Category Archives: Spineri @en

Tmarti

Spineri @en, , , ,

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I met this guy 10 years ago. He was making some good looking hand made wobblers so I asked him to make mi a copy of shallow Rapala Fat rap that was not producing any more. We met after he did it, sat in a caffee and he got out of his pocket great looking lure, but it was deep runner! That´s how it all started. After that, he didn´t miss the point too many times. Beside wobblers, Tihomir is a genius who can draw, or make in stone, wood, plaster, or pretty much any other material anything you can think of. Carvings made of wood are his passion as well. One of wobblers he made for me I don´t use any more. It is in a well deserved retirement. That thing caught so many pikes it had to be repainted and protected couple of times. It was slow floating in a start, after years of abuse, it became slow sinking. When I asked him to make some more like that he said he would have to cut it in 2 to see how it looks from the inside. I simply couldn´t allow that. Let me enumerate just some of his ideas; ones he made for me. There is a walk the dog type of bait that looks like 20 cm long brown trout. Then there is catfish torpedo, real life looking frog, even a little sturgeon which he never finished, because he didn´t want to cut it so he can put a bill in it..

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First thing he made in a small serie is a metal vib. You can see it in a picture. 55 mm long and 12 g of a weight. Casts like a bullet, and it caught serious number of barbel, chub, asp, trouts and catfish. It´s Tihomir´s favourite.

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Along with ZZ Tup, there are Kuwagates. First serial wobbler he made. 5, 7, or 9 centimeters with some more to come. I prefer smallest one, trout, chub, asp, .. agree with me. Last ones even abductet some from me. 0,22 nylon simply couldn´t make it. Newest thing he´s up to are mini jerkbaits. Tihomir had smaller pike and bass in mind when he was making these, but it turned out that asp and chub react great on them. Carvings he makes look absolutelly stunning. He made for me a scene where bass attacks Yo Zuri Arms swisher.

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Now, a decade after we first met, after couple of hundreds fishing trips and after god knows how many wobblers he made, he can tell the difference between shallow runner and a deep runner. His hand made wobblers look better than ever and there´s no sudh thing he can make. If he is in the mood..

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Lake wolf

Spineri @en, ,

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I simply can not understand people who like zander fishing. I am not talkinga about guys in a boat on a Danube. That´s pretty cool. You are in a boat, you find them, catch some, and you´re good. Those who do it from a bank i do not understand. Let me explain myself. Let´s take Sava river as an example. During summer, mosquitos eat you alive. They´ll bite you in the ass if they can. In autumn you´re up till that same ass in mud. But, winter.. Winter is my favourite. Usually you stand in one place for a couple of hours. You don´t move. Cause last time you have been here you had a bite you didn´t realized for you´ve been casting like maniac for last 4 or 5 hours and of course you wasn´t concentrated after that time. Or, you pulled a grub out of a water in one moment and it was half way off the hook. And even though you didn´t feel a bite, and there are no teeth marks, or just because of it, you are certain it was a meter long fish. Yeah, right!

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So, that´s why I can´t understand those who feel fishing for zander from a bank is such a cool thing. That´s why we started, on Robert´s urging, chasing it in lakes. Not to many people in Croatia does it. I don´t know why. Let´s be real, there is far more zander in lakes than one would think. Like every fish from percidae family, it protect its spawn and it has advantage in a start prior to pike, second most common still water predator in Croatia. Yes, pike grows bigger, but, opposed to the pike, you can persuade zander to take a bite almost any time of day.

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Dusk and dawn are top periods of course, but if day is cloudy and murky, you can have a whole lot of fun if you use light, or ultralight action rods, like Sakura Trinis Neo and Garbolino Ghetto Rider are. During day time fishing, we focus on transitions from the shallows to depths. He likes to spend its time there. He´s fond of deepest parts of a lake, too. Biggest problem with zander is to track him down. Once you find them, it´s not a problem to catch it.

