28.03.2024

Bass balancers

The balancer is a bait which in a modern form appeared in Finland. Balancer Rapala on a perch is one of the best time-tested baits. The main difference from spinners is that it is horizontal in water.

The body of the balancer has a mount exactly on the center of gravity, very rarely – slightly shifted forward. In water, it occupies the same position as the fry, which is the main food for the perch.

Like baubles, a balancer requires playing a bait to attract fish. The game is carried out due to the fact that the back of the balancer and its tail have resistance in the water. When thrown up, he moves in the water with a horizontal jerk, and then returns to his seat.

Sometimes there are other movements of the bait – eight, somersault, yaw, wide movement in the plane of the ice. It all depends on the type of balancer, but usually it just makes a leap to the side, instantaneous reversal and returns to its place. There are no special delights in the game by the balance bar, it is much easier to master than the spoon

The balancer usually has a lead body, from which the eye goes in the upper part to attach the fishing line. It imitates a small fish; two single hooks stick out of the body in front and behind. In the lower part there is another eyelet, a triplet is attached to it. Most perch bites occur either at the bottom tee or at the back hook. And only sometimes – for the front, often not in the deepthroat, but behind the beard.

To the rear hook and the body is attached tail. It has a different shape, greatly affects the behavior of the balancer in the water. Sometimes, instead of the tail, they attach a twister, a piece of twister, a bundle of wool. This happens when the tail gets loose and is lost. The phenomenon is not uncommon, because the perch often takes by the tail, and rather hard knocks.

The twister balancer has a less amplitude and pronounced play than with a hard tail. Many balancing tails is part of the body and goes almost to the head.

Balancer game

The balancer game is based on the mechanics of the body in a continuous liquid medium. When jerking up the balancer meets resistance and deviates to the side. After the jerk is over, it is affected by the force of inertia, the force of gravity and the force of tension of the fishing line.

He continues to move aside until he meets the resistance of the fishing line. After this, a turn is made in the water and the balancer returns to its former position under the fishing line.

With a well-chosen tackle, the angler feels the first tension when the balancer has pulled the fishing line, and the second, when he returned to the place, in the arm. Sometimes this is marked by another game – the eight, somersaults, wiggle.

It all depends on the type of balancer. In the right gear, it all feels like a bite, or shows a nod.

Types of balancers

In addition to classic, there are many different balances, which have proven to be effective. These balancers have the same lead body and are attached approximately along the center of gravity to the fishing line. However, there are slight differences in the game.

Stick Balancers

These are all kinds of balancers of the “Gerasimov’s balancer” type, “black death”, etc. They have a thin and long body, a relatively flat or cylindrical abdomen and a slightly pronounced bend in the upper part.

During the game, such a balancer has a large deviation to the side, even with a slight jerk, and a strong jerk is not needed here. The balancer has little resistance and with a rough jerk the work is broken. He will soar up and will play wrong.

On the contrary, with a sufficiently soft jerk, the balancer will deviate very widely and return to the initial position smoothly.

Fin type balancers

Almost all the balancers that Russian fishermen catch are products of lacquer John. However, they are not pioneers of balancers. Initially, there were products from the company Rapala. They had a more oblate shape than Lucky John.

Apparently, following the traditions of this Finnish company, a series of balancers “Fin” appeared. They have a wide and smooth game, but they are also harder to knock into the vertical with too much jerk. Large fins give a nearly symmetrical figure eight in the water, but usually a small balancer is placed on the perch.

Their main drawback is a very fragile fastening of the tail, which, in this form, is more difficult to fix than to the classical balancer, since the contact area of ​​glue is smaller here.

Solid Tail Balancers

Their tail is soldered into the body and continues through the whole body of the balancer. As a result, it is almost impossible to break. Although this is a joke, you can break everything. Many products of the company Surf, Kuusamo and several others have just such a look.

