ọdịnaya
Winter fishing on the first ice is exciting and always brings a catch. It is especially good to catch pike on vents. Winter fishing for this fish most often goes like this, and in the first ice there is generally a peak of pike activity for the whole year.
Winter girders: tackle
It’s worth mentioning right away: there are more designs of girders than you can imagine. There are good and bad homemade options, there are various purchased girders. But a novice angler should first of all get acquainted with the classic factory-made winter vent with a reel on a flat plate, so for starters we will talk about it.
Purchased zherlitsa with a coil on a plate
You can buy a lot of different vents in the store: on a tripod, with a reel, on a screw, etc. However, the simplest and most proven option, not at all more expensive than the others, is a plastic vent on a round flat base, equipped with a coil. Its cost in the store for 2018 is between one and one and a half dollars.
The design consists of three parts that are separated and folded, taking up little space in the angler’s luggage. The lower part is a round base, on which there is a groove-slot for fishing line. There are also mounting holes for attaching other parts, a rack with a coil and a flag.
The rack with the coil is placed in the middle part of the base in the groove and snaps into it. The reel has a handle that allows you to quickly wind the line. The fishing line is attached to it in the usual way, as well as to other angler’s reels, using a long loop. The ease of movement of the coil in most vents can be adjusted using a small plastic thumb screw or using a metal screw and a screwdriver. If the stroke is adjusted with a screwdriver, you need to have a suitable one for fishing in order to quickly adjust the stroke.
The flag is another important detail of the vent. It is a flat spring with a round plastic part, for which the flag is attached to the base. At the other end of the flag is a red signaling device in the form of, in fact, a small flag. When installing the vent, it is bent under the coil. At the same time, with the help of an arc and a bend point, it is possible to finely adjust the tuck of the vent. This is the force required to trigger the flag. However, on some vents there is an additional pinch for fishing line on the reel stand.
Installation of the girders
During installation, such a vent is placed on top of the base on the hole, protecting it from freezing and shading from bright light. If you plan to fish at shallow depths, it is better to walk carefully, without removing the snow around, and also shade the holes so as not to frighten the fish. Before that, a live bait is put on the hook and released to swim in the water. The release of the fishing line on which the live bait walks depends on the conditions of fishing, and the pinch must be such that the live bait itself is not able to pull it out. After that, a flag is folded under the coil.
When biting, the fish releases the line from the pinch. The flag is released and straightened by a spring. A good flag can be seen far away, and when triggered in the winter silence, a clear click is heard, even when sitting with your back to it. The angler must run to the vent and complete the hook in time, then pull the fish onto the ice. The trophy is usually pike, perch, less often pike perch or burbot. Closer to spring, you can catch other predators on the vents: chub, ide.
Such a vent is popular in all regions of Russia where winter pike fishing is practiced: In the Leningrad, Moscow regions, Pskov, Novgorod, Astrakhan – almost throughout the entire territory. Where pike is not found, other predators can be caught on it – for example, Lena burbot in the Far North. The fishing technique will differ only in the choice of the place and time of fishing, as well as the live bait used.
It has a huge advantage over other designs – the hole is closed from above and it can be covered with snow on top of the plate so that the fishing line does not freeze into the ice. Also, the material is usually black plastic, and the girders are easy to find later on the ice and assemble even in the light of a lantern.
When buying, you should pay attention to the thickness of the plastic from which the product is made. Usually it should not be less than 2-3 mm, otherwise the tackle will be weak and may break in the bag, when released, if it is frozen into the ice, or worst of all, when biting a large, trophy fish, it will be broken. It is also necessary to process the entire marriage of the mold with a sandpaper or needle file – flash, sagging, burr.
Homemade girders
For those who do not want to fish with store-bought gear, there are several simple vent designs that even a schoolboy can make. All of them will require time and materials to manufacture, have somewhat worse functionality, so saving money on buying girders will be moot. Among these vents, three can be distinguished: an old burbot pit, a vent made of a plastic pipe, and a vent with an underwater reel.
Burbot is a fishing line with several leaders, which are straightened by the current like a snap for fishing with a ring. Several different baits are put on the hooks: bunches of worms, live bait, pieces of fresh meat with blood, etc. The bait itself is attached to a pole, which is placed in the hole from top to bottom and sticks out over the ice. Tackle is usually installed at night and it works on the principle of self-setting. The burbot, which went on a night hunt, swallows its prey deeply and greedily and rarely eats the bait from the hook.
