IN Lately This doesn't happen every year. The ice rises, then melts almost immediately, and this repeats several times. If the ice stops at the end of November, I traditionally start fishing on the Istra Reservoir, or rather, in its upper reaches, in the part of the reservoir from the Yakimansky and above. There are many promising places: shallow irrigation, reed thickets near the shore, flooded islands, pronounced holes in the riverbed and bends in the riverbed. Regardless of the water discharge mode, you can always find a good place with little or no current. It’s also good that the “cool” places are located close to each other, so it’s not difficult to move in one direction or another.

The presence of a current on the riverbed forces one to be careful, since the ice at different points varies greatly in thickness and strength. Depending on the width of the area chosen for inspection, on its flow and its activity is centered and higher. However, in my experience, until you find a place with active fish, until you select your gear and fishing technique, until you understand how roach reacts to bait, it’s “lunch” time. As a result, the main fishing begins at three o’clock, or even later.

According to my observations, many fishermen “give up” by this time, that is, they switch to a wait-and-see fishing tactic: they wander between several holes, and sometimes even freeze over one of them. A certain pattern works here, following which you need to feed several holes at different promising depths and wait for a bite. This fishing scheme is good, and I use it when I fish in a reservoir where there are few suitable places for roach to stay. Therefore, in order not to drill holes every 2 m and not to “expose” the place, you have to resort to wait-and-see tactics.

But on the Istra Reservoir there are more than enough good places, there are a lot of roaches themselves, which behave very actively. They constantly move not only along the riverbed, the edge, the border of vegetation, but also along the horizons. To find active fish, you have to take into account all factors and not sit too long. You need to look for fish, especially large ones. Practice shows that in order to catch large (by the standards of a given reservoir) roach, you also have to experiment every time, but it’s interesting.

Search for roaches

The water area in question is not particularly deep, and there is no point in looking for roach on the edges of the riverbed, in holes and other deepest places. I advise you to try to abandon the usual standards and start your search from the edge of the vegetation to the upper edge of the riverbed. Very good areas of the bottom are those where there is no upper channel edge, that is, the relief is a “trough” with gentle sides. In such areas, roach, perch and bream are dispersed over the area. The fish moves in a limited space and sooner or later reacts to bait.

From my point of view, it is even more interesting to look for fish in lost vegetation, if the water level allows. The fact is that at this time there is a roach near the vegetation, which came from the depths. It is larger than the local “grass”, more active, and besides, a fairly large perch comes along with it, which cuts off the “grass”, driving it into the thick of vegetation, thus simplifying the hunt for larger fish.

Towards evening, the roach, as a rule, rolls down to deeper places, and here the most interesting points are the points at the very edge of the break in the deep edge. Such places are typical, for example, of the Pyalovsky or Khimki reservoirs, but they also exist in the Istra reservoir.

It is difficult to find a specific point on the edge of a sharp drop into depth, but it is possible precisely in the first ice, when the ice is thin and the fish are active.

Regardless of whether I use bait or not, I periodically check all water horizons. At a depth of up to 3 m, roach almost always moves vertically, and it is possible that it will rise almost to the ice, especially if the hole is baited from above.

Feeding

If the depth is less than 2 m, I always throw a small amount of bloodworms into the hole from above. That is, I feed them in the same way as perch, in small places. Roach reacts to falling bloodworms even faster than perch.

If the depth is 3-5 m and the fishing place is chosen on an irrigation site with a weak current, then it is better to feed using a small feeder. To keep the bloodworms on the surface of the bottom and prevent them from going into the mud, I either pre-freeze the larvae and open the feeder approximately 1 m above the bottom, or mix small bloodworms with some basic winter bait, which serves as ballast and at the same time prevents the bloodworms from quickly leaving the feeding point. I lower the balls of this mixture to the bottom using a feeder. When it is necessary to feed the hole, I also do this using a feeder. The total amount of basic bait does not exceed 0.5 kg for the entire day of fishing, that is, for 20-30 holes.

In a shallow place near vegetation, roach moves quickly and reacts little to bait. More precisely, it reacts to bait, but does not always stay on it. When, due to changes in weather and time of day, the fish leaves the coastal zone, then the classic “deep” bite with bait begins.

