Mandula is one of the most effective baits. Most often it is used for jig fishing. Mandula is suitable for catching predatory fish, such as perch, pike, salmon.
Mandula has the following set of advantages:
- Catchability. Mandula has phenomenal catchability. But the fisherman must have the right gear and know about fishing techniques.
- Versatility. Can be used to catch a variety of fish. You can go fishing in any weather.
- Modifications. Fishing stores offer a wide range of models. Each model has individual characteristics and sizes. There are models that are suitable for a specific fishing location.
- Colors. Various colors available. Red and green baits are very popular.
- Design. The design is very simple and reliable. Therefore, you can make the bait yourself. This will require a standard set of tools and materials.
Mandula is a classic bait. It has high efficiency and catchability. Therefore, it is often used by professional fishermen. Most often it is used for catching pike perch. Pike perch is a cunning and active fish.
To catch a large specimen (5–10 kg), you need to use a large bait.
The main advantage of this bait is its simple design. The design consists of only a few elements. Body parts are made from various materials. Polyurethane foam has high wear-resistant properties. Therefore, it is often used to make body parts.
Rings and wire are used as connecting elements. And the quality is a lead head and tees are installed. The bait demonstrates catchability when fishing on the slope between the upper and lower coastal edges.
The disadvantage of this bait is that it gets snagged. But snags can be avoided. To do this you need to make sharp jerks.
The bait can be used for fishing in places with current. The predator's favorite habitat is coastal edges. Here you can catch a large specimen.
Catching a predator with a mandula
The world of predatory fish is diverse. But they all have one thing in common: nutrition. Predatory fish feeds on small fish. Therefore, the bait imitates a small fish.
Mandula can be used to catch the following predatory fish:
- perch;
- salmon;
- pike;
- pike perch, etc.
The predator can be found where small fish gather. First of all, these are areas with slow currents. This is the favorite habitat of the predator. And it is also necessary to pay attention to the turns of the riverbed. Small fish most often gather in these places. This means there is a predator lurking somewhere nearby.
Fishing success depends on the right bait. Green bait is suitable for salmon. And for perch, a black mandula is suitable. But you need to take weather conditions into account. In the evening and at night, give preference to light-colored baits. Whereas in the morning you need to use a dark-colored mandula.
Experts recommend using light jerks as well as smooth wiring. This is the perfect combination. The fisherman must go around all the edges that are located along the coastline. Otherwise, snags may occur.
And it is also necessary to pass by snags and rubble. You need to cast to greater depths.
Catching pike perch with a mandula
Pike perch is a relative of perch. He prefers to live in clean waters and does not like heat. Therefore, in summer it is better to fish in cloudy weather. The favorite habitats of such fish are snags and cluttered places.
What kind of wiring is used when fishing for pike perch?
- Dragging along the bottom. This type of wiring is a jig. In this case, the fisherman must experiment with the duration of pauses and the speed of the retrieve. As a rule, the bite occurs at the moment of stopping. When using such wiring, the bait plays with its tail and also raises the turbidity. This behavior attracts pike perch.
- Stepped. This is a popular bait when fishing for pike perch. This wiring can be done in two ways (reel, rod). Most often, stepwise wiring is carried out using a coil. When retrieving in steps, it is necessary to slow down the movement of the bait. This can be done in two ways (nods or pauses).
- Throwing tactics. You can do a series of tosses. And after 3-4 tosses you need to pause.
Let's take a closer look at the wire drawing along the bottom:
- First you need to choose the right fishing spot. The pond must have a clean bottom. This is the main requirement when choosing a fishing location.
- The fisherman must guide the bait along the bottom. No need to make sudden movements.
- At the right moment you need to pause (5-10 seconds).
- After that, you need to continue playing.
Fishing technique:
- This bait should be used for fishing in clean waters.
- To find pike perch, you need to fish the most promising places.
- Better animation can be achieved on the current. First you need to fish the coastal edges.
Catching pike with a mandula
Pike is a predatory fish. It lives in freshwater bodies of water. To catch such fish, you can use various baits, including mandula.
Pike attacks almost any bait. Therefore, you can use homemade baits. It is best to use brightly colored mandula for fishing. Give preference to large size models (8–12 centimeters). And to catch big fish you will need a bait more than 13 cm long.
What kind of wiring is used when fishing for pike?
- uniform;
- jerk;
- stepped.
Any wiring can be used. But you need to take into account weather conditions, fishing location, etc. In the summer, high-speed fishing is used. In this case, the fisherman needs to take frequent breaks.
And when fishing from a boat, vertical wiring is used. The fisherman must make jerks of varying amplitudes. As a rule, the bite occurs on the rise, as well as on the fall.
Catching salmon with a mandula
Salmon is a large fish (up to 39 kg). Such fish are born in fresh water. And then she moves to salty bodies of water.
