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Up to a certain point in my environment there were no true fans of spinning pike fishing, so all lures. that passed through my hands were sieved by trial and error. Since I’m just not used to blindly trusting advertising or the story of a store seller who can’t put two words together about a new bait that interests me, naturally, they all passed the most severe selection. Today in my boxes there are four types of lures that I trust, and, in addition, a small set of heads for “rubber”.
These are silicone baits, “turntables”, wobblers and “oscillators”. I arranged them in descending order in percentage order. In lake-type reservoirs with shallow depths, in most cases these are: spinners – 40%, wobblers – 40%, “silicone” – 15% and “oscillators” – up to 5%. In strong currents and in very deep places, 90% are “silicone” and 10% are “turntables”. “Silicone” can definitely be called my favorite type of lure, high catchability and relative cheapness begin the list of all its wonderful fighting qualities.
All these types of lures, of course, have their advantages on certain water bodies, therefore, having familiarized myself with the fishing conditions, I determine the type of bait, selecting only its size and working weight on the spot.
How to choose the right bait for pike
In the absence of bite in unfamiliar places, many sin in two extremes: some waste precious time replacing baits, using everything that is lying around in the box, not paying due attention to any one proven one, others, on the contrary, stubbornly use one of them as a panacea : “After all, I caught it last time, and it’s very good!”, although a possible replacement may change the result.
The situation is really controversial, so I would not recommend rushing from one extreme to another – every time you have to make a flexible decision – to this day no one has come up with a radical means of catching fish anywhere and in any conditions. No matter how times change, fish, like other living creatures, always have one goal – to survive, but our task, sadly for fish, is to outwit it. In unfamiliar places, I always use only well-tested baits. For me, it’s “silicone” and “turntables” – moreover, 50/50. In deep “strong” places – only “silicone” in all variations. Only when the pike is active and there are a lot of bites, I start experimenting with new baits or those that I have not used for a long time or for some reason did not understand their action. Such experiments are useful not only in terms of learning, but also because the angler really chooses the best solution for himself.
At what time of the day does pike bite
There are places where the release of fish for some reason is tied to a temporary factor, it is the hard work of promising areas that gives the result. Let me give you an example: one of the places where for three years I learned to catch pike on wobblers from a boat (and in one of the seasons I managed to go three times a week), there was plenty of time to explore the reservoir. According to my observations and the observations of several regulars, the fish naturally became more active by 7.00, 9.00, 11.00 and 13.00. Attenuation biting occurred after 15.00. At first glance, the bites that occurred outside the marked time were random.
By and large, using this chart, I was always with a catch, but what was left to do “before and after”?! This reservoir is quite compact, and, of course, I have not been there alone. Catching “their” places, of course. watched the “competitors” and identified for himself several basic types of predatory fish hunters. The first of them is the majority of anglers who catch a swoop, a few casts and that’s all: “There is no pike here, let’s move on!” … Comments are superfluous here. The fishing pressure is now so great that if a fish, following its instincts, attacked any presented bait, it would disappear from the face of the earth in the shortest possible time, and our descendants would tell their children about some scaly creatures with tails that lived in the water, only pictures.
The second type is the most interesting. These were “terry hard workers”, frequent visitors to these places, who, standing on the “point”, stubbornly “bomb” it to the bitter end without ever changing the bait. Sometimes shooting along the “tail”, it would seem that they had no desire to move to another place at all. The number of casts, according to my quick calculations (I was still busy) was sometimes from 25 to 50 (!) In one “window” or along the line of water lilies. There were two such craftsmen on this reservoir, and one preferred exclusively “oscillators”. the other – “turntables”. In the evening, in order to catch the bus, most of the “guests” disembarked at the same time and in the same place, and shared their impressions, without embarrassment, “illuminating” their catches. In our narrow circle, the size of the fish did not really matter, since in a certain place the largest specimens of pike can be attributed to an element of luck, but the number of fish caught always stuck out the most prudent strategist. So, at the initial stage of acquaintance, these guys decently caught me until I adopted their technique. It was on this reservoir that such an approach justified itself one hundred percent. Summary: the ability to observe and translate what you see and understand into practice can be more beneficial than reading a dozen books about fishing written by even the most famous authors.
Searching for pike in an unfamiliar body of water
An active search for fish for me is always the beginning of fishing in completely unfamiliar places or in situations where, for some reason, pike has left proven places or migrates to a certain area, even a large one, in search of prey.