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Mr glass-eye (one of the names we call it here, i personally prefer lazy ass no good), likes to spend most of its time somewhere down low. In some kind of a neutral mode. Meaning he is not feeding frenzy, but, hey, if something interesting goes by him, he´ll pretty much sure bite it. Softbaits rigged on a jig hook are first choice, logically. Let´s keep it simple and say there are 2 types of softbaits I use. First ones are those with distinct action. Baits like Slotter Shad, or Sakura Punshad. Other group contains of swimbaits with fine, subtle action. Sakura Slit Shad is a great example. Jig heads are another story. A lot of it depends on them. Again, let´s keep it simple and say there are 2 basic presentations. If fish is lethargic and fishing is slow, I use lightest jig head I have in the moment. That´s usually 2-3 grams. I let it sink and twich it slowly. Real slow. I wanna get that inactive zander time to make up his mind.

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When I get bored, I take 10-12 g jighead and do some snap jigging. To provocate reaction strike. It´s hard to miss, but sometimes I don´t feel the bite, just weight on the other side of a line. That´s why i like to use salted and scented softbaits. When fish is active, when they have itchy teeth, I don´t think about jighead weight at all. 3, 8, or 12 grams, it´s all the same to me. Easiest way to describe presentation in that period is a comparison with EKG signal. It is one sharp snap of a rod tip continued with a 2 or 3 weaker snaps. I let it sink after that, let it rest for some time and continue. Strikes are usually when bait is falling down.

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You can try steady retrieve, but I don´t like it cause too many times zander boiled behind my lure next to bank. Meaning, they got interested, but there was no trigger that would make them bite.  Last, but not the least, one thing that turned up to be quite important. Fluorocarbon leader. Zander maybe doesn´t have eyes as big as a wolf in a fairy tale, but sees well. Sometning between 0,20 and 0,30 will do the trick. And it will keep your braid from wear.

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Wrong turn

Spineri @en, , , ,

Where the wild hogs go is a title of an old croatian TV serial as well as a title that perfectly suits terrains that Robi and I visited, looking for pike somewhere between Okučani and Nova Gradiška. We came a bit too early in season and caught only a few baby pike, but perches forfilled the day big time. That` s why we`re seriously thinking that we rename our ultra light fishing to ultra slit fishing. But, one step at the time. Robi is bothering me to visit these canals for 2-3 years now. As we were driving up the highway, he was talking how pikes attack top water lures, how you can catch fish over 7-8 kilos and so on , all in a channel 7-8 meters wide and 1 meter deep. Yeah, right, I was thinking. Next moment we are getting off the highway at Okučani, then drive down the road and take a wrong turn somewhere. Dude wasn` t here for a couple of years, and of couse he didn´t checked on Google Maps where exactly he went fishing couple years ago. So, it` s early in the morning and here we are, in the middle of nowhere, with absolutely nobody on the road that we could ask for direction. After some dispute and calling names, we decided to get off of the main road and head towards the woods that we saw in the distance. Behind the forest is a Sava river, and forest itself should be transected with canals. At one of them Robert fished for pike before, and logically, if there is pike in one of them, it should be in all of them, more, or less. After 15-20 minutes of driving down the road we hit the first canal.

Given that we do not know where we are, we have no choice but to try a method of attempts and errors, as we say here in Croatia. Couple of minutes later, our gear is arranged and we are ready to kick some pike´s butts. As we came close to water, I realised that it is only 30 cm deep. So I am throwing a lure only formally, without any hope at all. At a third try, nice pike misses my lure, raising a cloud of silt of the bottom! Well, I am thinking, maybe Robert wasn´t talking nonsense during the way here after all. Downstream, canal is unapproachable so we give up of it.

