In this article I would like to touch on the choice of spinners. Answer the questions about which lure is the best, which lure to choose for perch and pike. This bait has been on the market for a very long time, and does not lose its relevance to this day. Spoons are capable of tempting fish to bite in any conditions, regardless of the time of year, be it summer or winter.
Difficulty of choice
Over the course of their existence, spinners have acquired several types and types, and each has its own specialization. To make a simpler choice, you need to understand in what conditions you intend to catch and what kind of fish, then it will not be difficult for you to put the best lures in the box before fishing. It is also worth paying attention to the shape and size of the spoon. A bait that closely resembles the food fish in a given pond will help you get more bites and catch more fish.
Characteristics
Initially, the spinner class was represented only by the spoon. But time does not stand still and diversity is becoming more and more. There are many types, sizes, types and colors of spinners available in the market. From spinner to jig, from buller to tail spinner. Let's take a closer look at how they differ and what they are intended for.
Characteristics
Important and useful data of spinners are weight, size, material and color. The first two are often indicated both on the packaging and on the lure itself, written in paint or stamped (so as not to be erased over time). Let's look at each of the characteristics in more detail:
Spinner weight
The longer and wider the spoon, the more weight it has. To choose the right bait weight, you need to take into account the fishing conditions, the fish you want to catch and the test of your rod. For example, for perch in a pond, a #1 spinner weighing about 5 grams is suitable. To catch asp on the river, you need a heavier, larger spinner so that the bait can be cast far and can cope with the force of the current.
Spinner length
The size can be completely different, from the smallest 30 mm to the longest 250 mm for sea fishing. There is a saying that the larger the fish you want to catch, the larger the bait should be. This is partly true, but there are many nuances. A common case from practice is when a predatory fish is inactive during the pre-spawning period, it has a belly full of caviar and it simply will not respond to large spoons. You need to offer something not so large, compact, with a slow retrieve, then the likelihood of tempting the fish to bite increases.
Spoon color
The surest option would be to choose a spinner color that is as similar as possible to the small fish of a given reservoir, which are the food source for predators.
These are silver, copper and light colors. There is no one best color, so it is better to have several colors of spoons to be prepared for different conditions. Lighting at a given time of day is also important - in sunny weather, fishermen use light, natural shades of spinners, in cloudy weather these are bright, provocative colors. At night, fluorescent, luminous baits work better, this is especially true when fishing at sea.
Material
Different materials are used to make spinners. They are:
- tungsten
- brass
- metal
- nickel
- rubber
- lead
- steel
A tungsten spinner is compact and heavy, flies very far, and therefore is popular in catching asp, because many people know that this predator prefers small prey.
Brass has its own unique yellowish tint that attracts fish.
Spoons made of steel are the most common. This is an affordable inexpensive material. The silver color of the metal resembles forage fish. Rubber lures are oscillating, rotating and vertical lures specially designed for catching catfish. The coating neutralizes the electric field emanating from metal objects, which repels catfish.
Hook type
Single - this type of hook is used on small spoons; it is lightweight and does not affect the play of the bait. Passes well through underwater obstacles.
Double - better than a single one, it holds the fish when playing. More powerful, you can catch larger fish.
Tee - they are most often equipped with spinners. The greatest number of bites, reliably holds any fish. It is better to use in places without snags.
Hook protection
Non-hook lures have a wire hook protection. The spoon passes normally through snags and various vegetation. When biting, the fish easily pushes through the protection and is caught.
Dark lures for pike
Well, who would have thought that in the spring the pike menu includes prey of such a tiny size as a black tadpole. However, when checking pike stomachs in the spring, French researchers found more tadpoles and frogs than fish. And what bait can better imitate future frogs than a tiny twister, held in short jerks above the bottom, or a black mini-streamer?
A thin steel leader has almost no effect on the action of the bait and significantly increases the chances of catching fish. Dark lures are already highly rated among pike. Black wobblers are always a good surprise for fish. In rivers where young eels are found, pike sometimes specialize in this easy prey. The same goes for catfish.
