How and what to catch asp at different times of the year

Where and when is the best time to catch asp?

The asp is very warm and light-loving, which is why in warm times it often lives in the upper layers of the reservoir. If the weather turns bad, the fish immediately go to the bottom and during these periods it is not easy to catch them. Activity decreases significantly in the rain - the fish become lethargic.

Water temperature has a great influence: as it decreases, fish activity decreases significantly. By winter, the asp goes into hibernation, choosing bottom holes to sleep. Activity resumes after the ice melts in the spring, and spawning occurs after the water temperature reaches 10 degrees.

The most active bite occurs at the beginning and end of the spring season. The worst catch awaits fishermen at the height of summer - the asp becomes too capricious and selective, since there is a lot of food around it and it is not always possible to get interested in bait.

Types of asp

There are three main types of asp - common/European, red-lipped, characteristic of the rivers of China, and Aral, which is found in the reservoirs of Central Asia and in the main rivers of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya.

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Because fish of the carp family are a fairly common species, so not knowing exactly what the asp fish looks like often leads to its erroneous identification, confusing it with other fish of the same family.

Best lures

Experienced fishermen advise choosing bait based on the activity of the intended prey and its habitat. When catching asp, it is recommended to take into account the following characteristics:

• low or medium drag during wiring;
• weight suitable for long-distance casting;
• ease of play;
• stability of holding the wiring horizon;
• size (preferably small).

screw

Oddly enough, many fishermen prefer... an ordinary nut as bait. Its advantage will be good vibration, both low-amplitude and high-frequency. The movement of the nut in the water is similar to the behavior of wobbler baits. Features include a low transmission horizon and a fairly good level of volatility. For long casting, a properly weighted nut may be ideal.

In order to turn the nut into a bait, you can solder two wire loops on the bottom and top. They must be on opposite edges: the hole in the nut is located at an angle to the direction of the fishing line. A hook is attached to the loops.

Wobblers

To attract asp, you should use cranks - wobblers with active play. They are divided into bass or trout; large (up to sixteen grams) and small (up to four). For this fish it is better to choose something in between, the ideal weight is 6-8 grams. If you are hunting for particularly large prey, bass-type cranks, from 10 grams, will do.

Wobblers with an elongated geometry (minnow) are quite suitable; they should not exceed 8 cm in length. But you should always rely on the possibility of long casting - the magnetic loading system helps with this.

Castmasters

Castmaster type baits meet all the necessary requirements and are in particular demand among asp fishermen. Original baits differ in size, color and weight, and baits of the same size but different weights will behave differently.

You can learn how to catch asp correctly from our article.

The lighter the bait, the more the fish will like it. The ideal weight is ten to fourteen grams. This is the weight that will allow you to throw the lure both long and short distances.

The color of the spinner also matters; it is better to take different colors with a reserve. In cloudy weather, it is recommended to use brighter options; in bright sunshine, dimmer ones.

Tip: If you plan to fish at a distance of about 20-30 meters, you cannot take bait heavier than 14 grams.

Jigs

Jigs belong to a whole group of baits. In appearance they resemble an ordinary piece of metal. The disadvantages include weak action, but some types of jigs are quite suitable for catching asp:

The Renegade Iron Minnow is a cross between a regular jig and a slow-moving jig and is best used when fishing near the bottom rung.

Sabunaev's three-sided plate has an unusual shape. The bait is heavy, but not suitable for long-distance casting; it is better to use it when fishing in the water column or in deep pots.

Turntables

When choosing a spinner, it will be better if you immediately refuse a spinner weighing less than 9 grams: heavy spinners are equipped with a standard petal. To make long casts you need to take heavier models.

For guiding with the current, it is preferable to take a spinner with a rounded petal shape. Universal numbers are considered to be 1-3 for long petals and 2-4 for the rest.

Turntables are carried out in three ways:

• for demolition: in this case, the reeling must be stopped after the arc has been reeled out, and the cast must be performed across the current;
• upstream: the spoons must be lowered smoothly, they must continue to rotate due to the influence of the current. The wiring is done with small stops. If there is fixation on an object, the spoon lingers near the anomaly;
• downstream: here it is better to choose round petals, and the speed of the wiring should provoke “sticking” of the petal. Particular attention should be paid to the quality of the spinners.

Devons

Devons were developed specifically for salmon hunting, but over time the bait has undergone various modifications that affect the behavior of the bait. The main difference relates to the center of gravity, the number and mounting of the blades.

In the classic version, the blade is rigidly fixed to the body, and now it is difficult to find a similar type. The main disadvantage of rigid fixation is that it leads to twisting of the fishing line.

In the second case, the blades are a separate element, the peculiarity of which is a micro-bearing made of titanium. It is strictly forbidden to use this Devon for shallow fishing: when it comes into contact with sand, the hole with the bearing becomes clogged and the bait can be thrown away.