The pole is good because you do not need to be afraid of freezing into the ice. It will be perfectly visible from a distance. The burbot usually pecks at night, and guarding the vents in the night cold snap is another occupation. And then it will be easy to find the allowance by the end sticking out of the water, cut the pole out of the ice, not being afraid to damage the fishing line with the pick and pull the fish up. Tackle is quite rough, but effective and simple. The disadvantage is that, apart from night fishing for burbot, it is not suitable for anything else, and burbot is not always and not everywhere caught. The cumbersome pole makes float fishing accessible only to rural anglers who do not need to worry about the compactness of their luggage, and the pole can be found in their own garden.
Plastic pipe chute
A plastic pipe vent is a piece of pipe with a diameter of 25 mm to 50, not too large a mass. It is most convenient to use pipes from the sewer. The segment is taken about half a meter. You will also need two pieces of wire, preferably reinforcement about 3 mm thick, fairly rigid. The wire is inserted into a piece of pipe across, forming a crosshair at one end, slightly stepping back from the edge. The other end of the pipe is placed on ice. It turns out that the pipe rests on a wire cross, and the other end is on ice.
The fishing line is wound on a free piece near the cross. A small groove is cut in the pipe with a knife, the fishing line is plucked into it. The other end of the pipe, which rests on the ice, is painted with a bright color. When biting, the predator grabs the live bait and drags the bait into the hole. A cross made of wire, which rises across, does not allow her to fail. As a result, the angler sees the zherlitsa sticking out of the hole with a rear bright end, and can perform a sweep. The disadvantage of such a vent is that it cannot be used in the cold, since the fishing line has a large hanging end, and there is no protection against freezing it into the hole. It will also be very uncomfortable in deep snow on ice. However, according to the first ice, when the pike usually bites, the flaws will not be very noticeable.
Another version of a do-it-yourself chute is with an underwater reel. A stick is placed across the hole, to which a thick rope or belt is tied. On the belt there is a vent reel of one design or another: a flyer, a can, a tube, etc., which are also used for summer vents. However, the reel must be sinking so as not to freeze into the hole. A pinch is made in the reel and a fishing line is wound around it, a live bait is put on hooks and the tackle is lowered into the water.
In the event of freezing, such tackle will be easy to release, since it is more difficult to cut a thick rope than a thin frozen fishing line. The disadvantage is that there are no signaling devices, the tackle works for self-fishing, it is also easy to lose it on ice, especially with snow, since it is not noticeable from a distance.
Nri dị ndụ
Regardless of the design of the vent, you will need a device on which the live bait is mounted. It consists of one or two hooks, doubles or trebles, a wire or tungsten leader, a carabiner with a clasp. If the live bait is attached to a hook, they try to hook it so that it is less injured – by the lip, near the edge of the anal fin, behind the back near the edge of the dorsal fin. The longer the live bait is alive, the better. At the end of fishing, if it is in good condition, the live bait from the hook can be completely released into the pond.
The easiest way is to use a tee, which is attached to the end of the leash, and put the fish on the lips. Sometimes they use a live bait tee with one small hook, on which the live bait is placed, and large ones for the predator, or the same double. Hook size – at least 10 numbers or larger. It is better to use two hooks. One is put on a leash and slides freely along it, preferably on an additional wire bend-twist, so that there is another degree of freedom. The second is at the end of the leash. The first hook is placed under the fish’s anal fin, the second – behind the lips.
As practice shows, you should not use tackle that involves passing through the mouth and gills of the live bait fish. A fish with this method lives much less than if it is simply put on the lip, and is less mobile in the water. Therefore, there will be fewer bites on it. Now on sale there are various clips for live bait fish, with which you can not pierce them with hooks at all. However, their feasibility must be tested. In addition, it is not known what is worse for the fish – a squeezing clamp that interferes with movement, or a small puncture in the lip and tail muscles. There are even more designs of live bait rigs than designs of bait rigs, and the final choice of the angler should be tested by practice – which pike will spit out less often and take more often.
