Monthly Archives: August 2013

Rastoke brownies

Spineri @en, ,

A hundred kilometers from Zagreb Slunjčica (I bet you can´t pronounce this!) flows. It just to be rich with grayling in past, but they say it´s over fished now. In non-fishermen circles, it is famous for Rastoke. Slunjčica (try slunchisa) flows into Korana river in a series of impressive waterfalls there, and, trust me, it´s breathtaking! I imagined it like fast and shallow, but it is just the opposite. It is deep, clear and really slow flowing. You can buy fishing license in a Vodena ovca (water sheep) caffe like we did. We sipped coffee in a matter of seconds cause we saw trout in a creek beside the caffee and we couldn´t sit still not a moment longer. You can try fly fishing in a centre of Rastoke, between old mills, but we decided we´ll go upstream.

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Upstream of the bridge in some 15 minutes my buddy Krmpa takes 5 trouts on a orange Berkley nymph. I can´t get a bite on my twitch wobblers, not so ever. I saw couple of smaller fish by the bank, but they stay indifferent. I am changing my presentation. I am trying to get a bite on inline spinnerbait near the bottom first and then I am doing the same with jig streamer. That gives me 2 short bites. I have a feeling if they were just nibbling on feathers.

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Upstream of a waterfall, we see couple fish, I even manage to get one´s attention, but again, without happy end. On another waterfall i misshook one on inline spinnerbait and I am getting nervous. I know these I see can´t be fooled, but I can´t help myself and I keep on aiming them. 3 hours later, I am depressed. Not a single fish. Not a smallest trout. Nothing. Krmpa and Robert decide to take a break for a lunch, I am hungry as well, but sense of frustration is stronger so I continue upstream. I am hoping for some rapids, but all i get is a shallow part of a water with a couple fish around 25- 30 cm. All the sudden, from a water vegetation half a meter long fish comes out! I am skintight by the tree, she can´t see me. She swims thru that area like big white shark. Smaller fish get out of her way.
Water is standing still so I decide to offer her small silent twitchbait. I am throwing it, it ´s turning, it goes after the lure, and it stops. It´s following it again, but without any hint it´ll attack it now, or in a half a million years. It swimms almost cheerfull behind it. She came all the way to the bank and only thing n the world I would like to do right now is to jump on its head! Like its aware of just might could of happen, she´s taking off.

I give up, I take off too, outplayed and defeated. I am getting back to those waterfalls and rapids. Right in time to see Krmpa has a good fish on a fly. It lasts couple of seconds and then rod straightens. We have some really cool curses in our language and my buddy is using almost all of them. I know the feeling, my friend.

He had it on a streamer so I copy him for a while, but it´s boring. Let´s try metal jig for a change. Cast on the other side, I let it sink and start to twitch it. Couple of casts later, I finally got one! It took me six hours, but I got one. She pumps at the bottom first and then jumps out of the water. It breaks loose ina the air. Metal jig goes one way, fish goes another. Respect! Nevermind, showtime started.

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In next 5 casts I get 4 fishes. They are definetely feeding frenzy. It lasts 30, 40 minutes and it stops. 6 hours of agony and half an hour of delight. Good enough, let´s go home.

Hard times

Spineri @en, ,

We had great chub-related text in our mind. Then winter prolonged, after that Sava river rised to the sky, spawning time came later and so on. In period that was rich with big bites in past years, we caught only a few small fish. That´s why ve have a story about chub in a hot summer, when water level is on its minimum and water is clear and almost boiling. Not great conditions for chub, or any other fishing, but we decided to give it a try. First we tried to catch some chub with crankbaits. Chub from Sava absolutely adore loud crankbaits. But not when water is boiling. Some of our friends used twitchbaits when fishing for chub, but I really didn´t need to. Till this year.

Magic number for Sava river´s chub is 50 cm. So that´s what we were targeting. First one came as a bonus fish while we were catching asp. He took Duo Realis Minnow. Big chub strikes lure with great strenght. This one hanged himself on rear treble. Hook penetrated so shallow I was lucky I got him out. He took a lure above a gravel transition to the deep.
In next few fishing trips we were looking for similar places. Sava was on its minimum water level so it wasn´t problem to wade and then from islands cast toward shore, where nice chusb were hidden between cover, or resting in a shade of a tree. In a places like that, especialy if water is slow, it´s not easy to fool a chub. But it can be done. Presentation of a twitch wobbler depends on a a speed of river flow. If it´s faster, I twitch it slower and more gentle than I do in slow current when casting for chub. In slow water I really like to use sharp twitches, its pretty much only way to provoke a strike from big, fat chub. Once you find best way to work certain wobbler, and presentation that attracts bites, you´re fine for the rest of your life.