If the places of fishing abound in depths, I am always the first to launch a heavy jig and “turntables” of similar weight into reconnaissance. Moreover, at the first stage, I carry out all types of postings at a fairly fast pace for an accelerated measurement of depths, checking at the same time how much the fish is “diluted with water” and how active it is today. With this approach, the picture of the bottom topography is drawn much faster and more efficiently and the most promising places are fixed. If it is shallow water with depths of 10 – 50 cm, which most do not pay attention to, I use “turntables” and wobblers – 50/50.
On the smallest places over fallen water lilies and cutter bushes, perhaps one of the most spectacular types of fishing is played out. Pike attack the bait from below, appearing out of nowhere, aggressively breaking through the brush with their heads, although before that there were not even any signs of life in shallow water.
Is it worth it to catch several spinning rods at the same time?
The question of what is better – to use one spinning rod for fishing or to have several assembled ones on hand, is often faced even by experienced masters of the genre. The need to change the equipment dictates either a change in the size and weight of the baits or the transition from a cord to a fishing line – its invisibility sometimes helps out when the bite worsens or during periods when the pike is extremely cautious and inactive.
Keeping in mind the well-known postulate that there is no universal spinning, in most cases I still try to get by with one rod that suits me, since fishing is often targeted, and the place and conditions are known in advance. When fishing from a boat, I store spare spinning rods in a tube, collected ones – on special stands, if any, are provided in the boat.
Good advice: if the boat does not have special stands for spinning rods, in order to avoid scratches and bumps against the sides of the boat, use a piece of polyurethane foam protection for pipes. Cut lengthwise, it fits perfectly on the stern or on the side of a rowing boat.
What power should be spinning for pike fishing
When visiting stores, sometimes you have to be a witness of how a novice angler, choosing tackle, often prefers rods of increased strength, confusing or mixing such concepts as power, action and sensitivity. It makes no sense to stop at the tuning – it’s just the geometry of the blank bending under load, the sensitivity – the conductivity of carbon fiber and binding resins of sound vibrations caused by mechanical action, as well as the location of the reel seat at the very right point.
Strength and flexibility are the qualities of carbon and resin. But I would like to dwell on power in more detail. In the presence of modern high-class tackle, the term “powerful tackle” is a very relative concept. There are hundreds of examples when experienced anglers managed to pull out a pike dozens of times larger than the power supply suggests to save – gear from world leaders becomes so reliable. And this is not surprising – after all, we live in the XNUMXst century. In Japan, for example, such fishing is generally held in high esteem – aerobatics and a special art is considered to be catching large fish with the finest gear.
On our reservoirs, such fishing is practiced far from everywhere, and the loss of expensive baits does not give anyone pleasure – one irritation and losses. Often there are situations when you can’t do without powerful gear at all. Even if there are “non-hooks” in the box, such gear is mainly used for deep fishing in places that are snarled or cluttered with construction debris – on moderately flowing rivers or deep bays or lakes.
Fishing in crooked places, fighting with hooks
In places where even “non-snaps” do not help, alternating cliff after cliff, I simply change the place. I mainly fish in places where the use of baits weighing more than 35 g (weight of jig head + silicone) is not practical. If I get to a “strong” place, then I use a cord with a diameter of 0,15 – 0,17 mm and a rod with casting up to 21 – 25 g – the above strength is enough for catching pike. In “difficult” conditions, the loss of lures is reduced by extending the hooks. So, for example, a jig head with a VMC hook No. 3 is almost guaranteed to be released from the hook in several steps, if you pull with gradually increasing effort, winding a strong cord around the stick. It remains only to return the unbent hook to its original position. But in any case, do not release the bait by winding the line around your hand, or with the help of a rod, bending it as if playing. Both cases are fraught with consequences.
Another option, although not sparing the reel, but most often used by anglers – suspenders – is performed by aligning the rod with the cord in one line (naturally, with a tulip in the direction of the hook). Often this is due to the need to quickly wind the cord, since the boat, even at anchor, tends to move towards the hook. At the same time, the fingers of the free hand tightly clasp the spool, being between the spool and the bracket, and the line laying roller must be clamped between the little finger and the ring finger. So the coil suffers less, although over time, this method, in the best case, will still make itself felt by the backlash of the nodes.
It is not advisable to use thick cords in the course – such a pursuit of strength will entail not only losses in the casting distance of baits, but also an increase in the weight of jig heads due to the high resistance of the cord when the bait falls to the bottom, during wiring, etc. Here I would like to immediately make a reservation about the strength of a particular gear. It is a well-known fact that some serious manufacturers of both rods, lines, and lines deliberately declare underestimated power characteristics based on inept handling of tackle or, mainly, to protect their rights in court to file consumer fraud claims. And many firms producing “consumer goods”, on the contrary, overestimate these characteristics – “look how powerful and at the same time light rods we have!”.