The main line for the vent should not be thinner than 0.25 mm. Even if a small pike bites, the 0.25-0.3 line is convenient because it can be pulled out of the snow or ice if it is frozen. With a thinner, albeit good and durable fishing line, this will not work, it freezes very tightly and immediately. A braided line is never put on vents during winter fishing.
Live bait for pike
As practice shows, it makes sense to choose the size of the live bait based on the size of the fish. Usually, pike take well on fish about ten times less than their own weight. For example, to catch a kilogram predator, you will need a hundred-gram live bait, and half a kilo – fish of 50 grams. This is a fairly large bait. A live bait from 30 to 100 grams should be considered universal. Even a small pike can bite on live bait only half its own weight, and a large five-kilogram one can be tempted by small fish. You don’t need to be too attached to the size of the live bait, you just have to not be afraid to put large enough fish on the hook. Usually they catch on several vents, for which you can use different-sized live bait, which will increase the chances.
It is most reasonable to put those live bait fish that live in the place of fishing. They are familiar food that does not arouse suspicion. You can usually catch them right at the place of fishing on the vents with the help of a mormyshka and a float rod. However, it happens that the live bait refuses to peck. Therefore, it is better to take a little bit of purchased live bait for fishing or caught in another body of water, so as not to be left without a tail at all. And then, when you manage to pick up the key to the fish, catch the local live bait.
When buying, you should pay attention to the breed of fish. The simplest and most affordable live bait for pike is roach. Sold from 5 to 30 rubles apiece, depending on the region. It is better to buy live bait fish from the hook, since the bait fish from the net have frayed fins and damage to the scales, they are less viable. Also, the purchase should be made immediately before fishing, in order to be less concerned about safety.
Roach has the lowest “shelf life”. A little longer at home, crucian, perch, and ruff will last. You can use lamprey, rotan. The latter should be taken with caution, at the risk of introducing a weedy look. Of course, for pike and perch, it is not a competitor and will be quickly destroyed. But if it turns out that they are not in the reservoir, it can breed and create problems. In order for the live bait to live longer, you should keep it in cold water. Ice is put into the water from the refrigerator, and preferably from the street. It is advisable to put one large piece there and cover with a lid, so it will melt longer. Who has an aquarium compressor – use it. In large stores, special oxygen bags are used to preserve the live bait, which are placed in water.
In order to move the live bait fish around the pond, it is convenient to take a canoe and a trough-sled. Kana, a box, a bag with vents, an ice drill are placed on the trough and go to the place of fishing after the angler. In the hands of all this rubbish will interfere with walking, and a voluminous canal with water is also heavy. Therefore, a trough is a mandatory attribute for those who plan to seriously fish on vents.
Catching live bait on the spot
For fishing, they use a mormyshka and a float rod, with the thinnest line and a small hook. Chernobyl, bloodworm, worm, dough are used as nozzles. Sometimes they catch small perches on a small lure. A small balalaika rod with a very thin fishing line and the smallest tungsten mormyshka should be recognized as a universal bait tackle. You can put the dough on it too, the roach does not really understand that this is an inanimate nozzle and takes it as if it were alive.
Mormyshkas are better to choose so that with the same low weight they have a different hook size. This is necessary so that the live bait does not swallow the hook and gets caught exactly by the lip. For extraction, there must be a small extractor. It is convenient to have two or three pre-equipped live bait rods with different hooks on mormyshkas for different sizes of live bait.
The main thing is to position yourself so that the set vents are in the visibility zone, and the cana is at hand. Caught fish are placed in it. Usually, in the cold, the fish will not sleep, as in summer, and there is no need to take additional measures to preserve it in the canal. Therefore, it is very important to position a place for live bait fishing and setting vents. The pike fishing place is taken into account, the place where the live bait is biting and the direction of the wind, to which it is desirable to sit with your back or at least sideways, closing the hole and the nod of the fishing rod with your boot from the wind. If it is impossible, you should keep your ears ready and react to the click of the flag in order to run to hook.
During live bait fishing, they often catch with several rods. To do this, two or three holes are drilled side by side in the selected place. Mormyshkas, float winter fishing rods are lowered into them, which should all have coasters. Apply alternate play on different gear. It happens that the fish is attracted by the jig, and then bites only on a float rod with a fixed nozzle, and separately it does not work at all.
