Lure fishing on the last ice. Fishing on the last ice in early spring. Fishing in March and April Where to look for perch in March

From year to year, my last ice fishing takes place at the very end of March, and even in the first half of April. Many at this time no longer fish from the ice, quite reasonably considering going out on the ice unsafe. Someone has long hidden winter tackle in the far corner and seriously prepared for the summer season with a spinning rod or a float. I continue to drill in the already loose snow the very last holes of the outgoing season.

The last ice is a difficult time. The fish are brought together in dense flocks and feed quite actively, but ... A flock, firstly, must be found. At this time, it is quite difficult to find fish in the lower reaches of the reservoirs: they tend to go upstream, hide in tributaries, and settle in shallow waters. Secondly, you need to know which fish is active. These are, first of all, roach, bream, white-eye, silver bream, somewhere carp, carp and crucian carp. But what about predators?

Predator activity

The main predators in our reservoirs are perch, zander and pike. In winter, the main season for catching them is the first ice. The perch is brought down in flocks and is very aggressive. Pike flocks are concentrated on the edges and are not yet strongly defeated by the fishing tribe. The pike is hungry and goes either to perch shallows or to zander lines - either to become a competitor in the pursuit of sprat, or to attack the predators themselves. And even in the wilderness, the situation with biting is pretty good. The perch is still on its shallows and there are quite a lot of them. The only thing that is required from the angler to stir him up is to pick up the key. Pike perch, although its flocks are fairly broken, nevertheless, patrols along its edges and still reacts positively to the lure. Pike also continues to peck in places.

But, the last ice - where to look for them, these predators? Fish flocks mixed up on their way to spawning grounds. Perches come across periodically interspersed with large roach and bream, but - on mormyshka. Pike perch, it happens, will bite on the edge, but - on the sprat. And the pike will also please in the catch, but - on the vent. What about glitter?

What are the prospects?

This unstable period, by the way, can shine with rich catches on the verge of complete no-biting. In this article, I would like to tell you about my many years of experience in gliding on the last ice and what I saw from experienced Volga lurers.

About methods and cunning moves, about places and baits. In a word, about everything you need to keep in mind when going to a pond with a sheer lure in March or April.

Perch: whims of pregnant women

Typical perch habitats in large reservoirs are vast shoals with uneven bottoms, interesting ridges and snags. Most often, such areas border on good depth, and the perch is caught here quite large. It is caught on these shoals quite evenly throughout almost the entire winter, but on the last ice ... Yes, perch can no longer be found here.

In the period when the ice is about to crack and move away from the shore, you should look for perch closer to the shore. And not only for safety, but also for benefit: during the period of approaching ice melting, the perch leaves shallow waters far from the coast and tends closer to the coastline. At least, in his former places, he is already caught quite disgustingly. Not to say that everything is very good near the shore with a bite, but at least here the perch is easier to find. However, it is not enough to find - it is necessary to catch.

On the Cheboksary reservoir, almost in the very city, there is a river port. This is a medium-sized bay where river trams and barges settle before navigation begins. There are almost always a lot of perch on the last ice. The problem is, he doesn't bite. After the ice breaks, please. And if you give this very perch to spawn and get sick, then it’s very good with a bite.

A small perch pecks at mormyshkas, while spinners are almost always ignored. And I probably would have thought to the end that it was not advisable to catch perch on the last ice with a lure if I had not seen five years ago how one old fisherman was catching on sheer baubles and balancers during this period.

From the outside, all his movements said that he was catching a mormyshka. The winter fishing rod in his hand made the movements characteristic of mormyshka fishing. However, in fact, it turned out that he was using sheer baubles. And the fishing was pretty brisk. The jigs, who hunted nearby, had far fewer bites than this lover of perverting with a lure. Yes, and on the lure he caught fish much larger. If the 50-gram "sailor" was the prey of the mormyshechniks, then our hero's rare "tail" weighed less than 150 g.

In the following years, I noticed that often supposedly lovers of mormyshka fishing actually turn out to be lurers. The experience turned out to be contagious - many people began to fish with baubles using jigging animation. And if there was no point in perverting in such a way in the first ice (the perch responded perfectly to the usual wiring of the lure), then with the advent of deaf winter, the relevance of “nodding” increased. And this was especially felt on the last ice, when the perch flatly refused to accept the usual wiring of the spinner.

However, animation is half the battle. Considerable attention must be paid to details. The fact that the spinner should not be large (3 or 4, maximum - 5 cm) - I think it's understandable. It is desirable that the hook be free, not soldered into the lure itself. The ideal option is a medium-sized threesome. The hook must be decorated. On the Volga, last season's hit was a yellow bead and a small red cambric. In my opinion, color is not important, something else is more important.

Perch on the last ice is an extremely vulnerable creature, and you should not frighten him. And anything can scare him in the spinner. For example, you never noticed that a passive perch (the perch of the last ice) gets scared when the lure suspension (this is a cambric with a bead) freely walks along the fore-end of a triple. Yes Yes exactly. And in order not to injure the psyche of the poor perches and feel the bites, you have to securely fix this suspension. Usually - a thread and a drop of glue.

In addition, last year I had to hear the opinion of one reputable angler about the color of the suspension. By the way, the authority of the fisherman was confirmed by the solid slides of decent perches near his holes. He caught all the same method of spinning. I had nothing to brag about, and this fisherman named the color of the bead on the hook of my spinner as the reason for my failure - it was bright red, while his was a dull shade. He confidently stated that perch are frightened by color. A couple of days later I was in the same places with the "correct" bead - and perch were caught surprisingly well. Whether the perch was really scared by the color or there were some other reasons is hard to say. Moreover, on the first ice and in the middle of winter, the same perch did not pay any attention to color.

