On summer days, not hooking a pike causes a stir in the information space. Fishermen search, and the Internet responds, often showing conditionally working bait options for the sake of advertising and product promotion. However, in practice, few people work on pike. In this article we will look at the really best non-hooking pike fishing rods, which have been proven to catch toothy ones in the grass and snags.
Pike in the thickets
To catch pike in the grass with a spinning rod, you will need a different approach to bait. Regular spoons or jig heads collect grass on summer grassy backwaters more than they attract toothy fish. There are often perch in the water lilies in the summer, and choosing the right hook-free bait in these conditions is more than just searching for one bait. As in other fishing conditions, there is no single correct equipment - when catching a predator you need to experiment, selecting the right game and various unhooked hooks.
Pike is an ambush predator; the toothy one likes to stand in remote places that open into open space, from where it is convenient to attack an unwary prey with lightning speed. Sometimes these are continuous thickets of aquatic vegetation, mud or water lilies.
In summer, large pike also like to stand in overgrown places, especially if there are few deep snags in the reservoir. More details about tactics and searching for spotted predators in overgrown waters are discussed in the article on fishing for pike in the grass. Let’s immediately look at the non-hooking hooks that need to be used for this.
What are these spinners?
These are convex plate baits made of steel, aluminum or copper. A single or double hook is attached to them, covered with a maneuverable hook, located parallel to the forend of the sting and tightly adjacent to it. When bitten, the protective plate moves to the side, ensuring unhindered hooking of predatory fish. This metal element reliably protects gear that operates in difficult water areas from snags and breaks.
In a reservoir with difficult soil you cannot do without it. Universal non-snagging spinners are produced by the Finnish company. They are optimally suited for fishing in still and shallow waters, in snags at a depth of more than 3 m. Lures from this manufacturer are equipped with protective tendrils of increased rigidity and a petal reflector that bends well around obstacles due to its unusual shape.
Unlike the classic spinner, the non-hooking spoon is more concave and has only one hook. This ensures high maneuverability on a littered and clogged bottom. There are two types of such anti-grip:
- with a single sting placed in the body of a silicone bait with which a spinning rod is used (fishing in difficult waters is greatly facilitated thanks to it);
- with springy antennae made of steel wire, plastic petals or rigid fishing line. Sometimes a guitar string is used for this purpose.
According to experienced fishermen, a homemade spoon shows better results than many factory models, which are prone to causeless displacement of the reflector covering the hook tip. There are also planing modifications, which are useful when baiting in turbid water.
During the open water season, most hunters of river and lake predators use a spinning rod, fishing with which provides a good catch. It is difficult to lure pike, catfish or bream out of the maze of snags and dense bottom vegetation. You can chase a spoon or wobbler all day in clear waters, but end up without a big catch. For hunting perch and other freshwater predators, the length of which reaches several meters, a non-hooking spinner is intended.
The design of such gear allows you to fish snags, fish in rocky ridges and easily carry bait through thick bottom sediments. In summer, predatory fish hide in them, lying in wait for their prey. Perch and pike usually concentrate:
- in marshy areas;
- shallow quarries;
- among dense thickets.
In such conditions, there is a high risk of losing the bait caught on an obstacle. Therefore, you need to put such a spinner in your fishing box - a device that ensures good maneuverability of expensive gear.
Non-hooking spinners for pike
The first thing that a search engine returns if you enter the word non-snacking into the line is ready-made industrial planing non-snacking spoons with hooks covered with metal tendrils. The articles are filled with advertisements, tops and ratings of expensive pieces of iron, the catchability of which remains in question. Among the ready-made non-clinging lures for pike there are actually working baits.
However, if the spinner is not a beginner, he understands that there cannot be one best unhooked spinner. Pike fishing is always an experiment. A purchased Rapala or Kuusamo Professor can work in some conditions, but in others they will be silent. And assembling another set of catchable spinners, but not snagging ones, takes a long time and is not free.
Rapala Minnow Spoon
Rapala Weedless Shad
Atom N from Russian Blesna
The right approach
Every spinning angler spends most of his fishing trips on certain bodies of water. Over time, a favorite set of proven baits is formed - usually these are certain spoons, spinners, wobblers and jigs. Sometimes small things affect catchability. For example, on my home river there is always an Atom 2 in golden color from certain manufacturers, as well as a three-four spinner like Mepps Aglia in an acid green color, or its high-quality replicas. Every fisherman has a spoon in his pond, which he uses constantly and successfully.
- And if you need to fish an overgrown area on the same body of water, you shouldn’t buy and check the entire arsenal of non-hooking lures offered. There is no need to change the set just because the hooks do not catch the grass. It’s more correct to make your favorite fishing lure non-snagging. After all, the main thing in a lure is not the hooks, but the shape of the piece of iron itself, which determines the vibrations during retrieval, as well as the fisherman’s hands, which have learned to correctly guide this particular bait.
- The shape and vibrations of ready-made non-hooking ones are different. It is generally unknown whether she will catch or not. You can take a couple of purchased non-hooks to check, but you shouldn’t change the basis of your arsenal because of this. And if the required configuration for a specific reservoir has been found, why reinvent the wheel. You need to fish with what the toothy fish reliably takes.