The mandula imitates the movement of a small fish. Thus attracts the attention of a predator. This is an excellent option for jig fishing with a spinning rod.
Salmon often attacks the bait as it falls. In this case, the fisherman must make small jerks. This creates vibration. This behavior of the bait provokes the salmon to attack.
Experts recommend using light jerks and smooth retrieves when fishing for salmon. And the cast needs to be done to great depth.
Where to look for fish?
- vertical lifts;
- longitudinal pits;
- vertical descents;
- coastal edges;
- at the bends of the riverbed.
When fishing in still water, it is necessary to overload the mandula. The bait will oscillate.
Catching perch with a mandula
Perch is a freshwater fish. It lives in lowland reservoirs.
To catch perch, baits with a length of 3 to 6 cm are used. And baits with two and three segments are also used.
To catch such fish, light and ultralight rods are often used. Such fishing rods can withstand a lot of weight. And you will also need weights weighing up to 13 grams.
The best time to catch perch is evening and morning. In the summer, perch is most active, so it attacks any bait. As a rule, perch lives along the coastal trunk, as well as behind coastal vegetation.
How to catch perch correctly?
- First you need to choose the right fishing spot. The most bites will be on reservoirs that have an overgrown or snagy bottom.
- Now you need to throw the mandula. It's better to make a long cast.
- After this, the fisherman must conduct a slow retrieve . In total, you need to make 4–6 even wiring. In this case, you cannot twitch.
What is a mandula fishing bait?
Mandula is an artificial bait that is made of polyurethane foam elements that look like barrels, balls, truncated cones, etc. These figures are made from polyurethane foam washers. The elements are connected to each other by wire ears. A tee is attached to each element. A bright brush made of thread or silicone is often fixed at the end of the bait. This is what the mandula looks like:
A weight - a Cheburashka or another type - is attached to the second end of the bait. We see that one tee is hidden in the middle of the polyurethane foam elements and only the sting peeks out. And the second hook is disguised with a brush. In water, the mandula demonstrates very active play. Active predators take it very well: perch, pike and perch.
Initially, the mandula tackle was invented by fishermen for fishing for pike perch on rivers with a current. As it turned out, pike perch took this bait well. Maybe because the mandula falls and takes a vertical position. But be that as it may, the mandula is often also called the pike perch killer.
Most often, the mandula is used when fishing with the jig method. Moreover, the list of reservoirs where the mandula is successfully used is very wide: from small ponds and lakes to deep and wide rivers. For this reason, the weight of these baits is very different: from 8 to 60 grams. Even not heavy mandulas fly very well. This is important when fishing from the shore with short and delicate spinning rods, when you need to cast to the second edge or beyond the coastal zone.
The most common fishing is jigging baits with weights from 1 to 15 grams. When fishing for pike perch, heavier baits weighing from 10 to 25 grams are used. The heaviest mandules, up to 60 grams, are used when fishing in strong currents and at great depths.
Models consisting of two solid barrels and a bright cambric are widely used. They look like this:
Such models, in addition to the previously listed predators, can take chub, ide and asp. Moreover, often active ides and chubs attack larger mandules. Many spinners have mandulas consisting of 4 or even 5 segments. Such baits are often used to catch trophy pike.
When you first look at the mandula, your attention is drawn to its variegated colors. Moreover, we see a combination of several bright colors. And this was not done without reason. During wiring, such baits become very attractive to all predatory fish without exception.
Color design is not so important. Especially if we fish at depths of more than 4 meters. You should not focus on the color of the mandulas. The main thing in this bait is the game. In general, mandula is a very buoyant bait. When we move the silicone, it basically drags along the bottom. The mandula takes a vertical position during any wiring. It is better visible even in muddy water, at great depths among snags, grass and various objects.
During the retrieve, if you play along a little with the tip and make timely pauses, you will get a dancing bait that often provokes even a sluggish and indifferent pike perch to bite.
How to make a mandula for fishing?
The bait consists of three moving parts.
Step-by-step instruction:
- The children's store sells many products made from a special material - polyurethane foam. This material is suitable for our purposes because it is soft, dense and has positive buoyancy. When purchasing a product, it is advisable to think in advance about the future color scheme of the bait. If we do not find a suitable color scheme on sale, then you can achieve the desired color yourself. You need to cut the parts and then glue them into one piece with ordinary glue (moment).
- To facilitate the work and also save time, we will need to make an ordinary tube with a pre-sharpened edge at one end. Next, you need to drill out the finished parts of the composite bait from the glued blank. To do this you need to use a drill, screwdriver or other tool. The resulting parts of the future bait can be combined as we please.