The perch is caught very well on the last ice on the "flies". But the “fly” is not the topic of today's conversation, although lately I have been trying to knit a “fly” above the spinner almost always, if conditions permit.

In a word, perch on the last ice is capricious. Capricious as a pregnant woman. During this period, perch bellies are simply stuffed with sexual products, and perch rarely think about chasing fry. This determines their general attitude towards spinners: they are rather large objects that are unlikely to fit in the stomach, therefore, the striped one does not seek to get a brilliant bait at all costs. Much nicer - mormyshka.

But, as experience shows, it is quite possible to catch a lure. The main thing is to show imagination. You can make any perch, except the dead one, peck on the lure.

Pike perch - a lover of fresh jets

We have long been rumors about an extraordinary fisherman in the Middle Volga. He fishes in April from the ice in a very peculiar way. Being part-time "walrus" with experience, he is not at all afraid to swim in the cold waters of our reservoirs, and even, on the contrary, this very cold water attracts him.

He catches, as a rule, on the very last ice - when it cracked. This is not even solid ice, but separate ice floes. The essence of his fishing is simple. He undresses, puts things in a waterproof bag and swims to the ice floe. He climbs on it, dresses, makes holes and catches fish. If the ice floe is "elusive", he undresses again and swims in search of "catchable". For the time being, I thought that all these were tales, until I discovered by chance those who were familiar with this interesting style of fishing.

Among other things, I learned a lot of interesting things about catching zander on the very last ice. According to the “walrus” fisherman, pike perch at this time is perfectly caught on sheer baubles, but only in places with a current and not necessarily far from the coast. On the first ice and in the middle of winter, the situation is fundamentally different: catching pike perch with a lure in places with a current is not even worth trying. But it is risky to go out on the last ice, and the chances of catching pike perch on a lure in March - April were rare for me. However, last year I managed to dedicate a couple of days to fishing for pike perch on a jet. And, to be honest, the fishing was good.

At the water pumping station on the Cheboksary reservoir, the depth is quite close to the shore, and in March 2007, at my own peril and risk, avoiding dark spots on the ice, I went to the depth with a solid current and flashed a pike perch. By spring, the current is quite strong, it is not easy to keep contact with the bottom. The lure of pike perch differed from the usual idea: the lure sinks to the bottom, is set so that it hangs ten centimeters from the bottom during a pause, and waves are made with a certain frequency. Bites usually occur during a pause, when the lure hangs in the water column. Here, in order to keep constant contact with the bottom (the current constantly raised the lure), I had to hand over the fishing line - and after the swing, throw the lure to the bottom, i.e. do not keep it in the water column. And the zander was a great peck! He picked up a lure from the bottom, sometimes he was caught by the mouth, but more often he turned purple under the lower jaw. There was no pause as such. He tossed the spinner, put it on the bottom, and a second later tossed it up again. I didn’t feel any bites, just with the next wave my hand rested against something heavy ...

And this is a characteristic feature of pike perch on the last ice. Pike perch does not notice objects above the bottom, he prefers to "crush" baits lying on the bottom. Obviously, this is exactly how his spring hunting for gobies and sprat proceeds, and only on running (!) Water.

Pike: bites in the water floor

The pike is a permanent predator. If pike perch and perch can afford dietary liberties in terms of “eat mormysh”, then you cannot breed pike for such Easter cakes. And, naturally, the pike does not like any perversions in terms of giving her bait. She continues to the last to respond to the standard wiring of the spinner: tossed - pause, tossed - pause.

The point is different - it is rather badly caught on a lure. They stand in a row - and "shoot" for half an hour once, and for spinners - at best, three or four bites per day. However, I noticed one interesting feature of the pike reaction to sheer spinners. Not so much even on the spinners themselves, but on the level of their installation. On the reservoirs of the Volga, pike fishing on the last ice takes place on the so-called "polygons" - vast shallow waters, where, after the ice has melted, a general fish wedding takes place. Shallow water in winter is about three meters. If you set the lure strictly at the bottom, then there will be few pike bites, but if you raise the lure higher, about two meters from the bottom (sometimes right under the very ice), there will be significantly more bites.

What is the reason is hard to say. My opinion is that it is easier for a pike to notice a bait that is well above the bottom than constantly flickering in one place near the bottom. The same story applies to island pike fishing. Spinners need to be played at the lower edge of the ice in order to force the predator out of the dense reeds. The size of the spinner and the type of wiring of the pike do not bother.

As a summary

It is worth noting that flashing fish on the last ice is sometimes an unpromising and rather laborious task. But, as I believe, "this is the whole cymus." If you know how to make a fish peck at something that she doesn’t want to peck at at all, this already says a lot. And then, when such an experience of seducing those who do not want to bite appears, hunting for hungry and easily accessible fish will become uninteresting, and photographs of fabulous catches will completely fade against the backdrop of those fishing trips when it was hard to get the fish, after a thorough brainstorming. And the angler will move into a new stage of his fishing "sickness". From year to year, my last ice fishing takes place at the very end of March, or even in the first half of April. Many at this time no longer fish from the ice, quite reasonably considering going out on the ice unsafe. Someone has long hidden winter tackle in the far corner and seriously prepared for the summer season with a spinning rod or a float. I continue to drill in the already loose snow the very last holes of the outgoing season.