Large soft black plastic lures, long and narrow, lure dormant predators from under snags. From time to time, black single-tailed twisters can also catch pike perch. By the way, it is precisely this kind of bait that can turn out to be surprisingly catchy in intensively fished areas, since most anglers rely on colorful or light-colored twisters, with black ones being the exception.
Pike perch bites on them without fear, especially where its main food is dark bottom fish, such as ruffes.
Object of fishing
You need to have various lures in your arsenal and be able to use them correctly in order to always be with a catch. Probably every angler at the beginning of fishing asked the question “Which lure to choose?” We have selected the most suitable types and types of spinners for a wide variety of fish:
To the red mullet
- These are baits with a single hook; you can attach artificial worms to it to make the lure more attractive.
For chub
- These are oscillating and rotating spoons, jigs and cicadas. Chub are often caught on rivers with fast currents and these baits are best suited.
For char
- rather heavy rotating and oscillating spoons.
For pink salmon and chum salmon
— heavy jigs and oscillating spoons are used. The fish is in a strong current and to catch it, you need a heavy spoon that will have a stable play in a given fishing horizon.
For asp
- these are oscillating and rotating spoons, jigs, cicadas. If the fish is active far from the shore, jigs and heavy spinners will help you; they fly far and accurately, and the asp readily responds to them.
For flounder
- use small bowlers.
For coho salmon
- oscillating and rotating spoons, the size is a couple of centimeters smaller than for chum and pink salmon.
For rudd
- pinwheels with feathers, the rudd loves them very much.
For brown trout
— oscillating and rotating spoons from 4.8 to 12 grams.
On Lenka
- light oscillating and rotating spoons.
For bream
- rotating and winter spinners. It has long been noted that bream exhibit predatory habits in the cold season and do not mind feasting on the fry. Spoons copy it well and allow you to catch bream quite successfully.
For salmon, nelma, omul, chinook and salmon
- narrow oscillating and rotating spoons that hold well in a strong flow of water. They have a stable game at different speeds. The fish is strong, loves mountain rivers with strong currents.
For sockeye salmon
- small oscillating spoons.
For perch
- small oscillating spoons, spinners and tail spinners. There are more bites on lures with feathers on hooks, it is worth taking this fact into account.
For sturgeon
- small oscillating spoons, the sturgeon has a small mouth, so the size of spoons up to 5-6 cm is better suited.
For halibut
- These are jigs and bullers for fishing near the bottom.
To bonito
- heavy jigs for vertical fishing.
For garfish
— narrow jigs that have excellent flight qualities.
On whitefish
— small spinnerbaits and winter spinners.
On Simu
— oscillating spoons up to 24 grams, various colors will help you catch even the most finicky fish.
For mackerel
- Bulers and jigs for fishing from the bottom and in the water column.
For som
- rotating and oscillating spoons. Also special large spinners from DAM, designed for catching trophy catfish.
For horse mackerel
- small jigs and bullers, for fishing near the surface and in the water column.
For zander
- driven oscillating spoons, jigs and spinners. They sink quickly enough, you can fish deep holes even in strong currents.
For taimen
— vibrators and turntables weighing more than 10 grams, capable of being held in a strong stream. The hooks on such spoons are often reinforced, because the fish they come across are large and powerful.
For cod
- small bowlers.
For trout and grayling
- small oscillating and rotating spoons.
Chekhon
- small oscillators and turntables capable of playing on the slowest wires.
For pike
- These are large rotating and oscillating spoons. The toothy predator is always willing to grab larger prey. In thickets of water lilies and reeds, non-hook baits and spinnerbaits will perform better.
Believe in the black color of the bait!
What color of lures do you have the most in your box? Naturally, silver, white, light... Well, lately, of course, there have been a lot of “acid” colors and all sorts of “parrot” colors. Alexey Demidovich talks about fishing with black baits.
A long time ago, a pike lived in my aquarium, and I watched it with great interest, simultaneously testing my theories regarding periods of activity, experimenting with the attractiveness of different colors, patterns, and sizes of prey. Those six months spent side by side with a small “pencil” actually gave me as much knowledge about the habits and preferences of pike as, perhaps, I had learned in the previous five or six years of active fishing. Even then, the first thoughts about the attractiveness of black baits for hunting “spotted fish” began to arise.
