All the secrets of cork fishing tackle for catching crucian carp and other fish. Tackle from a plastic bottle How to make a feeder from cork

Among fishermen, a primitive but very effective fishing tackle, a cork, relatively recently found itself among the tools for bottom fishing. It is popular with carp and crucian fishermen, although using it you can actually catch any peaceful fish.

“Cork” is called differently in different regions: nipple, smaktukha, bomb, combine, but the meaning is the same.

The fish, feeding on the bait offered to it, sucks it in along with the disguised hooks. This cork tackle will be discussed further in the post.

How a classic fishing tackle is made - a cork

1. Take a simple lid of a suitable color. Most often it matches the color of the bottom soil where we fish, or the bait.
2. Pour the appropriate weight of lead under the bottom of the lid. Then we attach the lead to the bottom and drill a hole for the cambric, for example from the “system”. To prevent it from falling out of the tackle, we pierce it with a piece of wire.
3. We thread the leash, which will be attached to the main fishing line.
4. Now let's make leashes with hooks and put them on the ring.

That's it, the catchy cork tackle is ready.

This is what it will look like in action.

This is a classic design that can be modified to secure leashes and loads.

How the tackle works

A weight attached to the bottom of the “plug” will always land the rig with bait with hooks in the upper position. That is, the bait will always be available to the fish. After casting, expect a bite by watching the indicator or rod tip. The tackle works the same way as in the “satellite”. The fish, sensing the smell of bait, approaches and sucks it in along with the hooks. Fishermen also string foam balls or other bait, for example a couple of maggots, onto the hook, leaving the tip open.

Pros and benefits:

• the cork tackle is very simple and can be made at home by a fisherman of any skill level;
• the bait is supplied for the fish to bite in a comfortable position;
• fishing can take place both near and far from the shore;
• a small amount of bait is used;
• Almost all peaceful fish are successfully caught.

You will learn how to prepare various baits for cork fishing yourself in one of the following articles.

Making a catchy bottom tackle from a regular bottle cap

The principle of operation of such tackle is similar to the usual “makushatnik”; such tackle can also be called “combine”, “bombushka”, “pacifier”, “satellite”, “cork”. There are many other names, but everything depends on the specific region of the country. The operating principle of the gear is very simple. The bait is stuffed into the cork and the hooks are hidden here. When the feeder is at the bottom, the fish approaches it and begins to suck in the food, as a result, hooks also get into its mouth in the process. There is no need to wait for the moment when you need to hook, since the fish is hooked on its own. When the bite alarm goes off, all that remains is to start fishing for prey.

According to the author, this gear is very effective and allows you to be with the fish even on days when most fishermen don’t bite. According to him, bites begin to follow almost within a couple of minutes. Of course, a lot also depends on the place of fishing.

Tools and materials for manufacturing:
- 1 aluminum and 1 PET bottle cap;
- lead;
- fishing line for creating leashes and hooks (4-10 number according to the old standard);
- nylon thread and clamp for attaching leashes;
- a piece of copper wire;
- awl, scissors;
- bait (if already fishing).

Let's move on to the manufacturing process

Step 1. Create a sinker
You need to take an aluminum plug and use an awl to pierce two holes in it as in the picture; exactly the same holes need to be made in the PET plug. Next, a copper wire is inserted into the aluminum plug; it will connect the two plugs together. Then you need to melt lead or tin and pour the metal into the aluminum plug so that it does not reach the top turn of the plug. If a cork from Baltika No. 3 is used, the PET cork will be able to fit into its upper turn and the design will be of better quality.

The most important requirement for bait is its consistency. It should be similar to plasticine, this allows it not to crumble when casting. The hooks are installed on top, as shown in the picture.

If you want to increase the efficiency of the tackle, you can put maggots or pickled corn on the hooks.

A cork is a simple homemade fishing tackle, which, as a rule, is used to catch non-predatory fish species in freshwater bodies. For the most part, it is intended for fishing with passive types of bottom fishing. Also, another feature of this gear is that it is used exclusively at the bottom of reservoirs.

The essence of the cork fishing method

The technique for using such non-sports equipment is as follows:

1. The fish bites viscous bait, inside of which there are several hooks with foam. The latter makes the hooks weightless and invisible in the water.
2. The fish gradually absorbs the bait, and along with it the sharp hooks, but when leaving, it is caught by them. In this case, the self-hooking effect is triggered, which is why this type of fishing is called non-sport fishing.

However, fishing with a cork is quite effective, so every year it is increasingly gaining popularity among fishermen.