They are better suited for fishing in grassy, ​​congested places where you have to work a lot of uncoupling. Also, do not worry about the fact that the tail is crushed, if the balancer is dropped from a height on the ice crumb.

Many people use this technique lazy to clean the hole so that the balancer passes through it.

Due to the fact that they have a metal tail, their balance is slightly different from the classical one. Here the place of attachment to the fishing line is strongly shifted forward to keep the same game.

This is explained by the fact that the plastic tail has a greater buoyancy than metal, and in the water it is necessary to slightly shift the center of the balancer so that it rises horizontally.

With a metal tail there is no such need.

Scallop balancers

In the fisherman’s arsenal, the lure “bokoplav” appeared not so long ago. In fact, the scraping works as a balancer. It is a flat plate with a hole, which is attached to the hinge with an eyelet in the center.

In the water, the angler pulls it up, there is a game of bait: the skimmer makes a movement to the side and in a wide arc, sometimes making two or three turns.

The scallop balancer is not a scrambler in the traditional sense. This is an ordinary balancer, but its tail is located triangle not upward vershinkoy, and sideways. Thus, it turns out the game is not purely up and down and to the side, as well as around the circle.

Last year, we had to catch on such a release of the firm Kuusamo, not bad, but expensive.

Tumbling balancers

Probably, they are produced by many companies, but they were only found on sale from the Aqua company in St. Petersburg: this is the balance weight Acrobat. As manufacturers say, it is focused on the North American market, but it works fine with us.

In the water, he makes a characteristic flip-flop, does not require a strong breakthrough and works perfectly in the deaf. Its disadvantage is probably the small amplitude of the game, which reduces the effectiveness of the search for fish.

He also collects less grass, apparently due to his form and game, but more often he overwhelms his hooks for fishing line.

Choice of the balance weight

First of all, when choosing, one should know where they are going to catch, at what depth, if there is a current, what kind of fish will be there. As a rule, the perch is not too fond of big bait.

Balances on a pike should have a good size, and here one should avoid being hungry and use the minimum. Usually from Lucky John are divided by numbers, from 2 to 8 and above. The figure roughly shows how much in centimeters the size of his body along the length without a tail.

Usually on a perch put 2, 3 or 5 number. The latter is used where the depth of fishing is large enough and it is difficult to find a smaller good mass.

Weight

The balance weight is another important characteristic. She, coupled with the form, greatly affects his game, depending on the depth. For example, too heavy in shallow water will twitch heavily, which is usually not pleasant to cautious perch. And it will be too easy to make oscillations of small amplitude and quickly fall off into the vertical, return with the tail forward, and not with the nose.

Therefore, a five-six-gram can be enough for fishing at a depth of one and half meters, up to 3-4 meters you need to put bait up to 8 grams, and the heavier ones are needed above.

Conversely, the balancer on the pike can be taken as heavy as possible, since it will be very effective and sharp to jump, which usually seduces the pike to bite. On the course you should also put a heavier bait.

Colour

Coloring matters in shallow water, with increasing depth is less significant. For perch here use neutral colors. Usually the coloring is important for the seller and is designed to catch the angler, not the fish, because the fish sees everything in a completely different way and for her the selection of colors is just a matter of practice, and not the visual sensations of the fisherman.

More important here is that the balancer contains elements of fluorescent coloration. They almost never scare away fish and are able to attract it. Usually it is luminous eyes, color scales, a fluorescent ball near the front hook.

For beginners, you can recommend to choose a greenish or silver balancer – they almost never scare away fish colors, but colors like “clown” can blunder.

The form

The shape greatly affects the bait game. As a rule, it is advised to choose a form so that it fits the size of a half-year-old fry, which is more often eaten by perch. It is not known how true this is, but such a balancer will be less likely to scare away fish. However, the form is often chosen not by the game, but by the conditions of fishing.

For example, a wide-playing balancer will be bad in the grass. With a big tail is not too suitable for the flow. Some kind of balance can just be deadly in one place and empty in another.

