Friends, hello everyone! Everyone who is on the front line, who is in reserve, who is preparing to defend their borders! Happy holiday everyone! Hooray. Hooray. Hooray!
But I found a little time and therefore in this article I share my experience of jigging on a big river in winter. I hope you find something useful for yourself in it.
A short video of night fishing from the edges for those who love videos.
Night, silence, only the water beats against the edge of the edge, and the foxes are trying to steal part of the catch, romance. I’m standing on the ice, there’s water under it, there’s water in front of it, there’s water all around and fish that are up to something. I stand and just fish with my old favorite gear. It happens from time to time.
And for those who also like to read, please, thoughts and impressions of several seasons. The edges are waiting
For several seasons in a row, the river has been presenting surprises, not completely freezing even in the most severe frosts. This is an excellent reason to remember how to do two steps - pause, check the operation of the gear in sub-zero temperatures and, most importantly, in the fresh frosty air, feel with slightly frozen hands that same THING in the bait and see the sparkling eyes of the pike perch. As promised, I’m telling you about my experience over several seasons, fishing with a spinning jig in winter on a large river.
The city is bustling, but the river is calm
Briefly about places and fishing tactics 18.00 Moscow time, I put the thermos in my backpack and let's go... The Oka is frozen, but in some places due to the hydrodynamics of the river the ice never becomes. These are exactly the places that give you the opportunity to leave unnecessary conversations, pick up a spinning rod and go fishing.
This time the fishing will be from ice, but in open water
The places are not distinguished by their depth; the bottom relief of these places is not particularly diverse; most of them are flat areas with local areas of underwater debris. Knowing that in a given place there is a single snag or a row of stones piled up, i.e., everything that you can “get attached to” when jigging for spinning fishing, is rather a minus. My friends and I spent a lot of time trying to force fish out of “hooks” and “holes,” but fishing statistics showed that this was a pointless waste of time; after all, the depths were not conducive to “snagging efforts.” Catching one bershik or pike perch hidden in a “snag” after spending several hours on it was more like trying to catch a plush toy in a machine all the time, everything was going wrong.
Tormenting led to the capture of one vagrant tail
Therefore, at a certain point, I stopped mocking my nerves and “shaking snags” and switched to catching active fish in areas. Fishing tactics began to develop according to the principle “If you throw more often, you might catch it!” " We simply fish an area open to ice, with maximum speed and, so to speak, frequency of movements, trying to provoke an actively walking predator. This means that fishing is in a fairly active style, then 90% of it will be jig, and in a heavy style. This approach makes it possible to “break through” the maximum area in a short time, clearly make a leash at the desired aggressive pace and, accordingly, find the most active predator in the area. From a certain time, this began to bear fruit in the form of catching trophies.
Heavy, tempo, night...
The species composition during such fishing is not diverse for our area; mainly these are classic predators such as pike perch, pike, perch and periodically burbot, almost no one succeeded in catching a white predator, we did not encounter chubs and asps, but the “landing “into the red-tailed bait, and even with the “relish” and stretching of large wild carp, happened more than once, that is, precisely from a bite and precisely during active retrieval, and this once again proves that large carp in cold water show their predatory tendencies.
Perch is the rarest trophy
The pike are good at night, I've never caught a line
Night burbot is often found in cold water
Pike perch at night is more of a rule than just a trend
Time and patience
The time periods when predators entered areas rarely coincided in different seasons. I would even say that the fish appeared on the site not depending on the time of day, but rather on the weather. Cloudy days brought catches in the evening, warm days with “slush” made it possible to enjoy every fishing trip, frosty days threatened to fly by. However, most of the fish were caught in the dark and at night, the rule of fish activity before night, the night surge and pre-dispersal activity worked, but it was not possible to understand when this would happen on this particular fishing trip. The time periods were blurred, and if you caught a fish at, say, 21:00 on Tuesday, then the surge in fish activity on Thursday could have occurred at 23:00 or had already passed by 17:00. Therefore, only time and patience brought at least some fruit, sometimes significant, sometimes just rest and exercise in the fresh air without fish with foxes wandering behind you.
Pike are caught in clusters and outcrops, sometimes no worse than pike perch
But the experience of such winter night fishing is extremely interesting. Thanks to these fishing trips, I met with the nocturnal school of pike, with “fetishist” pike perch that prefer only a strictly defined color of bait, with wild carp that peck “in the dagon.” It also became clear that a clear sign of the appearance of the objects of our fishing was the appearance of blue bream and silver bream in the area, suddenly the water came to life and periodically one could see how the fish were melting, and the hits with the “Cheburashka” and the cord clearly showed the habitability of the area, but 30-40 minutes passed and everything was dying and all that remained was to throw and throw and wait... I’ll also briefly say about another observation over several seasons of such fishing, at the beginning of the season most of the fish were caught in the evening and night hours, then the closer to spring, the more likely it is to meet fish It was during the day that the activity of exits shifted to lunchtime.