While feeding my ward, I then noticed one strange pattern at first glance. Of all the fish thrown into the aquarium to be eaten, the pike was almost always the first to choose the fat telescope, black as a raven’s wing. Telescopes were the largest of the fish offered, and in support of the “big mouth is happy with a big piece” theory, this went just fine. But when I launched both black and gold fish of the same size, I again almost always got the same result - the black ones were eaten first.
Having understood this fact for myself, I naturally tested the theory in practice. And I caught a number of pike on black spinners and black vibrotails. But I didn’t achieve any stunning results. I thought that due to the excessive transparency of the aquarium water, the transparency of its glass and the white walls of the office, the pike simply attacked the most noticeable bait. But in real fishing conditions, the water is, to put it mildly, less transparent, and conditions identical to aquariums cannot be expected from our reservoirs. That's where the research ended.
Several years have passed since then, and while replenishing the boxes with baits, for a change, I still bought wobblers, jerkbaits and purely black silicone every now and then. Just so it is, as they say. And some now practical statistics have accumulated again.
Perch and spinners
One of the first “bells” rang when fishing for small perch in early spring in muddy and high water, when, after trying a large number of baits, it was the turn of the Mepps Black Fury. The result with the average activity of the “striped” was unexpectedly surprising - bites began one after another (up to several per retrieve). The perch, having escaped, often jumped out after the spinner right to the side of the boat. It is possible, of course, that it was not the color of this popular bait that played its role. There is an opinion that the fish does not see the outside of the turntable at all. Being behind a working spinner, it is truly impossible to see it, and at such a rotation speed it is probably also difficult to discern the color of the petal. Perhaps this is true. But the fact that there was many times more black bites remained in my memory.
Perch and wobblers
Having caught the bait with spinners, I began to try wobblers. Salmo hornet is a recognized perch killer. Fire tiger colors are time-tested. A couple of budget “Koreans” have never let us down either. It was always caught with both. However, this time the “striped one” did not respond at all. I put the same wobbler, only the color is black tiger. Stretch – pause – ascent. A second or two passes - the back of the wobbler is already showing. He is pursued by two perches and, having led him to the very surface, turn around and go into the depths. I'm changing the wiring. Now the pause is shorter - I don’t let the wobbler float up completely. I lightly twitch the tip of the spinning rod as it surfaces in the water – an uncertain “knock”. I carry on like this - there is! He sat under the boat. Things got going. Standard reception. But! The “striped” one did not react to any other color (with the same wiring) that day. Since the working version, the color black has definitely been fixed in the mind.
Subsequently, when popper fishing for schooling perch, crushing bleak near the surface, a very unexpected result was obtained, which added more points in favor of black baits. But this is a topic for another discussion. I will definitely return to her.
Spinnerbait and pike
Next, it was time to catch pike. It should be noted that fishing from the shore in a flooded peat mine is quite difficult. A sea of driftwood, depth 1–2 m, bushes on the shore, swamp on the other side. What to catch? “Texas” with a tightly put twister on an offset press? But it’s difficult to achieve a careful bite with it. Wobbler? Apart from extreme shallow waters, nothing goes through here. But they don’t always work, and snags still happen. And here the hook is a break. A large windflower with a wide petal? She often goes too fast and plays too hard for a lazy pike.
The optimal bait was a spinnerbait weighing 7–12 g. It goes quite slowly and penetrates well through snags. In general, omitting a detailed description of several such fishing trips, I will say right away. When attaching a trailer in the form of a black or dark brown twister to a single bait, the number of bites increased significantly. Moreover, they were all confident and powerful. It was he (the black twister) who helped out the swamp pike in the “coffee” water more than once and subsequently. And not only at the beginning of the season, but also in the darkest time - June-July.