Tackle for roach on the first ice

At such times, I never use the Istra Reservoir. When searching for active fish at a fast pace, it makes sense to choose baits that attract the attention of the fish not by their edible qualities, but by vibrations in the water. They are like this. What is important is not the taste, but the vibrations of the bait, which attract fish and provoke them to bite.

When fishing on the first ice, it is worth having a set with you, which includes jigs, “nymphs” and “devils”. Such a set, at least in a minimal assortment, is absolutely necessary; it could be two or three reelless jigs, a pair of “nymphs” and two or three “devils”. Often .

Don’t forget that the tastes of roach change from year to year and it may happen that the best bait of last year will not work. The size, or more precisely, the mass of the jig is determined solely by the depth and diameter of the fishing line. The nod is important for creating the desired game of a nozzle jig. The roach bite on a reelless jig is very fast, short and “soft”. Knowledgeable fishermen accurately call the roach bite “thievish”. Therefore, the nod should be very sensitive (but not soft), since a bite in most cases is manifested only by a wince or suspension of oscillations of the tip of the nod, and if you do not hook at this moment, the fish will come off the hook. Although it should be noted that during a very good bite, the bite can be noticed by a clear bend or rise of the nod.

If all the techniques and replacement of baits do not bring results, I advise you to take a tungsten “droplet” with a hook No. 16-20 from the box and attach one bloodworm, maggot or burdock moth larva to the hook. Perhaps, when the fish activity is low, this option will be the best, and it will be possible to seduce the cautious roach already attracted by the no-bait bait. A similar technique is also good in the case when it is not a roach, but a quite decent-sized perch that tries the jig under the hole. If the bite is sluggish due to weather or changes in water level, which happens quite often, I switch to fishing according to the “perch” pattern. This is a fishing line with a diameter of 0.08 mm, on it is a 2 mm jig made of tungsten alloy with a thin, and eye-catching, very sharp hook. Unlike perch jigs, roach jigs have several larger size hook and long fore-end. This choice is based solely on my personal experience. By the way, I recommend exactly the same jigs for catching bleak, especially small ones.

There are years when the water level is still high, and the concentration of roach in the vegetation is maximum. In such cases, the roach refuses baitless baits almost from the first days of freeze-up. Despite this, I still almost always try different fishing options as the tastes of the fish change.

Search tactics

The fisherman drills a hole and immediately tries to fish in it. A dozen wires are enough to make sure there is a fish under you. The next hole is drilled in accordance with the expected bottom topography. When a fish site is discovered, it is important not to stay too long in one hole. I try to explore the area around the “lucky” hole as quickly as possible to find the place of maximum concentration of fish.

When such a place is found, I spend about half an hour selecting the optimal wiring and methodically fishing, changing not only the game, but also the bait. I advise you not to forget that a school of roach is constantly moving, approaching the hole and moving away from it. You can easily identify the frequency of the flock's approach and move along several holes. But only if there are bites in the hole every time you approach. As soon as the bites stop, you need to change the place and look for fish at a different depth.

When the water level is high and the depth allows, I definitely try to fish in the reed thickets standing in the water. At the same time, I drill holes directly through the plants.

Fishing technique

If you decide to fish with bloodworms, then, unlike fishing for perch, in which the jig with the bloodworm is quickly lowered to the bottom and then raised while playing, when fishing for roach you should use “falling” wires. They are very easy to make using relatively light jigs made of lead or even pure tin. If there is no bite when lowering the bait, you need to slowly and with a large amplitude raise the bait to the ice and repeat the fall three or four times. When the level at which bites occur is determined, it makes sense during subsequent trips to slowly lower the bait to this level, stop it and wait for a bite. Smoothly swaying the bait as it falls often helps to attract the attention of roaches.

If the bites start, you need to throw several bloodworm larvae into the hole, leave the hole alone and continue searching for other “working” holes.

This is necessary in order to prepare the field for further activity. When fishing in coastal reeds, I prefer to fish with bait on a hook (bloodworm, maggot, burdock moth larva) also because medium-sized fish, characteristic of this reservoir, are found here. If you want to catch a larger specimen, you need to move away from the coastal vegetation and look for fish on dumps that start from underwater hills or from the border of plants. But fishing here is more effective with reelless baits.