- Therefore, in this article there are no tops and ratings of the 10 best non-hooking spinners for pike. Here we will look at a pool of lures that work for pike in practice , and not conditionally for the sake of advertising. It’s easy to make a non-hooking spinner for pike with your own hands from your favorite bait, the performance of which has already been tested in these specific conditions. In this case, there is no need to cut anything out of metal, drill or perform any complex metal work.
- Special planing spoons for grass are all approximately the same configuration. Of course, in some places the pike takes them. However, conventional vibrators such as atom, storming or spoon, proven over the years, work much better, as well as turntables . Dismissing this pike base just because you need to throw some grass is not practical.
In addition, a single hook from store-bought bait works well only when the pike grabs the whole bait. In the summer heat, the lazy toothy one often simply bites the unhooked hook from behind and grabs it lightly. Naturally, in such conditions there are more derailments on single-hook gliders than successful hooks .
On sale you can find such types of non-hooking ones as offsets brought together or even spinners with magnetic hook protection. Such decisions are truly uncomplicated. They don’t catch anything at all when retrieving, including pikes . Such prodigies will only add hemorrhoids to the angler.
Everything is simpler - we put an offset hook or a tee with bumpers on our favorite catchable spoon , and we catch. Firstly, it will definitely catch on this reservoir, and secondly, it will be no less catchy when biting. Let's take a closer look at how to do this correctly.
Silicone on offset hook
A revolution in non-hooking lures for pike was made by the appearance on the shelves of offset baits and silicone lures. With their help, we can turn any ordinary spinner, oscillating or rotating, into a non-snagging lure in no time.
- Instead of a tee, we put an offset hook with a twister mounted in a certain way on your favorite piece of hardware - voila, the best non-hooking hook for catching pike in your specific conditions is ready. The hook is pressed to the body of the silicone and passes through any grass and snags perfectly. We check the size of the hook and silicone experimentally and depending on the size of the spoon.
- On turntables, the tee is often mounted in a blind eye. To remove it, you need to cut through the eye of the hook with pliers, and attach the next one through the winding ring.
- We also experiment with baits on a hook. You can plant twister, vibrotail, crustacean, slug and any imitation. We are trying to seduce the toothy one into different colors. In addition to its protective function, silicone has its own game, which can also be a decisive factor when catching lazy and well-fed summer pike.
To apply silicone, you need to choose the right offset machine. For narrow-bodied twisters, option 1 in the figure is more suitable - the tip is on the same axis as the base of the fore-end. For wide-bodied silicone, you need a hook as in option 2 - the tip lags behind the axis by 2-3 mm. If these conditions are met, the silicone will sit correctly, the tip of the hook will be pressed against the bait or located in the slot.
Empty offset press
If the spinner or spinner that does not catch on the pike is light, a large twister on the hook disrupts the game - do not use silicone. Or the pike may simply not take bait with bait, but a clean spoon is enough. In this case, we make the bumper on the hook from a transparent tube from a dropper or an elastic band. The offset hook configuration makes this easy. You can also use commercial hooks with a wire breaker.
Rubber bumper
Non-interfering tees for rotating and oscillating spinners
In conclusion, I offer spinning anglers the simplest design of a non-tapping tee, suitable for equipping oscillating and rotating spinners.
A plate cut from thin X-ray film is put on the tee (Fig. 6). The tips of the hooks should protrude 1-1.5 mm from the slots of the plate. To prevent the plate from moving towards the spinner, it should be secured with a piece of bicycle nipple placed on the forend. It is advisable to paint the plate with red enamel or red ink, followed by coating with BF-2 glue. The plate protects the tee from snags, and when a predator grabs or hooks, it releases the hooks.
Tees with bumper
If for some reason you don’t want to use an offset hook, then by working some magic with a tee, you can get a non-snagging lure for pike from your favorite bait without any investment or additional purchases. And it will work accurately, unlike the advertised super-duper ready-made non-catching ones. The idea is to install elastic bumpers on the hook, which retract the blades of grass, preventing them from falling beyond the bend. When biting, under the influence of compression of the pike’s jaws, these antennae bend, without preventing the sting from catching on the tissue of the fish’s mouth.
Non-snacking tee made of thick fishing line
The simplest and most effective method of homemade non-hooking on a pike is to place a breaker made of rigid fishing line on the tee. The fishing line you will need is rigid - thick monofilament 0.5-0.6 mm or fluorocarbon of the same diameter. This is necessary so that the elastic line moves sideways away from the tee. At the same time, the fishing line will not save you from clenching the pike’s jaws - only from the grass.
You will also need cambrics - for each tee. The diameter of the cambric is selected so as to fit tightly on a hook with a fishing line passed through it. This method is good for use on spinners, on which the game may be lost due to the use of a heavier hook.
Manufacturing procedure:
- We put cambrics on each hook - 3 pieces.
- We pass the fishing line through any two cambrics and an eyelet. We measure the length so that the line seems to swell to the sides a little from the hooks.