Vegetable baits

As vegetable baits, you can use any that are used when fishing for carp. It could be pearl barley, bread, peas, potatoes, corn... These baits will be especially effective in the summer.

You can prepare an attractive pea bait for an asp, for example, in the following way:

1. Peas are soaked in a soda solution (a teaspoon of soda per liter of water).
2. The swollen peas are immersed in a bag, which is placed in the pan. It should not touch the walls of the dishes.
3. You need to cook over low heat and in the water in which the peas were soaked.
4. The finished peas are dried, after which they are ready for use.

Animal bait

Animal baits include:

• maggots;
• maggot pupae;
• worms;
• caddisfly larvae;
• dragonflies and their larvae;
• bark beetles.

The most common animal bait is the worm, as it is the easiest to obtain. Two types of worms are used for fishing: earthworms and dung worms, and preference is given to the latter: it is brighter, emits a special smell and wriggles longer on the hook. You can get this worm in places with silage, in manure heaps and in cow pens.

Maggots are attached to the hook in a bunch; they are quite active and quickly attract the attention of the fish. Maggot pupae have a specific smell that effectively affects cyprinids. It is important to remember that if maggots are kept warm, pupation will occur within a couple of days.

An excellent option would be a caddisfly larva - asps often feed on it regularly, and the usual food will not arouse suspicion. You can find larvae in clean, cold water with a sandy bottom.

Catching asp with a bombard

Catching an asp with a bombard is carried out mainly when the asp is caught on baits that do not fly far. Spinners - “spinners”, small wobblers, spoons and flies, are used very often when catching asp. However, it is impossible to throw a light “spinner” far, and here the bombarda comes to our aid - an excellent tackle invented by the Italians.

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Naturally, the tackle becomes heavier and this should be taken into account when choosing a rod for this method of fishing. The weight of a bombard to deliver a small spinner over a decent distance is somewhere in the range of 20-40 grams and therefore the rod should have a test slightly larger than the casting tackle and have a length of at least 3 meters. Ideally 3.30-3.60 meters.

The length of the leash should be within 1-2 meters without a steel leash, since the asp has no teeth. The wiring should be done evenly, as with normal wiring of a turntable. The cast must be done softly to avoid overlap. Using a bombard, you can also catch asp using streamers, flies, artificial insects, beetles and other small predator baits.

Equipment for catching asp using a bombard

Catching asp with live bait

Catching asp with live bait is done from a boat using float gear. Bleak or gudgeon are usually used as live bait. The gear for fishing with live bait is assembled like this: we need a spinning rod or a short rod with rings and equipped with a reel with monofilament fishing line (diameter should be no more than 0.25 mm), a float with a carrying capacity sufficient to prevent the live bait from drowning it.

A sinker (the sinker should hold the bait at the set depth) and a double or tee on a leash. The diameter of the leash should be in the range of 018-020 mm, this is quite enough for competent fishing of a trophy specimen.

This way you can catch asp on rifts and shallow rapids; you need to stand on a boat in front of the desired place and float the bait tackle downstream to a promising place. A prerequisite is that the live bait must be alive and nothing should hinder its movement, so hook it to the ridge with one of the hooks.

Catching asp with a wobbler

Catching an asp with a wobbler is done in approximately the same way as with live bait, the only difference being that instead of using live bait, you float a floating wobbler with a slight depth downstream just below the desired location and only after that start fishing.

Wobbler for catching asp

If you are fishing from the shore, you also need to float the wobbler downstream to the desired location and then only do the wiring. Agree that there cannot be many such places on the river bank, but if there are, then use this opportunity. I will finish here and can only add that here we present the most popular and proven methods of catching asp by more than one fisherman. See you again!

We have already talked about the main asp baits that most fishermen use. However, such a topic as catching asp with a streamer, or as our Ukrainian colleagues say, with a beard, is not very common among Belarusian fishermen. And by the way, in vain. After all, when the asp is not active for various reasons, and he does not show much desire to chase jigs, kukri and castmasters, then it is then that a rig using a streamer (barb) can become a lifesaver.

We have already talked about the main asp baits that most fishermen use. However, such a topic as catching asp with a streamer, or as our Ukrainian colleagues say, with a beard, is not very common among Belarusian fishermen. And by the way, in vain. After all, when the asp is not active for various reasons, and he does not show much desire to chase jigs, kukri and castmasters, then it is then that a rig using a streamer (barb) can become a lifesaver.

You can fish with a streamer using sbirulino, or you can additionally tie it on a short leash (branch) above the main bait. We will not touch on fishing with sbirulino for now, because this is a separate topic for discussion and we will leave it for later. Therefore, for now, let’s look in more detail at how to properly tie the equipment, where we will hang our streamer above the main bait.