By the way, I caught the largest pike weighing 3750 g in July and on a spinnerbait with a black twister. Walking in the middle layers of water, this loud bait allowed the pike to orient itself and prepare for the throw in advance, and the most visible element of the equipment was chosen as the aiming point - the black twister. All bites were clearly directed precisely to its middle. There were noticeably fewer bites on spinnerbaits with light edges or light twisters. And the percentage of idle strikes, on the contrary, increased.
Jerkbait and pike
In theory, fishing with jerkbaits involves fishing in shallow, vast areas. Therefore, the bait mainly goes along the top. If it’s on top, it means the fish should see it against the sky. The sky is light - the bait is dark - the most noticeable. The conclusion suggests itself. Yes, and I didn’t come up with this. In general, I bought a couple of black jerks. One of them is the beloved Salmo slider. I got used to it most of all, which is why I began to practice with it first of all.
The pond is a cooler. Hot Summer. There are no pike in the pits. On the edges too. All that remains is to look for it in a strip of vegetation located along the edge of a completely overgrown irrigation area. There, inside the water mass you can only fish with unhooked ones, and I don’t really like them. Along the edge you can use both turntables and proven minnows. But somehow they seemed small for such a large space. With a jerkbait you can cope with “punching” the terrain much faster and more reliably. And although it will not tempt very small fish, I know for sure that pike from 500 g (and sometimes less) react to it quite adequately.
Having positioned myself on the border of algae and clean water, I begin to methodically comb the water area with heavy baits. If the pike is here, then at a depth of 1 m, it will definitely not miss a bait the size of a palm, moving in jerks. At first, the “parrot”, drowning and actively playing Buster jerk – zero emotions. Then the light Salmo Slider in the color real roach is used. Zero emotions. No, in such a bright sun, blinding the eyes even through Polaroids, this is clearly not the case. Anyway, for the purity of the experiment, I force myself to honestly finish off the area. One light poke on the Slider. Missed. I'll put it in black. A couple of wires, a strong blow - it's gone. There’s also a “finishing move” there, and through the heels of the wires there’s a blow. Shchurenok 700 g. But there is! Before evening, another pike was caught on the black Slider. A couple more empty bites on light ones...
One pike...
The next day we go fishing in peat quarries. Depths up to 2 m. Driftwood. The reservoir is unfamiliar. Feels promising. But for the whole day there was not a single bite on two spinning rods with a partner! Even perch! No matter what! Not on turntables, not on microjigs, not on proven wobblers. We are wondering whether a natural disaster happened, or whether the electricians recently went through it? If you think about it and compare the facts, it becomes clear that after the recent hurricane and rains, the first option is more likely.
After all, closed and shallow water bodies are highly susceptible to weather changes. And the water is a bit cloudy. And indeed, the transparency is such that if you lower your hand to the elbow, you cannot see the brush. After drying, the hand becomes covered with a peat crust. It’s clear: the fish is sitting back, not moving, so as not to clog its gills with peat suspended in the water. You can't see anything in such darkness. If you put something, it must be extra-visible in order to provoke a passive predator.
The most noticeable thing seemed, again, to be black and superficial, drawn against the background of the sky, which is at least a little lighter than everything else. Black Slider with a bright yellow back (for visibility to an angler from afar). In the end, it was on him that there was one pike bite right next to the board - one all day...
Catch up
Another conditionally black pike bait has proven itself remarkably well in shallow water. Large Pike Quiver from Blue fox. It is an oscillator only in form and in essence of action. But the content is somewhat unusual. It is made not of metal, but of dense plastic, and therefore sinks much more slowly than similar-sized metal “classmates”. This lure allows extremely slow retrieving of the order of 0.5–1 m/sec at the smallest depth of up to 50 cm. Adding a small contrasting twister to the tee will add attractiveness and help to “slow down” the retrieving even more.
By and large, this is an enlarged analogue of the popular Rapala Minnow Spoon, however, the Pike Quiver has a different shape from it (with a wider rear part and a greater bend) and, accordingly, a completely different, more sweeping and slower (in my opinion, more pike-like) game. If the Minnow Spoon was created purely for the strongest places and not specifically for pike, then the Pike Quiver was created specifically for slow retrieve in the upper layers of water and for pike, as is already clear from the name.