At the beginning of spring, when most of the reservoirs are still covered with the last ice, slowly breaking down on the shallows under the action of the sun's rays and forming thawed patches. Reservoirs begin to be very actively saturated with vital oxygen, which is why plankton and fry of various fish species slowly move to shallow water. It is in these places that perch is most often found, because water rich in oxygen gradually activates the vital activity of this predator. Active fishing for perch in March takes place almost under the very ice, where it goes in search of fry. His bites at this time are more energetic, because. the predator grabs the mormyshka right away.
The optimal depth suitable for perch fishing in March is no more than 2 meters. If fishing takes place on an ice-bound reservoir, the angler needs to drill holes with a ladder in order to find a perch flock. Larger specimens tend to always stick to deeper places. It is noted that it is on March fishing that the largest perches weighing more than 1 kg come across.
After a flock of perch is found, you can proceed to the choice of bait. Perch fishing in March will be more effective when using small baubles or fry. If your stocks of baits prepared in the fall (burdock, moth, worms) run out, and the bloodworm is not available, then you can use a variety of improvised baits. These include perch eyes and fins, pieces of raw fish meat or medium-sized pieces of ordinary white foam rubber. The latter are impregnated with eggs and perch blood or raw egg white, which must then be boiled. A good result is the use of perch gills as a nozzle. It is best to use the gills of freshly caught fish. It is advisable to take pieces no larger than 3-3.5 mm. You can store such bait in ordinary plastic containers with water. It will be nice if they freeze a little. Over time, these pieces will lose their color and appetite for fish, but this will not affect the bite itself. This bait holds perfectly on the hook, but it is best to change it after every 2-3 bass caught. For bait, the insides or eyes of a ruff are also perfect.
You can also catch perch during this period on balancers or sheer baubles. But these fishing methods always require great skill from the angler. Catching perch in March with a sheer flash is similar to fishing with a jig. The ideal size of the spinner is 3-5 cm; a small tee is suitable as a hook. It is desirable to decorate it to better attract perch.
Since the predator becomes much more active at the beginning of spring, it is necessary to increase the number of vibrations of the mormyshka up to four times per second, and to make the wiring itself a little faster. It is better to pick up a fishing line for tackle more firmly. It is desirable to hide the sting of the hook completely in order to increase the likelihood of catching your trophy perch. Bites in this case will occur much more often. In early spring, the main thing is not to miss the pre-spawning perch zhor, which begins in mid-late March. At this time, the predator approaches the shore, leaving the wintering pits, and begins a fierce hunt for fry. If you decide to hook a live bait fish, you should remember that the fish that the perch hunts in this reservoir is best suited for this purpose.
It is best to start perch fishing in March not far from the shore, at a distance of no more than 10-20 meters. However, with a significant depth in the chosen fishing spot, the fisherman needs to start fishing even closer to the shore. Not bad, if there is an opportunity to go fishing near flooded bushes, in islands of aquatic vegetation and various structures. It is in such places that our predator ambushes its prey. Trophy specimens are most often found on rocky areas of the reservoir. The main sign by which you can find out about the presence of a perch is flocks of fry in certain places of the reservoir.

Fishing in March can give anglers a lot of pleasant moments. After all, fishing on the last ice is the time to catch trophy perches.

Winter fishermen at this time prefer hunting with lure, balancer, mormyshka and other baits. Let's find out what's good, how it's done perch fishing in early spring let's see what is the advantage spring.

Fishing on the last ice

In central Russia, the last ice is March and the first ten days of April. First, the ice shell is destroyed in the shallows. Areas of open water appear near the shore, oxygen went under the ice. In the water column, the temperature is still around 4 C. Plankton and forage fish return to the shallows if there is enough oxygen there. Peaceful fish and predators follow there too. We are no longer talking about a slow metabolism. Many fish will soon have spawning time, and they are trying to gain strength. Therefore, the bite on most reservoirs, especially where the water is flowing, is excellent at this time.

Choosing a fishing rod for perch fishing in March

In recent years, even experienced anglers-athletes are at a loss as to what to call a fishing rod and a winter fishing rod. In my opinion, this discussion is not worth a damn. An udilnik is a handle (with a reel or reels) and a whip. Everything else is accessories. When assembled, both the fishing rod and the equipment are nothing more than a winter fishing rod:

float rod;
mormuscular fishing rod;
fishing rod for fishing with vertical baubles and balancers.

Float rods are well known to many winter anglers. These are well-known "fillies", they come with both one and two reels. Some anglers use float rods when catching large perch for fry.

And what kind of rods do you need for mormyshka fishing? Usually this neoprene or cork handled fishing rod equipped with an open reel or balalaika type fishing rod. A characteristic feature of a fishing rod with a nod and a mormyshka is the absence of a tulip at the end of the whip.

If you are a fan of sheer glitter, you will need an easy-to-use fishing rod for glitter, which allows you to quickly wind and reel the fishing line onto the spool. The Swedish company Abu Garcia, for example, produces good winter reel fishing rods, which come with a softer six and a spare spool. This is very convenient, because in the absence of a large predator (pike, pike perch), you usually have to switch to perch fishing. And here you will need both a softer whip and a thinner fishing line.

True, I must note that with a high snow cover on the ice, it is not very convenient to use such tackle, since snow, when throwing a fishing rod in the final stage of playing, can damage the reel. You can, of course, use various bedding, but this is already troublesome, especially when actively looking for fish.

Advice! If you use reel tackle, you need to learn how to properly tie the fishing line to the reel spool. First you need to wrap the fishing line around the axis of the spool. Then combine the free end with the main fishing line and hold it between the index and thumb.

When using braid, the knot is formed with the fishing line folded in half. Next, we skip the free end into the loop and make three turns around the near section of the fishing line. Then we pass the free end of the fishing line through the loop on the main line, as shown in the figure. Wet the knot and pull both the free end and the main line at the same time. Once the knot is formed, secure it to the spool by pulling on the main line. It remains only to cut off the excess end and fill the spool with the required amount of fishing line.