It is advisable to look at the recommendations of the manufacturer before purchase, and for the flow to choose one gear, for standing water – others, and then from them to choose the right one by experience.

Balance sheet balance

A little strange phrase, but it largely shows how the balancer behaves in the water. Classic in the water will hang horizontally, there are models in which the nose is raised or lowered.

As a rule, models with a spout dipped in water require a more active toss, and with a raised one, they require a smoother one.

In the air, almost all of them look with a raised nose from behind the tail, which is less sinking than metal, and in air, in fact, the center of its gravity is shifted back. Also, the position in the water strongly depends on the depth.

Equipment and completion of the balance weight

As a rule, the balancer is sold already equipped. It has a lower hook-tee, which is usually removable, and two hooks in front and behind, they are also frame elements. The first revision is to replace the lower tee with a tee with a drop. A drop is a glowing plastic that attracts fish well, even in bad bite.

It is better to do it only on heavy balancers. The fact is that you will have to put a larger tee, as a drop significantly reduces the size of the hook. In this regard, the weight distribution of a lightweight small item can be broken, and it will stop playing, as was intended by the authors.

The second similar refinement is the installation of a hook on a chain instead of a tee. Perch is usually planted on the hook. There is a special series of Finnish balancers, which were originally conceived for just such a game.

For others, it is better to do it again, only for heavy ones, since the chain itself, the perch eye on it, greatly increases the resistance to movement. If you add that the chain usually plows the bottom, then you need quite a heavy and active balancer to drag all this without losing the game.

Balance can be tied directly to the line. However, it is better to do this using a small clasp. Little – so she did not break his game. With a small clasp, the tackle will behave naturally in the water, nothing will interfere with its movement and swaying, at the same time the knot on the fishing line will not constantly rub or loosen from playing the bait and less risk of losing it.

When buying, you should immediately treat the tail balance epoxy glue. It is necessary to gently grease the tail from the bottom to strengthen its mounting. The game is almost not affected, but the service life of the tail will increase significantly. Epoxy is better than superglue for the reason that, having dried out, it practically does not give foreign odors that frighten off fish in water.

With active fishing it is very important that he does not hook with hooks for the lower edges of the hole. For this reason, anglers often bite off the front hook, which accounts for the minimum number of bites.

The number of hooks and descents is reduced at the same time. Others go further, biting even the back hook, but this is not as effective as it usually clings to the front hook. Yes, and on the weight distribution of the bait is very much affected, especially small.

If the tail is lost, you can replace it with a small twister right on the fishing trip. It will attract fish under water, but the amplitude of the game decreases two to three times.

Some deliberately remove tails and tie centimeter microfibers, bundles of hairs, because they believe that such a bait works better in the deaf, than the classic balance weight.

Self-made balancer: is it worth it?

Definitely for those who work in a fishing workshop considers it a part of fishing, it is worth it.

The balancer is a rather complicated product, and work on a high-quality specimen will be very exciting.

In addition, there is a huge field for activities and experiments to make such a model that will be many times more efficient than purchased ones.

For everyone else who just wants to save on buying and catch fish, it’s not worth it. Definitely it will take a lot of time. Making a mold, frame, casting process – all this time can be spent on fishing. To make them many times harder than winter jigger. There will be a low repeatability of the form for the first time to get what is not clear.

The author knows the master, who spent almost a year on making a really working bait-cicada on a perch, working on it every weekend.

In addition, you have to buy good solder, acid, special paint, tails, eyes, hooks, tools, ready-made frames and other semi-finished products. In the garbage you will not find good material for sure. As a result, it will not be possible to do it for free at all – at best, it will be just a dollar cheaper than buying in a store and will take a whole day.

Those who value both time and money should pay attention to inexpensive balancers. Chinese with Aliexpress are not much cheaper than the same Lucky John of Baltic production, the same company Aqua, which has its own workshops.

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