So, in order to properly connect the installation, we will need fluorocarbon with an average diameter of 0.3 millimeters, swivels and carabiners, and, of course, the streamers themselves. There are two options for equipment, which are mostly used by foal fishermen, and which I use myself. They may differ minimally in their characteristics, such as the length of the leash itself, the length of the outlet, the thickness of fluorocarbon, etc., but in general the principle remains the same.

The diameter of the leader depends on the bait: from 0.16 mm for the smallest ones (small wobblers or “spinners” do not work well on thick fishing line) to 0.22 mm for larger ones.

The main problem when catching asp is its good eyesight. Having noticed the silhouette of a man on the shore, he continues to beat the fry, but at the same time he examines the object of the hunt very carefully and refuses to grab any artificial imitation. There are two ways out: either hide very well, or throw it very far. Or better yet, both.

Compact lures

Long-distance casting requires compact baits, such as Cas, Devons and other heavy (weighing at least 20 g) spinners, but if you hide well and, in addition, catch a tailwind, you can even throw a suspended wobbler to the asp.

For asp, river sand spits are a favorite hunting spot in summer. Perhaps this is explained by the fact that it is on the sands that various pelagic “white” fish feed, such as bleak and sabrefish, which the asp is a big hunter of.

The main thing when catching asp is to behave in such a way that the fish does not even suspect your presence in the pond.

It is advisable to place the spinner on the water as quietly as possible, slowing down the descent of the line at the end of the cast, and then perform the retrieve.

When the asp actively strikes from above, the working one most often turns out to be high-speed wiring; if he hunts in the middle layers - stepped. In the latter case, the Kastmaster models are very good, they sink shallowly and often roll from side to side during a pause.

If there is no “fight”, then by conducting wiring in different layers of water, you can try to determine at what depth the asp is hunting today.

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Spinner baits that have not yet been tested must be tested first. So, “Castmaster” must have a pronounced game. If it hangs in the water “like a sausage” or goes into a tailspin during a fast retrieve, it is better to abandon it. If the spinner works fine during testing, you can safely use it, even if the cost of the bait is “penny”.

"Spread"

Let's look at the two most different equipment from each other.

"Castmaster" + streamer.

A “Kastmaster” is tied to a piece of thick (0.3-0.4 mm) monofilament line, a knot is made half a meter above it, a swivel is placed behind it and another knot is tied 2-3 cm from the first. The swivel “runs” freely along the line between the limiting nodes. If the size of the knots is too small, you can put a couple more beads between them and the swivel. With this installation, the equipment gets less tangled. A short (5-10 cm) leash made of thinner monofilament or fluorocarbon with a wobble is tied to the swivel.

This type of equipment works best for fast reeling in the upper and middle layers.

To knit streamers, you can use both improvised materials (wool, Christmas tree “rain”) and special fly fishing materials.

In the second case, after casting, the baits are first allowed to go somewhat deeper and only then they begin to reel in.

The wabik (streamer) is knitted on a tee or double hook No. 4-6 (according to the “Ovner” numbering). Wabiki are made in different colors; Sometimes dark ones work better, sometimes light ones.

If a twister is installed instead of a wabik, the leash can be made slightly longer, and high-speed wiring can be alternated with slower or stepped wiring.

Usually, when fishing with this equipment, in 80% of cases the asp of pressed rivers takes the bait on a leash; with the Kastmaster, bites generally follow only with a good bite. However, there are also “doublets”, when the fish is caught on both baits at once.

Bombard.

The “Sbirulino” rig with a bombard is inferior to the “Kasmaster” rig in casting range, but allows for slower retrieving, which means. and the use, in addition to wobblers and twisters, of such baits as small “spinners”, wobblers, oscillating micro-spoons.

To catch asp on large rivers, long casting is required, so bombards weighing 15-25 g are relevant.

For fishing on riffles and sand bars, it is better to use slowly sinking bombards - the current will still bring them to the surface when reeling in.

It is difficult to pass a wet “braid” through a bombard, so I pre-mount it on a piece of thick (0.35 mm) monofilament or braided fishing line of the appropriate length with camels at both ends. I tie a base (“braid”) to one, and a leash made of monofilament or fluorocarbon to the other. This helps, if necessary, to quickly replace the bombard with a lighter (or heavier) one or with other equipment.

The maximum length of the leash is desirable: 15-20 cm less than the length of the rod (so that you can stick the bait hooks into the cork handle when moving from place to place) - there is no vegetation on the sand spits that would interfere with casting equipment with a long leash.

The diameter of the leader depends on the bait: from 0.16 mm for the smallest ones (small wobblers or “spinners” do not work well on thick fishing line) to 0.22 mm for larger ones.

