Contents
One of the easiest and most effective ways of winter fishing is fishing with balancers. This bait works irresistibly on a perch. Although it is less effective on passive fish than spinners, it allows you to quickly pull the fish to the hole and search for it.
Classic balancer: what is it
The balancer is a bait that in its modern form appeared in Finland. Balancer Rapala for perch is one of the best baits, time-tested. The main difference from the spinner is that it is located horizontally in the water. The body of the balancer has a mount exactly in the center of gravity, very rarely – slightly shifted forward. In water, it occupies the same position as the fry, which is the main food for perch.
Like a lure, a balancer requires a lure game to attract fish. The game is carried out due to the fact that the back of the balancer and its tail have resistance in the water. When tossed up, it moves in the water with a horizontal jerk, and then returns to its place.
Sometimes there are other movements of the bait – figure eight, somersault, yaw, wide movement in the plane of the ice. It all depends on the type of balancer, but usually it just makes a jump to the side, an instant turn and returns to its place. There are no special frills in the game with a balancer, it is much easier to learn than a spinner.
The balancer usually has a lead body, from which an eyelet extends in the upper part for attaching a fishing line. It imitates a fish, two single hooks protrude from the body in front and behind. At the bottom there is another eyelet, a tee is attached to it. Most perch bites are either on the bottom tee or on the back hook. And only sometimes – behind the front, more often not in the throat, but behind the beard.
A tail is attached to the back hook and body. It has a different shape, it greatly affects the behavior of the balancer in the water. Sometimes, instead of a tail, a twister, a piece of a twister, a bundle of hairs are attached. This happens when the tail comes off and is lost. The phenomenon is not uncommon, because the perch often takes by the tail, and knocks quite hard.
The balancer with a twister has a less amplitude and pronounced play than with a hard tail. For many balancers, the tail is part of the body and goes almost to the very head.
balancer game
The game of the balancer is based on the mechanics of the body in a continuous liquid medium. When jerking up, the balancer meets resistance and deviates to the side. After the jerk is over, it is affected by the force of inertia, the force of gravity and the force of the tension of the fishing line.
He continues to move to the side until he meets the resistance of the fishing line. After that, a turn is made in the water and the balancer returns to its previous position under the fishing line.
With a well-chosen tackle, the angler feels the first tension when the balancer pulled the line, and the second when he returned to his place, in his hand. Sometimes another game is noted at the same time – a figure eight, a somersault, a wiggle.
Varieties of balancers
In addition to the classic ones, there are many different balancers that have proven their effectiveness. These balancers have the same lead body and are attached approximately in the center of gravity to the fishing line. However, there are slight differences in the game.
Balance sticks
These are all kinds of balancers such as the “Gerasimov balancer”, “black death”, etc. They have a thin and long body, a relatively flat or cylindrical abdomen and a slightly pronounced bend in the upper part.
During the game, such a balancer has a large deviation to the side even with a slight jerk, and a strong jerk is not needed here. The balancer has little resistance and with a rough jerk, the work will be disrupted. He will fly up and play wrong.
On the contrary, with a sufficiently soft jerk, the balancer will deviate very widely and return to its original position smoothly.
Fin type balancers
Almost all balancers used by Russian anglers are Lucky John products. However, they are not the discoverers of balancers. Initially, products from the Rapala company appeared. They had a more flattened shape than Lucky John.
Apparently, following the traditions of this Finnish company, a series of balancers “Fin” appeared. They have a wide and smooth play, but they are also more difficult to bring down into the vertical with too much jerk. Finns of large size give an almost symmetrical figure eight in the water, however, a small balancer is usually placed on a perch.
Their main drawback is the very fragile fastening of the tail, which, with this form, is more difficult to fix than to the classic balancer, since the area of uXNUMXbuXNUMXbcontact of the glue is smaller here.
Solid tail balancers
Their tail is soldered into the body and continues through the entire body of the balancer. As a result, it is almost impossible to break. Although this is a joke, everything can be broken. Many products from Surf, Kuusamo and a number of others have this look.