- We pull one of the ends along the forearm, you can wrap it a couple of times, then we thread it through the eye again. We thread the same end into the remaining free cambric.
- There are two ends of the fishing line left - tie a knot under the tee, cut off the excess.
Insulation bumpers
We form three L-shaped blanks from wire insulation of the required diameter. The insulation needs to be rigid enough to give it its shape in the flame of a lighter. We form the blanks and fasten them to the fore-end of the future non-hooking gun so that they extend beyond the tip by 2-3 mm. We cut off the excess. The place of attachment to the fore-end can be glued.
Metal tendrils
Ready-made tees with anti-snap antennae can be found in fishing stores. Also, such non-snacking hooks for pike are easy to make at home with your own hands. For this, elastic steel wire is used, the same as for twisting leads - 0.3,0.4 mm. Blanks are also cut out, which are soldered to the forend or secured with winding and gluing.
Oscillating heavy spinner “not hooked” “Karasik”
This spoon is the size of a “Grun”. It imitates crucian carp or rudd and is especially good for catching pike in rivers and lakes, where these fish form its main food. Like “Grun”, “Karasik” is made of the same, but thicker metal (thickness increases by 0.5 mm). By shifting the center of gravity to the hooks, a smaller windage of the spinner in flight and better play in fast currents are achieved; made of copper, it is more readily taken by small predators (perches). In such cases, you have to hang a tee No. 5-7 with a bunch of bright red wool on one of the main hooks.
The spring of the spinner can be successfully replaced with a narrow strip of rubber. Thus, the equipment will become even easier (Fig. 2).
The described low-impact and non-impact equipment can be used for any fairly heavy oscillating spinners.
Surface non-snags
We add surface baits to the set of working non-hooking baits. In completely overgrown places, you can’t hook a lure without catching on a pike - there is more grass than water. Here the non-snappy ones help out, squelching and splashing on the surface. If we fish with a popper in clear water, then in reeds and solid mud we use special surface non-snags.
Croatian egg
Catching pike with a Croatian egg has recently become a trend in places where there are a lot of overgrown water areas. This is a voluminous plastic body with a large single hook, which constantly occupies the tip-up position. Non-clinging is achieved precisely by this position of the egg in the water. This bait is also called the Romanian egg, or glider.
- Guide the Croatian egg - slow pulls and splashes through the clear water in the windows. With careful movements, the glider can be safely dragged over a solid wall of reeds.
- The main disadvantage is the large number of idle hooks. But there's nothing you can do about it. If the pike takes it boldly, we use an egg; if it bites and is not hooked, it is better to try a small, unloaded jig or a non-snagging spinner.
Frogs and other imitations
Similar tactics and fishing techniques are used when using various silicone imitations of ducklings, frogs, and mice. The variety of shapes and colors is more a trick for the angler than for the pike. In continuous thickets, the pike still does not see small decorative details.
- The predator notices with a side line of hesitation that someone is breaking through the bushes, in the end only reacting to the color, which is the point of attack. What is more useful here is not the eyes and dots on the back, but additional elements that give vibrations - rotating legs, tails, silicone mustaches.
- The hooks of these baits are hidden in a rubber body. When pressed with the jaws, they come out and cling to the mouth of the fish. However, in practice, frogs, like the egg, give a large number of idle grips. Another drawback is fragility. During a good bite, pike tear the silicone and the bait becomes unusable.
More information about silicone frogs for pike
Spinnerbaits
Another group of relatively unhooked baits are spinnerbaits. These baits catch well, but for some reason they are not very common among our fishermen. The basis of a spinnerbait for pike is an angular metal rocker. At one end there is a petal, at the other there is a heavy massive bait with a hook.
At the bottom of purchased spinnerbaits there is usually a kind of jig head with a single hook with a sponge of silicone threads attached. The pike grabs just this washcloth, and is attracted by the glitter of the petal on top. You can also put a regular jig, foam rubber or some other bait in the lower loop.
Due to the silicone fibers, the hook does not catch the grass. This non-snagging hook works great at depth, where there is a lot of soft mud and sparse grass, as well as in snags. The spinnerbait is a secret weapon for catching trophy pike in snags and overgrown areas.
Jig on offset press
With the correct placement of silicone on the offset press, the hinged mounting of the jig on the collapsible head is also non-snacking. Actually, the decision to hang silicone on an offset spoon on spoons came from this type of pike fishing. Similarly - spaced mounts on bullet weights or cones such as Carolina, Texas, drop shot. These are standard jig rigs for fishing in open water with mud and snags on the bottom.
In shallow water areas or in thickets, when the bait needs to be dragged over the top, a Cheburashka or jig head may not be used at all. An unweighted jig is essentially a surface jig that needs to be pulled slowly, with jerks and stops.
Detailed article about jig rigs
The pool of bait listed above is completely sufficient to cover the possible conditions for catching pike in overgrown areas. Instead of looking among the colorful advertisements for supposedly the best non-hooking baits, it is better to focus on these common and proven working methods for catching pike in overgrown waters.