If you find a good live bait place, it makes sense to feed it a little to keep the flock. Use neutral bait compositions, homemade cereals. The fish will stay in place longer if there is some food for them. But it is impossible to hope to attract fish to a place where it is not now by feeding. Smells, even the most delicious ones, spread weakly in cold water, and in winter it is easier to attract a flock of live bait with a game of mormyshka than with the most expensive and delicious bait. In any case, if there are no bites for a long time, it is necessary to change the fish and look for it, and not hope that it will fit itself. Usually, where the live bait is found, there is also a pike, and it is also worth putting vents there.
Pike fishing tactics
First ice is best suited for fishing, when the pike has a mad zhor. Fish from open places, blown by the wind and cold, rushes under the bays closed by the first ice, backwaters, small tributaries. Usually weather changes act as a stunning factor, small fish are not able to resist and run away from pikes, notice them in time. The predator takes advantage of this and actively eats before the long winter.
The depth in the places of fishing is usually small – up to two meters. And more often the pike even takes at a meter depth. This is good – because the ice is thin, and if you fall through, you can feel the bottom with your feet and get out. However, you should not forget about security measures – be sure to take lifeguards and a rope. It is best to put live bait local. Pike eats all small fish – perch, roach, silver bream, ruff. The only thing is not to put small individuals of valuable fish – squint-pencils, bream lavrushka. You can also catch them, but they can grow and become a worthy trophy, give offspring and provide a catch in the future. It’s better to let them go.
It is best to fish on girders with 150 drills. The fact is that the pike bends, and it is quite difficult to get it into a small hole. And the size of the trophy can be such that it simply does not fit in a small hole. However, if you catch from 130, you can do so. However, you must be prepared for the fact that you will have to drill a hole if the steamer bites.
For pike fishing, a hook is also required. It allows you to pick up fish under the hole and drag it without fear for the safety of fishing line or hooks. The length of the hook should be greater than the thickness of the ice, it should be foldable and fit in the angler’s pocket, be always at hand. Sometimes they use home-made hooks from old telescopic antennas for the receiver, attaching a handle and a hook to them. Fish weighing more than a kilogram must first be brought to the hole, then they are reddened and only with the help of a hook they are pulled onto the ice, without a hook you can only pull out small squints.
For pike fishing, it is desirable to have, in addition to the ice drill, a pick. Fortunately, there are also collapsible ice picks for sale, otherwise there would be difficulties with transportation. It is much easier for her to expand the hole if she pecked at a trophy than to drill with a drill. If it was necessary to drill, it is done like this.
- Next to the hole, another one is drilled at a distance of half the diameter.
- Then the drill is placed so as to drill the third hole between the existing ones, connecting them into one longitudinal section. Drilling must be done very carefully. Semicircular knives are better fused with such a task, and stepped knives are worse.
- At the same time, the fish must be turned red and the partner holds a hook in his hands. It will be difficult to pull her onto the ice without a partner and a hook. There is a risk of cutting the line with a drill and the fish will leave.
- If there is no partner, it remains to hope for the strength of the line and hooks and let the fish go under the ice, letting the line go while they are making holes.
- If you drill right next to the first hole, there is a very high risk of breaking the drill. It is better to drill three holes and not break the drill than to try to expand by drilling a second one at once and break it.
For fishing on vents, you need to have a metal scoop on hand. With it, you can not only remove the crumbs from the holes, but also easily destroy the frozen crust of ice without much risk of damaging the fishing line. This will not work with a plastic scoop – you will have to use a knife, a lifeguard, and other items to destroy the ice, and then extract it. Holes under the vents stand for a long time, and the ice can freeze, despite the not very severe frost. It is advisable to tie the scoop to a belt on a string so that you can remove the ice and holes immediately after cutting and pull the predator out without fear of forgetting the scoop in the sled.
Fishing places in the wilderness
Closer to the dead of winter, the pike leaves the shallow water, which freezes first, to a decent depth. Her bite becomes more careful, the pinch should be set weaker. To the vents, where the flag worked, you no longer have to go, but run headlong. January and February pike often spit out live bait as soon as they prick, and timely hooking is very important here. If the pike does not bite in the old places, it makes sense to go looking for it with a balancer, lure, echo sounder and other devices. If there are signs of fish, it makes sense to put vents here and do something else.
