Spinner-Flies

[Peter Waller]

Please don't suggest 'no wire traces' Newt. Its taken years of hardwork by such as our Pike Anglers Club to educate people into the need for wire traces over here. With the modern, supple wires available today a ten pound trace is no problem whatsoever, even use them when fly fishing.

[Newt]

I bow to your superior knowledge here Peter.

 

My thought was that a single, fine wire hook with a micro barb would be easy for a pike to either shed or ignore but you have a vaild point - safety first.

 

Still, the link pointed to jigs in the 1/32 (1 gm approx) to 1/16 or 1/8 oz range and even a very supple multi-strand wire in a light b/s might cause issues. I really dunno and will leave the serious opinions to those of you in the area.

[Peter Waller]

I use these small jigs and lures Newt, with traces and seemingly with no probs. I do know that there are UK folk who reckon our perch are put off by wire traces. If that is so, and I've yet to be convinced, I reckon its more likely to be the accompanying ironmongery, the swivels and links rather than the wire that spooks the perch. Our carp anglers use small wire rings when making up their rigs, I find these invaluable. Or, of course, tie the wire direct to both lure and line. Personally I prefer the ring as the union, seems to me to be a neater join. ALso, if you use loops, a very flexible join.

 

Yes, I'm sure that a pike will probably throw a small barbless hook, but there are some areas of gristle and bone where they don't come out so easily! That aside, I'm tight, I don't like loosing a lure, or a fish for that matter.

[Steve Burke]

I'm with Newt on this one. For lures with multiple hooks, or a double or treble hook, then I always, but always, use wire if pike are present. However, for lures with one single hook I'm happy to dispense with wire.

 

Firstly, I find that pike very quickly get rid of a single hook. Indeed, I've often hooked and lost pike on single hooks and then successfully landed them later in the day - minus the hook! How do I know it's the same pike? Well in several cases I hooked a pike that had a pronounced growth under its chin. It was a real mug fish and never seemed to learn!

 

Secondly, on these lightweight lures a wire trace does adversely affect the catch rate. This was nicely demonstrated at Wingham. Leon and I were teaching a youngster to fish jigs. After a while the perch started refusing the jig with a wire trace. As soon as the wire was removed the perch started hitting the jig again.

 

Peter, I don't go along with the ironmongery idea, I'm afraid. When after perch the only thing on the end of my line when fishing a jig is a minute clip, the kind that fly fisherman use.

 

To those who believe you should always use a wire trace when you might catch a pike, I'd ask whether you use one when using worm as bait? I bet you don't! Lobworms in particular are a brilliant pike bait. Indeed, if I were to fish a pike match where quantity was more important than quality lobs fished sink and draw would be my first choice of bait!

[argyll]

Thank you Steve, that saved everyone a lengthy speech from me. I've lost one or two 1/8oz barbless jigs with 2/3 inch soft tails in the last year, having been bitten off by jacks. I've also lost two jacks in the last year when two maggots on a size 18 were bitten off. I've no doubt in my mind that none of those incidents caused any lasting harm to the unlucky recipient. On one occasion a 5/6lb jack launched itself out of the water and spat the bitten off jig back in my face. Take piking or perching correctness to the nth degree and we might all just as well stay at home. Big perch emphatically prefer mono traces, at least on my bit of river they do.

If you freelined or ledgered a lobworm for perch or chub would you use a wire trace? of course you wouldnt, so why use one on a fake lobworm?

 

[ 31. May 2005, 12:33 PM: Message edited by: argyll ]

[Steve Burke]

argyll:

If you freelined or ledgered a lobworm for perch or chub would you use a wire trace? of course you wouldnt, so why use one on a fake lobworm?

Beautifully put! May I use that for my book please, Gerry? With a credit of course.

[argyll]

Feel free. You can even have the credit.

At least one decent Wingham perch might be the price though

 

[ 31. May 2005, 01:03 PM: Message edited by: argyll ]

[ooarr_not_a_maggot]

Lots of helpful info here guys. It's much appreciated .

 

quote:

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What is it that your trying to catch and what's your prefered method ?

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I'm after the brown trout and rainbows in my local river, as well as ocasionally going for the jack pike that hang around the mouth. I'd normally get out the fly rod for this kind of fishing but a lot the bankside is so overgrown with trees and rhododendrons, a back cast almost impossible. So i've moved onto using a nice short UL spinning outfit, which gets me into all the tight spots i can't get into with the fly rod.

 

I might give the jigs a go. If they can catch 8lb steelhead, i'm pretty sure they'll catch the rainbows...which i've had up to 5lbs. I'm still looking for the spinner flies, though. They were always very effective for pike on the fly rod, so they should be great on the spinning gear when that extra bit of finesse is needed.

 

As for the whole wire trace debate.....I'm now a user . In 10years of fishing this particular river i'd not once caught pike. But last season while salmon fishing, old esox took a black and orange devon. Guess that's why it's called the poor mans salmon . Fortunately it was only just lip hooked and didn't manage to get to the mono.

[Peter Waller]

Steve, no I don't use wire for lob worms, but I do for big plastic worms which I jig for pike!! Maybe it is stupid, but I know I am after pike then.

 

The use of wire for perch, I have to bow to your far greater experience on this one, and Newt's too.

 

My theory is simply that mono is a tad rigid, and soft wire is pretty supple now. I know that you suggest that perch don't like wire traces, but why not? I don't doubt you, but I would like to know!

 

I've always felt that the only downside to traces was all the visible ironmongery. I use a permanant loop to attach the trace to the lure with and an oval rig ring to tie the line to. This way I maintain minimum clutter and maximum movement between lure and trace. Maybe its fanciful thinking but, in theory atleast, it works!

[SteveP]

Hello Steve,

 

What is the best way to fish these small jigs for Perch? My reason for asking is that all the literature I've ever seen says sink and draw - but I've never had any luck like that with spinners for Perch. I've always found that a steady retrieve without pauses (even when you can feel them plucking at the lure) gets the best results.

Is it the same for the tiny jigs - and would Newts "bobber" method work on our waters?

 

Thanks

Steve