This time the pike perch “loved” takpok of this color
Equipment and tackle
And we will start with the most important element in such fishing, but this is not a reel or a spinning rod or a cord, this is what will not turn fishing into winter swimming. Since we are fishing from the edge, in fact, in a huge ice hole, we are respectively standing on ice, under which there is 2-3 meters of water, current and cold. Therefore, an irreplaceable element of the tackle is an ice pick, which we use to check the thickness of the ice on which we stand when fishing.
I won't take a step without an ice pick
For our own safety, we make a rule for ourselves - come to the place, take off your backpack, leave things where the ice is definitely thick, take a good look around and then walk around the area and check the ice for strength, so as not to waste time on this or not to drown the gear with which you are fishing when you get out of the water if you dive. And in general, we follow all the rules of conduct when fishing on ice, and we do this with the utmost scrupulousness, since open water is in front of us, which means that yesterday you pierced the ice with an ice pick 5 times, and tomorrow there was a breeze, open water went differently on the ice , washed away somewhere, and what was checked before is no longer relevant, DON’T BE LAZY CHECK THE ICE BEFORE EVERY FISHING!!!
The author was too lazy to check, took a step and almost left
Since my fishing took place mainly in the dark, I always have a flashlight in my pocket, as well as a thermos with warm tea and a balaclava. Night winter winds may not be strong, but they can blow some kind of otitis media in one fishing trip
Jig gun
Jig from ice. Pike
Shine: all notes, author's notes.
Catching pike with soft silicone baits. Anglers, out of ignorance, rarely include soft baits in their arsenal for catching pike from ice. They are usually used in snags, in places where loss of bait is inevitable, despite all the efforts of the fisherman. But it’s one thing to lose a custom-made spoon, and another thing to lose a simple jig head with a piece of silicone.
A positive result is achieved due to the fact that the artificial bait hits the branch with a jig head, often saving it from a direct hook with a hook. It is better to use a specially shaped jig head, but this is not at all necessary. A standard jig head fully meets the requirements for snag fishing. Lures with pressed or, more precisely, hooks that slightly protrude beyond the dimensions of the body or a single hook showed themselves to be the best. Silicone “fish” equipped according to the Banjo-Galliano principle are also quite suitable for ice fishing. The color of the bait doesn't matter much. Still, lures with high-contrast colors are best left for spinning fishing. As already mentioned, it is better not to use baits with anti-hooking devices in the form of metal “antennae”. When the bite is sluggish, additional metal devices alert and scare away the predator. Lures with hairy hook feathers, as well as foam fish, are used only at above-zero temperatures, as they are susceptible to rapid icing due to the structure of the material. Vibrotail - The game of the bait consists of periodically shaking the latter in the bottom layer at 20, 50 and 70 cm from the bottom. The vibrotail stays at each specified height for no more than 3-5 seconds. From a height of 50-70 cm, the bait is dropped to the bottom several times, pausing for no more than 2-3 seconds (they try to avoid sagging of the fishing line), after which it is raised to the original distance, performing the techniques in the same sequence. — An artificial bait, equipped with a jig head weighing up to 12 g, is smoothly, but with acceleration, torn off from the bottom and held for several seconds at a height of 30-50 cm. After a 3-5 second pause, the nozzle is released, but with the expectation that it will be 5-50 cm high. 10 cm did not reach the bottom. After a pause of 5-7 seconds, the vibrating tail, twister or octopus is again raised to a height of 30-40 cm and, after a short pause, lowered to the bottom. The game cycle is designed for 5-7 lifts. Then they perform techniques typical for lure fishing (lifting, dropping, pausing), but at an accelerated pace. The distance from the bottom is mandatory, pause 1-2 seconds. Twister The techniques of playing with a twister are very similar to trolling, with the only difference being that the pause during the release of the bait rarely exceeds 2-4 seconds (there is no planning phase), so fishing with a twister in a weak current is most effective. On the first ice, a twister with a non-clinging device in a snag catches squinting fish and large perch quite well. The twister is most often used without a jig head. Octopus (octopus) Due to its design (numerous decorative tentacles that oscillate at the slightest twitch of the bait), the bait's vertical play should be very leisurely and even sluggish. The fisherman lifts the bait by 10-20 cm, drops it and plays with it for a few seconds (no more than 5-7) like a jig. The technique is performed in the water column. The movement of the octopus creates a weak, but long-lasting, compared to the play of other soft baits, disturbance of the water flows around the bait, which greatly attracts predatory fish. The octopus game remains effective even in the complete absence of flow. In some cases, it is useful to simply shake the bait in one place, then wait a pause of 1-2 seconds and shake the bait again. If these techniques do not work, the octopus, like a “ladder” jig, is slowly raised to the ice surface, naturally, first of all, fishing the bottom area of interest to the fisherman. Lately, in snags on the last ice, people are often caught with a kind of hybrid octopus + octopus, to which pike weighing up to 1 kg are not indifferent. In the dead of winter it is useless to use soft baits. The number of bites on them in relation to spinners is approximately 1:10.