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Each of us caught a couple of baby pike in the next canal, so we decided to sit in the car and go deeper into the woods. Gravel road soon turns to dirty path with plenty of muddy holes and my beautiful Mazda is soon unrecognizable. After a few muddy and uncomfortable kilometers on the left side we finally see the canal. First lay-by is ours and a little bit later we are following footsteps of wildlife through the ruined forest down to the water. Thru the entire length of a canal visible to an eye, piles of branches stick out of a water, and literally, some parts of canal contain more trees than water. That´s why Roby is casting a spinnerbait, while I lay my hopes in 85 mm long Slit Shad rigged weedless on a worm hook. Nothing happens for a while, only a buddy of mine is commenting that he feels like something is poking his spinnerbait from time to time.

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After a while, I finally have a decent stroke in the mesh of branches and Slit Shad finally lands a 15 cm long perch. I am replacing Slit Shad 85 with one 75 mm long and landing another perch, around 20 centimetres. 25 lb tested wire trace and almost 2 centimeters long snap doesn´t bother them at all. Robi puts 5 centimeters long Slit Shad on, and in next 5 throws lands 5 perches. Ok, that´s it, screw the pike, screw the heavy duty equipment, let` s do some ultra light fishing! In a moment we are back at the car, and next moment we are back on the water with our UL rods. Next few hours we are literally killing ourselves in perches between 20 and 30 centimeters long. Closer to surface fishes are smaller, but when lure comes to the bottom undisturbed, bigger fish hits it. Although water is a bit muddy, even the smallest perch packs whole bait in its mouth. They are flawless! Although we would probably catch bigger fish by increasing jig weight, both of us use 2 gram round head jigs on our hooks so we can control bait better. In really heavy conditions we rig our Slit Shads on a small worm hook weighted with tungsten on a shank of it. This decreases percentage of hook-ups, but we are taking out perches from the spots that would be inaccessible otherwise.

After some time and God knows how many fishes caught and released, I am picking up a spot that it´s almost screaming it´s hiding a decent fish. There is a huge tree in a water after which there is a zone of deeper, calm water with many branches in it. I am coming butt down and on all 4  and taking out 7-8 perches in as many casts. Next cast brings me a porky, humpy fish and I am calling Robert to come and make some photographs. During the shooting, I am joking with Robert by saying I cleaned him a spot from small ones so he can catch a big one. He took me seriously and now he´s aiming the worst cover there is with 5 cm long Slit Shad. After a couple of snags and lost lures, tip of his Game Hunter starts to pump, and Twin Power starts to skid. I know it` s wicked and mean of me, but I really am hoping he hooked a small pike instead of a big perch! But no, life isn´t fair! Little bastard soon lands big perch, 30+ cm long in my own opinion. Superb catch for water this big and I can only congratulate to my friend. A few shots later, nice hubby fish is getting back in a deceptive certainty of a water. After that we caught some more perches in same spot, and than decided it´s enough for today. More than enough. We´ll be back for sure. If we don´t get lost along the way, that is…

Sakura Slit Shad- you gotta try it!

Spineri @en, , , , , ,

I bought more than many lures in my life. Some of them looked good, with some of them my friends had nice results, some of them I saw on internet and had to try, and so on. You know how it goes. Some of them turned to be great, some of them turned out to be complete disasters. That´s why I am skeptical when someone, even though we know each other for a long time and he is a great guy and a great fisherman, comes to me and says,´ You gotta try this, this really works!´When you literally demolish perch on on a first try, when you catch few bass around 40 cm on aq fot summer day, when you trick 3 trouts in between 40-50 cm in a day, scepticism is gone and you say to yourself, hell, yeah, this really works. OK, it catches fish. Even cooler is it catches pretty much everything. In last year along with already mentioned species, we´ve been catching pike, zander, chub, asp, seabass, barbel, catfish and seabass!