Advantages and disadvantages of gear

The advantages of the gear include:

• the ability to make it at home;
• quite convenient supply of bait mixture;
• possibility of fishing at different depths;
• can be fished at different distances from the shore;
• the effectiveness of the gear and its effectiveness;
• A very small amount of bait is used.

The disadvantages of the gear are:

• inability to catch predatory fish species;
• fragility of gear;
• inability to fish in large currents;
• poor visibility of gear at the bottom.

What kind of fish is usually caught with a cork?

As a rule, the following types of fish are caught with this tackle:

1. Medium and large crucian carp.
2. Carp.
3. Carp.
4. Mullet.
5. Chub.
6. Roach.
7. Rudd.
8. White amur.
9. Barbel.
10. Rudd.

Equipment equipment

For fishing with a cork, you should prepare the following parts of the tackle:

1. Rod. It is desirable that it be telescopic and have a length of at least two and a half meters. The test rod must be at least 35 grams.
2. Coil. It is recommended to use a high-quality spool size 3000.
3. Fishing line. Best used with a diameter of 0.25mm and a length of 40 meters.
4. Leashes. They need to be made from braided fishing line. Each should be about twenty centimeters long.
5. Hooks. Typically, they are used depending on the bait. It is recommended to use hooks with sizes from six to ten. It is also important that they are of high quality and sharp.
6. Bite alarm. It is not at all necessary to use expensive electronic alarms for this purpose. An ordinary bell, which only needs to be installed correctly, will be no worse.
7. Small weight. For this tackle, you should use a small olive or teardrop-shaped lead weight. It is also necessary that it have a natural color that will blend with the water. It is best if it is brown or dark green.
8. Cork. It can be taken from almost any plastic bottle. The main requirement for it is simplicity and spaciousness, so that as much bait mixture as possible can fit into it.

Making a cork with your own hands: a step-by-step process

To make gear, you should prepare the following materials:

• tin lid for strong drinks;
• plastic bottle cap;
• bolt;
• screw;
• swivel;
• a piece of lead;
• winding rings.

This gear is manufactured in the following sequence:

1. Melt the lead and pour it into the tin lid.
2. Make one small hole in the center of the plastic cover (its diameter should be slightly larger than the diameter of the bolt). Also, make four small holes for the leashes. Insert the winding rings into them (if that doesn’t work, you can attach the rings directly to the lid).
3. Drill a through hole in the tin lid with a size slightly larger than the diameter of the bolt. Attach the ring and swivel to the bolt. Insert it into the hole (in the lid).
4. Place the plastic cover on the bolt.
5. Secure the entire structure with a nut.
6. Attach leashes and hooks to the winding rings.
7. Fill with prepared bait. Insert hooks into the protruding parts of the bait - with the sting facing out. Also, to make the tackle even more attractive, you can put a worm or bloodworm on the hooks.

After this, the tackle is ready for use.

What bait to choose when fishing with a cork

There are several options for effective bait for this gear. Let's look at the best of them:

Corn groundbait

• a jar of canned corn (preferably Bonduelle);
• a spoon of sunflower oil;
• spoon of sunflower seeds;
• breadcrumbs;
• two tablespoons of linseed oil.

So, you need to grind the corn in a blender, and fry the sunflower seeds a little in a frying pan. Then grind in a coffee grinder. Add the resulting mixture to the corn. Then add a spoonful of vegetable and linseed oil there. At the end add a spoonful of honey.

Mix all this thoroughly, turning the mixture into a homogeneous thick porridge. Just before fishing, you should add a handful of breadcrumbs to it to make the mixture more elastic and aromatic.

Carp and crucian carp, which are distinguished by their craving for aromatic and sweet mixtures, will certainly not refuse such bait.

Pea groundbait

To prepare it you will need:

• - one glass;
• corn - half a glass;
• water - three glasses;
• sugar - three tablespoons;
• honey - one teaspoon;
• sunflower oil - one spoon.

Prepare the bait in this way:

1. To boil water.
2. Pour the peas into boiling water and stir thoroughly for ten minutes until they are thoroughly boiled.
3. After thirty minutes, add the corn and cook for another half hour. It is very important to constantly stir all this time, otherwise if the porridge burns, the fish will smell the burnt smell and will not bite.
4. At the end of cooking, add sugar and honey.
5. Cover the pan with a lid and let the bait sit for two hours.

Bread-based bait

To prepare it you will need:

• black bread;
• or roasted sunflower seeds;
• potato;
• vegetable oil;
• anise oil.

