Winter Perch

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

Fishing Academy

Perch is perhaps the most widespread fish in our reservoirs after roach. Greedy, impudent, this striped handsome man lives in almost all ponds, rivers, lakes, canals, oxbows.

The gluttony of the perch is legendary. And in fact, he is always ready to swallow not only any animal nozzle, but also his striped counterpart. However, the irrepressible voracity and active biting of this fish fully relate only to the warm season. Quite a different matter in winter.

As with most fish, with a cold snap, life processes in the body of perch slow down. Often, having gathered in flocks, they lie in deep holes, and are extremely reluctant to get out of there. Therefore, in winter you have to either look for their camps, or find "fish trails", that is, chase after a moving flock.

And yet, with all the difficulties of winter catching a striped predator, it is the perch that most often becomes the prey of the fisherman. How can you catch a thorny robber? I will not describe fishing for perch with a traditional float rod. Much has been written and rewritten about this. And talk about the angling of the fish on

lures and

jig.

In winter, based on the lifestyle of the perch, it is almost impossible to predict what kind of bait he will be tempted to today. It often happens that in the same reservoir in the morning, perch feeds in shallow water and takes on very small jigs. And in the afternoon, he suddenly begins to actively catch on spoons, but already at a depth.

Experienced anglers believe that this behavior of perch largely depends on the weather. If the atmospheric pressure is high and stable, then the perch feeds in small places throughout the day. In this case, the depth under the hole can be as little as 12-20 centimeters. Small jigs can do well here. If the weather is unstable for several days, then the perch does not go out into shallow water and settles at a depth where it can be "reached" with a spoon.

In waters where perch is under constant pressure from anglers, it becomes very picky and extremely cautious. And therefore it is extremely difficult to deceive him with a spoon or bait. And here it makes sense to use a jig.

When choosing a way to play the jig, you should take into account that in the wilderness, the fish, saving strength and energy, will not chase fast-moving bait. Most often at this time the perch grabs a motionless or slowly rising jig. Sometimes the red-finned predator, despite all the tricks of the angler, completely ignores any jig.

In a similar situation, a spoon can help out. Among fishermen, I have heard such a judgment: they say, first, the perch must be attracted with a spoon, then caught with a jig. However, my practice did not give a positive result. Often, after the spoon, the fish categorically refused to take the jig and vice versa.

If the perch categorically does not take either on a jig with a nozzle, or on a spoon, there is perhaps the only option: switch to a non-nozzle jig.

However, despite the attractive simplicity, such fishing requires from the angler great endurance, observation and lightning-fast reaction, since the success of fishing with a jig without a nozzle is ensured by a high frequency of oscillations of the bait with a minimum amplitude, such that the perch could not really see what it was flickering in front of him.

I believe that the jig should at least slightly resemble some kind of insect or its larva. For example, on a crustacean amphipod or mormysh. Some fishermen equip the jig with colored thread "whiskers", pieces of red and yellow cambric, pieces of rubber and foam rubber.

When fishing with a jig without a bait, the bite is not as pronounced as when fishing with a bait. The perch grabs the jig, immediately detects the catch and tries to immediately "spit out" the piece of iron. Therefore, as soon as the nod flinched, you need to have time to make a sharp cut. Otherwise, any delay ends with the descent of fish.

Alexander Nosov