How to catch with a Tyrolean Stick Sinker?

The tyrolean rod (Ballerina) is one of the varieties of spread spinning tackle, which has proven to be very effective on many water bodies with a current. Tyrolean rod rod is an elongated hollow tube of light weightless transparent polymeric material, and inside it there is air to give positive buoyancy. At one end of it is a lead weight, and on the other – a plastic cap with a hole for attaching to the line.

Weight from 8 to 46 grams. – Used on small rivers and in places with slow and medium stream. The classic mounting method is to attach the Tyrolean stick through a triple swivel to the main line. Also to the swivel tied leash, which will be located and the bait (silicone, wobbler, spinning rod, wobbler or fly).

To fish for crappie or school perch on the rivers small baits or a few hooks with baits attached to a short leash on the main line, and it is mounted on the end of the Tirol stick, to leashes were shorter than the Tirol stick and did not cling to the bottom. Successfully used for fishing for bream and perch from the water surface or in the near-surface layer.

The modern bottom fishing sinker for river bottom fishing is the “Tyrolean Stick”. This, at first glance, unusual in shape component of bottom fishing tackle for many species of predatory and peaceful fish, including pike, perch, catfish, carp and bream. The Tyrolean stick, a modern catfish fishing sinker named after its place of origin – the city of Tyrol in Switzerland, is a sinker with special properties.

The Tyrolean stick is indispensable in many cases. It works great when fishing on heavily silted, soft or overgrown bottom, when fishing from the bottom among large rocks, as well as in cases where you want to keep the leader with the bait just above the surface of the bottom. This design of the sinker works effectively to avoid unnecessary hooks and keep the bait on a certain horizon.

Tyrolean stick sinker for fishing on the river is used when catching predatory and wild fish as the main sinker bottom tackle and when fishing for spinning tackle with a lead. Recently, this tackle is becoming more popular, as it allows finessing parts of the water area, inaccessible when using conventional sinker. These areas are usually the most catchable because of the large number of predatory and wild fish, gravitating to the natural bottom obstacles and algae.

Very effective this sinker works as an end (blind) weight paired with artificial lures on a diversion leash up the main line. Such a tackle allows you to send a very light bait to a long distance without the risk of breakage due to hooks on the bottom obstacles, as well as when fishing in a strong current, which requires constant holding of the light bait near the bottom.

Another advantage of Tyrolka when wiring on the bottom is manifested in the fact that moving in steps the sinker taps on the bottom and raises clouds of mud, attracting many small fish and, consequently, active predators.

Tyrolean stick fishing tackle

In essence, the Tyrolean stick sinker is a design combined of two parts: the weight and the float. As a result, it turns out that the heavy part is lying on the bottom, and the upper floating rises stick, raising the leash or the main fishing line above the surface of the bottom at 10-25 cm. The upper part of the Tyrolka – is usually a transparent plastic tube with a cross section of 4-8 mm and a length of up to 25 cm, sometimes more. The upper end of the float tube is closed by a plug with a loop for a deaf or sliding attachment to the main fishing line.

Load in the form of a drop, bullet or olive is attached by glue or in tension to the lower end of this tube. Such a design in any situation tries to take a vertical position on the bottom, floating part up, providing holding the line at some distance above the bottom.

When fishing predator with a tippet rod Tirolka allows to avoid or minimize accidental hooking of the sinker on a rock or snags, and when fishing for salmon and sazan groundfish reduces the risk of loss of fishing gear in thickets and keeps bait-bait above the silted or overgrown bottom.

Tyrolka fishing for pike and walleye

Fishing for pike and pikeperch using a Tyrolean rod. This way of catching predatory fish is quite successful precisely when using the above type of sinker. Tyrolean stick allows you to keep the artificial bait on an attractive for the predator horizon, despite the obstacles, which abound in the river beds.

In some situations, when it is necessary to promptly change the carrying capacity of the tyrolka, you can put a piece of Styrofoam on the tube. After that, such a sinker will be even easier to pass obstacles on the bottom when dragging without hooks.