In winter, including on the last ice, when the air temperature is above zero, when fishing for perch, I do not use braid. The main reason is its opacity, which, in my opinion, scares off perch, especially large ones. Ideal color for monofilament - pale blue. It is the best suited for ice perch fishing, given that the water in the reservoirs is several times clearer than in summer. And the scattered sunlight passing through the ice makes it bluish, especially at depths of 1.5 m and deeper. In addition, such a fishing line is better seen on whitish ice and against the background of snow cover.

Perch fishing in March on reservoirs

In my fishing practice, it so happened that in early spring I most often went with my friends to reservoirs such as Verkhne-Ruzskoye, Uglichskoye, Rybinskoye, Cheboksary and others for large perch. In particular, on Rybinka in the Breitovo region, I know snags in which perches weighing a kilogram “filled up”.

At the same time, it is useful to fix the depth in each hole, paying attention even to a difference of 15-30 cm. These can be small ledges, grooves, pits, mounds, where food carried by the current accumulates and where striped predators like to wait for prey. Of course, it is better to conduct such a search with two or three people - this way you can quickly reach the joint of a fattening predator. When searching for perch flocks, it is more convenient to use fishing rods without a nod (with a tulip at the end of the whip). Do not forget that large humpback bass prefer to hunt alone or in small groups.

Bass fishing in March

This fishing is good because in addition to fishing with jigsaw tackle, you have a chance to prove yourself in fishing with sheer lure. The main difference between lures for ice fishing is that the bait does not go in a horizontal plane, but in a certain vertical angle. In this case, deviations from the vertical axis can range from 15 to 90 or more degrees.

There are a lot of models of winter vertical baubles, but only two or three main categories can be distinguished among them. These are baits that give a sweeping game, moderate and almost do not deviate from the vertical axis (such as the well-known carnation spinner). If the first ones are good at high activity of a striped predator, then “carnations” help out with a weak bite and even when the fish practically ignores any baits that have been proven a hundred times.

On the last ice, when striped predators are quite active, they are quite suitable traditional classic spinners. Such baits are usually made of a thin metal plate (crown) and a layer of solder soldered onto it, the thickness of which, as a rule, determines the weight and planning properties of the bait. Crowns are made of silver, copper, brass, cupronickel, etc. Sometimes colored flex is glued on them. Some firms also produce variously colored baubles with eyes.

Currently, new models of winter spinners have appeared, sometimes more reminiscent of balancers. They are attached to the fishing line using a ring or hole in the body of the bait. Unfortunately, I have not managed to catch them yet, but I think that their game is somewhat similar to the game of balancers.

And now about equipping winter lures for lure in a plumb line. There is only one rule: the lighter, smaller the lure, the more compact and lighter the equipment should be. Otherwise, the most catchy bait can turn into "hopelessness". If a spinner weighing 30 g can be equipped with a rather voluminous brush, then a spinner weighing 3 g is usually equipped with cambric, beads, or an epoxy colored drop is applied to the tee.

Talking about vertical spinners, one cannot help but recall the Scandinavian anglers, who perfectly worked out the technique of catching predatory fish on spinners with chains, the length of which can reach as much as 30 (!) mm. Usually a single hook with artificial or natural bait is attached to such a chain. The dimensions and weight of the spinners practically do not matter, since the perch does not grab the spinner, but the hook with the nozzle. In some ways, this method resembles catching burbot with a sparkle. In the absence of chain baits, you can use monofilament line, but its strength should be less than that of the main line.

Which of the winter anglers is not familiar with the situation: the perch knocks on the lure, but is not detected? You change spinners, try to diversify the game of the bait - the result is zero! This is especially true when the perches are resting after a successful fry hunt.

Advice! Try to use a rig in which a leash with a nickel-plated hook is tied above the spinner, equipped with the simplest snag: two “antennae” made of thin red thread (preferably cotton). Hook size - No. 10-13 (according to the international scale), with an elongated forearm; the length of the "antennae" is 10-15 mm, i.e. about the average bloodworm. The length of the leash is about 20 cm.

During the game, spinners "antennae" wriggle in the bottom layers of water, imitating the movements of a ruby mosquito larva. If the perches are under the hole, they will not keep you waiting long. At the same time, a bite is felt, as a rule, at the moment of lifting the spinner. By the way, the number of grips increases when a piece of white fish skin is planted on the hook of the spinner - roach, bleak, etc. It is not recommended to attach a fin, as this significantly impairs the game of the bait. My experiments with "antennae" of other colors (black, brown, etc.) did not give the desired effect. This once again indicates that striped gourmets perfectly distinguish the color of food objects and the nature of their movements.
However, modern winter fishermen have an ambiguous attitude to vertical lures, because many yesterday's lures are now successfully catching on balancers and silicone baits. After all, it happens that the perch either perfectly takes on the spinners, then give it balancers that write out eights under the ice. That is why in my camping arsenal there are always those and other baits.

Which of the modern advanced anglers are unfamiliar balancers of such well-known brands as Nils Master, Rapala, Storm, Salmo (trademark Lucky John) and some others. There are also less famous manufacturers. I think that in a few years only the lazy will not produce these baits, which are very popular among anglers - fans of both summer and winter fishing. In short, the massive use of balancers is just a matter of time. But here the pitfalls begin. Firms that do not have the necessary production technology and the proper testing base will drive deliberately defective products. However, this is already being observed. Therefore, my advice will be this: if you think that you can buy a quality-made bait “cheaply”, then in this case this is a profound delusion.

