Do the "WOBBLE 'N' SPIN" !
Why not use your combined sink & draw bait-fishing and lure-fishing skills to wobble 'n' spin your way to piking success ?
asks Nick Caine

To judge by a lot of what you read about piking, you'd think that there's bait-fishing or lure-fishing, including using flies, and very little else — but what about that most effective of methods, the Sink & Draw wobbled dead-bait? Surely it's the best of both worlds? Is it a lure or is it a bait? No matter! Why not combine the two?

With what I call a lure-deadbait combo, you can cast, sink, jerk, twitch, stop, spin, glide and draw your way to piking success. Adding an up-trace or tail-end spinner blade to your deadbaits can work wonders if you're finding that the going's tough!

EFFECTIVE METHODS
It's never very wise to compare the relative effectiveness of the various piking techniques but it's generally recognised that, where it's still permitted, live-baiting can be the most productive method. For bait-fishing pikers, if live-baiting is not allowed, there are two options, not just one! Dead-baits don't move about like their live counter-parts so you can either let them sit, or you can give them some "Sink & Draw" action! Even better, you can add a spinning blade or two for some extra flash and vibration.

I've often read that "Sink & Draw" is a neglected method but is that really true? I don't think so. It may not be talked or written about as much as deadbaiting techniques themselves, but from what I've seen and heard on the river bank, it's used a lot more often than you and I've been led to believe.

This "Sink & Draw" method seems to be very popular with some sections of the piking world including youngsters and new comers to the sport and the combination of a moving dead-bait and an up-trace or tail-end spinner blade for extra flash and vibrations can work wonders.

And here I've got to hold-up my hand and say that for me, Sink & Draw, Wobble & Spin, call it what you will, is my single most favourite and productive method for pike, zander and big perch, and has been for over 30 years — I like lure and fly-fishing too, I have to say, but I reckon that "Wobble 'n' Spin" knocks those methods into a cocked hat, if that's the right expression.

LURE & DEADBAIT COMBINATIONS
Ever since I first got interested in lure-fishing, I've also been sinking & drawing my lures. I also do quite a bit of dead-baiting and I sink & draw them too, so it was quite natural, for me anyway, to try combining the two methods to see if it got better results on venues and days that I found were really hard-going.

I've found that this method does take a quite a bit of mastering to get the best from it and the descriptions Sink & Draw and Wobbling may be a tad misleading because, far from a steady wobbling, sink & draw retrieve, you need to give your lure-deadbait combination the maximum amount of action, for example to imitate an injured or dying prey fish — stop, start, jerk, over, under, sideways, down and so on. And I suppose that you could say jerkbait fishing is very similar and it's another very effective method for luring out those biggies.

I started-out by following those old 2-dimensional drawings in magazine articles of how to Sink & Draw but now I think that's mostly rubbish. It's just that I don't think enough emphasis is always given to the need for very erratic jerk, glide & stop, twist & jerk and side-to-side actions which often give the best results when the going gets tough. What I'm saying isn't really anything very new but I just think that it doesn't get enough coverage for what I rate as probably my top all-round piking method, Sink, Draw & Spin with combination lure-baits.

SIMILARITIES
As I've said, I think that there are quite a few similarities and overlaps between wobbled lure-deadbaits and 100% artificial jerk-bait lure fishing. Both methods can be "the Biz" on the right day but leaving their attractive, smelly, oily trail through the water, wobbled dead-baits may sometimes give you the edge especially if you treat them to an up-trace spinner blade or something like that: even a trailing blade will help.

In clear water, jerk-baits and wobbled lure-deadbaits ( i.e. dead-baits with added an added spinner blade) may have the advantage over static dead-baits but in coloured water, it's the dead-bait that will often score best.

Although an ace ambushing predator, old Esox is equally adept at more mobile scavenging for food and this is when static dead-baits can win out, but a slowly moving dead-bait wobbled along the bottom can often be equally as effective.

