Contents
The activity of the pike is affected by how much light enters the water to a depth. When searching for prey, this predator uses two senses – vision and a lateral line. In winter, the water is cold and has a high density. Oscillations and waves propagate in it somewhat differently than in a warm medium. Compared to summer, she approaches the bait not from such a large distance, which indicates that their propagation distances are becoming shorter.
Pike activity in February
Depending on the weather, the state of the ice, the characteristics of the reservoir, it can behave differently; pike fishing in February also brings different results. However, most often February is divided into two periods – the beginning and middle of the month and the end of February.
The beginning of the month
The activity of the pike is affected by how much light enters the water to a depth. When searching for prey, this predator uses two senses – vision and a lateral line. In winter, the water is cold and has a high density. Oscillations and waves propagate in it somewhat differently than in a warm medium. Compared to summer, she approaches the bait not from such a large distance, which indicates that their propagation distances are becoming shorter.
Vision is the main sense organ of the pike when searching for prey. This predator stands in ambush or walks slowly in the water column, and when it sees a fish, it stops, estimates the distance, for which it is necessary to see the prey with two eyes, and makes a short and very fast throw from a distance of no more than two or three meters. In terms of the speed of the throw, she is the champion, if it is done correctly, then the victim has practically no chance of avoiding the bite of a predator.
Wilderness usually happens with heavy snowfalls, in connection with which snowdrifts form on the ice, there is water under the snow. As a result, the sun’s rays practically do not fall under the ice, even during that meager period of a short summer day.
Yes, and the sun shines along the surface of the water, its rays do not break through the ice, but glide over the snow and are reflected. Therefore, the pike at this time has great difficulty in finding prey.
In February, the ice is usually dry, there is not much snow on it, there are also “bald spots”, especially on large lakes, where it is blown out. The sun is much higher than in January. This gives better illumination under the ice. After the January twilight, the pike clearly wakes up appetite and the opportunity to hunt.
At the same time, you should not count on some kind of frenzied bite. Winter is the time to spend less energy. Therefore, the pike usually hunts, standing in ambush, and reacts only to a very appetizing bait, for which a throw does not require any extra movements.
End of February
At the end of February, the ice begins to melt, melt water carries more oxygen. Vegetation begins to give oxygen to the water as a result of photosynthesis processes, and at this time the fish become more active, especially in the middle of the day. In addition, ripening caviar and milk increase the hormonal background of the fish, its activity. At the end of the month, you can already count on a good catch.
It is especially good to catch a rather medium-sized pike, the so-called icefish. This fish rushes to artificial bait and live bait with particular greed. After all, she will spawn first, and her hormones work the hardest. Small pike are tasty, catching them is a pleasure! However, you must remember about the minimum allowed size when catching fish.
Large pike are less active at this time. But still more than in the January wilderness. Better lighting helps her to hunt, as well as the fact that flocks of small things become more active, they have the strength to run away, which forces her to more actively pursue prey. In some places, especially on rivers, polynyas form, through which the current brings precious oxygen, and a large one can stay near them, at the very edge of the ice.
Place for fishing
It is impossible to give universal recommendations for choosing a place for fishing. Several factors matter here:
- The presence of shelters;
- The presence of oxygen in the water;
- Good visibility;
- The abundance of small fish, which can be substituted for pike;
- Relative silence and a sense of security from the fishermen.
In the under-ice twilight, good visibility will be only at a depth of up to 4 meters, and it is best to look for this predator in shallower areas. It makes no sense to fish more than 4-5 meters deep. In deeper areas, the live bait should not be released completely to the bottom. The fact is that the pike often stands in the depths and looks out for the prey that frolics above. It is clearly visible there, especially since it shows a similar hunting style in the summer, when it hunts from below from under the thermocline boundary.
Oxygen is supplied to the water during daylight hours by plants that have already finished dying off by February and are starting the next life cycle, preparing for summer. Both annual and perennial algae are both good hiding places and a source of oxygen. With the advent of dusk, when they are already beginning to absorb oxygen from the water, the predator tries to leave the overgrown places.