The result is wasted money. And yet, if you purchased a bait with defects, they can be eliminated (not all, of course). True, provided that you have golden hands. And if not? And if there is a lack of free time or lack of the right tool? Then, in order not to waste time on fishing, feel free to send defective balancers to the so-called closet, literally or figuratively - it does not matter.

This can only be determined empirically: it is better in a pond, from a bridge or a boat, at worst in a bathtub filled with water. The tests are carried out both with and without a soft metal leash, since the leash, especially when working with mini-balancers, can noticeably distort their play, and it is generally contraindicated for “zero” balancers.

Models of balancers of different companies somehow differ in shape. When the company Nils Master mastered, for example, the production of shads, the emphasis was placed primarily on catching zander. The fact is that the compact shape of this bait contributes to the fact that after a bite, the balancer, as a rule, is completely in the predator's mouth.

And this prevents the hooks from getting caught on the lower edge of the hole during the fight and, accordingly, the fish coming off. The same goal is pursued in the design of the balance bar, in which the front hook is turned down, which, by the way, does not adversely affect the hooking. Unlike pike, walleye and perch usually grab the bait from the tail, in which case the downward hook will not catch on the edge of the hole.

To catch perch, jigger-type balancers are usually used with a length of 2 to 7 cm. Although all these dimensions are rather arbitrary: a large perch can sometimes take on a small balancer, and vice versa. Balancers are equipped according to the same principles as vertical spinners, except that some anglers paint transparent plastic stabilizer rudders with a waterproof marker in red. There are baits with a tail. Instead of a brush, you can equip the back hook with a tail from a silicone vibrotail. The tee of the mini-balancer without loss of driving performance is best equipped with a colored epoxy drop.

When fishing in snags, I usually remove the bottom tee- this way it is easier to avoid hooks and it is easier to release the bait with the help of a retriever. In the same place where the bottom is relatively clean, I do not recommend removing the lower standard tee, since it is an integral part of the balancer design. The same can be said about replacing a small tee with a larger one, and vice versa. Such modernization does not lead to anything good, distorting the pattern of the game with bait.

Of course, the smaller the bait, the less it will deviate from the vertical axis. Bladeless balancers like Chabby Darter (Salmo) require more delicate play. They are quite quiet, so they are indispensable when catching passive fish, especially in the middle of winter and where there is a low oxygen content in the water.

In fishing, as you know, there are no trifles. Therefore, it is important to be able to correctly tie baits so that the fishing line does not particularly lose strength at the knots. However, in most cases it is more expedient to fasten baits to a leash or main line through a swivel with a carabiner or only through a carabiner. This allows you to quickly change baits, which is especially necessary when actively searching for fish.
I most often fish for mormyshka at shallow depths and in snags, where “dead” hooks happen with other baits.

I think I won’t reveal a secret if I say that every winter fisherman has his own, over the years, proven technique of playing with a jig. To begin with, it is important to understand the difference in the game of bait when catching different types of fish. "Belle" (bream, roach, silver bream, sopa) often has to be caught for a slow game. Whereas perch and bleak prefer faster lure movements.

During the zhora, it often happens that no game is required at all. The fish grabs the bait either in the water column or lying quietly on the bottom. But this is when she is very hungry. In other cases, success can only be brought by skillful wiring, imitating the behavior of one or another food object living in a given reservoir.

There are many ways to play the mormyshka, designed both to attract fish to the place of fishing, and to provoke it to bite. But all these lowering the bait to the bottom, tapping on it, pauses, amplitudes and oscillation frequencies for a novice angler may not be effective. Mormyshka must be felt. And that comes with experience. For myself, I figured out a long time ago that five main components work in a productive game:

The most convenient grip of the fishing rod (the hand is on the handle from above, the index finger rests on the base of the whip; the handle is clamped in the fingers like a pencil; the brush lies on top of the reel - in the case of the "balalaika").
The design and elasticity of the nod correspond to the weight of the jig.
The nozzle should not distort the game.
The speed of the wiring and the frequency of oscillation of the bait are determined by the specific type of fish and its activity.
It should not be forgotten that fish often take better on free-falling bait.

If you're fishing from an open hole, it can be difficult to get the right rhythm. In these cases, I advise you to press the line to the edge of the hole during the game, which will avoid chaotic movements of the nod. The same must be done when the wind interferes with the game.

Perch, bream, roach and other fish, with the help of the lateral line, clearly distinguish between “familiar” and “unfamiliar” fluctuations in the water of the bait, local eddies and currents created by it.

When fishing with a nozzle, the fish often takes on a fixed bait, but in the case of this number, this number does not work. Yes, it would never occur to anyone, putting such a bait to the bottom, patiently waiting for a bite. For the essence of baitless fishing is in movement, or rather, in a more or less accurate imitation of the movements of one or another food object.

Dribbling and Bass Catching

With a sluggish bite, experienced master anglers often use the so-called dribbling, when the bait trembles finely for 5-10 seconds at the very bottom, attracting fish that are a few meters from the hole. A bite usually follows after the mormyshka freezes without moving. Most often, dribbling is used when catching perch.

The technique of fishing for mormyshka has its own specifics. Among winter fishermen, there is such a thing as a “mormyshka game”, which consists mainly in the following. The jig with the nozzle is lowered to the bottom and, having raised the fishing rod so that the line is taut and you can notice the slightest touch of the fish to the nozzle by the movement of the nod (down or up), wait 3-5 seconds, and then, moving, raise the bait by 5- 10 cm. If there is no bite, the mormyshka is lowered to the bottom again and, moving the fishing line along the perimeter of the hole, slightly raise the mormyshka. In the absence of bites, wiring is done in different layers of water.