Preparation:

1. Boil the potatoes and grind them in a blender.
2. Grind the flour.
3. Add black bread, flour and butter to the potatoes. Mix it all well with your hands to form a thick, homogeneous mass. This bait is very effective, since most fish always bite on it perfectly.

In order for fishing with a cork to be successful, you should adhere to the following recommendations:

1. Before you start fishing, you always need to choose the right place for the upcoming fishing. It is best to select places on reservoirs with differences in depth, snags, flooded trees, large vegetation or hills at the bottom. It is in such areas that non-predatory fish species most often live. It is very convenient to study the bottom topography for this purpose using a marker float or a spinning rod with a jig head. Also, if this is your first time fishing in a particular body of water, you should study it in advance and understand what kind of current is present there and where it is better to throw the tackle. This knowledge will definitely come in handy, especially when you need to cast the tackle.
2. Now you should prepare the tackle itself for casting. First you need to install . It is best to use rod-pods for this purpose, since they are the ones that best cope with their task. After this, you need to check the fishing line, its tension, weights, and hooks. Everything should be in its place. Also, you should adjust the coil. It is desirable that it have a built-in system (this will allow you to hold the tackle during a sharp bite). If the coil does not have such a function, then you need to loosen the friction brake. Finally, you need to install a bite alarm.
3. There should also be a cage and landing net nearby, so that when fishing you don’t waste time looking for them.
4. After this, we proceed to filling the plug itself. It should be filled with bait tightly enough so that when it gets into the water, the mixture does not spread out in the first minute. On top of the bait you need to sculpt several elongated triangles into which you need to insert hooks (with the tip up). Now the tackle is ready to cast.
5. Casting must be done carefully so that the bait and hooks do not fall out, otherwise everything will have to be redone again. After casting, you need to wait until the tackle lands on the bottom and only after that you can tighten the line a little and install the rod on the stand.
6. It is advisable to check the plug every half hour, since it often happens that an overly cautious fish simply eats up the bait, leaving only bare hooks, so naturally no biting occurs. To prevent this from happening, the fisherman must always control the fishing process and check the plug in time.
7. If there is no bite for more than an hour after casting, then in this case it is recommended to change the fishing location to another. You can cast the tackle a little further or, conversely, closer to the shore. You can move the casting location a little to the side, since even a significant change may well improve the overall fishing activity of the fish. In addition, for even greater success, it is advisable to change the contents of the plug - fill it with a different bait mixture. To do this, you must always have several pre-prepared bait porridges with you.
8. When biting, it is very important not to rush, otherwise the fish may get off the hook. It is important to wait until it has definitely swallowed the hook and hooked itself, and only then can you pull the rod. You should know that you cannot make a sharp hook, since most fish have rather weak lips and with quick jerks the hook can break through them, which threatens the escape of the prey.
9. As a rule, if a fish starts biting in one place, then whole schools of fish gather there. In this case, it is recommended to throw the tackle to the same point again and again so as not to lose biting activity, because when the fish finds food in one place, it will not swim to another in search of food.

Fishing with a cork requires a lot of attention and effort, but all this is compensated by the joy of the caught prey, so fishermen do not regret the effort spent. Using the above recommendations and knowledge, you too can learn how to successfully fish with such unusual gear.

A nipple for crucian carp is a non-sporting tackle that allows you to catch even the most cautious crucian carp in the most inaccessible places. Most variations of nipple gear are in the nature of self-hooking equipment, but you, as a sports fisherman, can make more sporting equipment, we will talk about this in our article.

How to make a nipple for crucian carp

The simplest option for making a nipple is the so-called crucian carp plug. The base of the nipple for crucian carp is a regular cap from a plastic bottle. This can be a regular plastic cap for Coca-Cola 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 l, or a wider cap for yoghurt, milk and other similar drinking products. The wider the lid, the more food will fit and the more attractive the nipple will be for crucian carp and other fish.

There are a lot of options for making a plug nipple, we will look at the example shown in the photo above.

1. Holes are drilled on 4 sides of the cork;
2. Leashes made of 3-5 cm braid are attached to the three holes. It is better to use braid rather than monofilament because of its softness; the hooks should not jump out of the food that will fill the cork. There may be not 3, but 2 leashes, at the discretion of the fisherman, but two are better than one, the probability of a bite is higher;
3. A swivel is attached to the fourth side. In the case shown in the photo, the swivel is attached to the plug by soldering, this is not a very reliable method. It will be much safer to simply hook the plug with a clasp, and the thinnest point of the tackle will depend on the quality of the swivel itself, and not on the reliability of its fastening to the plug. If you are counting on catching exclusively crucian carp, then you will not have problems with catching, but if you want to catch carp or carp, take care of the reliable fastening of all elements of the gear;
4. One of the most important elements of a nipple plug is the sinker. The easiest way to make it is from sheet lead. It is enough to simply flatten an ordinary olive or Cheburashka with a hammer or sledgehammer, and then make holes with an awl. The sinker is attached to the cork with steel wire (you can use paper clips).
5. Each hook is supplied with a foam ball. The color doesn't have much effect. The most important thing is that the balls are not very large. The hook, together with the foam, should have close to neutral buoyancy, so that when a crucian carp swallows the bait, it does not feel much resistance.

