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Another winter spinning season is nearing its end. The “winter spinning” itself has long become quite a common type of fishing in different regions, where this type of fishing, as it turned out, is quite possible due to weather phenomena and climate. So, at the end of the season 2022-23 I would like to share some of my observations and experiences in this area.

Jig is indeed one of the most effective in winter spinning

Historical Background

Initially, after the first publications on this subject, the emphasis in winter spinning fishing was mainly on fishing with the use of various jigs. And it was quite logical and correct – jig is really one of the most effective and basic methods in winter spinning. However, long before the emergence of the term “winter spinning”, we sometimes in the 80-ies of the last century weather days of winter thaws lavlivali spinning different predatory fish, successfully using tackle with dead fish, mostly from the number of roach. And just in those olden days we occasionally managed to get something scarce from imported baits, which was incredibly rare, each such thing was not just an ordinary consumable, as it is today, and was taken care of, and in case of snagging was taken back even in the heat, even in the cold by any available means, including diving.

Today it seems wild, but that’s the way it was. So, it was then that I had my first wobbler, and in our fishing literature this type of bait was then called more often “artificial fish”. It was a model Hi-Lo from the Swedish company ABU (then not even ABU Garcia), the wobbler was characterized by a blade with a variable angle of inclination of six positions, which at that time was revolutionary, but we knew nothing about the outside world, so how cool was my wobbler at that time, I did not even guess. But I got the opportunity, thanks to the versatility of its blade, to get a general idea of the work of wobblers of different types, with different depth and play, fishing water bodies in any horizon, from subsurface wiring to a depth of about two meters.

To animate wobblers with the help of jerks then did not even come to mind

So, in winter thaws I suddenly suddenly began to catch my buddies-competitors, no matter how fresh and appetizing tackle of dead fish they did not catch. And this experience in the future I was very useful, including summer and winter spinning. But in those days I used, what is called, the basic wobbler wiring, and later other wobblers, which began to make by hand on the motives of existing and pictures with imported baits. That is, it was a uniform wiring of varying degrees of intensity, catchability of baits depended on the correct game laid in them. Animating wobblers with jerks did not even occur to me and my friends at that time, and it was absolutely normal and correct in those days. But time did not stand still, and with the arrival of modern abundance and new information, we gradually joined the jerk wiring, and the word “twitching” has become as common as the word wobbler in our fishing habitat. Although at first there were still some time retrograde-minded individuals who tried to criticize the advanced athletes and experts in their promotion of jerk bait animation to the masses.

But common sense triumphed, everything fell into place, so that today we catch wobblers with the use of any wires for which they were created by their designers. And I just want to say that in winter, jerk animation wobblers can bring success in fishing, sometimes outplaying more familiar to us winter jig. And in this case, often the size of the catch caught on wobblers, surpasses everything else.

In winter, jerk animation can bring success in fishing, sometimes outplaying the jig

Stamps vs. experimentation

I often come across spinning anglers that have picked up some scrappy stamps on the Internet, stubbornly fishing exclusively on twisters and wobbletails mixed with foamers, short slags and long worms. The answer to the question “Why is it so?” is usually the same learned mantra – the fish is sluggish, sleepy, inactive in winter, so there is nothing else to shake it up. I am not exactly sure, but it seems that most of these clichés grow on the banks of one famous river in the country, where a huge number of those who write about fishing catch fish. This is me talking about the Moscow River now. But to project the experience of catching on one reservoir on all other weakly freezing rivers of the country is not correct, it should be considered only as a basic, given that among the Moscow fishing fraternity a lot of honorable spinning with a wealth of experience, one Konstantin Evgenievich what is worth! But on their home reservoirs is always worth experimenting, then perhaps you will be able to surprise yourself with interesting discoveries.

On their home reservoirs is always worth experimenting

Twitching for a trophy

The author of these lines had a lot and often catch in winter on very different reservoirs, so I will allow myself to have my own opinion on any questions that relate to winter spinning fishing, which I, frankly speaking, loved even more than all the other spinning seasons. I like that in winter I can pass where in summer it is impossible even to approach the banks, besides in winter you can successfully catch where in summer everything is covered with an impenetrable carpet of grass, and also in winter it is not stuffy and never bothers pesky midges.

