Winter lure anglers

[bingo]

Come on then folks. Tell us how you do it. I've stubbornly stuck to lures recently and cannot get a follow let alone a bite.

 

I tried bouncing shads on the bottom. Suspending baits mid water and on the bottom and spinnerbaits. All these have caught in warmer weather but the recent cold weather has beaten me. Canal and river. It was milder today and I tried again on the canal but nothing was doing.

 

I wobbled deadbaits on Saturday (when it was REALLY cold) on a low clear river and had a fish (8lb) early on. It was the only fish of the day but it was lovely to see a pike again!

 

I know that some people only use lures and have great success but I will be going back to wobbling and sink and draw from now on. Unless you tell me different.

[Newt]

Some days you cannot buy a bite with a lure no matter what you do but those are very rare.

 

Winter and it is critical to find the lure shape & colour they want along with the depth and speed.

 

I've caught winter fish at 4 feet when I could not buy a bite at 3 or 5 feet.

 

A tactic I really like in cold weather is to suspend a small jig (1/64 to 1/16 oz) below a float and move it along gently. You'll be amazed at the variety of fish that will find it attractive.

 

[Peter Waller]

Today I used a home made, pink and white pork chop style jerkbait, about 5' long. No particular reason for choosing it, but it caught. I put it down to sheer, instinctive brilliance, perhaps.

[Alan Roe]

Today I used a home made, pink and white pork chop style jerkbait, about 5' long. No particular reason for choosing it, but it caught. I put it down to sheer, instinctive brilliance, perhaps.

 

And about 50 years experience.......................

[Houseplant]

i have more faith in wobbled deads mounted on a large single circle and slowly bounced off the bottom when times are hard.

[Andy Macfarlane]

Was on another site and someone asked how to fish with shads and swimbaits. I thought I'd copy it for in here.

 

How to work a swimbait by Andy Macfarlane

 

Shads are my favourite deep-water piking lures. In Winter, small shads and swimbaits around the 4" mark are my first line of attack but they'll work at other times of the year, when the pike are lying up, staying low, avoiding bright sunshine or basically just having a snooze. In the warmer months, I'll use larger swimbaits to reflect their larger diet intake. Fishing them is much the same though. Here are 5 ways to get you started. I'm working on what I believe to be a completely new lure fishing method but that's for another time. I'm going piking in the morning, instead of just talking about it!!...LOL!

 

1: The first way I fish them is to simply cast them out and let the hit the bottom, counting down as I go. Take a second or two off your count and you'll be fishing close to the bottom. Simply wind your bait in, varying your speed as you go, adding a little dart, hang or pause but basically, it's a straight retrieve. Dead easy.

 

2: If that doesn't work, I'll get my lure down same as before but this time, I want to fish the lure sink and draw style. Allowing the bait to rise and fall in the water column, gives you a good chance of attracting the attentions of a fish, no matter what depth they're sitting at, so try to make that lure seen at all depths and remember to throw those odd little moves into the retrieve.

 

3: If I'm absolutely sure the fish are hard on the bottom, I'll take the belly treble off altogether and gang the treble onto the back single or/and use a stinger arrangement. This allows me to put my bait right on the bottom without too much fear of finding a snag. Once you've cast out, hold the rod up high, tighten up and simply give your reel handle a crank, two cranks or 3 cranks and let it hit the bottom again. Keep a tight line all the time, as pike will often flare their gills and literally inhale your lure right off the bottom while it's motionless. You can allow your bait to pause for a few seconds. repeat the cranking action again and basically what you're trying to do is hop your bait along the bottom, kicking up muck, detritus and hopefully create a little sound too.

 

4: If you're drifting over deep water, you can jig swimbaits along the bottom, using the drift of the boat to provide the lure's forward motion. All you're doing is giving the lure it's up and down motion. This is probably the laziest action but it can be very effective.

