As fans of ice predator fishing, my friends and I fish throughout the winter season: from the time when the first strong ice is established on the Kuibyshev reservoir, to the days when the last ice still reliably holds the angler. We do not disregard the period of deafness. Despite the three winter months, the ice fishing season for working anglers is short, so you want to spend it with full dedication.
Channel predator
Fishing statistics indicate that pike perch and bersh in the middle of winter are more often passive than active. They stay in one place most of the time. Bites occur only if the bait can be held in close proximity to the predator. In this case, the bite usually follows immediately, as soon as the spoon or jig reaches the bottom, or as soon as you send the bait to a new hole. This means that predators do not stop feeding.
In my opinion, this fact has both negative and positive sides. The negative side is that during the day of fishing, the chances are high simply not to find a parking lot for pike perch or bersh and be left without a catch. But, on the other hand, if you know where to look, the absence of bites indicates that there is no predator nearby at the moment, and you should continue searching for it along the planned route.
Such a pattern, in principle, stimulates the continuation of searches and brings some clarity to what is happening. In addition, it is quite obvious to me that there is definitely a predator in the place of fishing – not in a specific hole, but on a section of the channel, and it is required to find the points of its local stops. Therefore, I constantly drill new holes and fish large areas in a day of fishing.
Searching for scattered sites for pike perch and bersh along the vast area of the channel dump in the wilderness may seem like a 100% gamble, equivalent to finding a needle in a haystack. Yes and no. The bottom relief on the dumps into the channel is not even everywhere, in some places there are quite pronounced bottom structures, and there are many of them. The search for sites of zander “blindly”, as a rule, is not very effective, however, if you purposefully fish for places with an uneven bottom, the chances of success are high.
In the search for promising places on the riverbed, signs installed on the banks help, for example, crossings or signs “anchorage is prohibited”. In the area of our reach there are several sections of the channel opposite the signs “anchorage is prohibited”, on which we are good at catching pike perch even in the most mild periods. The fact is that oil pipelines have been laid along the bottom here and the bottom relief, due to the bottom works carried out, is very interesting in terms of fishing. In some places, the depth difference exceeds 1.5 m.
While fishing a narrow but clear groove in the place of the laid oil pipeline, dug perpendicular to the channel, we came across an impressive accumulation of measuring bersh, which aggressively attacked our spoons and jigs. Apparently, the bersh here not only hid from a strong channel current, but also found easy prey. From time to time in the future we checked this groove and also found a bersh here, albeit in smaller quantities.
Continuing the search for the predator in the vicinity of the promising ditch, a little upstream we found a clear ridge, also located perpendicular to the channel and representing nothing more than a dump of bottom soil formed during digging of the ditch. The width of the ridge was 8–10 m, and the depth difference was almost 1 m. While catching the top of the ridge on our next fishing trip, my friend and I found a pike perch and, without “getting off” during the whole fishing from a catchy hill, caught several medium zander weighing about a kilogram …
Shoal Zander
How are things going with pike-perch in the middle of winter in shallows and is it advisable to catch it in the wilderness outside the channel? To answer this question, my friends and I devoted many fishing trips in the middle of winter to looking for zander at depths of up to 5 m.Moreover, the circumstances of last winter developed so that my brother and his father-in-law went fishing almost every day for a month, starting from end of January. In the most difficult period for fishing, we were able to reproduce the real picture of what is happening on the shoals.
Of course, the search for pike perch was carried out not just anywhere, but in the places of the most likely exits of the predator, marked on the map in the navigator. Having the equipment at our disposal, we quickly checked various promising places with interesting relief, and this is the conclusion we made. From time to time, the pike perch came out exactly where it was supposed to go. The most promising, as one would expect, were the pre-dawn hours and short periods after sunrise. The overwhelming minority of trips turned out to be effective, not taking into account the fishing, which brings one or two pike perch each. In general, only one fishing a week turned out to be really successful, then it was possible to catch three or four “koykasty” fish from 1.5 to 3 kg.
When looking for a stranded pike perch in the middle of winter, there are very high chances of being left without a catch or not seeing a single bite in a day. Therefore, only those few fishermen who are well aware of the section of the reservoir and, importantly, have the opportunity to fish and monitor the situation on the ice every day, dare to do such fishing.
The correct choice of bait capable of provoking a passive zander to bite is very important in the wilderness. To fish in shallow water, you must have at least several different balancers and light gliding lures. Slowly sinking, gliding lures, waddling in free fall from side to side, are undoubtedly attractive to passive zander.
Mormoblyosy – bait for the deaf winter
Mormobless are lures that are less popular among anglers than spinners and balancers, which is not surprising, since they are not manufactured on an industrial scale. However, these lures are often much more effective than even the most catchy zander spinners in the wilderness.
Mormobles is a bait that combines the properties of a jig and a spoon, hence its name. Mormobless differ in shape, but they have the same constructive idea. These are flat lures, similar to spoons, but the point of attachment to the line is not at the edge, but closer to the center, like a jig.
For fishing at a depth of up to 8 m, I use mormobless weighing about 7 g. Such lures work at a depth of both 2 m and 8 m – provided that the current is either absent or insignificant. The maximum weight of my mormobless is 12 g. With this bait, I calmly catch depths of up to 10 m.
When you start fishing with Mormobles, you realize that its behavior in the water is not similar to that of any of the baits. When replacing the spoon with a mormoble, this difference is very noticeable. A lure suspended vertically does not offer resistance when moving up and wins back into the hand only when it is at the bottom point. The feeling of playing with a balancer is also different from what you get with a fishing rod with a Mormobless, as the balancer is more streamlined, although it is often heavier. Hanging almost horizontally, the Mormobless experiences the pressure of water on its plane, which determines the features of its animation.
Mormobless animation should be smooth, non-amplitude. This bait is not designed for sudden movements in principle. Due to its geometry and the fact that the point of attachment to the line is close to the center of the mormobless, with a sharp toss, its game breaks down, which is clearly felt by the hand. Therefore, the classic animation by trolling (throwing the bait with the delay of pauses) is not suitable here. Quite another thing is the smooth, unhurried rise of the mormobless and the same smooth discharge, in which the bait moves away from the hole to the side, and then returns to its original position. The classic game of Mormobles is smooth swinging with pauses. With this animation, the Mormobless treads in one place, turning 360 ° around the point of attachment to the line, therefore, to avoid twisting the line, it must be tied through a swivel with a clasp or a winding ring. When playing with mormobless, constant control of the bait is required. Mormobles can be dispersed so that it not only rotates around its axis, but also moves in a circle itself.
Smooth vibrations of mormobless provoke passive zander to a confident grip. The peculiarity of mormobles is such that idle bites rarely occur on it. Even the most insecure predator’s grip does not go unpunished. A flat mormobless, which is almost in a horizontal position, easily flies into the mouth of a predator so deep that it often turns out to be swallowed completely, and the tee clings to the gills. And this despite the fact that this bait cannot be called small.
The middle of winter is not the easiest and most catchy period, so many anglers who have successfully caught on the first ice prefer to sit at home and wait for the arrival of spring to go fishing on the last ice again. But the statistics of fishing shows that in the middle of winter it is possible to successfully catch zander. It is in the wilderness that the skills and patience of the fisherman are tested for strength.
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