Jigs for bream

Most winter anglers are familiar with mormyshka fishing, usually their prey is a small fish, those who want to get more serious trophies study the methods of catching more carefully. I hasten to assure you that fishing for bream is fundamentally different from fishing for small fish. Active search is usually used, when fishing for bream, you will have to sit in one place for a long time and wait for a bite. You can even say that this type of fishing is more like a winter float rod than an ordinary mormyshka.

Main gear selection factors

The second factor is that compared to the summer season, the size of the bream will be much smaller, large specimens are passive at this time of the year. The greatest activity is shown by small scavengers weighing up to 500 grams. If the capture of a kilogram fish in the summer is a common thing, then in the winter it will already be a trophy specimen.

The third point that I want to note is the game. The bream mormyshka works at super-great depths, where it is most likely to meet this fish in winter. Of course, anglers know how to provoke fish, first attracting them with active strokes, and then causing fractional bites with pauses. It can be very interesting to choose a game, when catching bream, you will have to repeat not too frequent, but amplitude and monotonous strokes over and over again, for an hour, or maybe even two. But there are also advantages to such fishing:

• You can safely use the tent, this is important in severe frost, in sleet, strong wind. Mormyshka fishing will be possible even at -30, because an active search for fish is usually not required. Without a tent already at -10 it is a problem due to the constantly freezing fishing line.
• It goes well with other types of fishing, holes are usually drilled nearby and a pair of float rods are placed, and vents are also installed in the viewing area.
• The game for bream is quite simple and unpretentious, it can be carried out in mittens – hands will not freeze too much.
• If there is no echo sounder, it does not matter. Usually bream is caught in the pits where it stands and the echo sounder always shows the fish, but whether there will be a bite is more a matter of chance.
• A good result is shown by a “devil”-type wrinkle-free ant.

For a bream, this is a little strange: usually, when searching for prey, it trusts its sense of smell, taste, but in winter it also takes well to the devil. Therefore, there is something to think about, what mormyshkas are needed for catching bream – ordinary or without attachments.

Outfit and equipment

A very important thing is the ice screw. You should take care of a sufficiently large drill with a diameter of at least 150, and it is better to take 200. The fact is that a wide body of a bream simply will not crawl into a narrow hole, so it makes no sense to use a “sports” drill at 100 or even 80. Fortunately, you won’t have to drill 100 holes in one fishing trip, and it won’t take much effort to drill wide holes.

Be sure to need either a box or a comfortable seat. It will take a long time to catch from one hole. If you catch from your knees, from a seat, from some other light sports equipment, your legs will quickly get tired, and it is better to take care of comfort in advance.

Heaters are also required. Heating pads are placed on the arms and legs in severe frost, catalytic heating pads are usually used. Sometimes a burner is placed near which you can warm your hands. A stove with an extractor hood is simply installed in the tent. Speaking of a tent, it is highly desirable to have one, even a small one.

Usually they go fishing for bream not for one day, but for a couple, sometimes even for a week. Often anglers, having found a good place, having decided on a bite, even change and fish from the same holes in shifts. To transport all the supplies comfortably across the ice, you will need a sled or sled, or at least a sheet of plywood so that you can carry all the supplies comfortably.

Tackle

For fishing, they use either a large nozzle mormyshka with replanting a worm, maggot, bloodworm, or a “devil” type without a nozzle. A distinctive feature of the bream mormyshka is its large weight, at least 5 grams. This is due to the fact that fishing will take place at a considerable depth, from 3 meters or more, since you can usually meet bream at shallower depths only by chance, shallow ones simply will not play there. A large mormyshka keeps the game at a great depth, and cuts through thick lips with a large hook without problems, and does not depend too much on the icing of the fishing line.

A few words about the moth. The hook for the bream mormyshka is also used large, somewhere around No. 12. In order to plant the larvae without damage, it is recommended to use rubber bands and prepare a certain amount of bloodworms in rubber bands in advance. Otherwise, it is simply impossible to plant it, it will flow out.

A fishing rod is used such that it will be possible to make a good wide swing. The best thing is not the “balalaika”, which is usually used, but an ordinary fishing rod with a handle and a stand. Most often, two, three or even four are used. Fishing often takes place on several horizons: usually they play with one jig at the bottom, the second at half water, and even put a pair of float rods to the left and right. Fishing line is used thin:

If desired, you can use a winter cord, however, a high-quality cord is expensive, but it will allow you to use smaller mormyshkas.

Mormyshka is the basis of all gear. Historically, the crustacean mormysh is considered to be its prototype. It is best to use tungsten, but, unfortunately, large tungsten mormyshki and blanks are difficult to find. Therefore, they use inexpensive lead, sometimes soldered on the crown, sometimes cast. The color practically does not affect the bite, as well as the shape – you can use a variety of mormyshkas for bream. You can find a lot of materials, photos and videos on how to make them yourself. You can also buy it in the store if you haven’t found anything suitable – a very small lure will do.