More often predator, pike and pike, attack the bait on a tackle with a diverter during pauses when the sinker freezes on the bottom.

It’s best to carry out wiring tackle with a Tirol stick against the current, with possible as a pull-up tackle against the current after throwing, and squeezing the line downstream with stops. Pauses should be long enough, up to 10-20 seconds. It is at these moments more often there is a bait.

You can of course make the wiring and across the stream, if another option in this area of the channel is not. It happens that this method of fishing and brings good results, especially with the presence of several transverse deep water bars or snags. Only in this case, given that the current carries the sinker to the side, it is necessary not to allow slack in the main line and pauses to make short, with a quick winding up.

Ways to mount jigs using a tyrolean rod

Like any other bottom sinker, the tyrolka as part of the rigging can be used as an end sinker at the end of the main fishing line with the leads above or as a sliding weight in front of the leads.

If the tyrolka is fixed tightly on the end, then one or two leads with bait, whose length is approximately equal to the length of the stick – this allows to avoid hooks.

Baits or bait on hooks in a tackle should be light enough not to affect the game itself tirolki. Almost all baits of animal origin are used: worms, опарыш, pieces of fresh fish, etc., and as artificial baits can be used small silicon (twisters and vibro-tails), streamers, flies for fly fishing and small baits or wobblers.

In the case where the tyrolean rod is mounted to the leash, a single leash is used, which can be up to 1 m long and have all the above baits or baits on the end. Sometimes in this tackle put another short leash above the sinker, this design is prone to entanglement when thrown and is usually used in the case where the tackle can trawl on a clean bottom.

When fishing for diversionary leash broaches mass tyrolskoy stick, depending on the weight of the bait, current and depths, from which is fishing, is selected in the range 15-30 grams. The leash is better to make from a stiff high-strength monofilament fishing line, such as fluorocarbon or even a thin steel cord – this leash better holds the bait at a given horizon and is less prone to kinks when throwing.

After throwing, let the bait with the sinker drop to the bottom, spread out in the current, and then, constantly controlling the tension of the fishing line, begin reeling: 2-3 quick turns – a pause of 15-20 seconds – reeling again. Sometimes, if the catch of the predator sluggish, a good result brings the following action: during pauses make the rod tip a few short twitches – the bait at this time played more active, which can provoke a pike or pike to attack.

During this wiring must ensure that the line does not sag, and spinning rod was directed up at an oblique angle, because in this case the end of the rod is a signaling bait. At the slightest hint of a bite, it is necessary to make the hook with a sharp stroke of the brush. This is due to the fact that between the bait and the main line on the current there is a blunt angle, that is, there is an extra line, which should be selected due to the large amplitude of the hook.

The Tyrolean Stick for Catfish Tackle

Catfishing is a very popular and serious activity, given that the weight of the catfish is often up to 100 kg. As a rule, here catfish are caught with bottom tackle from the shore or on a hook from a boat. When installing rigging for bottom fishing for catfish are used, given the strong currents and great depths, quite massive weights. Tyrolean stick of great weight in such a situation is indispensable.

For such fishing tyrolki used weighing from 150 to 250 grams, otherwise tackle will simply be swept away by the current, namely the position of tackle in a certain place near the lying catfish, the whole time of fishing is the key to successful fishing.

To avoid loss of the whole tackle when drifting into a snag or wrestling big catfish, which tend to escape into vegetation thickets and under flooded trees, tyrolka do with otdelayemyam from the fishing line mount. This is achieved by using special carabiners or inserting the top cap in the tube-float with a fixing for the fishing line without glue, in-tension, so she could get out when jamming the sinker.

Another very important advantage of the tyrol stick is that you can easily make it yourself.

To make a tyrolka yourself you will need the following materials:

– A piece of PVC pipe with a cross section of 5-8 mm with thin walls;

– Pieces of lead or brass bolts (they are heavier than steel);

– Water-resistant glue, carabiner with a swivel, etc.

Screw a bolt into the bottom of the tube (you can adjust the weight by selecting different bolts and adding lead. On the other side of the tube, put a cork with a ring on or off the glue to attach the swivel.