Preparing bait for nipples for crucian carp

There are several recipes for feeding nipples for crucian carp and they all have the right to life. Let's look at each in more detail:

Millet bait recipe No. 1

1. Pour 3 cups of water into a small saucepan;
2. 2 cups of millet;
3. The saucepan is placed inside another larger saucepan in a water bath (the water level in the large saucepan should be equal to the water level in the small saucepan);
4. The large saucepan is kept on the fire and maintained at a boil, while the small saucepan is kept closed;
5. Cook until the millet is completely swollen. It should knead easily in your hands. Thanks to the water bath, the millet does not burn and it is very easy to bring such bait to the desired condition.
6. Using a rolling pin, knead the millet component into a dough;
7. Add 0.5 cups of semolina;
8. 0.5 cups of crucian carp bait or 100 g of ground cake.

Bait recipe No. 2 from bread and potatoes

1. Pass black bread and potatoes in equal proportions through a meat grinder;
2. It is also advisable to add crucian carp bait or others;
3. Mix the resulting mixture very thoroughly in your hands and obtain a plasticine mass.

Flavors for crucian carp teats

The best attractants (flavor enhancers) for crucian carp teats will be spicy aromas:

• garlic
• dill

Sweet scents are used a little less often:

• cinnamon
• vanilla

These flavors should be added at the time of final mixing of the food at the last stage of home preparation.

Bait storage

It is better to store such plasticine-like food in a sealed plastic bag in the refrigerator. But the ideal option would be to prepare the required amount of bait immediately the night before fishing. And after fishing, the remains of the bait can be thrown into the fishing place, this will serve as bait for the next fishing in this place.

- another type of feeder gear that allows you to catch crucian carp as efficiently as possible in ponds and rivers.

– a guide to making the 8 most popular feeder installations.

– photo and video instructions for tying the best knot for a loop.

Technique for catching crucian carp with a nipple

How to insert foam hooks into pacifiers

1. The cork is tightly filled with viscous food with a mound.
2. Hooks with foam plastic are inserted into the food (ears down, bend up).
3. You can throw the pacifier into the most inaccessible places with tall vegetation and not be afraid that it will get caught. After all, there are no open hooks in the tackle.
4. The number of bites depends on the number of crucian carp interested in food. One thing is clear, any crucian carp will like the recipes described above. But the crucian carp needs time to first find the nipple, taste it and only then grab the hook.

How to make a pacifier into a sports equipment

The unsporting nature of the nipple rig for crucian carp is that the fish does not react to the bait on the hook; there is no bait on the hook at all. She accidentally gets caught on the hook, and later, trying to get away, she gets caught even more strongly under the weight of the pacifier.

We have two options for increasing the sportiness of this gear:

• Reducing the weight of the feeder (nipple), thereby the self-hooking effect will be less effective and you will have to focus specifically on the tip of the rod.
• Use baits/baits instead of foam. This option makes the tackle very similar to carp, about which we have an article. The method uses a special feeder and special food, which at first glance is very similar to a pacifier, but upon contact with water, already at the bottom, it swells very quickly and forms a mound, on top of which lies bait (most often a boilie). The boilie should be very tasty and the carp, approaching the bait, eats the bait with pleasure, and then, trying to leave, gets caught on the hook. Even here there is a certain effect of unsportsmanship, but it is worth considering that true carp fishers always release their prey. Which we hope you will do too. We wrote about this in a separate guide.

Crucian carp are caught using numerous methods and equipment options. In this article we will tell you about such gear as a cork, which is a fairly simple and simple device, and at the same time allows for effective fishing for this fish.

Tackle "cork": device, principle of operation and advantages

The method of catching crucian carp using a cork rig is somewhat similar to fishing using a macaque. Why is the equipment so named - because it consists of a cork into which complementary foods are stuffed and it also contains leashes with hooks.