- We empirically select hooks for parts of the bait. So that the metal parts, hooks and frame seem to be pulled out by soft material. For the tail of the tee we will need Lurex. 12–13 fibers of 20 centimeters each is enough. For further work we will need an ordinary drill. You will need to use a drill to drill out the technological channels for the frame. When piercing part of the bait, twist the drill until it begins to turn freely. Next, take any object (scissors or something else) to expand the channels for easier installation.
- To easily insert lurex fibers into the eye of a treble hook , we need a piece of ordinary fishing line. Having bent the fishing line in half, we insert it through the eye of the hook into the resulting loop. Pulling it out from the other side as much as possible. Next, take a bunch of lurex and carefully fold it into two. We put the already folded bundle of lurex into the inserted loop of the fishing line. And, pulling the loop, we pull out one of the sides. Having lowered the loops of the bundle to the hooks of the tee, we need to secure everything tightly. Already in the pre-prepared tail part of the bait. The tail part of the bait is ready.
- Each part must be carefully tried on the hooks and adjusted. Next, we make technological channels in the head and middle parts of the bait. For more precise (controlled) piercing of long parts of the bait, we use any needle.
- To install the frame, you need to use a number 3 guitar string. To make the frame of the mandula, you need to prepare a piece of string. Measuring it so that there is as much allowance as possible. To be able to produce and tighten fastening loops with high quality. To avoid injury, only high-quality and sharp tools should be used for work.
How to make a mandula for catching crucian carp?
Let's look at the features:
- The bait is intended exclusively for jig fishing , which implies almost constant contact with the bottom. This instantly dulls the bait's hooks. And with dull hooks we are doomed to failure. Frequent outcomes or misfires will accompany us throughout the entire fishing period. To avoid this fact, the bait must be positioned vertically in the water.
- Lurex is sold in neatly collected bunches of various colors. Silver works well.
- as the base material .
Advice from experienced fishermen
Before preparing to make a bait, study the advice of anglers who have already gained experience in making a mandula and catching fish with this bait.
Let's look at some recommendations:
- Pay special attention to the color of the bait, as different fish react differently to certain colors.
- If the pond is quite muddy, you should use colors that will be clearly visible in muddy water.
- If the fish is being fished at depth, then the colors will not play a big role, since they simply will not be visible.
- Create the device so that all components are painted in a separate color and have a contrast with both the entire structure and the bottom of the reservoir.
- For winter fishing, you should use two colors at once. Use only moisture-resistant paint so that it does not wash off if it gets into icy water.
- Use floating materials.
- After the bait reaches the bottom of the reservoir, several oscillatory movements should be made so that the predator reacts.
- Properly design the tail part of the bait, as the attractiveness of the bait to a predator depends on this.
Fishing with a mandula is different in that it can interest both active and passive fish, so the effectiveness of fishing with this bait in winter or autumn is in no way inferior to fishing with a mandula in the summer season.
Fishing with mandula flag
There are different types of mandula. A checkbox is one of the varieties.
The flag mandula is made of polyurethane foam and other materials. Sometimes two materials are combined. The flag is equipped with two hooks, numbers 8 and 12.
Various colors available:
- violet-green;
- White black;
- black-green;
- yellow-red;
- green-red;
- white-yellow.
Any predatory fish will bite the flag mandula. If necessary, can be combined with other baits. She doesn't have her own game.
Pike colors for mandula
No natural colors, no faded colors. The mandula for pike should be of acidic colors - they are guaranteed to provoke pike bites. The use of orange, yellow, red, emerald, jet black colors is very effective when it comes to polyurethane foam lures for pike.
The mandula for pike can be of this color.
In addition, alternating contrasting colors should be used in pike lures. Black and white, orange and green, red and black, red and white, yellow and blue are the color combinations in these baits.
You can collect not only two-color, but also three-color baits, and also use “rainbow” palettes.
Also, if we talk about alternating colors in pike lures, then there are no such strict rules as there are for pike perch lures.
Fishing with mandula in summer
In the summer, many people take a vacation and go fishing. It is during the summer season that fish are most active. You can use a mandula of any color. But it is necessary to take into account weather conditions and characteristics of the reservoir.
Where can you find fish in the summer?
- the bottom of water holes;
- under steep banks;
- in algae thickets.
In cloudy weather, it is necessary to use baits that have an active game. In the evening and at night you need to use a mandula of dark shades.
In the summer, stepwise wiring with short stops is used. And sometimes they also use direct wiring.
In July, fish are caught with large and medium baits. The fish can be found in the coastal zone as well as in the eddies. In July and August, fish live in places with weak currents.
Fishing with mandula in spring
Active fishing for predators begins in the spring at the beginning of March. At this time, fish attack almost any bait. The best time to fish in spring is morning, evening and night.
In spring, large baits are used. At this time of year, give preference to light shades.
Where to look for fish in spring?
- shallow water areas;
- under steep banks.
In the spring season, hunger begins.
This is the best time to catch these fish:
- pike;
- perch;
- salmon, etc.
