Look For Fish Trails. How To Find A Fishing Spot

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Fishing Academy

December and January are, perhaps, the most "dead" months without biting. At this time, most fish lead an inactive way of life, mainly settling in pits - in wintering places. Therefore, a winter road fisherman inevitably faces a problem: "What to do?" Either actively search for fish sites, or wait for it to approach the hole itself.

The right to choose here is a purely individual matter … Someone is trying to examine as large a territory of the reservoir as possible, thereby, as it were, increasing the likelihood of finding fish sites. Someone, on the contrary, having chosen a suitable place, settles down on it thoroughly: he drills holes, lowers the bait into them and patiently waits for bites. In both cases, fishermen act according to the principle known in Russia since ancient times: "Maybe you will be lucky."

Of course, it happens that some of them are lucky, and he turns out to be with a catch. But most often both anglers are left with a meager catch, and often without it at all. To avoid this, of course, an extremely undesirable phenomenon for every fisherman, it is necessary either to thoroughly know a specific water body, or try to learn this knowledge from local or experienced fishermen, or be able to determine the most promising places for fishing based on external signs.

Such places, first of all, are determined by the nature of the relief. There is always some kind of coastal and ice relief. Let's start with the coastal relief. First of all, it is necessary to at least roughly determine what kind of fish is found in a given reservoir and where it is most likely to be caught. For example, pike loves to stay in grassy places, where its protective coloration blends well with plant stems. Zander tries to avoid such places, preferring to be in ambush behind large stones, snags, behind the trunks of fallen trees.

In winter, almost any part of the reservoir is accessible on ice, and this is a colossal advantage of winter fishing. However, at the same time, the search for fish is complicated by the fact that the coastal landmarks are covered with snow, and the underwater world is under the ice and is not easily accessible for observation. And this greatly complicates the search for fish schools. Therefore, it is highly desirable that the fisherman take a closer look at the places where he will have to fish in winter in the summer. Aquatic vegetation, current speed and direction, rifts, spits, pools, shoals, islands and peninsulas, the nature of the bottom (silt, sand, clay, pebbles, stones, boulders) - all this information can be very valuable in winter.

For example, in different parts of the reservoir there are thickets of reeds, reeds, cattails, horsetails. Pisces treat them differently. And although, as it is sung in the famous song: "The reeds rustled …", in reality, the hard reeds rustle, the stems of which look like very thick straw. This noise scares most fish, and therefore they rarely and reluctantly enter the reeds.

The situation with reeds is quite different. In its thickets, pikes, perches, roach, undergrowths, silver bream, rudd and other fish hide. Some of them are here in ambush, others, on the contrary, are hiding from predators. By the way, some anglers (and not only them) confuse reeds and reeds. In summer, reeds have a soft, smooth, dark green stem filled with a white mass, very similar to the lightest foam. The leaves of the reed are hidden under the water, and a round stem rises above it by 1-2 meters.

But most of all fish are attracted by thickets of horsetail. It often happens that large areas of a reservoir, overgrown with horsetail, abound in a variety of fish of all sizes. There is an assumption - this is due to the fact that in the summer horsetails secrete alkali, and in winter the air penetrating into the hollow stems of plants, thereby enriching the water with oxygen, which is so lacking in the inhabitants of the under-ice world. Ichthyologists responsibly declare that fish with external injuries: scratches, abrasions, wounds enter the horsetail thickets as in a hospital. In short, horsetails are a clear indication that there is fish in this reservoir. At the same time, it should be remembered that ice in thickets of grass is often very unreliable. Therefore, approaching them, it is necessary to constantly check the strength of the ice with an ice pick or stick.

There are shoals quite often among great depths. Such places, for some inexplicable reason, are very attractive for many fish. You can successfully catch them both on the shoal itself and on the approaches to it. This is due to the fact that it is in such places that the so-called "fish trails" pass. Sometimes this is some kind of depression stretching along an underwater plain, sometimes, on the contrary, it is something like a rampart or embankment located under the water in a certain direction. It happens that the "path" is indicated by vegetation, but it also happens that there are no visible landmarks at the bottom, but the fish still unmistakably find their way and even move along it at a certain time, only they know.

If, for some reason, there is no vegetation in the reservoir, or it, like coastal signs, is covered with snow, then if you wish, you can navigate directly on the ice … First of all, it is very desirable to determine possible depth differences. This is not difficult at all. After all, ice on large bodies of water is set in different ways: at the coast it is faster, and there it is thicker, in open water and at depth - much slower, and it is thinner. In addition, winds, currents break, break, rally ice, as a result of which hummocks, cracks, depressions and bulges appear in it. They can form in any place, but there is a general pattern: every year these irregularities appear precisely on the irregularities of the bottom. Therefore, any hummocks, cracks, bulges are certainly the places of the depth difference. This means that it is a very promising place for an angler.

In addition, hummocks make it possible for small fish to hide. After all, some of the hummocks are above the water, and some are under water. And if potential prey is hiding in them, then there will certainly be predators. If in an open place predators quickly deal with small things (mainly fry), then in hummocky places it can linger, and, therefore, predators too. Something similar happens with the snowy "porridge" - sludge. And here the small fish finds a safe refuge and can stay near it for some time. … Regrettably, however, the nets set up by poachers can also tell you where the fish accumulate. After all, these enemies of real fishermen in the overwhelming majority are local residents who thoroughly know this reservoir. True, this option for searching for fish can be considered of little use,and also unsafe.

It is much easier and safer to take advantage of natural factors … For example, having pulled some greenery from the bottom on a hook from the water, you need to carefully examine it. If, for example, this is elodea, then you can be sure that if it bites in this place, then only small things: perches and brushes. If a leaf or a twig of pondweed is removed from the hole, then this gives a chance to fish out something more impressive. When the caddis flies are found during the hooks of the grass, such a place should be fished. Very promising places where sand ends and pebbles begin, among which bugs, worms and larvae of all kinds of insects live.

On an unfamiliar river, you should first drill holes across the river, gradually moving away from the coast. But again: how to determine to what depth to drill? It depends on the bite and what kind of fish is supposed to be caught: some fish prefer to stay at the bottom, others at the surface. However, there are many exceptions to the general rule … Because it often happens that, for example, a roach or perch is taken half-water, then at depth, or almost at the surface. Therefore, the bait (mainly a jig) must penetrate all layers of the water. And if there is a fish nearby, then it will definitely notice or feel the bait. But whether she takes it or not depends entirely on the fisherman, on his skill and skill.