Often when fishing you can encounter such a phenomenon as fish playing with bait. That is, a well-fed fish does not swallow the bait completely, but lazily and carefully tastes it, immediately spitting it back out. The float, or nod, at the same time signals, the fisherman rushes to the fishing rod and sharply hooks, in the hope of catching a cunning fish... And it’s empty! This unfortunate failure can be circumvented by making a self-cutting device.
As soon as the fish more or less confidently tries the bait with the hook, the device will immediately work, reliably hooking the cautious fish on the lip, palate, or gills. You can assemble this simple device in 20 minutes, at home, with the same simple set of tools.
Will need
- Steel wire, 2mm cross-section, 20-25cm long.
- Iron wire, 1mm cross-section, 10-15cm long.
- Copper wire, knitting, with a cross-section of 0.3 - 0.5 mm.
- The chain is metal, thin, 4 cm long.
- Needle file.
- Regular pliers.
- Thin pliers.
- Engraver or drill with cutting disc.
- Soldering iron, flux, and solder.
Assembling the self-cutting device
First, cut the required piece of steel wire. Precisely steel, not iron. That is, this wire is hardened. It is very difficult for it to set the desired shape, but once it succeeds - you can’t think of a better spring! It is quite problematic to bite off such wire with pliers, so I armed myself with a drill with a cutting disc. We will need a piece 20 cm long. Cut it off.
We determine the middle of the segment and, using pliers, bend it so that a small ring is formed in the middle of the segment. Then we straighten the remaining ends.
The task is not easy, but quite surmountable. Next, using a needle file pin and thin pliers, you need to bend a small ring with a hook at the end from thin iron wire (you can use a straightened paper clip). This is what it turns out to be a squiggle:
Now, using a soldering iron, tin, and flux, we tin the ends of the resulting steel spring and the ring with the hook. Using a thin knitting wire, we wind a ring with a hook to one of the ends of the spring, and solder it tightly, not sparing the tin. Like this:
We carry out the same procedure with the other end of the steel spring. Only here the ring should be without a hook.
In the end, this is what should happen:
Next, we spread the ends of the spring so that they are fixed at a distance of about 10-12 centimeters from each other. Now we take a piece of a thin chain, 4 cm is enough, and hook it to the ring, which does not have a hook.
Here, the device is almost ready. To cock it into “combat” mode, you need to hook the free end of the chain to the hook at the other end of the spring. Right at the very tip of the hook.
All that remains is to tie the fishing line with a hook or jig.The fishing line should be passed through the ring, which has a hook, and tied to the free end of the chain.
There you go. You can wind the fishing line around one end of the spring and put it away with other fishing gear until needed.
This device works at 5 plus. It works even with a light touch. It will save you from unnecessary movements on your fishing vacation and, let’s be honest, from unnecessary nervousness because of the missed fish of your dreams. The self-cutting device can be installed approximately 20cm below the float. If you have a half-bottom with a nod, then calculate the distance to the bottom yourself so that the device does not lie on the bottom, but hangs above it with a fishing line and hook attached. Unfortunately, I currently do not have the opportunity to conduct tests in real conditions, since the nearest reservoir with fish is very far from the village. And, to be honest, I’m not a fan of winter ice fishing. But, you can see tests of the device at home in the video below the article.