Did you like the article? Share with your friends!
Rod
When choosing a rod for edge fishing on a large river, I will definitely prefer the most powerful and longest one. The test may vary, in general, rods up to 2-3 ounces according to the upper test are enough for the eyes, and provided that we are fishing actively - “tempo” with the use of heavy weights, then the lower test is not very interesting to me. In addition to the test, one of the most important indicators for such fishing is power, and the power should be such as to lift about 2-3 kg from the floor. And this is connected primarily with the peculiarities of fishing, you almost always will not be able to stand on the ice at the edge of the edge, it simply will not hold you, in order to catch fish with a lip grip, a landing net, or just get the rod in, you will have to literally force the last stage of fishing and cast, lift fish on the edge of the rod.
Just a powerful spinning rod that pulled the fish onto the ice
It looks something like how the Japanese raise their seabass into the rock in shorjig fishing, so we can say that this is our answer to them. The next parameter is the length, the longer the better, with a short rod you will be forced to go to the edge of the edge, and this is a bit risky. With a short rod it is difficult to manipulate the bait at long distances, it is difficult to overcome the edge of the edge when throwing the bait onto the ice, and most importantly, with a short lever it is difficult to stop the fish that tries to escape under the ice of the edge.
10.6=320cm
Therefore, personally, I try not to use rods less than 3 meters, and I consider the best rods 320-330 cm, although there were seasons when I fished with a 360 spinning rod, wow feeder you say, but such were the fishing conditions, and I did not leave it on the edges not a single bait, and always got the fish that bit.
Powerful spinning rod
In total, what we have in terms of the rod is such a hefty 3-meter and longer rod with a reserve of power to tear off the sofa, knocking in the hand with 42 grams and confidently throwing 56 grams + bait, allowing you to forcefully rip out fish from everywhere. And here there are quite a lot of options, these are almost all the good old, time-tested and fish-tested spinning rods for SHOREJIGA from eastern manufacturers, or new, lighter rods that are clearer in the wiring. Let me still name a few rods, without stopping at their description.
"Shorevy kh@rtik"
- Fox Rage Terminator Big Bait Spin 300cm 42-168g
- Hearty Rise, Shore Jig Force, JA-1062 H, 320 cm, up to 80 gr.
- Hearty Rise, Shore Jig Force, JA-1062 MH, 320 cm, up to 60 gr.
- CD Rods - Taiaha 10'6″H, 320 cm, 14-56 gr.
- Maximus Dreamer-X 1002H 305 cm, 20 - 70 g.
- Daiko Desperado DS-1102 JS 330 cm, 20-70 g.
- Tenryu Power Master PMH110H 330cm, 30-100g.
- Tailwalk Manbika 106xh 320 cm, up to 80 g.
- Tail Scale Attraction 305 cm, 56-112 g.
These rods were or are in use by me and my friends, like many other different ones, you can’t remember them all, but the ones that were on the lists were remembered. And by the way, most spinning rods for SHOREJIGA indicate such an indicator as the maximum weight that can be lifted, in general this corresponds to the truth, but for some manufacturers it is underestimated, for example, like Tailwalk, while for others it is clearly overestimated, for example, I have not seen any broken marine thin-walled fishing rods in powerful tests is not enough, so try to take a fishing rod that can withstand a lot and is not expensive, you should not take an extremely high module of the form or chase the weight. Moreover, fishing in winter in conditions where edges are cramped for fishing means the reliability of the gear in the first place, and then the weight, etc.