Sakura Slit shad is available in 50, 75, 85, 100, 125, and from this year 150 nad 175 milimeters of lenght. It´s packed from 20 pieces a blister to 3 pieces for largest ones. They are scented with crawfish scent and salted. Mr Yamamoto long time ago tought us what that means. Fish that kind of a bait hold longer in it´s mouth so you can set a hook better. Material they are made of is neither too soft nor too firm. Crystals of salt crush when fish chews Slit shad, I am pretty much sure same happens when one chews a real thing.

Because of great mixture of a material and thin tail, Slit works on slowest retrieve, even rigged on a worm hook weightless. Rigged on a jig hook works great as well, with a nice body roll. It goes for all sizes. All of the sizes can be used like a topwater lure, kinda buzzbait, or torpedo. It burbles and leaves bubble trace behind. Bass and pike find it irresistable! With bullet weight in fornt of the lure, or rigged on a weighted worm hook it is weedless and can be fished from surface to bottom, even in a heavy cover. Once you set a hook, Slit Shad slides down the hook and miss hookings are minimum. It does happen, but usualy with smaller fish that can´t pack lure well. What to say in the end? Let´s say we found our new best friend in a Slit Shad. Try it, you might feel the same.

Tight lines!

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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.

Twitch!

Spineri @en, , , , ,

Twitching, jerking, ripping, … and so on.

For a start, lets say there are moments when fish reacts better to a metal lure, or soft lure, but twitchbaits do show many advantages in many situations and I really do like tossing them around! When you twitch a wobbler, you usually twitch something that proved itself already. It really isn´t that important are we talking about good old Rapala Original floating, or about Megabass Ito Vision 95. What matters is that both of them catch fish, and when you twitch, or jerk it, they catch even better and bigger.

There are some rules to follow when we are talking about twitching. First rule would be that you start sharp at first. We are talking about moderate fast and fast twitching, with whom you can search plenty of space in short period of time. Also, with this being your first step, you can pretty soon get the idea in what kind of mood fish is. This is no-brainer, you twitch a lure you believe in and if nothing happens in some time period, yo got to ask yourself if you may have picked up a wrong day, or water. I know I do.

Next step, in my case at least is more agressive twitching. I make longer pauses between twitches, but twitches are much sharper, faster and eratic. If I go for asp, or any other fast fish, there is no pause at all. Pause lasts as long time as it takes me to bring the rod tip back from all the way down to all the way up. It´s a blink of an eye. Presentation mentioned first catches active fish. This one catches them and those that are not hungry, but find my lure disturbing them in some way. This works great in bass fishing, he can hardly resist not to strike something what came from out of nowhere and stopped directly in front of his face. Some bass have more, some less tolerance. If it didn´t strike, or swim away first time he saw the lure, he probably will in next couple casts.

Last step is to slow down my presentation to a maximum. It´s like I am offering a predator a bag of chips, or some kind of a snack after it had dinner. Yeah, it´s full, but who would say no to a snack while watching TV? In this way I give a chance to those big, lethargic lunkers parked in cover.

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Few moments ago my lure looked to them like minnow on drugs, all hyped. Of course big fish won´t leave cover for something like that. But now my twitchbait stands still by a cover for some time. It moves 15-20 cm and stands still again, shimmering in pause. It takes a minute or so to cross a meter. If fish strikes, it strikes in pause. It goes for every single fish, trout, bass, asp, pike, whatever you want. So keep an eye on your line and be ready to set a hook on any suspicious move of a line. if you´re chasing trout, it´s more likely you´ ll first see flash of a belly and half a second later feel the strike on the rod tip. Like in topwater bass fishing, best thing to do is not to look at lure at all. Twitching works best in warm period of a year. It is especially fatal in spring and autumn, as well when fish feed frenzy, no matter what causes it. Is it cloudy day, rise of water level, summer rain, rainstorm, really doesn´t matter. Some of our favourites are: Megabass Ito Vision, Rapala X-Rap, Sakura Akaru Minnow, Owner Rip´n Minnow, Megabass Trick Darter, …