The wiring also depends on the bait. The “spinner” works on a uniform retrieve, and a bombard with a wobbler can be driven either evenly or with smooth pulls with pauses. A streamer can be used in the same way, but at a higher speed.

The advantage of a bombard is that it can be floated several tens of meters downstream. In this case, it is possible to fish not only by reeling, but also by floating, holding the line coming off the spool with your finger (the bait then goes in front of the bombard). At the same time, there is a chance to catch a chub, ide or perch, which are located below the spit.

Don't repeat yourself!

When fishing for asp and chub, which often stay close together, it is important to follow two basic rules.

Seasonality

From an article by Vladimir Balovnev (“Fishing with us” 11/2012)

The length of the spinning rod for fishing from the shore is 2.7-3.30 meters; from a boat it is more convenient to fish with a blank of 2.1-2.4 m. A fast-action carbon spinning rod with a length of 3.0 and a dough of 50 grams is the optimal choice.

Choosing bait depending on time and fishing conditions

When choosing animal bait, it is worth taking into account the time of year, because in different seasons the asp prefers different foods.

If in the summer it is easy to get animal bait for fishing, then in the fall fishermen switch to artificial bait. A special feature of fishing in the fall is the possibility of fishing on “cauldrons”: fish gather in schools. If you don’t scare away such a “cauldron”, the catch can be good. The distance from the fisherman to the fishing spot should be about a meter, so it is better to use long-casting gear.

Adviсe:

• If you fail to cast accurately, the fish can be spooked. For accuracy, it is recommended to take a rod no longer than 2.5 meters.
• By autumn, larger fry become prey for asps, so larger baits can be taken.
• Experienced fishermen advise using heavy spinners, twisters and castmasters when using lures with jig elements.

The asp winters in pits and feeds rarely, but in sunny weather it can rise into the water column. It will react best to live bait (for example, sprat). A double-sided spinner that looks like real fry can be attractive. For the best effect, it is better to prepare bait from porridge and flavorings.

In the spring, the asp begins to spawn and the active feeding phase begins. The most effective method of bait is a floating wobbler - its behavior is similar to the play of bleak, which is the main diet of the fish. You can also take surface poppers and stickbaits; the asp begins to respond to surface baits earlier than other predatory fish.

During the summer, most fishermen use plant or animal baits as they are the easiest to make.

Of the artificial ones, floating wobblers are popular - they behave well on the surface of the water, where asp hunt in the summer. It is better to cast against the sun - bright rays blind the fish.

Where to look?

In order to understand where you can find places for good asp fishing, you need to start from its ways of finding food for itself.

The fact is that the main weapon of this predator is its acute vision.

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Like a peregrine falcon in the sky, the asp sees its victims under water from afar, and if something interferes with its vision, be it muddy, silty or clayey water, the asp will definitely go to look for a better place to hunt.

Such places are often wide river beds and large reservoirs with clean, clear water. It is in such places that experienced fishermen throw wobblers at the asp in the hope of catching a rare fish.

The asp loves shallows with a bottom made of stone or large pebbles.

In addition, when hunting, the asp often goes to flooded trees, eddies near bridge piles or to steep banks, because this is where the main component of his diet - small coastal fish - likes to live.

If you look at a photo of an asp on the Internet, you can find pictures of fish jumping above the surface of a reservoir.

In this way, the fish hunts small and large insects flying low over the water. This usually happens in the spring.

DIY baits

If necessary, you can make a suitable bait with your own hands, especially if you are well familiar with the principle of their construction. The advantage of a homemade device is its uniqueness, and if necessary, you can easily make the necessary adjustments.

For example, a bait can be made from an ordinary eraser - the material is cheap, you can choose any color and work with it.

• First you need to decide on the shape of the bait. A ready-made bait can serve as a sample.
• The outline of the body is drawn on the eraser.
• The desired shape is given using a stationery knife.
• Irregularities are removed with sandpaper.
• The paper clip must be straightened and a ring made on one side, the other end is inserted into the body of the bait.
• The body is pierced through.
• The hook is threaded into the ring. The bait can be tested.

Blitz tips

1. Boiled vegetable baits can be stored in the refrigerator, but not longer than two days: the smell of a spoiled product will repel fish.
2. It is recommended to prepare vegetable baits using water from the reservoir in which fishing will be carried out.
3. It’s okay if the bait jumps out of the water slightly when reeling in: this is exactly what the predator likes.
4. In order for the wobbler to maximize the interest of the asp, during the water flow you just need to briefly stop the floating bait.
5. It is very simple to track the asp’s feeding places: you need to watch the surface of the water. During feeding, the asp makes a so-called “fight” with its tail, which provokes splashes.
6. In open areas, casting is done from a sitting position, but it is better to cast the bait from a shelter.
7. If fishing is done with a rod and line, you must use the strongest possible rod.
8. Minnows, dace, and bleak can be used as live bait.