Catching roach on the first ice - gear, fishing techniques and tactics The first ice is such a long-awaited time for anglers! It is expected from the very beginning of autumn; it is with the appearance of the first ice that almost all fish begin to actively bite. But most anglers dedicate their first trip to the ice to fishing for roach and perch. These fish live in almost all reservoirs on Russian territory; fishing for them is interesting, exciting and productive. Having discovered the roach's resting place and fed it correctly, you can return with an enviable catch from the reservoir. But it’s not even a matter of the number of roach caught; many fishermen simply adore its sharp bites, spirited and lively resistance, which gives fishing for roach on the first ice a unique interest. Where can you find roach in a pond on the first ice? First of all, small bays of reservoirs and ponds are covered with ice, so this is where you need to catch roach. In such reservoirs, roach can be found almost anywhere, often the fish are concentrated almost evenly throughout the entire territory of the reservoir. On large bodies of water, during the first ice period, roach most often accumulates in places where the depth is from 2 to 4 - 5 meters. Most often these are irrigated areas or slopes, but they are gentle and not sharp. Roach has an interesting feature: near any changes on the bottom, this fish prefers to be in the middle part of the slope. Large specimens of roach are concentrated near potholes or snags, which provide shelter for these fish from predators. Also, with the appearance of the first ice, roach often stands on the edge of the algae. But, basically, such places are places where perch stay, and roach are located a little further away. In addition, roaches can also be hidden in thickets of bottom vegetation. What is noteworthy is that the roach prefers to be not in the very depths of the bay, where most of the other fish are, but at the exit from it. Relative to the bottom topography, roach is very unpredictable. Basically, this fish prefers shell rock and hard bottom; sometimes it is caught, and in fairly large quantities, in muddy areas. How to find a roach's resting place on the first ice If the reservoir is unfamiliar, then the search for roach should begin by drilling a chain of holes from the shore into the depths, trying to find a promising place. But if there is some information about the bottom topography, then you can drill holes using the “square-cluster” method, placing them in several rows and covering the middle of the underwater slope. Then you need to feed ten holes and start looking for fish without using complementary foods. Large specimens are caught precisely with this type of fishing. Baiting roach on the first ice The role of bait for catching roach can be played by ready-made store-bought mixtures or ordinary crackers, to which a little flavoring can be added. Complementary feeding made from crushed chocolate or vanilla cookies shows good results. The main point is that the bait should consist of very small fractions, since its main purpose is to create more turbidity, which will attract but not satiate the fish. For initial feeding, a single 100-gram feeder per hole will be sufficient. If there is no current in the fishing area, then the feeder should be opened at a height of 1 meter from the bottom. A small part of the bait must be mixed with sludge and lowered into the hole; the particles of the bait will gradually sink downwards. Such insignificant but stable additional feeding will keep a school of roach under the hole. Usually, in catchable areas, roaches begin to peck 15-20 minutes after feeding. The addition of bloodworm bait shows good results. But this is best done during the fishing process, adding it to small quantities straight into the hole. This is also largely true when fishing in later winter; at this time, roaches prefer to feed on bloodworms, not in dry mixtures. A bream can also swim up to feed on bloodworms. For fishing on the first ice, complementary food will be enough without bloodworms. In this case, a flavor that is tempting to roaches is needed. It is important to use attractants in minimal quantities, since their effect in cold water conditions is often unpredictable - you can either attract fish or scare them away. Gear for fishing for roach on the first ice Regarding the gear for fishing for roach on the first ice, we can say the following: the most suitable options are a jig with a nozzle, a float rod and a reelless one. A float fishing rod is a simple, convenient fishing rod for winter fishing, with a fishing line of 0.06 - 0.8 mm, hooks No. 20 - 24, and a float of 0.25 - 0.3 grams. It is better to load the float with two pellets - one tiny weighing 0.04 grams and a larger pellet weighing. The distance from a small weight to the hook can be from 3 to 10 cm, it depends on the biting activity, and between the small and large weights - about 30 cm. And the tackle that is most often used for catching roach on newly formed ice is a fishing rod - a balalaika with a nod, which is equipped with a jig with an attachment. You can set the nod to whatever you like; some people prefer a metal nod, while others prefer a lavsan nod, which allows you to play the jig more smoothly. We choose fishing line 0.06 - 0.12 mm. By the way, during the period of first ice, the roach actively feeds, so there is no need for particularly delicate tackle, and with a thick fishing line it is easier to fish, so it is best to opt for a fishing line of 0.08-0.1 mm. The jig can also be of any shape, but small in size. It is quite convenient to use small tungsten pellets with a diameter of 2.5 - 3 mm. diameter You can say this about the color of the jig - you can’t guess here, sometimes roach reacts better to light-colored jigs, sometimes to dark-colored ones, and other times to golden ones. The bait can be maggots or bloodworms, which are slowly lowered to the bottom in the place where complementary feeding was carried out before, and of which there is plenty here at the moment. The basic rule for fishing on the first ice is maximum silence. A large roach will quickly swim away from shallow water if a fisherman starts drilling holes nearby one after another, and no bait will keep the fish here. The place will be illuminated. Each new hole above depths of up to 3 meters must be sprinkled with snow and a twig made a hole for fishing with a jig. Remember that an active search for roach sites and a competent choice of gear is one of the most important components of successful fishing for roach on the first ice. More details at

