Catching chub from a boat in a drift

In my distant childhood, I used to visit my grandmother in the village quite often. It was there that I first became acquainted with this strong and beautiful fish. The tackle, of course, was not tricky at all – a hazel with a fishing line tied to it and a float made of a goose feather, but nevertheless the redfish were caught on a grasshopper collected under my feet quite well.

The second time I met with red-pepper beauties was during the period of mastering spinning, when he mixed with the stud and mayflies were caught on the Sozhsky perekat when fishing for small rotating blades. But, as you know, the appetite comes while eating, and after a short time I wanted to hunt for him more purposefully, because the bite of the chub to forget, probably impossible, and certainly not confused with anyone.

Gradually it turned out that the “home” rivers in my area are not very abundant in natural rolls, and the existing ones are quite pressed, so you have to wind many kilometers by car in search of the slightest anomalies near the remnants of old bridges or get into a boat. Naturally, in the second case there are practically limitless possibilities, as there are plenty of steeps washed out by the stream with piles of driftwood on the Dnieper, and the approaches to such places are also protected by impenetrable shrubbery. And as you have probably guessed, this story will be devoted to catching chub on artificial baits and using a boat.

Índice

Places of catching

If some completely unfamiliar and new area is planned for rafting, then everything starts quite standard, namely with the study of satellite images to select a section of the most abundant bends and washed-out banks, where the spring flood and brings various toplake. In addition to this type, not less interesting are the areas near islands or small channels where the river has only recently started to make a new channel. The current in such places, as a rule, heterogeneous and abounds with small backwaters, in which chub quite often likes to rest and wait for prey that fell from above or brought by the stream.

Of course, do not neglect and small coastal streams behind some cape, if they meet on the way or some lonely snags on the stream, because quite often in the absence of chub in the “classic” places it is such anomalies can bring the whole result and give a lot of emotions.

Cebos

As for the choice of certain baits during the rafting, this topic is so extensive that you can even devote several articles to it. Therefore, I will try to briefly highlight only the main points and criteria for selecting a wobbler depending on specific conditions.

The most basic point – it is the horizon of wiring, because if we banal will not reach the fish, then we will not matter neither the color, nor the frequency of the bait, nor its size. Of course, there are days when he does not care, but there were also cases when even a small difference in the depth was decisive. This is especially true of surface crankbaits, when, for example, in the morning he reacts to baits that go literally under the surface of the water, leaving a characteristic “whiskers”, and at lunch he likes the bait to go a little deeper – in centimeters twenty from the surface.

The same “caprices” in the golavl can be and in relation to the frequency of oscillations of the bait. And preferences can vary not that depending on the time of day, and just from his mood even in neighboring areas of the river. And at one bend of the bobastomu give bait almost without its own game, and downstream on the next bend the result brings already baits, decently loaded spinning his game.

As for the color of bait for chub, I am a supporter of the version that during rafting this moment is not as important as when fishing from the shore, so I am guided by the general rules of selection depending on the lighting and water clarity, and just my personal preferences.

If I generalize everything, then in general the scheme looks like this – the higher the activity of chub, the more often I use subsurface baits with active game and vice versa, the lower it is, the deeper I have to conduct the wobbler with the lowest possible speed.

A few “favorites” for example:

Snasti

When choosing a spinning rod for rafting, I am guided by the same principles as when fishing from the shore. Basically it is the same “stream” lights with a test up to 10-14 grams on the upper boundary, because in most cases this type has a certain power reserve in the stem and if necessary allows you to reasonably force the fishing, if you bite a really trophy specimen or catching goes in a crowbar.

For example:

On the test I proceed from the proposed baits, but here with the cord used is not very shallow and apply mostly size #0.8 if we proceed from the Japanese classification system. The reason for this is one – very often the need not to let the chub “go into a squirm”, well, and in addition, additional resistance to abrasion is also not superfluous. For the same reasons I am not shallow and with the size of reels, choosing the size of 2500-c3000 on SHIMANO or 2506-2508 on the old dimensions from DAIWA.

To put or not to put a leash – it depends more on your preferences, as it does not significantly affect the catch. I have recently used a shock leader from fluorocarbon, mainly as an additional protection of the main cord from abrasion, and to avoid overlaps of bait during throws.

Tactics and fishing

Here everything seems to be quite simple and at the same time there are some points that are associated with the fact that the fisherman himself is not static and is constantly moving with the boat in relation to the place of fish parking. For example, with the same wiring “upstream” everything remains exactly the same as when fishing from the shore, only slightly increases the speed of selection of the cord, but with the wiring “on the drift” or “loop” everything is completely different. Due to the fact that the boat moves faster than the bait, full-fledged versions of such wiring is not obtained and their elements are present only at the very beginning of the movement of the bait. Therefore, most often wiring is carried out almost perpendicular to the current and changes only the speed of picking up the cord and, accordingly, the speed of the bait. When you go bait on the main stream or near any particularly “appetizing” snags can be useful to make and a small pause or even hold the wobbler, so that he hung and played solely due to the force of the current. This technique quite often works at times when we saw that the fish went out for the bait, but did not attack it, and in the case of such a failure, our bait looks literally like a malek, which is completely exhausted and from the last strength to hold on to the current.

Also quite important when fishing from a boat is the accuracy of throwing. Since under the precipitous banks is often enough chub stands at the water’s edge and if not to dokin, the bait is not in his field of vision or he can banal for it can not go. But with an accurate hit not infrequently nibbles “on the spit”, when the chub reacts not even to the game of the wobbler, but just on its fall into the water.

So, as in catching any fish do not be afraid to experiment with baits and their wiring. After all, the result can bring any seemingly insignificant change, and the fish will begin to attack your baits with consistency, despite the fact that a minute ago it seemed to be here and was not.

And fishing from a boat is exactly the case when you do not have to get bored because of the constantly changing conditions. All the time you have to experiment, something to change, something to pick up. Since even if you let the boat on the same route, again the conditions of wiring at least a little, but will change, and again you have to start all over again and that’s why I love rafting.

Autor: Bob Nudd es un experto pescador con más de 20 años de experiencia y ganador de numerosos concursos.