Despite all sorts of fishing signs, pike bite about the same at both low and high pressure. Biting improves slightly with increasing pressure, that is, when moving from a low pressure of 745-748 to a high pressure of 755-760. But if these transitions are sharp, the pike may stop biting altogether. It is best to choose periods with stable pressure and weather for fishing. This will not only allow you to catch fish, but also be sure that in the middle of fishing it will not suddenly rain, for which the angler is not ready.
The vents themselves, regardless of the presence of bites, should be bypassed and checked every hour. They change the sleeping live bait. It happens that there was a bite, the vent did not work. The live bait must be replaced, as it is injured and will no longer run after the pike’s tooth. It happens that the live bait twitched, freed from the hook and ran away. From all the holes where the vents are located, the ice crust is removed from above so that it does not freeze further and thicker. In the absence of bites, they begin to look for a reason: they change the release of fishing line with live bait, change the holes on which the vents stand. They drill new holes and rearrange part of the vents to another place.
Restrictions on fishing
The allowed number of vents, as a rule, is no more than ten per fisherman. In the absence of bites, it usually takes no more than fifteen minutes to go around and check them once an hour. In between, you can go fishing for live bait or other fish. For example – a perch on a bait, if there is enough live bait. You can go to chat with other anglers, find out how they are doing. It may be worth moving closer to them and rearranging the tackle if they have more bites. In general, bait fishing suggests that there are other gear available so as not to sit idle.
When fishing with such gear, you can not use a tent, stationary shelters. The fact is that nothing can be seen in the tent, nothing can be heard. Hooking has to be done late, hoping for self-cutting. If such a thing still rolls over the first ice, then in the wilderness you can’t hope for it, and the vents will simply stand in vain, not giving a single fish.
On the contrary, the use of mobile devices, such as dogs, snowmobiles, is desirable when fishing on vents. On a dog, you can put vents wide, covering a large area of the reservoir, move quickly and always have time when biting. The dog does not have to be kept under steam, it is enough if it starts up well. It will be faster to start and drive up than to run a hundred or two hundred meters. At the same time, the trough with things will always be in the trailer, and you don’t have to be afraid that you forgot the hook in it or the kan, running to the bite without anything. Otherwise, you will have to yell at the whole body of water that, they say, I keep a fish, help, bring a hook, an ice screw or something else. Also, if the vents are wide, you need to take binoculars with you. Sometimes it is not clear whether the flag worked from a distance or not. Then they take it through binoculars and make sure you have to go or there was no bite.
Catching other fish on winter vents
Pike is not the only fish that is caught with vents. In the wilderness, burbot becomes a worthy trophy. He pecks on live bait, and on a sleeping live bait fish (but fresh!), And on worms, and on other baits with which there may be less fuss. True, mostly at night and in the most severe frost, which is not always convenient for the angler. For night fishing, fireflies are attached to the flags. They use the lightest ones so that they do not disturb the balance of the flags and do not outweigh them, they simply sew them to the flags with threads. If there is a full moon, then the flags will be visible at night and without fireflies.
When fishing for small live bait, perch often comes across with pike. It can be any individuals – from small perches 50 grams to solid kilogram beauties. Most often this happens in the first time, when the perch and pike are almost in the same places, then the pike moves deeper. For perch, you need to use live bait weighing no more than 30-40 grams. Such a live bait is rarely on sale, it is usually caught right there at the place where the vents are installed.
Pike perch is a rare trophy when fishing with live bait in winter. It is not very active at this time of the year, much less perch and pike. However, where they found a zander path, it makes sense to put a couple of girders. They can show whether the fish came up or not, even just by flagging without taking. This means that you can take a lure, a balancer and move to the place where this predator is caught.
Rotan is another fish that can be very cool to catch on a winter vent. As a bait, they use not a live bait, but a worm, they do not put any leashes. He practically does not survive where there is a pike, and there is no need to be afraid that she will bite off the fishing line. Rotan pecks actively, especially at the beginning of winter on the first ice. Zherlits usually manages to bet no more than five – while they are betting, they already start pecking at the first ones, and they don’t have time to do it anymore. Such fishing is much more effective than catching rotan with baubles, mormyshka and other baits with one or two rods and allows you to quickly localize its accumulations in the pond. You need to put a line of 0.25 and a weak pinch on the vents, you need to run to the bite quickly, since the rotan will then deeply swallow the hook, and you will have to pull it out with a throat.