At the end of November - beginning of December in central Russia, as a rule, the first relatively strong ice sets in, and you can go fishing with winter gear.

During this period, the first ten to fifteen days after small flowing reservoirs freeze, you can get that very desired bite of winter roach.

At this time, perch, white bream, silver bream, ruffe, and pike also bite well, but for many fishermen the most desired trophy is roach, especially large ones. This fish is quite capricious and cautious. Anyone who catches it consistently, regardless of weather changes, can be considered a master of his craft.

As for large reservoirs, in them the main part of large roach, huddled in numerous flocks, migrates through the reservoir in search of food and future sites, often choosing places near zebra mussel plantations.

Roach on the first ice, especially large ones, can still enter bays with a depth of 2 to 3 m, but as the ice grows, they increasingly stick to deeper and more open places where the oxygen regime is better. Heat-loving roach prefers depth primarily because there is a maximum positive temperature.

In reservoirs, large roaches should be looked for in the bends of flooded rivers and streams - there they remain for a long time in areas with slow flows, especially if there are uneven spots or rocky ridges at the bottom, in which food washed away by the current can be retained.

Sometimes good places can be found where a tributary channel adjoins the main underwater channel . In rivers with first ice, large roach are sometimes found near summer habitats, but after two to three weeks, if the weather is stable and frosty, they should be looked for where the water is better enriched with oxygen, that is, below water barriers, dams, drains, depths immediately following the rapids. In addition, in rivers, large roach often stay near the banks washed away by the current, usually on or near the edge at depths of 3.5 to 5 m.

On regulated rivers, canals and reservoirs, where the filling level of the reservoir is not constant, the roach's positions can change: when the water is high, the roach often stands in front of the channel irrigation, but when the level decreases, it can roll into the riverbed or channel pits.

Often roach on a fairly monotonous vast area of ​​the bottom chooses some feature. It can be a luda, a funnel or a tubercle, a separate snag. In any case, preference should be given to those places that stand out in some way.

For example, on the Fidyakinsky pond, which is located not far from the Rastorguevo station, you can almost always find a large roach where some kind of snag lies at the edge of a flooded river bed, and, say, on the Golubinskaya dam, roach is well caught near individual bushes, which also The flooded riverbed is approaching close. It should be taken into account that this fish avoids stagnant, heavily silted places. She feels more comfortable in areas with a sandy and rocky bottom. At depths near steep shores, the choice of location can be guided by rock outcrops.

Having discovered a place where roach are concentrated, you should mark it, for example, with small twigs, set the depth and, if necessary, feed the place.

Catching large roach on the first ice

It has been noticed that large roach does not like places that are too lit, so in rivers it often stays under shaded steep banks, fallen trees and branches of submerged bushes.

When the ice is still transparent and the fish sees everything that happens on its surface, even small roach are frightened by uninvited guests, leaving their usual place. In this case, it is necessary to mask the ice or select areas with a matte surface. But even then, when quite a lot of snow has already fallen, from which it becomes dark under water, the drilled hole must be shaded, that is, covered with snow and a small hole made in it so that the jig can be freely lowered into the water.