As a rule, all jig fishermen started fishing from the ice, using jigs with a nozzle: bloodworm, maggot, mormysh, etc. In this case, dribbling is also appropriate, especially when the fish are passive, which is often the case in the middle of winter. But this method is most effective when fishing with a baitless mormyshka.

It happens that a perch flock stands under the hole and does not respond to traditional mormysh fishing techniques. But it is worth offering them dribbling, as striped predators enter the hunting passion, attacking the bait.

Catching perch in the spring on dammed rivers

This most interesting and prey fishing for perch lasts, unfortunately, only a few days, until the river water becomes cloudy. The main trophies are rather large perches. After the old channels of the Volga tributaries are marked, the ice in their cross section takes a V-shaped position.

Under its own weight, it bursts along the edges of the coast, and melt water begins to flow into these faults, which makes its way under the ice, forming numerous streams.

Mini-streams play a dual role: they enrich the coastal zone with oxygen and bring various food here - bloodworms, all kinds of crustaceans, mollusks, leeches, etc. But even where fresh water does not yet enter, half a meter of ice, settling along an inclined plane, squeezes out food along with the bottom soil like a press. All this, of course, attracts fish here.

It was a quiet, warm March morning. On the opposite shore, among the moss swamp, the voices of the current black grouse have already begun to try. It had been a sunny day the day before, and the top layer of ice was now a slurry spreading underfoot. Bypassing a small ravine, I found old holes opened on the icy coastal slope. In the hope of a pot-bellied ruff, he lowered a mormyshka with a bloodworm into one of them. The depth under the ice was only thirty centimeters.

A sharp blow followed almost immediately, the nod straightened, and after a short hooking, I hardly pulled a half-kilogram perch out of the hole. Five minutes passed - and again a bite. Another redfin jumped on the ice. That morning, bypassing the old holes, I managed to catch a dozen excellent perches. After each fight, I sprinkled the holes with snow, piercing a narrow hole only for the passage of the jig.

A lover of experimentation, I soon discovered that new holes catch perch better than old ones, even if they are located a meter apart. Of the mormyshkas for such an unusual fishing, the flat-oval one turned out to be optimal, which, when in contact with the silty bottom, not only raises clouds of turbidity, but also sort of disperses them, which provokes the grip of a striped gourmet.

In cloudy weather, the hole does not have to be darkened, but on a sunny day, the effect of darkening with snow or crumbling whitish ice is obvious. In the absence of a bite, you should not hatch the fish, it rarely brings good luck. Letting the hole "rest", do not forget to cover it with snow. I tried to close the holes with a PCB circle - the result is negative. Apparently, impenetrable to light, it casts a shadow on the bottom (the depth is less than half a meter), which alarms the fish.

After catching the next trophy, it is imperative to put at least one fresh bloodworm on the mormyshka hook. But the main thing, of course, is to find a perch that has approached the shore and correctly navigate the choice of bait and fishing tactics.

According to Neexplorer

Many winter fishermen at this time prefer perch hunting with lure, balancer, mormyshka and other baits.

Choosing a fishing rod for perch fishing in March

float fishing rods many winter anglers are familiar. These are well-known "fillies", they come with both one and two reels. Some anglers use float rods when catching large perch for fry.

And what are needed fishing rods for mormyshka? Usually this is a neoprene or cork handled fishing rod equipped with an open reel, or a balalaika type fishing rod. A characteristic feature of a fishing rod with a nod and a mormyshka is the absence of a tulip at the end of the whip.

We probably have a lot to learn from anglers in Canada and the northern states of the USA, where ice fishing rods are successfully used for ice fishing, the length of which is usually 50-70 cm; they are equipped with a spinning or multiplier reel. At the same time, a well-established friction clutch allows you not to force events when playing a large fish, even with a relatively thin fishing line. True, I must note that with a high snow cover on the ice, it is not very convenient to use such tackle, since snow, when throwing a fishing rod in the final stage of playing, can damage the reel. You can, of course, use various bedding, but this is already troublesome, especially when actively looking for fish.

Another important point. If you use reel tackle, you need to learn how to properly tie the fishing line to the reel spool.. First you need to wrap the fishing line around the axis of the spool. Then combine the free end with the main fishing line and hold it between the index and thumb. When using braid, the knot is formed with the fishing line folded in half. Next, we skip the free end into the loop and make three turns around the near section of the fishing line. Then we pass the free end of the fishing line through the loop on the main line, as shown in the figure. Wet the knot and pull both the free end and the main line at the same time. Once the knot is formed, secure it to the spool by pulling on the main line. It remains only to cut off the excess end and fill the spool with the required amount of fishing line.

In winter, including on the last ice, when the air temperature is above zero, when fishing for perch, I do not use braid. The main reason is its opacity, which, in my opinion, scares off perch, especially large ones. The ideal color for monofilament is pale blue. It is the best suited for ice perch fishing, given that the water in the reservoirs is several times clearer than in summer. And the scattered sunlight passing through the ice makes it bluish, especially at depths of 1.5 m and deeper. In addition, such a fishing line is better seen on whitish ice and against the background of snow cover.