They are better suited for fishing in grassy, snarled areas where you have to work a lot on the cut. Also, do not worry about the tail falling off if the balancer is dropped from a height onto an ice crumb.
Many use this technique, being too lazy to clean the hole so that the balance bar passes through it.
Due to the fact that they have a metal tail, their balance is slightly different from the classic. Here, the place of attachment to the fishing line is strongly shifted forward in order to maintain the same game.
This is explained by the fact that the plastic tail is more buoyant than metal, and in the water you have to slightly shift the center of the balancer back so that it stands up horizontally.
With a metal tail, there is no such need.
Amphipod balancers
In the arsenal of the angler, the amphipod bait appeared not so long ago. In fact, the amphipod works as a balancer. It is a flat plate with a hole, which is mounted on a hinge with an eyelet in the center.
In the water, the angler pulls it up, the bait plays: the amphipod moves to the side and in a wide arc, sometimes making two or three turns.
Amphipod balancer is not amphipod in the traditional sense. This is an ordinary balancer, but its tail is located in a triangle not upside down, but sideways. Thus, the game is obtained not purely up and down and to the side, but also along the circumference.
Tumbling balancers
Probably, many companies produce them, but they were only found on sale from the Aqua company in St. Petersburg: this is the Acrobat balancer. According to the manufacturers, it is focused on the North American market, but it works great for us as well.
In the water, he makes a characteristic somersault, while it does not require a strong jerk and works great in the dead of winter. Its disadvantage is perhaps the small amplitude of the game, which reduces the effectiveness of the search for fish.
He also collects herbs less, apparently due to his form and game, but more often he overwhelms the hooks by the fishing line.
Choice of the balance weight
First of all, when choosing, you should know where they are going to fish, at what depth, is there a current, what kind of fish will be there. As a rule, perch are not too fond of large lures.
Balancers for pike should have a good size, but here gigantomania should be avoided and the minimum should be used. Usually from Lucky John are separated by numbers, from 2 to 8 and above. The figure roughly shows how many centimeters the size of his body is in length without a tail.
Usually perch put 2, 3 or 5 number. The latter is used where the depth of fishing is large enough and it is difficult to pick up a smaller good mass.
Weight
The mass of the balancer is another important characteristic. She, coupled with the form, greatly affects his game, depending on the depth. For example, one that is too heavy in shallow water will twitch a lot, which is usually not to the liking of cautious perch. And too light will make oscillations of small amplitude and quickly break into the vertical, return with its tail forward, and not with its nose.
Therefore, for fishing at a depth of one and a half meters, five to six grams is enough, up to 3-4 meters you need to put lures up to 8 grams, and higher you need heavier ones.
And vice versa, the balancer for the pike can be taken as heavy as possible, as it will jump very effectively and sharply, which usually tempts the pike to bite. On the course, you should also put a heavier bait.
Color
Coloring matters in shallow water, with increasing depth it is less significant. For perch, neutral colors are used here. Usually the colors are important for the seller and are designed to catch the angler, not the fish, since the fish sees everything in a completely different way and for them the choice of colors is only a matter of practice, and not the visual sensations of the fisherman.
More important here is that the balancer has elements of fluorescent color. They almost never scare away fish and are able to attract it. Usually these are luminous eyes, coloring of the scales, a fluorescent ball near the front hook.
For beginners, we can recommend choosing a greenish or silver balancer – they almost never scare away fish with colors, but a clown-type color can go wrong.
Form
The shape greatly affects the game of the lure. As a rule, it is advised to choose a shape so that it fits the size of a six-month-old fry, which is often eaten by perch. It is not known how true this is, but such a balancer will scare away fish less often. However, the form is often selected not according to the game, but according to the conditions of catching.
For example, a wide-playing balancer will be bad in grass. With a large tail, it is not very suitable for the current. A certain kind of balancer can be just deadly in one place and empty in another.
It is advisable to look at the manufacturer’s recommendations before buying, and choose some gear for the current, others for stagnant water, and then select the right one from them empirically.