 

5: By taking the weight or jig-head off your bait, you can fish shads and similar lures in the same way as a wobbled bait. the only weight is the lure itself. What you're trying to do this time, is mimic the action of an injured fish, perhaps with swim-bladder problems. A lot of folk go to a lot of bother trying to get unweighted shads to keep an even keel but I think that's defeating the point. Fish with buoyancy problems can't keep an even keel. That's why they're on the pike's menu. Cast the lure, let it sink to the desired depth, again keeping a tight line and then start to add little glimmers of 'life'. You've seen the last throws of life, when a fish is really struggling. That's exactly what you want. Be vigilant when doing this as pike will often watch injured prey, just waiting for the perfect moment to launch their attack. Very often it'll come right under your feet.

 

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[Neil G]

Come on then folks. Tell us how you do it. I've stubbornly stuck to lures recently and cannot get a follow let alone a bite.

 

I tried bouncing shads on the bottom. Suspending baits mid water and on the bottom and spinnerbaits. All these have caught in warmer weather but the recent cold weather has beaten me. Canal and river. It was milder today and I tried again on the canal but nothing was doing.

 

I wobbled deadbaits on Saturday (when it was REALLY cold) on a low clear river and had a fish (8lb) early on. It was the only fish of the day but it was lovely to see a pike again!

 

I know that some people only use lures and have great success but I will be going back to wobbling and sink and draw from now on. Unless you tell me different.

 

I'd also like to know the secret too as I know the dutch & swedes fish lures all year round with success and it's probably colded over there than it is here!

 

Interesting to see you had fish on a wobbled dead and not on lures

[Dick Dastardly]

I dont lure fish much in the colder months as I used to as I believe baits are more effective in these conditions.

 

When I did/do though "slow and deep" were my watch words. lures such as ABU Atoms just retrived enough to keep them working were good but in general I prefered a wobled dead more "twitched" than retrieved. Im sure as others have mentioned Shads would be good.

 

On a high pressure day when the pike are really actively feeding though I would just fish lures normally.I often found in such feeding conditions the "faster" more easily"mobile" lure fishing could even out fish lives on some days.

[bingo]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

 

I'd also like to know the secret too as I know the dutch & swedes fish lures all year round with success and it's probably colded over there than it is here!

 

Interesting to see you had fish on a wobbled dead and not on lures

 

The Dutch/Swedes thing is very interesting. I hardly know anything about their fishing but I too am under the impression that they catch a lot on lures. Is it that they are 'better' anglers or is it just a percentage thing? i.e. if more people lure fish then more fish will be caught.

 

I also wonder how much is down to sheer bloody-minded persistence. I wonder if it takes a certain kind of person to throw baits all day and really work their lures. I've often spent a day lure fishing but I often wonder how much thought and effort I'm putting in. Probably not a lot in my case! Frankly, I wonder if I'm up to it.

 

I love the idea of carrying very litte and keeping on the move but I miss watching a float....... To me, lure fishing has almost become a chore. The more I do it, the less I seem to enjoy it.

 

I'm sure the better lure anglers are also very good at good old fashioned watercraft too. If you get an excellent lure angler to flog around an area where there aren't any pike then he probably won't do too well! But I also think they have ability to make things happen which deadbaiters can't.

[Dick Dastardly]

is it just a percentage thing? i.e. if more people lure fish then more fish will be caught.

 

But I also think they have ability to make things happen which deadbaiters can't.

 

 

Yes I think its simply because its the accepted wayb of fishing there.More people do it more of the time so are more skilled at it therefore catch more fish!

 

Deadbaiting is very much like a lot of other methods it can be done well or badly!Too many people just settle down in a comfortable spot,chuck out x amount of rods,put them on a pod then wind in at the end of the day! not deadbaiting as I know it! well not to catch fish effectively anyway.

 

Mind you that said poor lure anglers just cast out and retrieve with very little thought as well! Best bit of lure fishing advice I was ever given was to imagine that there was always a pike following your lure and try to encouage it to take.