As for the jerk wobbler wiring in winter spinning, it is the twitching of these baits brought me the largest number of trophy fish than all other types of baits with their wiring combined.

It is the twitching that has brought me the most trophy fish

Certain nuances in the winter twitching wobblers, of course, are present, but there is nothing special and some magic in their wiring. Just carefully pay attention to the pauses in the wiring, choosing the most optimal in duration. In winter really work longer, but their length is set each time by experience. And the second – the size matters, but the size of the bait in winter can mean more than in summer, and it does not always work in favor of its increase, sometimes in winter the opposite principle works and the reduction of the size of the wobbler can “shoot” more accurately and effectively than enlargement.

Who knows how, but in my winter spinning “grounds”, the main object of winter tweeching and winter spinning in general – pike. Although sometimes there are other predators, but optional, pike remains a favorite of my winter spinning fishing, so sometimes I in the summer season completely switched to catching other fish, from the heart caught pike for the long winter months. And just winter twitching is more interesting to me than anything else, because it is a constant fascinating experiment, much more interesting than summer and fall. After all, in the summer, having picked up a successful “key” to the fish, we can catch the whole day practically without removing one wobbler from the leash and using one pace and depth of wiring, successfully pooping out the predator in the radius of the throw, moving along the reservoir or along it. In winter, such a miracle does not happen very often, sometimes at each point have to pick up different “keys” to not very cooperative catfish, and the pike that stands behind a snag on the left, may prefer a completely different bait and wiring than the other that slumbers behind a snag on the right. I don’t know how someone, but I personally like this kind of non-boring fishing.

Sometimes at each point you have to pick up different “keys”

Scelta di wobbler

And now a little about the lures themselves. I don’t have any idols in the field of wobbler-building, I am absolutely impartial in evaluating the most different baits, be it pedigree Japanese or European wobblers, or fifty shades of the same Japanese “Ridge” or “Wanten”, made in China under the most different signs. Among all this motley variety is full of different degrees of catching baits, which we buy, as they call it, for money, and if the wobbler caught catching in our places and in our hands, we do not care about its pedigree, the main thing that its catching ability meets our expectations and requests. And everyone can find five or ten differences between the remake and the original, if desired, to realize that they are in fact quite different lures, albeit similar to each other from afar.

Among all this motley variety is full of different degrees of catching baits

Winter sometimes, in addition to direct tweeching Minnow and Shad class wobblers, it is very good to have a couple of compound-swimbaits. Just in winter spinning this type of wobblers, in my humble opinion, shows its best results. Uncomplicated monotonous wiring swimbaits light jerks, alternating with pauses, often makes the fishing of the day. It is these baits remind me most of the very tackle with dead fish, which I caught many years ago in my youth, but much more catching due to their game and tapping their dismembered parts of each other. These wobblers, unlike others, are contraindicated sharp jerks, as they cause them frequent overlaps of leads for tees, due to the work of articulated body, and the more articulations, the higher the probability of overlaps.

Often sinking wobblers win in this competition

As for the choice of wobblers on the degree of their buoyancy, then, perhaps, suspenders with their neutrality in this part have some advantage in its effectiveness in winter. But it is not so great to have all their wobblers for winter spinning only in this variant. Often sinking wobblers win in this competition, but sometimes “shoot” and floating, especially in areas with preserved grassy vegetation and shallow water.

Wide skis with snowshoes to help

The choice of rods for winter twitching has the same requirements as other varieties of winter spinning – the rings are not the smallest, so that they do not freeze quickly, and the test with a reserve of “dury” in the stem, that is, a little higher (10-12-15 grams) than in the same conditions in the summer, to be able to drag a weighty fish on the ice edge, to the edge of which it is dangerous to approach. Well and wide skis with snowshoes to help, they will help not only in moving through the snow, but also add safety, not letting fall through the ice in suspicious places.

Autore: Bob Nudd è un esperto pescatore con oltre 20 anni di esperienza e vincitore di numerose competizioni.