Winter fishing for mandula
The best time for fishing in winter is the first ice. In winter, the fish bite slowly and also carefully. Sometimes a bite may not be noticed. Therefore, you need to use a quality whip. You can use a mandula of various colors.
When catching a predator, it is necessary to take into account weather conditions. The fish actively bite during the thaw and in bright sunny weather.
Where can you find fish in the winter season?
- various obstacles;
- stones;
- driftwood;
- deep holes.
Mandula fishing technique
Let's consider fishing techniques in various conditions:
- Fishing from a boat. To increase the time it takes to fall to the bottom, the mandula must be equipped with some kind of light weight. When using such bait, the likelihood of snags will be reduced. But there is one drawback here. When using light weights, the game suffers. If the mandula is equipped with some kind of heavy weight, then it will play perfectly. The body of the bait will create various oscillatory movements. This will attract a predator.
- Shore fishing. The best place for fishing is the coastal edges. This is where the bait reveals its full potential. The cast must be made from the far edge to a greater depth. But shore fishing on the current has a significant drawback. When lifting the mandula, snags occur. To prevent snagging, you need to make sharp jerks.
- Fishing in still water. In still water, the so-called search tactics are used. The fisherman must fish the most promising places. In this case, you need to use active and fast wiring. When fishing in still water, you need to choose the right weight head. Any weight can be used. But it is necessary to take into account the characteristics of the reservoir and weather conditions. When using large weights, the attractiveness of mandula play does not decrease.
Wiring options
To catch a predator, you can use various wiring. In this case, the weight of the load must be taken into account. The lighter the weight of the load, the slower you need to pull out the bait.
When fishing, the following lines are used:
- uneven;
- uniform;
- stepped;
- twitching;
- classical.
Where is the best place to fish?
You can fish both from the shore and from a boat.
Where is the best place to fish?
- reservoir bays;
- under rubble;
- along the banks.
Where is the best place to fish for mandula?
Mandula is a bottom jig bait. This is where you need to start when choosing a fishing spot:
- Fishing from river banks is best suited for mandula.
- First of all, the edges along the shore from the depth side are fished.
- The quality of the mandula's play dramatically improves even the weakest flow.
- Fishing with a mandula from a boat can be very effective.
- Places with a more or less clean bottom and a limited number of possible hooks are excellent for fishing with a mandula.
- Places with a deep layer of mud are not suitable for fishing with mandula.
One can argue for a long time about the advantages and disadvantages of mandula compared to expensive “store-bought” baits. To resolve the dispute personally for your loved one, you need to make bait and fish with it.
Fishing Features
Let's take a closer look at the fishing features:
- First you need to make a long cast.
- Now you need to wait for the mandula to reach the bottom. And after that, you need to choose a fishing line. In this case, you can release the line several meters.
- You need to pause periodically.
- Most often, the attack occurs when the mandula stops.
On still water
In reservoirs with stagnant water, fish behave in a special way. She doesn't stand still. Fish are always in search of food, which means they constantly move throughout the reservoir.
When fishing in still water, you need to take into account the individual preferences of the fish. One fish prefers to be closer to the bottom, while the other hides in the reeds.
You can use a mandula of various colors and sizes.
Shore fishing on the current
Sometimes large specimens are found along the current. Therefore, when fishing in the current, use a large mandula. And the small fish, on the contrary, avoids the current.
You will need a strong fishing rod and a quality reel. The best place for fishing in the current is the edge of the rapids. The fish sees the bait well during the transition to a smooth stream.
Wiring a pike mandula
Leading a mandula to a pike has a more energetic pace and animation. Pauses can be made just as long - at this moment the mandula sways at the bottom, reminiscent of a feeding fry or a sick fish at the bottom.
But you can do more vigorous stretches. Such dragging along the bottom, which is present in the wiring of pike perch baits, can be avoided. In general, it’s easier to stick to the classic step-by-step wiring - winding - pause.
The rewind lasts for two or three counts, and the pause lasts up to 8-10 seconds. If fishing is carried out on a reservoir with a current and the channel edge is fished, especially snags, then pauses can be made even longer. Under these conditions, the current itself animates the bait on the bottom.
The most popular colors of mandula for pike.
It’s just worth saying that you don’t need to make any additions to the classic pike mandula in the form of additional metal petals or blades. With them, the mandula will lose its most basic advantage - the ability to play on the bottom during a pause.
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Conclusion
A large number of anglers use mandula to catch various fish. This is a universal bait that has many advantages (simple and reliable design, large selection of colors and modifications, catchability).
Mandula is used by both professional fishermen and amateurs. You can catch fish in almost any conditions.
You can make a mandula yourself or buy it at a fishing store. To make a bait you will need a standard set of tools and inexpensive materials. You can use various fishing techniques and wiring options.