Balance balances
A bit of a strange phrase, but it largely shows how the balancer behaves in water. The classic in the water will hang horizontally, there are models that have a nose up or down.
As a rule, models with a lowered nose in the water require a more active toss, and with a raised one, a smoother one.
In the air, almost all of them look with a raised nose due to the tail, which is less sinking than metal, and in the air, in fact, its center of gravity is shifted back. Also, the position in the water is highly dependent on depth.
Equipment and refinement of the balancer
As a rule, the balancer is sold already equipped. It has a lower tee hook, which is usually removable, and two hooks in front and behind, they are also frame elements. The first revision is the replacement of the lower tee with a tee with a drop. A drop is a luminous plastic that attracts fish well even in a bad bite.
It is better to do this only on heavy balancers. The fact is that you will have to put a larger tee, since the drop significantly reduces the size of the hook. In this regard, the weight distribution of a small light product may be disturbed, and it will stop playing, as intended by the authors.
The second similar refinement is the installation of a hook on a chain instead of a tee. A perch eye is usually planted on the hook. There is a special series of Finnish balancers, which were originally conceived specifically for such a game.
For others, it is better to do this again only on heavy ones, since the chain itself, the perch eye on it, greatly increase the resistance to movement. If we also add that the chain usually plows the bottom at the same time, then a quite heavy and active balancer is needed to drag all this without losing the game.
The balancer can be tied directly to the fishing line. However, it is better to do this using a small clasp. Small – so that it does not disturb his game. With a small clasp, the tackle will behave naturally in the water, nothing will interfere with its movement and swaying, at the same time, the knot on the fishing line will not constantly rub or loosen from the lure’s play and there is less risk of losing it.
When buying, you should immediately process the tail of the balancer with epoxy glue. It is necessary to carefully coat the bottom of the tail to strengthen its fastening. This will practically not affect the game, but the service life of the tail will increase significantly. Epoxy is better than superglue for the reason that, after drying, it practically does not give off odors that scare away fish in the water.
With active fishing, it is very important that he does not hook the lower edges of the hole with hooks. For this reason, anglers often bite off the front hook, which accounts for a minimum of bites.
The number of hooks and descents is reduced at the same time at times. Others go further, even biting off the back hook, but this is no longer as effective, as it usually catches the front one. Yes, and the weight distribution of the bait is very much affected, especially a small one.
In case the tail is lost, you can replace it with a small twister right on the fishing trip. It will attract fish underwater, but the amplitude of the game is reduced by two to three times.
Some specially remove the tails and tie centimeter microtwisters, bundles of hairs, as they believe that such a bait works better in the dead of winter than a classic balancer.
My opinion: it works a little worse than usual, it makes no sense.
Homemade balancer: is it worth it?
Definitely worth it for those who consider working in a fishing workshop a part of fishing.
The balancer is a rather complex product, and working on a high-quality copy will be very exciting.
In addition, there is a huge field for activity and experimentation in order to make a model that will be many times more effective than purchased ones.
For everyone else who just wants to save money on their purchase and catch fish, it’s not worth it. It will definitely take a very long time. Making a mold, a frame, a casting process – all this time can be spent on fishing. Making them is many times more difficult than winter spinners. There will be a low repeatability of the form for the first time, it’s not clear what will turn out.
The author knows a craftsman who spent almost a year making a really working perch cicada bait, working on it every weekend.
In addition, you will have to buy good solder, acid, special paint, tails, eyes, hooks, tools, ready-made frames and other semi-finished products. You won’t find good stuff in the trash. As a result, making it so that it doesn’t work out for free at all – at best, it will be only a dollar cheaper than buying in a store and will take a whole day.
Those who value both time and money should pay attention to inexpensive balancers. Chinese ones with Aliexpress are not much cheaper than the same Baltic-made Lucky John, the same Aqua company, which has its own workshops.
So you shouldn’t seriously consider Ali, he’s definitely not for buying balancers. There are more interesting things for the angler that are definitely worth buying.