If you wade thru Sava these days, you will find deeper parts of river too, of course. Parts like that I like to work with mid-running wobblers, like Rapala Tail Dancer, or 6-7 cm long Ugly Duckling. Presentation is copied from trout fishing. I like to stand downstream and cast upstream in a fan pattern. Strikes are usually at the end of the deep, and trully are strikes. My buddy Tihomir likes to work dephts with metal blade he makes, with nice results as well.
At the end, it is tricky to be outside when sun is up high. Especially on the water, when it hits you from above as well as from under, as a reflection from water surface. I myself got sunstroke couple of times, not a nicest feeling, trust me. Bigger chub work better later in the afternoon, so-and-so.

Teška vremena

Spineri, , , , , ,

Imali smo spreman krasan tekst o klenovima. Onda nam se zima odužila, Sava narasla do neba, ispremješala i opet i korito i obalu, pomaknula mrijest i tako dalje. Od klenova, onih pravih savskih mutanata ništa. U periodu kad smo inaće lovili najveće tek pokoji trkač od 25-30 cm. Tako da će tekst o kruškicama pričekati iduću godinu..

U zamjenu nudimo vam priču o ribolovu klena u špici ljeta, pri minimalnim vodostajima i bistroj, pregrijanoj vodi. Par ribolova nabacivali smo se nekim provjerenim krenkovima koje su prošlih godina udarale ribe od 5 do 55 cm. Ove godine poneki manji, masa praćenja, par bjegova glavom bez obzira i to je to. Onda smo odlučili promijeniti pristup.

Neki dječaci (Komar npr) su na tvičeve namijenjene pastrvama rokali klenove davnih dana. Ja za to uistinu nisam imao potrebe sve do ovog ljeta, jer sam uredno lovio prasce na kojekakve krenkove, čak i po ovakvim pasjim vrućinama, samo bih se igrao dekorima, vibrom i ozvučenjima.

Prva 50-ka ove godine došla je kao bonus riba dok smo lovili bolene na valjda najpoznatijem ljetnom mjestu na Savi. Na sitno, najsitnije tvičani realis minnow doslovno se, bez ikakvog udarca, objesio macan velike glave i relativno mršavog tijela. Primio je na dosta oštrom prijelazu iz plićaka u dubinu. Obično su ribe oko 50 podebele i borbene. Ovaj se tek pod obalom nešto malo borio, a udica ga je tako plitko probola da je čudo da se nije otkačio i u tako kratkoj borbi.

Idućih par ribolova tražili smo slične terene. S obzirom da je Sava ovih dana rekordno niska, nije problem pregaziti s obale na otok i sa otoka gađati kanale uz obalu, ili kanale među otocima, prijelaze sprudova u dubinu itd. Mjesta uz obalu sa potopljenim granjem, panjevima, itd i nadvijenim granama nad njima također igraju, mada je dosta teško prevariti kapitalnog klena u sporijoj vodi i u povoljnijim uvjetima (za nas ribiče) od ovih koji sada vladaju. Po mjestima sa bržim protokom varalicu vodim kao da lovim pastrvu- nizvodno. Ovisno o brzini protoka ju i tvičam. Brža struja, nježnije i sporije, sporija struja, brži i odsječniji tvičevi. Jednom kad prokužite varalicu i na kakvo vođenje dotične najbolje reagiraju, mirni ste, otprilike, za sva vremena. Za pastrvu se ponekad pitam je li kuglica u vobleru previše, za klena nema brige. 5-9 cm dugi tvičevi ne mogu biti preglasni.

Naravno, ako gazite po Savi ovih dana, naletjet ćete tu i tamo i na dublji komad rijeke, iza nekakvog stoljetnog hrasta kojeg po normalnom vodostaju ne kužite, ili za njega zapinjete pa ga zaobilazite. Ako se zovete Tihomir Martinović, a.k.a. Tmarti, onda ćete u tu dubinu zafitiljiti svoju ručno rađenu metalnu glavinjaru, originalnog imena ZZ Tup! I u prvom, ili prva 3 zabačaja potegnut klena 45-50.

Ukoliko ste kao ja pa želite u praksi potvrditi da za klenove ovih dana igraju otprilike isti zakoni kao i za pastrvu, na kopču ćete okačiti nekog srednjeronca, u formi tail dancera, ružnog pačeta, ili nečeg trećeg i lepezasto ćete pretraživati tu rupu. Udarci su obično na izlazu iz rupe (opet prijelaz dubina-plićina) i stvarno jesu udarci, za razliku od dosta stidljivih napada na tvičeve.

Napomena za kraj, a o tome trube sa svih strana ovih dana: izbjegavajte biti na vodi kad je sunce najjače, pogotovo što na vodi udara i odozgo i odozdo, kao odbljesak s površine vode. Nažalost, nisam jednom pobrao sunčanicu pa govorim iz osobnog iskustva. Isto tako, iz osobnog iskustva mogu reći da klenovi bolje primaju u popodnevnim satima, bar oni veći za koje se isplati preznojiti na 35 i više °C.