TACKLE & TECHNIQUES
Turning to tackle and techniques, after a lot of discussion and experimentation, for my Sink & Draw lure-baiting I tend to use a bait-caster and multiplier rig except where tiny lure-baits are concerned, for example when I'm after perch and chub.

Most articles on Wobbling Deadbaits tell you about how to fish mackerel-sized baits but not what to do about the other end of the size scale e.g. minnow-sized ones. As well as seeking out old Esox, I like to be able to lure perch and chub in the same way as with normal lures. To do this, instead of using a half or whole seafish deadbait, I use much smaller fish such as tiny sand-eels or small, thin strips of fish.

Like most dead-baiters, I'm very keen on injecting or marinating my baits in lovely smelly oils and attractants. I also like to add a small red tassle to one or other of my hooks! All the usual baits are on the menu including eel, mackerel, herring, smelt, sardine and lamprey if you can get hold of some.

As I've said, I invariably also use a small up-trace and/or tail-end spinner blade, sometimes with a teaser tail added for extra perch-attraction. I am a great fan of spinner blades and red teaser-tail worms and as I like to be able to swop blades from say a small Colorado style to a Willow type, I use one of those very neat, quick-change spinner blade assemblies that you can get from mail-order DIY spinner-making parts suppliers. On the other hand you may want to stick with your well-tried (and I hasten to add, very productive) classic French-style up-trace spinner blade rig. To avoid using any more knots than I have to, I use sliding carp-rig style stop beads.

Anyway, so far I've talked about the rod, reel and bait sides of wobbling, sinking & drawing what I call my lure-baits but not the hoary question of lines. As I'm sure is true of most piking enthusiasts, the topic of monos and braids has been one of great discussion even dispute between us. I think monos and braids both have their place in predator fishing, horses for courses as they say.

I use monos and braids but am tending to use braids more and more. You'll have to make up your own mind which suits you best. I'm a bit wary of the fact that braids are good for most things except where you need good abrasion resistance, so when I'm sink & drawing in really snaggy waters especially those that I don't know very well, I play safe at first and use a good nylon or copolymer mono and may use a braid later on.

The business end of anyone's piking tackle is the trace and hook rig. Without doubt, ultra-strong, heavy wire-gauge hooks are what you need and there aren't many types around which come up to my expectations. Not surprisingly I have ended-up with a couple of styles of extra-strong treble hooks. Sharpness is one thing and a very important factor for sure, but there's no doubt that if this is achieved by using thinner wire gauge, it's bad news - you can't beat good, thick, strong wire.

I try to use the absolute minimum number of knots and links in my set-up as they are inevitably the weak points. Main line is knotted (6-turn Grinner plus Lok-Knot) to one eye of a strong swivel (50 lb BS) and 28 lb BS trace wire is looped and crimped through the other. The trace then runs straight through to a pair of size 6, 8 or 10 treble hooks, one fixed and one sliding. I have to confess that, as well as my tail-end spinner rig, I do sometimes also add a small Aberdeen or O'Shaunessey single stinger hook to the tail-end for attaching a red plastic worm etc.

Controlling your wobbled lure-bait is the thing which takes most mastering. Like all methods of piking, experience counts for a lot and moderate mastery comes with time. The density/buoyancy of the bait itself is critical and your main line can also have an effect especially if it is a floating braid. Sometimes I also use a pilot marker float (bubble or dumbell) to control the maximum depth of my lure-baits. In fact, sometimes I even think that it would be a good idea to add an extra treble to my marker float itself because many, many times my floats have been attacked pike!

So, if you haven't tried it already, why don't you have a bash at a bit of wobbling, sink, jerk & draw, spin, twitch, glide and stop with some lure-deadbaits? And hopefully, even when the conditions are difficult, aggressive pike and other predators will have a go at your wobbled lure-bait with its enticing add-on spinners! Good Luck and Good Fun !

Nick Caine
with very many thanks indeed to ace wildlife-artist Joe Brock for his superb drawings

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