The hook is best used single, with a free suspension, No. 10-14. This hook will hook the fish well. In addition, for soldering, you need to look somewhere for a hook with a very long shank, and a hanging hook can be much shorter.

The non-attached mormyshka “devil” shows itself well. However, nothing prevents you from planting a bloodworm or maggot on one of the hooks, the bite will obviously not get worse from this. They often use a garland of “devils”, especially when fishing at great depths, when they are fixed every one and a half to two meters on a fishing line. The meaning of such equipment is that the game at great depth will not hide even if the weight of the mormyshka is not too large.

Use tackle with a nod. The nod is selected so that you can see the bite on the rise. A nod for the “devil” is picked up more often soft, hard springy nod at great depths does not show good results.

Catching

The main thing is to choose a good place. Usually, bream was historically caught with bagrilkas in winter, but now this method is prohibited, and rightly so. On reservoirs, lakes, rivers there are well-established places where bream is constantly caught from year to year. Usually these are places with great depth. For example, at the Ruza reservoir near Moscow, bream is caught at depths of up to 14 meters. Based on rumors, they choose a place for bream fishing and go there to finally get mormyshkas for winter bream fishing and surprise their neighbors in the reservoir with a good catch.

The echo sounder in this case is not the most reliable assistant. A fish can stand under the hole, but not take it. In addition, a muddy or clay bottom will cause great disruption to the echo sounder. You can simply drill a hole in the place where the fish is most likely to be found and fish, hoping for luck.

There are two approaches to fishing: purely passive and with search elements. The first is used in the dead of winter, the second – at the end of February and March, before the opening of the ice. By the way, at the end of winter and spring, bream bites are more likely, you can fish very well. In the passive approach, the angler does not leave the chosen place until the end of fishing. In the second case, holes are drilled and they are waiting for at least a small bite, albeit without a result. After that, the place is drilled, fed and put a few fishing rods.

Groundbait in winter is not used to attract fish from afar, but to keep the already found fish in place. In cold water with a temperature of 4 degrees, odors spread poorly, the effectiveness of bait decreases. Bream is one of the few fish for which bait in winter gives results.

You can use ready-made bait, but the best result is the addition of a live component – live bloodworm, maggot, worm. The larvae moving at the bottom create vibrations that attract fish and cause bites. It is useless to use a dead bloodworm, a chopped worm, it is easier to add ready-made bait, soil or just porridge, with which there is less fuss.

If you catch using a nozzle, then both animals and plants give a good result. Pasta, semolina, oatmeal, barley, mastyrka, corn, peas are used both in summer and in winter. Fuss with plant nozzles in winter is many times less than with animals, they do not lose their properties even when freezing and thawing. You can often hear the opinion that a mormyshka with a vegetable bait is ineffective, since it imitates an animal bait, but is not one. I refute it. I don’t know what the fish is guided by, but mormyshka with pasta or pearl barley is just as effective as with a worm and maggot, and even using these nozzles is more effective than with a float rod and a fixed rig.

When fishing for bream, it is important to be patient. In the dead of winter, you should tune in to the fact that if you manage to catch two or three fish in a whole day, then this is good. Moreover, two or three bream weighing half a kilo can already be brought home and fried. Closer to spring, there is even a frenzied bite and catches of ten kilograms per day. The game consists of three or four swings of large amplitude, about 20 centimeters, and a pause of twenty to thirty seconds. In winter, the bream takes on a mormyshka at the moment of a pause. Then the cycle is repeated. Playing at great depths with small fractions will not work, which is shown by underwater shooting and a number of other factors.

Sometimes they make several postings, especially when they catch a large thickness of water. At the same time, they give several pauses at the bottom, then raise them by half a meter and also several pauses, then another, then another, until they reach about half the depth – in the upper horizons, the fish rarely takes. After that, in the same order they go to the bottom. Catching one hole in this way takes about half an hour if the depth is great, which is why bream fishing is relatively leisurely.

Often, tackle is used in the course, which looks like a mormyshka, but belongs to the type of petty tyrants. To do this, use a cheap spinning rod with a fishing line and a load at the end, above which several mormyshkas, flies, hooks with a nozzle are tied to the fishing line. The load is lowered into the hole and with several lifts they make sure that it goes far from the hole downstream. After that, the tackle is played as a petty tyrant for sea fishing for mullet. Sometimes it is possible to catch bream, especially closer to spring, but usually large roach becomes prey.

Summary

1. Fishing for bream in winter with a mormyshka is an activity for patient and diligent anglers.
2. For fishing, you will need a larger diameter drill so that wide fish can easily enter the hole.
3. Lures of large mass are used, about 10 grams, with a large hook in order to cut through the lip of the bream well.
4. The choice of a place is of the main importance, the bream is more often caught in winter from year to year in the same place where it hibernates.
5. Plant baits, animals or non-bait tackle are used.
6. Most often, several fishing rods are used, combining a mormyshka with a float fishing rod.
7. The game is amplitude, with long pauses.
8. Bait is used only when the fish has already been found.
9. If you like fishing, you can also try fishing from a boat in the summer.