Large roach does not like noise and conversations on the ice, and where there are many fishermen, it seems to wait for them to leave. I remember that on Zusha in the Mtsensk region we sat all day in a crowd of fishermen, periodically catching roach, and only in the evening, when the ice was empty, did we finally wait for a bite from a heavier roach. The same thing happened more than once on the Sebla, Sutka, Sukhovetka - rivers flowing into the Rybinsk Reservoir. However, the evening bite is short-lived. Usually, with the onset of darkness, it subsides or may occasionally resume in the feeding holes intended for night fishing bream.

How to deal with the weather when fishing for roach on the first ice

The roach bite largely depends on the change, which very rarely remains unchanged in winter. Roaches are most active when the pressure does not change for several days or drops very slowly from approximately 742 to 737 mmHg. It has been noticed that on the Tsaritsyn ponds the roach bites best during periods when the barometer shows 738 mm of mercury.

Roaches love cloudy weather. It is advisable that there is no wind during the fishing period, and if it does blow, it should be from a weak western or southwestern wind. Often roaches bite well when small wet snow falls. Sometimes this fish bites well during a rainy thaw. But in severe frosts and sudden changes in atmospheric pressure, the roach becomes inactive and loses its appetite. At such times, getting her to be seduced by bait or bait is not at all easy.

At the beginning of freeze-up, the best results are achieved by those anglers who are actively looking for roach. For this, of course, a fishing rod with a nod and a jig is most suitable. At catching roach on the first ice with a jig It is very important to communicate the required vibration frequency to it, so a long, elastic nod is required.

Nod

The length of the working plate can be 10-12 cm, and it should go to the cone. Good nods are made from polycarbonate, metallized dacron or metal plate, including a clock spring. Clock spring nods are in great demand and are often used for baitless fishing. They bend most accurately during play, which makes the jig move, if necessary, with great frequency with a slight, only 1–1.5 mm, deviation from the horizontal. With a large deflection of the nod, its length is adjusted in accordance with the weight of the jig.

Rod

Another important factor in roach fishing is the comfort of the rod. To play correctly, the pen must fit well in your hand. Correct handles are made of foam or cork. The whip is made of plastic material. It must have a certain elasticity and not break in the cold. The length of the whip usually ranges from 15 to 20 cm.

Roaches are often caught using a stationary jig. In this case, the fishing rod is placed on ice or placed on special easily folding legs. The weight of the fishing rod must be balanced so that it is not blown away by the wind. The choice of the shape of the fishing rod is a matter of taste for the fisherman, however, most sports fishermen use fishing rods of the “balalaika” type. .

Equipment

To catch roach you need the thinnest equipment. We have noticed more than once that roaches simply do not take a fishing rod with a fishing line thicker than 0.12 mm and a rough jig. Experienced fishermen on the Rybinsk Reservoir have to catch roaches weighing up to a kilogram on a fishing line with a diameter of 0.08 mm.

Mormyshka

When selecting a jig, it is most often based on the fishing conditions. In slow-moving water at shallow depths, the smallest baits are used; when fishing at depths of 4 to 5 m, medium jigs are used, and when fishing at greater depths, heavy jigs are used. Hook size 13-18 can be used. While fishing, the hook tip needs to be sharpened periodically. The shape of the jig should resemble some kind of aquatic organism. The choice of bait color largely depends on the light. When fishing at great depths and in cloudy weather, use lighter jigs; When fishing in relatively shallow water and in clear weather, dull jigs are more suitable.

Most often, for catching roach in the winter, they use “” gray or black, “” gray, yellow, red or black, black with white specks or gray “”, “devil” with a gray body, embossed, like a caterpillar. Other models are also used - “barrel”, “flat”, “pellet”, etc.

Very effective catching roach on the first ice on a river called . It allows you to fish large areas of the underwater formation from one hole. You can also try fishing, which can also bring significant results, especially on an unfamiliar body of water.

Playing with a jig when fishing for roach in winter

In any new hole, wiring begins with the gliding movement of the jig. Approximately every 30–50 cm of descent it is held. This is an imitation of naturally falling food. Slowing down allows the fish to notice the bait sooner than when it falls freely to the bottom, and also to find out the level at which the roach is holding. Often bites occur in the water column.