Perch fishing in March on reservoirs

But not only snags attract humpback perches. In March - early April, large perch have to be caught mainly on pre-channel dumps, where the depth is 3-7 m, sometimes more. Having determined the top and bottom of the dump, you should drill holes with a “ladder” to the left and right, try to catch at different levels. As a rule, larger perches (200-300 g) are deeper. At the same time, it is useful to fix the depth in each hole, paying attention even to a difference of 15-30 cm. These can be small ledges, grooves, pits, mounds, where food carried by the current accumulates and where striped predators like to wait for prey. Of course, it is better to conduct such a search with two or three people - this way you can quickly reach the joint of a fattening predator. When searching for perch flocks, it is more convenient to use fishing rods without a nod (with a tulip at the end of the whip). Do not forget that large humpback bass prefer to hunt alone or in small groups.

Bass fishing in March

This fishing is good because In addition to fishing with jigsaw tackle, you have a chance to prove yourself in fishing with sheer lure. The main difference between lures for ice fishing is that the bait does not go in a horizontal plane, but in a certain vertical angle. In this case, deviations from the vertical axis can range from 15 to 90 or more degrees.

There are a lot of models of winter vertical baubles, but only two or three main categories can be distinguished among them. These are baits that give a sweeping game, moderate and almost do not deviate from the vertical axis (such as the well-known carnation spinner). If the first ones are good at high activity of a striped predator, then “carnations” help out with a weak bite and even when the fish practically ignores any baits that have been proven a hundred times. On the last ice, when striped predators are quite active, traditional classic spinners are quite suitable. Such baits are usually made of a thin metal plate (crown) and a layer of solder soldered onto it, the thickness of which, as a rule, determines the weight and planning properties of the bait. Crowns are made of silver, copper, brass, cupronickel, etc. Sometimes colored flex is glued on them. Some firms also produce variously colored baubles with eyes.

There are currently new models of winter baubles, sometimes more reminiscent of balancers. They are attached to the fishing line using a ring or hole in the body of the bait. Unfortunately, I have not managed to catch them yet, but I think that their game is somewhat similar to the game of balancers.

And now about equipping winter baubles for lure in a plumb line. There is only one rule: the lighter, smaller the lure, the more compact and lighter the equipment should be. Otherwise, the most catchy bait can turn into "hopelessness". If a spinner weighing 30 g can be equipped with a rather voluminous brush, then a spinner weighing 3 g is usually equipped with cambric, beads, or an epoxy colored drop is applied to the tee.

Which of the winter anglers is not familiar with the situation: perch knocks on the lure, but is not detected? You change spinners, try to diversify the game of the bait - the result is zero! This is especially true when the perches are resting after a successful fry hunt.

Try to use snap, in which a leash with a nickel-plated hook is tied above the spinner, equipped with the simplest snag: two “antennae” made of thin red thread (preferably cotton). Hook size - No. 10-13 (according to the international scale), with an elongated forearm; the length of the "antennae" is 10-15 mm, i.e. about the average bloodworm. The length of the leash is about 20 cm.

Perch fishing in March on balancers

However, modern winter anglers have an ambiguous attitude to vertical baubles, because many yesterday's lurers are now successfully fishing with balancers and silicone baits. After all, it happens that the perch either perfectly takes on the spinners, then give it balancers that write out eights under the ice. That is why in my camping arsenal there are always those and other baits.

Which of the modern advanced anglers are unfamiliar balancers of such famous brands as Nils Master, Rapala, Storm, Salmo(trademark Lacky John) and some others. There are also less famous manufacturers. I think that in a few years only the lazy will not produce these baits, which are very popular among anglers - fans of both summer and winter fishing. In short, the massive use of balancers is just a matter of time. But here the pitfalls begin. Firms that do not have the necessary production technology and the proper testing base will drive deliberately defective products. However, this is already being observed. Therefore, my advice will be this: if you think that you can buy a quality-made bait “cheaply”, then in this case this is a profound delusion.

Balance- the bait is not simple. Even defects that are insignificant at first glance, for example, not entirely accurate balancing or roughly processed tail blades, can lead to very sad consequences, or rather, such a bait will turn out to be completely inoperable. The result is wasted money. And yet, if you purchased a bait with defects, they can be eliminated (not all, of course). True, provided that you have golden hands. And if not? And if there is a lack of free time or lack of the right tool? Then, in order not to waste time on fishing, feel free to send defective balancers to the so-called closet, literally or figuratively - it does not matter.

When you purchase a batch of balancers in a store, it is often difficult to identify defects by eye for the most part. And above all, it concerns the balancing and driving characteristics of the bait. It should not be forgotten that as far as the balancers of different companies differ in shape, they will manifest themselves in such a peculiar way when playing. Some of them require more amplitude when swinging the rod, others less. The same applies to the acceleration that we give the lure with our actions. This can only be determined empirically: better on a pond, from bridges or boats, at worst in a bathtub filled with water. The tests are carried out both with and without a soft metal leash, since the leash, especially when working with mini-balancers, can noticeably distort their play, and it is generally contraindicated for “zero” balancers. Models of balancers of different companies somehow differ in shape. When the company Nils Master mastered, for example, the production of shads, the emphasis was placed primarily on catching zander. The fact is that the compact shape of this bait contributes to the fact that after a bite, the balancer, as a rule, is completely in the predator's mouth. And this prevents the hooks from getting caught on the lower edge of the hole during the fight and, accordingly, the fish coming off. The same goal is pursued in the design of the balance bar, in which the front hook is turned down, which, by the way, does not adversely affect the hooking. Unlike pike, walleye and perch usually grab the bait from the tail, in which case the downward hook will not catch on the edge of the hole.

Now for the hooks. Most of the balancers on sale today are equipped with three hooks: a front and rear single and a hanging tee, which should be easily removed, and for this it is desirable that the bottom loop be made like a carabiner or should be detachable. When fishing in snags, I usually remove the lower tee - this way it is easier to avoid hooks and it is easier to release the bait with the help of a retriever. In the same place where the bottom is relatively clean, I do not recommend removing the lower standard tee, since it is an integral part of the balancer design. The same can be said about replacing a small tee with a larger one, and vice versa. Such modernization does not lead to anything good, distorting the pattern of the game with bait.

