait, whole shelled peas (unshelled) are used, and for bait, a mixture of shelled and whole peas is acceptable. It is boiled (for bait) by pre-soaking it or brewed in a thermos (for bait). Read: how to cook peas for fishing.
If you are fishing for ide using peas, then the simplest and at the same time very effective bait option is also peas mixed with soil and clay. Balls with peas, once in the water, should collapse very slowly, releasing the peas one by one.
Bait in clay and sand
The ide that comes up for bait quickly gets to the peas, destroying the clay base of the balls.
The starting feeding with heavy balls of clay and peas should be very generous (this is very noisy), so that only occasionally you can supplement them with pure peas.
The use of various attachments when fishing with bait
Win-win options for this method of fishing are definitely ordinary worms, maggots, caddis larvae and bloodworms. It is recommended to plant several baits at a time, which makes their play more effective.
You can also catch ide using baits of plant origin. Among them are various grains, barley grains, pre-steamed wheat grains, peas, corn, flour mash, and bread balls. It is sometimes advised to use a mixture of baits, both animal and plant origin, or to fish exclusively with whole peas.
Catching ide with peas is very effective in the hottest summer months - June and July. In August, peas can still be effective, but in cool water you need to try different baits.
Good areas for fishing ide in the early part of summer are areas with debris of aquatic vegetation, snags, and quiet areas near bridges. In these quiet places, ide gathers to rest and feed.
When fishing on rivers with depth differences of up to 3 meters, it is recommended to cast from behind all kinds of shelters and always near areas overgrown with aquatic vegetation. Wiring 30 meters long is considered effective. It needs to be done with short stops, holding the nozzle. During such stops, the ide often bites.
In rivers with serious differences in depth near the shore, you should choose a place where hydrological “anomalies” can be traced - a reverse flow or its stop, gyres in the form of barely noticeable funnels in the water. Here it would be more appropriate to fish with a fly rod with a blind rig.
Such vigilant fish should be hooked immediately, at the moment when the float goes to depth or rather sharp movements in different directions are observed. At the same time, it is not recommended to make sweeping and unexpected movements so that the ide does not get scared and throw the bait.
You need to be prepared for active resistance and remain calm (which is not easy) when fishing for large fish.
Pea nozzle
It should be noted that catching ide with peas is quite convenient. After all, properly cooked peas stick well to the hook. Large fish are caught with it, but small fish pass by. Peas can also serve as an excellent option for feeding ide.
It is best to prepare steamed peas for bait. Which, when properly welded, can serve as the key to successful fishing. To be fair, it must be said that ides do not like bread crumbs and various worms, and they only bite on them in rare cases. But you can only catch roaches with such a bait, and even then in the height of summer.
It is best to prepare a pea bait for ide fishing in the following way: take a suitable container into which the peas are poured so as to cover a third of the bowl’s volume. The whole thing is filled with water and left to swell overnight. If the peas have absorbed all the liquid during this time, you can add it.
The swollen peas must be placed on low heat. Directly with water and cook until the peas acquire the required softness. You can check this by crushing a pea with your fingers - if it works, then the bait is ready and you can take it with you fishing. To increase its useful life , peas can be washed with water.
After removing the pan with peas from the heat, it is advisable to sort the peas in advance. Leaving the larger ones for bait. And the smallest and most crushed ones are for bait.
The finished brew can be carried fishing in a glass jar or in a plastic bag. Then the peas will remain flavorful and pliable for a long time. To prevent it from turning sour, it should be protected from sunlight.
If the fishing is planned to be long , and you are going to spend more than a day on the water, then you can also take a can of dry peas with you on the road. Which can be filled with river water and soaked, and cooked over a fire in the evening.
If it was not possible to soak the peas in advance , then you can pour some dry oats into the pan and add dry peas to it. With this mixture, cooking proceeds well and the attachment turns out to be suitable.
This article will reveal all the secrets of catching carp with peas. Here you will be shown how to properly catch crucian carp using the famous spring.
Horizontal type float on fishing rods
There come periods when there is a heavy death of all kinds of lepidoptera into the water; it is not possible to catch ide at depth; it is then that it is best to catch using a horizontal type float.
It is recommended to load these floats from below, thanks to which it will slide over almost all kinds of algae floating on the surface.
As a result, with proper dexterity and the correct selection of equipment, there will be significantly more effective runs when catching ide.