Sometimes only top-down wiring brings results, while the usual game with a jig is unsuccessful. By the way, all bites during gliding fishing are reliable. Sometimes the roach, in a hurry to grab the elusive bait, takes it in its mouth.

If stepwise or gliding fishing does not produce results, you should switch to fishing near the bottom. At first, the movements of the jig are indicated only by slight fidgeting on the ground, then the bait barely noticeably breaks away from it, rises 3–5 cm and again, falling, begins to fidget, raising a cloud of turbidity. Such movements, imitating a swarming larva, are very tempting for roaches.

The next method of fishing is to lift the jig while smoothly and at the same time rhythmically shaking the fishing rod. While lifting, you should stop the jig from time to time. It is at this moment that subtle bites often occur. You can practice different combinations of play while lifting the jig.

If the applied wiring methods do not produce an effect, you need to install the fishing rod so that the jig hangs, barely touching the bottom. Often roaches only bite on a standing jig. However, in order for the fish to notice it faster, you need to periodically, at intervals of 3–5 minutes, play along with the nod, slowly raising the bait with the nozzle above the ground by 30–50 cm. Sometimes it is enough to simply move the jig, touching the nod. When fish bite, you should repeat the catchy game.

Typically, you should not fish each hole for more than five minutes; If during this time there is no bite, you need to move to another place. As we have already said, search is important in roach fishing. It happens that a fisherman changes one hole after another, and there is no result, and having attacked a good place, he drags one roach after another. Remember that you need to give catchy holes a rest. When the bite begins to fade, it is useful to start looking for another flock and return to the treasured hole only after some time. Sometimes half an hour is enough for the bite to resume with renewed vigor on a catchable hole.

If you find an area where there is a roach, but it bites on the jig too capriciously, you can unwind one or two float rods and fish with them, placing a hook with a nozzle near the very bottom.

What to use to catch roach on the first ice

When choosing a nozzle, you must remember that each body of water has its own characteristics; If in the overwhelming majority of cases roaches are caught in winter using bloodworms, then on Siberian lakes they often prefer jigs to jigs. The same is the case where the banks of reservoirs are densely overgrown with thistles and the fish have become accustomed to burdock moth larvae, which often fell into the water. The advantage of this attachment is that it can be safely stored in the refrigerator at sub-zero temperatures for several months. After thawing, the larvae come to life.

At the beginning of freeze-up, large roaches, which need to feed heavily before the long winter, may not be able to resist underleaf worm or dung worm, which need to be harvested in the summer and stored in a box with soil. True, now you can almost always buy a California worm in fishing stores in the capital.

Small maggots can also be a very catchy bait when fishing for roach. But in order for her to peck at the maggot consistently, it needs to be added to the bait. Good results are obtained by fishing in the current, where larvae carried away by the flow of water can attract fish from lower areas.

Some fishermen use it as bait in winter crumb of white bread. It is best to take the crumb of a Turkish loaf and, without kneading it, keep it over the steam of boiling water in which vanillin is mixed. For the bait, take a tiny piece of bread and pin it onto the very point of the hook.

As for bloodworms, you should remember that roaches love moving larvae, so when baiting you need to make sure that the contents of the bloodworm do not leak out. If the bite is bad, one large bloodworm or two or three feed ones are put on the hook. Sometimes very small hooks made of particularly thin wire are used, which allow the bloodworm to be pierced through the middle of the body. With this method of baiting, the tips of the larvae fluff up, which looks attractive to roach, and at the same time, the jig, together with the bait, gets into the fish’s mouth more easily.

Feeding roach in winter

At fishing for roach on the first ice with a jig or use bait only if they want to keep a discovered school of roach in one place. For this, a mixture of Unikorm with bloodworms is most often used. In places with shallow depth and imperceptible current, it is better to simply throw pinches of bait into the hole from above. Where the ruff does not allow you to catch roaches, you need to exclude the addition of bloodworms and pour only the plant mixture into the hole. A good bait for roaches can be made from a mixture of breadcrumbs and ground toasted sunflower seeds. Pre-dry bait is moistened with water.

If fishing is carried out at depth or in the current, be sure to use a winter cone feeder for bait, which is opened at the very bottom. On rivers where the drift of food is quite strong, a special hole should be drilled for the feeder half a meter to a meter above the fishing site. Here, very good results are sometimes obtained by fishing on shell rocks and rocky ridges, where large roaches come out to feed, while the holes are drilled in such a way that the bait lingers in the fishing spot on the uneven bottom.