The classic balancer, equipped with tail rudders, is the most suitable bait for the first lessons in mastering this difficult fishing. The trajectory of the balancer after the stroke of the rod is the usual figure eight or the sign of infinity. A large balancer with good driving characteristics, if it is given a strong enough acceleration, as a rule, goes to the second eight, but already smaller in size. Of course, the smaller the bait, the less it will deviate from the vertical axis. Bladeless balancers such as Chabby Darter (Salmo) require more delicate play. They are quite quiet, so they are indispensable when catching passive fish, especially in the middle of winter and where there is a low oxygen content in the water.

In fishing, as you know, there are no trifles. Therefore, it is important to be able to correctly tie baits so that the fishing line does not particularly lose strength at the knots. However, in most cases it is more expedient to fasten baits to a leader or main line through a swivel with a carabiner or only through a carabiner. This allows you to quickly change baits, which is especially necessary when actively searching for fish.

Catching perch in March on a mormyshka

I most often fish for mormyshka at shallow depths and in snags, where “dead” hooks happen with other baits.

I don't think I'll reveal a secret if I say that each winter fisherman has his own, over the years, proven technique of playing with a mormyshka. To begin with, it is important to understand the difference in the game of bait when catching different types of fish. "Belle" (bream, roach, silver bream, sopa) often has to be caught for a slow game. Whereas perch and bleak prefer faster lure movements.

There are many ways to play the mormyshka, designed both to attract fish to the place of fishing, and to provoke it to bite. But all these lowering the bait to the bottom, tapping on it, pauses, amplitudes and oscillation frequencies for a novice angler may not be effective ... You need to feel the jig. And that comes with experience. For myself, I figured out a long time ago that five main components work in a productive game:

The most convenient grip of the fishing rod (the hand is on the handle from above, the index finger rests on the base of the whip; the handle is clamped in the fingers like a pencil; the brush lies on top of the reel - in the case of the "balalaika").
The design and elasticity of the nod correspond to the weight of the jig.
The nozzle should not distort the game.
The speed of the wiring and the frequency of oscillation of the bait are determined by the specific type of fish and its activity.
It should not be forgotten that fish often take better on free-falling bait.

When fishing with a bait, the fish often takes on a fixed bait, but in the case of a baitless jig, this number does not work. Yes, it would never occur to anyone, putting such a bait to the bottom, patiently waiting for a bite. For the essence of baitless fishing is in movement, or rather, in a more or less accurate imitation of the movements of one or another food object.

Dribbling and Bass Catching

Mormyshka fishing technique has its own specifics. Among winter fishermen, there is such a thing as a “mormyshka game”, which consists mainly in the following. The jig with the nozzle is lowered to the bottom and, having raised the fishing rod so that the line is taut and you can notice the slightest touch of the fish to the nozzle by the movement of the nod (down or up), wait 3-5 seconds, and then, moving, raise the bait by 5- 10 cm. If there is no bite, the mormyshka is lowered to the bottom again and, moving the fishing line along the perimeter of the hole, slightly raise the mormyshka. In the absence of bites, wiring is done in different layers of water.

As a rule, all jig anglers started fishing from the ice using mormyshki with a nozzle: bloodworm, maggot, mormysh and so on. In this case, dribbling is also appropriate, especially when the fish are passive, which is often the case in the middle of winter. But this method is most effective when fishing with a baitless mormyshka.

Catching perch in the spring on dammed rivers

This most interesting and prey fishing for perch lasts, unfortunately, only a few days, until the river water becomes cloudy. The main trophies are rather large perches. After the old channels of the Volga tributaries are marked, the ice in their cross section takes a V-shaped position. Under its own weight, it bursts along the edges of the coast, and melt water begins to flow into these faults, which makes its way under the ice, forming numerous streams. Mini-streams play a dual role: they enrich the coastal zone with oxygen and bring various food here - bloodworms, all kinds of crustaceans, mollusks, leeches, etc. But even where fresh water does not yet enter, half a meter of ice, settling along an inclined plane, squeezes out food along with the bottom soil like a press. All this, of course, attracts fish here.

For the first time, I came across one of these places quite by accident while fishing for live bait under the shore. It was in the lower reaches of the dammed Nerl, which flows into the Uglich reservoir. It was a quiet, warm March morning. On the opposite shore, among the moss swamp, the voices of the current black grouse have already begun to try. It had been a sunny day the day before, and the top layer of ice was now a slurry spreading underfoot. Bypassing a small ravine, I found old holes opened on the icy coastal slope. In the hope of a pot-bellied ruff, he lowered a mormyshka with a bloodworm into one of them. The depth under the ice was only thirty centimeters.

A lover of experiments, I soon found that the new holes caught perch better than the old ones, even if they were located a meter apart. Of the mormyshkas for such an unusual fishing, the flat-oval one turned out to be optimal, which, when in contact with the silty bottom, not only raises clouds of turbidity, but also sort of disperses them, which provokes the grip of a striped gourmet. In cloudy weather, the hole does not have to be darkened, but on a sunny day, the effect of darkening with snow or crumbling whitish ice is obvious. In the absence of a bite, you should not hatch the fish, it rarely brings good luck. Letting the hole "rest", do not forget to cover it with snow. I tried to close the holes with a PCB circle - the result is negative. Apparently, impenetrable to light, it casts a shadow on the bottom (the depth is less than half a meter), which alarms the fish.