You can also just flatten the top part of the tube, grease inside with glue and make a small hole for the crown ring. The main thing is that the tyrolka must hold firmly on the bottom in a vertical position without bubbles. All done. Have a good fishing!

The advantages of the Tyrolean stick over other lead sinkers.

I very rarely see fishermen using Tyrolean sticks when fishing, but I have fished them out of the water more than once. I, like many other anglers, after losing a couple of baits in this place, rushed to leave this dangerous place for baits and their pockets and further sought to bypass it.

When I realized everything, then the next day went in search of Tyrolean sticks in the fishing stores of the city. It turned out that the stores are not on fire to sell them because of the low demand for them. Compared to lead sinkers they are quite expensive, fishermen do not know much about them and do not want to “overpay” money in vain.

The name “Tyrolean” rod comes from the name of one of the federal states of Austria, which is located in the eastern part of the Alpine mountains. There are many rocks in the mountain rivers and it is very easy to snag and break off sinkers and lures on the various fishing rods.

The Tyrolean rod is a rather soft and moderately resilient tube. A lead weight is pressed into its lower end, and the upper end is sealed, so that there is air inside the tube. When casting the tackle and dropping it to the bottom, the Tyrol stick moves with its heavy end downwards. On the bottom it stands upright. Even caught between the rocks, the wand has the opportunity to leave this trap thanks to a long tube, which serves as a kind of lever.

I call the Tyrolean rod a rover, because it goes over rocky places, where I would not dare to cast ordinary lead weights of the tippet rod. Tough terrain is the Tyrolean’s greatest strength. Its second advantage is that in case it is caught between the rocks, there is a big chance to pull it out of the rock captivity.

The third plus is the possibility of holding the tyrol stick over the rocks with more rare touching these rocks, because the air inside the tube improves its “buoyancy”, the bait sinks more slowly compared to the same weight of lead sinkers.

So this plus can look like a minus in some cases if you need to get the bait to the bottom faster. To solve this problem, you have to use larger Tyrolean rod weights or make a throw upstream to give time for the weight and bait to sink in.

Tyrolean sticks are increasingly in demand among fishermen, and there are a variety of them on sale. Personally, I prefer to use Tyrolean sticks that have the diameter of the lead’s circumference not much greater than the thickness of the tube. It is desirable that the tube is thicker than the lead protruding from it, or about the same, then it will be easier to pull such a Tyrolean stick wedged between stones.

If you have an opportunity to choose the “right” Tyrolean sticks when buying, it is better to choose those with the lead not much thicker than the tube itself, and ideally almost completely hidden in the body of the tube.

Before the first fishing trip I was very concerned about the large size of Tyrolean sticks, I was afraid that the fish would be frightened by them. For this I increased the length of the bait wire a little bit. Load works fine, I was worried in vain, but I recommend to do the wiring more delicate.

When fishing at an angle to the current Tyrolean stick sails harder and after each jerk it is slower to reach the bottom, especially when the cord is stretched. Silicone bait on the offset in this case also sinks more slowly, which gives the fish extra time to think.

Personally, I have a Tirol tippet works better in the heat, when many species of fish become more passive and stay mostly at the bottom. In such cases, the lead weight on the pause for a long time to leave the risk, the current can roll between the rocks, and Tyrolean stick in this situation just helps. It is carried down by the water current, but it is not so much prone to hooks and you can do long pauses, as long as the bait itself has not fallen through the narrow gap in the rocks.

So as you can see, the Tyrolean stick has advantages over lead sinkers and the stick’s ability to pass obstacles justifies its price. You can simply go broke on lost lead sinkers and baits in “tough” places, but the Tyrolean stick saves you from that, and also saves the fisherman precious time in tying a new tackle instead of a broken one.

It’s up to you. I’m telling you the direction in which you can move, and you decide for yourself: move or not. While many fishermen do not know about the Tyrolean rod or do not want to know about it, other fishermen use it to catch successfully, and not for the first year. So good luck to you in any case!