Pike fishing in December - tips from experts and the best fishing methods

Fishing forecast

December — this is the height of winter pike fishing. Winter spinners, balancers, and spinners are on the move. Spinnings are already lying in garages, storerooms or closets and are waiting for the season of open water, when their owner will take them in his hands again and send them to work again with an uncertain wave, forgotten during the winter. Of course, there are reservoirs that do not freeze all winter and spinning works on them all year round, but we will not take them into account, since the topic of our today's article — pike fishing in December from the ice.

December promises us something else — drilling holes, searching for pike winter parking spots, choosing the right game for active baits, or all the attention for the flags of zherlyts. Everything that can be related to pike fishing in December, all the most important questions will be discussed in this article and the All-Ukrainian fishing resource fishub.info will try to answer them as clearly and clearly as possible. I would immediately like to warn fishermen! Winter — the most dangerous period for fishing. Do not go out on the ice until it is a safe ten centimeters thick. Fishing — it's just entertainment in life, even if it's a favorite. Therefore, first of all, think about saving your precious life and do not take risks for the sake of fishing on thin ice. Then many exciting fishermen await you.

Where to look for pike in December

To begin with, it is advisable to talk about the search for pike. Not long ago, in November, you could catch pike on spinning, but now it's time to switch to winter tackle. But something common between these fishermen remained. For example, a small pike weighing up to 3 kilograms, just like in November, continues to be caught in the same places where it was successfully caught by spinning in open water. Such places are:

• reed thickets up to two meters deep;
• contaminated areas of water bodies;
• fairly shallow bays and floodplains of rivers and lakes;
• eyebrows;
• depth differences;
• areas near steep, precipitous banks.

If the reservoir is familiar to you and you have fished on it and in open water, then you will not have any particular difficulties in finding parking places for pike in December — they are practically unchanged. But a large pike, with a more significant weight, which can be considered any toothy predator weighing more than 3 kilograms, goes out to shallow water extremely reluctantly and catches such a trace already at a great depth. The location of a large pike is characterized by such relief as:

• dumps;
• pits;
• eddies;
• sharp depth differences;
• exits from pits.

Big pike — a deep-sea predator and it hunts at depth in November and December and in any other month. Of course, there are always exceptions, and someone found a large pike even near the shore. But we are now considering not accidents and rare cases of detention, but the most likely scenarios. Of course, it is easier to find pike on small lakes or ponds. At least, you can try fishing in the center of the reservoir, and under the shore, and in its deepest part, and in a shallower one. And all this can be done in a few hours. But when fishing on large rivers or reservoirs, you cannot bypass the most promising places in a whole day. Therefore, focus on other fishermen as well, watch which of them has succeeded, try to get closer to them or at least determine where they are biting — in depth, on the edge or may be near the shoreline in thickets of reeds. It is also worth noting that there may be more than one pike at one point, so after catching a pike, you can continue fishing in the same hole or at least return here a little later.

Best pike fishing time in December

All fishermen know that in the warm season, the best pike bite occurs in the morning, then the activity of the predator subsides by noon, and by evening it picks up again. Therefore, on open water, spinners and lovers of live pike fishing try to arrive at the reservoir early in the morning in order to make a cast or set up tackle in time. But in winter, the pike's behavior changes and now its activity practically does not depend on the time of day. It can be active in the morning, afternoon or evening with equal probability. It often happens that the peak of pike activity falls on lunch time, when, it would seem, the fish should rest. But winter makes its adjustments and now, during the day, the temperature is more favorable for fish, so the activity of the predator during the day is often no worse than in the morning or evening.

If we talk about the best period for pike fishing in December, it should be noted that the pike bite will be more active in the first half of December. This especially applies to those reservoirs where the ice begins to appear in December and, in fact, this period is the beginning of pike fishing in December. At this time, the pike is very active for the reason that it understands that soon it will be a deep winter, and this is a very difficult period for any fish. The more prey a pike catches at the beginning of winter, the easier it will be for it to survive the deep winter period and severe frosts.

Tackle and lures for pike fishing in December

How to catch a pike? In this section of the site, we will try to explain everything necessary for pike fishing

Therefore, two main methods are used to catch pike in December:

• winter spinner fishing;
• fishing on the zherlyka.

Both this and the other method of pike fishing are interesting in their own way and, of course, each of them has its advantages and features of fishing. Depending on personal preferences, the fisherman chooses his own method of fishing. When fishing with a pike, a live fish is used as bait, and when fishing with winter fishing rods — spinners and balancers. Let's analyze the features of fishing for each tackle and determine which jig, balancer or spinner will be the best for catching pike in December.

Poles

For pike fishing, it is optimal to use 10 fishing poles per fisherman. It will not be difficult to track down such a number of poles, and it will be quite enough for effective fishing.

A live fish is used as a bait for roaches. It is optimal to use cuttings from the same reservoir in which you plan to catch pike. It will be familiar to the pike in terms of shade, behavior and other factors, which will definitely affect the pike's peck for the better. It is better to choose the following cuttings for pike fishing: crucian carp; minnow; in June perch; ruff; roach.

If you do not know at what distance from the shore and at what depth the pike is, place the lures starting closer to the shore and gradually moving away from it. Poles are placed at a distance of about 5-10 meters from each other. Thus, 10 fishing rods will allow you to catch 50-100 meters of water. If biting occurs on some of the roaches, while others are silent, you should rearrange the roaches more closely to those on which the bites occur. In this way, you will find promising places as quickly as possible and scout them as efficiently as possible.

Balancers

In general, balancers with a size of 4 to 11 cm are used for pike fishing. As you can see, quite a wide range of sizes. But in December, it narrows, since in this month it is better to offer larger baits to the pike. Yes, you can safely discard balancers less than 7 cm long. But balancers of 7-11 cm will be quite promising. Of course, 11-cm balancers are more suitable for catching trophy pike, and if there are no such in your reservoir or your tackle is not designed for a very large pike, then it is optimal to take balancers 7-9 cm in size. This will be the optimal choice. Balancers for pike fishing can also be divided by color.

Primary colors

Among the main colors, you can distinguish acidic, dark and natural colors. It is very difficult to predict which color will work better on a pike in a given place and at the present time, so it is necessary to have balancers in different color options with you in order to choose the most successful one directly on fishing. Balancer — a very good bait for catching pike, which is really able to tempt the predator to bite with its unusual game, color and shape. Many lovers of winter pike catch exclusively on balancers, because they are really able to show an excellent result and fully justify their cost. 

Spinners

And of course spinners. Winter fishing for pike on a spinner is a classic that brings success to many fishermen to this day. The advantage of winter spinners for pike is their low cost, compared to balancers, as well as the fact that many modern fishermen underestimate them, preferring balancers. But you should not write off the irons. Many fishermen fish only for them and are able to catch any "pike". and even give a head start. A competent selection of bait, a good game and a predator will not be able to resist. Do not forget to take breaks in the game, because it is during the pauses that the pike almost always grabs the bait. Here is all the basic theoretical information that will help you fish successfully in December and catch the pike of your dreams.