Homemade, heavy, mine
Lures
The main feature of ice jigging, which differs from summer fishing, is that the bait works only in the vertical plane. Fishing with balancers and winter lures has been well studied, so many anglers are often cautious, preferring familiar gear rather than jigs. Therefore, let's look at this in more detail.
Silicone bait has these advantages.
- low cost;
- high level of catchability;
- possibility of self-production.
The disadvantage of a silicone jig is its short service life. Predatory fish, including pike, spoil the bait, sometimes simply biting it. Many silicone baits “dull” in the cold and lose their ability to play. Therefore, for ice fishing, devices made of soft jelly-like silicone are used.
The winter predator is a demanding and capricious client, paying attention only to attractive edible bait. Often, in order for the bait to play better, a 2-3-centimeter polyvinyl chloride disk is attached to it, which swings the bait, leading it to the side (you could see its version in the video posted just above in the article). The ideal option is when the bait creates the impression of a small fish that moves near the bottom with periodic additives.
Silicone slugs
A good result is obtained with slug baits, which outwardly resemble fish feeding in the bottom part of a reservoir. Small vibrating tails can be used for the same purposes. The pike actively reacts to the vibrations created by this bait and attacks it.
Twisters are also catchy baits. A fleshy silicone product with a wide, sweeping tail attracts the attention of a predator, even if it is passive and lazy.
You can use other silicone options: worms, crayfish, nymphs, etc.
Variety of types of silicone baits
As for the shade range, you should refrain from using too bright colors. Greenish or brownish-silver colors work best.
It is advisable to store silicone baits in a box made of polymer material that does not damage the rubber. If the fakes are of different colors, it is advisable to place them in different compartments. Otherwise, the products will “paint” against each other, losing their original color.
Reels
So we will install a reel that can not only clearly but also quickly at the right pace, carry a large-weight bait on the site, and all these reels are usually not light in weight and are mainly power-based. Let's talk briefly about the reels, and there's nothing new here - they're basically all classic heavy-jig meat grinders, there are no multis, since -12 fishing with a multi at night is still a pleasure. And it's more difficult to find a rod with the parameters we need for them.
6000 SW PG is what you need
Therefore, here is a list of reels, it contains both budget models and models of older years and newer ones, we note that these are power models capable of working with large weights and thick cords. Excellent reels, wiring even very weighty (heavily loaded) baits with them is not difficult. You can simply “twist” the fish with a reel
- Shimano Twin Power 3000-5000 PG model 2002.
- Shimano Stella SW 4000-5000 PG model 2001.
- Daiwa Tournamen Force 3000-3500.
- Daiwa Saltiga Game 3000-3500.
- Shimano Twin Power SW 4000/5000-6000 PG model 2009.
- Shimano Twin Power SW 6000 PG model 2015.
- Shimano Stella SW 4000/5000-6000 model 2008.
- Shimano Stella SW 5000-6000 model 2013.
I have already talked about some reels and their pros and cons from the experience of using them, and I will tell you about others from this list over time.
4000 SW PG is an excellent option
Cords
When talking about the gear, one cannot help but mention the cords. And then I made so many mistakes and wasted so much money looking for a line for our winter fishing that I don’t even want to talk about it. Since the list of line models that turned out to be absolutely unsuitable for fishing from edges is huge. Many even very famous cords that performed well in the warm season or were not subjected to such an abrasive as ice were simply terrifying with their newly appeared characteristics like “how many baits can I shoot at minus 5 degrees” or “how many wires will it take even a treated cord to turn into a piece frozen rope." As a result, of the budget cords, I still had a few from Sun line, but in thick diameters as expected, and a few old, proven ones from Berkley.
Cheap and cheerful and noticeable at night!
In this article I will not specifically describe the baits, some are in the video, and the season is in full swing and apparently already banned, I will summarize as much as possible what brings results in this and other seasons of winter jig spinning on a big river.
Good luck to everyone, I hope the information was useful, and you friends will be able to diversify your fishing and approach your favorite body of water with new knowledge!
Equipment for catching pike perch in winter with jig
Having devoted a few lines of history, let's get straight to the point and talk about gear. And first of all – about the rod. When purchasing a suitable rod for jig fishing in a store, you need to opt for a fishing rod with fast or super-fast action, which, according to the old classification, corresponds to hard or super-hard. By the way, checking is very simple - you need to determine which part of the rod bends under the load attached to its tip. If a third or no more than a quarter of the blank bends, this is what is needed for a jig rod! The length of the rod depends on the fishing conditions - if from the shore, when long casts are required, then you should purchase a long rod. If the predator will be caught from a boat, then it is most convenient to use a short and light rod.