Biting and hooking roach in winter

There are some regularities in the behavior of roach when fishing on the first ice. When a roach is actively feeding, it bites energetically and can confidently bend or raise its nod - here, as they say, don’t yawn with the hook. But in unfavorable weather, a bite is sometimes indicated by a subtle movement of the nod. Moreover, this is often enough for hooking. Here it is important to learn through trial and error to feel when the hook has entered the fish’s mouth. It has been noticed that when the thickness of the fishing line is reduced to 0.06-0.08 mm and the smallest jig is used, the roach bites much better.

Counting on large roach, hooking is done carefully. With a sharp jerk you can simply tear off the jig. If the roach bites uncertainly, sometimes it is useful to move the jig down a little, as if yielding to the fish, and only then hook it. It turns out as if you are putting a jig into a roach’s mouth.

When fishing for a large roach, you need to absorb its jerks with your hands. Only after the fish gets tired should you smoothly, with precautions, bring it to the surface of the water and pick it up in the hole. When fishing in snags, it is important at the first stage of fishing not to let the fish go into cover and not to tangle the line.

Catching roach on the first ice video

Catching roach on the first ice with a #winter #rod, on this day the #roach #pecked well, which can’t be said about #flags, the pike didn’t want to take it on the #girders.

Winter roach fishing with a jig video

Winter fishing for roach with a jig can involve a very active bite, which very quickly becomes uninteresting. By the way, the roach bite can end as unexpectedly as it began.

Catching roach on the first ice video

Roach, like perch itself, is a fish of the first ice. Its bite begins when the first desperate fishermen appear on thin ice. Its behavior may be different depending on the conditions in the reservoir. As a result, depending on the situation, you need to choose the optimal fishing technique and tactics for each individual case.

Fishermen open the winter season on reservoirs that they have tested and are well known. Where the roach stays in specific places from year to year. The most common mistake is when they start looking for it in places where the fish will spend the winter in the middle of nowhere. Namely, in holes, on the edges of the riverbed and other deep places. According to the first ice, it is worth looking for at a depth of no more than three meters in coastal underwater vegetation. It happens that “local” fish get into the very thick of this vegetation.

During this period, the roach leads a fairly active lifestyle, moving around a certain halo of the reservoir. However, from time to time it still lingers in some areas. The success of fishing is achieved by the number of holes. Moreover, it makes no sense to spend more than five minutes on one hole. The above-mentioned vegetation is very beneficial for fishermen on thin transparent ice, when there is no snow yet.

Due to the fact that the roach is constantly moving, it reacts poorly to baits that attract fish with edible properties, including bloodworms, maggots or dough. Here it is worth choosing baits that focus on vibrations in the water - baitless ones. Stock up on jigs such as “nymph” or “devil”. “Sports” jigs won’t hurt either. After all, it is possible that a roach will desire bloodworms or burdocks.

The weight of the selected jig is selected depending on the depth of the reservoir and the diameter of the fishing line.

The most common jig shapes for fishing on the first ice are the “Ural” and “ant”. Special attention You will need to pay attention to the choice of nod. Since fish bites will be quick, short and soft, you need to choose a nod that is sensitive enough. If bites are not observed at the fishing place you have chosen, then it would be good to replace the jig with a “nymph”. If this doesn’t help, then we try the “devil”, starting with the smallest one. Choose the color black, purple or dark green. We choose a hook without beads and cambrics. The game is performed by slowly raising the bait, simultaneously with small and frequent vibrations. When a bite appears, you need to perform a quick, but not sweeping hook. If this technique turns out to be unsuccessful, we repeat the maneuver, but we do the hook with a delay of a couple of seconds. Try to make all subsequent postings different from the previous ones. A good effect can be achieved by periodically placing the “devil” on the bottom for five to ten seconds, followed by a slow rise. At the same time, there is no need to move it.

It happens that the next day roach is caught from the same holes as on the previous day only with bloodworms, and without bait. So you also need to be prepared for this.

Try the “falling” wiring tactic. With its help, you can also achieve success when catching roach on the first ice. Here, light lead jigs with bloodworms or burdock will help you.