A heavy type of sinker is attached to the other end of this plug. That is why the cork tackle lies on the surface of the bottom of the reservoir with its dull side. You can attach bait to the hooks themselves, or you can leave the hooks empty. Having caught the aromas of the feed, the fish begins to swim up to the feeder plug. Having tasted the prey, the crucian carp actively sucks up the feed and at the same time swallows the hooks in the feed.

At the same time, the bite alarm system starts working, and the fisherman strikes. The crucian carp will try to break away and swim away, but the traffic jam itself with a heavy load does not allow it to escape.

The advantages of this type of gear are the following indicators:

• — the simplest possible equipment;
• - can be fished even at great depths;
• — you don’t have to use bait;
• — the likelihood of snags is reduced;
• — crucian carp is self-hooking;
• - you can catch a wide variety of fish.

Features of fishing with a cork

When catching crucian carp with a cork, it is necessary to carry out the process of placing hooks into the cork itself in such a way that the hooks themselves are located with their ear at the bottom, while the bend of the hook is located at the top. You can equip the hooks with foam balls.

This method of catching crucian carp is simply impossible without the use of a tasty feeding agent designed specifically for crucian carp. The process of making complementary foods should be carried out immediately before the actual process of fishing for crucian carp. Mixing the components should be done during the fishing itself, adding body water.

In order for the scents of the aromatics to last a little longer, a piece of foam rubber soaked in the aromatic substance is fixed to the bottom of the cork before adding complementary foods.

The feeding is placed in such a way that it forms a small mound with several edges. The hooks should not be placed to the very bottom of the cork, otherwise the crucian carp itself may have time to get enough and still not have time to reach the hooks.

When fishing for crucian carp with a cork, take with you several corks that are already ready for fishing. If you run out of complementary food on one, you can quickly change the plug with the help of carabiners, without wasting time on packing food for the crucian carp.

Cork tackle equipment

When catching crucian carp with a cork, fishermen use a wide variety of rods. Some people use a feeder rod, while others prefer regular float rods. With this method of catching crucian carp, the reels must hold a fairly large load, because several crucian carp can be caught at once.

When catching crucian carp using this method, the line is selected somewhere around 0.2 millimeters in diameter, but if you fish in clean reservoirs, free of snags and thickets, you can use smaller options. You should not use hooks that are too large in size. Large hooks are quite difficult to hide in the cork itself.

Bait for catching crucian carp using a cork

Successful fishing with the cork method for crucian carp depends entirely on the success of making bait for crucian carp. Many fishermen began to use ready-made, commercially available feeding products. But a real fisherman must make the means for complementary feeding himself. The fertilizer is prepared to be quite viscous. It should be slightly stretchy in composition. Although the feeding density parameters should not be excessive.

One of the simplest ways to make fertilizer for crucian carp is to mix bread crumb and cake mixture. A small amount of flour should be added to this mixture. Among other things, you can use the addition of a small amount of dough. Flavorings such as cinnamon, coriander, garlic are necessarily added, or store-bought flavorings are used.

Another, also quite simple way of preparing the feed would be to mix canned corn in a crushed state and lightly roasted sunflower seeds, and add the juice from the corn. Some flavoring is also added.

How to make a cork tackle for crucian carp?

In order to carry out the process of making cork equipment on your own, you will need some kind of plastic stopper from a five-liter plastic container or a larger plastic container, you can use a lid from some kind of sealant or something else similar.

We select a flat sinker, approximately equal in size to the cork itself, and attach it to the back side of the cork using a sliding fastener. In the cork itself, we make a hole in the center of its base and pass a fishing line with leads there, or the leashes will be attached from the sides through the holes in the cork.

Technique for catching crucian carp using a cork

You can fish with a cork in summer, spring, and autumn. When carrying out such fishing, you should cast the equipment away from the coastline. A process occurs where the cork slowly falls from the base to the bottom. Thus, the complementary food in the cork itself becomes available to the crucian carp, because it lies with the complementary food itself upward.

In some situations, crucian carp begin to be hooked almost from the first minutes of casting the cork rig. Hooking of crucian carp is carried out spontaneously, but it is necessary to equip a bite alarm system, maybe a bell. It should be noted that in addition to crucian carp, a wide variety of fish can be caught using this method, so do not be surprised if, when you pull out the tackle, you find bream or perch on the hook.

1. It is mandatory to equip the cork rig with a bite alarm system.
2. The feeding agent for crucian carp should not be made too thick or thin; it should not immediately fall apart when it gets into the water.
3. You can use this type of equipment without bait.
4. Do not take excessively large hooks, which are difficult to hide in the cork of the tackle itself.