The angler should first of all pay attention to “strong” places. Bushes, snags, flooded piles, logs, stones at the bottom – all these are natural shelters, which, if they do not help the predator to hide completely, are able to close it at least partially. In such “strong” places, as a rule, little things are enough.
However, pike prefer rather large fish. She is able to swallow and digest a live bait of half her own weight, and a live bait of one tenth is her usual prey. Therefore, it is not at all necessary that in a zone suitable for pike hunting there should be just a trifle, a fry. Quite often, a predator approaches clusters of large roach, silver bream, even bream. A hundred-gram live bait, large enough, will be food for a kilogram predator. This size is the most common in the winter season of February.
Silence and a sense of security is another important factor. Catching a pike when holes are constantly being drilled around is quite difficult. It is best to leave the place where the girders are placed, darken them and powder the traces with snow, which are also clearly visible from below. If you stomp a lot around the holes, this will create noticeably more light under the ice, and the predator will avoid such “suspicious” places. Silence should also be observed when playing fish.
The choice of equipment zherlitsy. How to make a zherlitsa with your own hands.
Zherlitsa is the main and most familiar way of catching pike in winter. The best design for a pike chute is the traditional one, with a round plate covering the hole and a signaling flag. This design allows not only to use all kinds of rigs, flexible settings, change the sensitivity of the gear, but also to track the bite.
Tracking the bite on the zherlitsa in winter fishing is one of the keys to success. Pike behaves cautiously in winter, grabbing prey slowly. After she grabbed the live bait across, she unfolds it in her mouth with her tail out and swallows it from her head. Swallows also slowly, not like in summer. She has enough time to feel the hook, the rough wire lead, prick and spit out the live bait. Therefore, the angler must run up in time and make a cut. In this case, the fish will not come down.
However, vents designed for self-notching are often used. These are easy to make on your own, while regular flags are easier to buy. The simplest vent is a stick laid across the hole, to which a piece of thick wire is tied and then a fishing line with live bait equipment. The wire is needed so that when the hole freezes, it can be cleaned with a pick, hatchet or knife without fear of cutting the line.
Regarding the equipment of the vent, it must be said that it should be as simple as possible. Be sure to put a leash that the pike cannot bite. It is best to use flexible ones made of lead material, but at worst, ordinary wire ones are also suitable. The hook is usually placed in two tees, large enough to cut through the cartilage with a pike’s mouth. From two hooks, she practically cannot break the live bait with impunity, there will be fewer fish gatherings and empty bites than with one.
It is best to put the fish on the edge of the dorsal fin, anal fin, lips, avoiding damage to large bones or organs, but in such a way that it cannot be torn off. You should not use tackle that passes through the gills and allegedly does not injure the live bait. In fact, the live bait on them runs much less than the fin impaled, since damage to the gills for a fish is more painful than damage to sponges or a fin, and it even interferes with breathing.
Other fishing methods
In addition to the vent, there are many other ways to catch pike.
On the crab
For the European part of Russia, the method is quite exotic. However, it is widely used in the Far East, in Siberia. Crab is a special bait like a balancer, but flattened on top and having three or four hooks extending in different directions. The game of the crab is very peculiar, it persists in the course. They fish at a shallow depth, up to two meters, in places where the current is not too fast.
On the balancer
Fishing with a balancer is more familiar to fishermen, it is practiced both abroad and in Russia. The pike balancer should have a fairly sharp move. Even in shallow water, large mass balancers are used that move away, quickly return back, and some even make a double or triple loop. The optimal shape of the balancer is with a flat head, such as “fin” or similar. Often they put a balancer with a metal tail, because the pike takes the bait quite sharply and bites off the tail.
The balancer must be inserted through the clasp and a strong leash is used. The fishing line is used so that you can easily get the pike into the hole.
This is usually much more difficult than perch because these fish are long. If the fishing line is thin, then it will be difficult to start it, and even with a wide balancer in the mouth, and there will be many gatherings. A hook that you have to constantly carry with you, as well as an ice screw 150 mm, saves you from getting off.
Trolling
Currently, spinner fishing is rarely used, since in terms of efficiency for pike, spinners are inferior to balancers, rattlins and other modern baits. However, if you want to “remember the old days”, you can catch summer spoons, playing with them like glider spinners. The spinners “Storleg” and “Rapala” show themselves excellently in this capacity, they have a center of gravity in the center of the resistance area, play well in the fall and rarely overwhelm the fishing line when tossed.
Fishing sequence
Pike fishing should be prepared. If they go to zherlitsy, it is advisable to purchase at least five bait bait heels, so that they can be put in immediately in the morning. For fishing, it is desirable to have a large ice screw, 150 or 130 mm with semicircular blades. Semicircular knives are best for reaming the hole if the fish does not fit into it. Flat, and even more so stepped knives cope with this worse.
Be sure to bring a folding bag with you. It is best to fasten it to the jacket so that it is always at hand. In addition to the gaff, the angler should have a yawner and an extractor at hand. It is quite difficult to remove the hook from the pike’s mouth without getting hurt on the teeth. Pike mouth wounds are dangerous, the water is full of infections, you can easily get erysipelas on your hand or worse.
When leaving, you should determine the places where the predator may be. It is best to fish at not too great a depth, up to two meters. If the reservoir is completely unfamiliar, then the vents are set wide, in addition to this they catch the predator on the balancer, they catch the live bait for the vents. If the reservoir is familiar, the vents are placed in the place where the bites were. Usually it is near the dumps to the depth. The huntress likes to stand a little lower, waiting for the fish out of her line of sight. Be sure to catch snags, flooded logs or other natural shelters.
Technique of fishing
For zherlits, the fishing technique is extremely simple. They are placed so that they are at a distance of 5-6 meters from each other, if the place is pike, or at a distance of 20-30 meters, if they just want to know if there is fish here. Then they go to catch pike on a balancer or lure, perch, live bait, but in such a way that the vents remain in sight. However, in the silence of winter, a click from the flag will be heard 50-70 meters away.
If you are catching on a balancer, then it is advisable to drill holes a little beyond the dump, so that the bait constantly hangs in the predator’s visibility zone. It happens that she hunts on the tables.
The game starts from the surface of the hole, gradually lowering the balancer to the bottom, then raise it higher. There are very long pauses. If after 10-15 throws there was no bite, you don’t need to wait, you should change the hole. Holes are often drilled, every 5-6 meters, since the pike stands one at a time, and it is impossible to attract a flock of pikes to the game right away.
Some features
It must be remembered that pike is not a schooling fish. However, it often happens that there are several bites at once on closely set vents. This is called “predator exit”. The fact is that this fish can stand in one place for a long time and not be caught. And suddenly, at some certain period, she decides to hunt, and all at once. What caused this is not clear, but it is worth noting the approximate time of release and place, in the future the situation will almost certainly repeat itself.
Safety measures
For pike fishing, be sure to take a knife, a yawn with an extractor, a hook, iodine and a bandage with you. It often happens that the pike deeply swallows the bait. It is difficult to extract it, so you have to cut the fishing line with a knife and extract it already at home. So that the fish does not suffer, it is best to kill all the pike caught by hitting the handle of the same knife on the back of the head. The pike baton used by Finnish fishermen was described by Sabaneev.
Bandage and iodine are required for cuts on the teeth of a predator, gear or drill. Hoping that the blood from a small wound in the cold will stop on its own is a dangerous mistake. Only a tight bandage with a bandage can save here. The author once lost a lot of blood, cutting his finger on the blade of a drill, when it flowed from his finger for three hours, not stopping in severe frost.
At the end of February, polynyas appear on the ice. During rains, with the advent of thaws, the ice becomes thinner. When fishing, be sure to take lifeguards with you. This simple device will help a failed angler get out without assistance, weighs little and takes up almost no space in luggage. It is best to go fishing together and take a rope with you so that you can help a friend.