Čabranka, river of fulfilled dreams

Spineri @en, , , , , ,

Winding road takes us thru Risnjak mountain from Delnice to Čabar. Deer jumps from the woods, stops for a moment and disappears back in woods. It´s been 7 or 8 years since I visited Cabranka (it pronounces chabranka) last time, maybe even more. I knew nothing about trout back there. However, among couple of rainbows, I was so lucky to lure beautifull 44 cm long brown trout. I couldn´t take my eyes of her when I finally landed that lovely fish. Adrenalin hit me so hard i was shaking for quite some time after I took some photos and released it. Every now and then, photos of some trout caught in Cabranka river were released in fishing magazines in Croatia. Each time it was like they are calling me to come back.

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Couple of years later, here we are, drinking coffee in Klaric caffe bar and talking with Mr. Klaric. Through conversation with him, Robert and me decide to start our excursion all the way downstream, where Cabranka meets Kupa river. I am occupied with trout, while Robert has his mind set on grayling, whose population is rich in those parts of Cabranka. Cabranka is pretty low, but I manage to trick couple of smaller brownes. Robert is bathing some flies somewhere behind me. In a deeper part of river I finally see school of nicer fish. I try with inline spinnerbait first, then with a twitchbait, but I get no response. So I move along upstream, certain it these are graylings.

In next gap happens the same, and in a third try i finally have a fish. It came out after an inline spinnerbait, but didn´t take it in a first try, so I offered her Megabass X-55 twitchbait next. It couldn´t say no to that. Brown around 30 cm soon got back in a certainty of a hole she jumped out. In a couple of hundred meters upstream I caught couple more fish, and then at Gerovcica river mouth strong strike stops my inline spinnerbait. I am sure I hooked nice brown trout, but happiness lasts only till I saw chub under my feet. He packed lure in its mouth like he hasn´t eat for days. Now i realise those shadows from deep weren´t grayling, but chub. That´s why Robert couldn´t catch any!

We skip shallow parts upstream and then rain starts to fall like crazy so we rest in a car for a while. As soon as rain stopped, we are back in business. We fish on a part of Cabranka that is shallow at first and then starts to deepen. I can´t hook decent fish which strikes my Aglia with gold blade 2 times in a row, I land only a couple of smaller fish. We take a break for a quick snack and we´re back on the water in no-time. It´s late afternoon and I simply can´t postpone a visit to the place where I caught my first brown trout any more. I recognized the rock beneath which it jumped out at first. But water level is lower than it was back then, who knows where it is now.

I am going downstream back to place where I left Robert. He had cople of smaller trout and nice grayling on a fly rod. It´s getting dark so we pack. In that moment a car parks, guy comes out and says to us Mr. Klaric sent him to show us a fish. He grabs a big bag from a trunk. At first I thought he has a huchen in it. When he took it out of a bag, I couldn´t believe what i saw. It was a trout. Big, fat brown trout. 6,9 kilos and 70 centimeters. Robbie takes few shots of a lucky fisherman with his trophy and they leave. When we came back to caffee, Mr. Klaric just looked at us and smiled..

What´s up, guys, he says..

What´s up? Someone catches a 7 kilo carp and he´s happy, pike, or zander that big is a nice trophy everywhere. This guy caught 7 kilo brown trout, that´s what´s up! We were lucky to see biggest brown caught in Cabranka river ever. Couple of beers after we are still under impression, but it´s time to hit the bed. Tomorrow morning we are back on water. We fish for a couple of hours and come back for a coffee.

Mr Klaric suggests us that we go upstream and give it a try around powerplant. Cast a jig and you´ll get some fish, no doubt, he says. We´ll do, sir! We parked somewhere downstream the powerplant and went up. Cabranka flows thru woods here and there are lot of rocks in it. Lot of whitewater. So I tie a jig head on a knot, rig Sakura Slit shad on it and cast it in a whitewater. It sank, water caried it and i felt something. I wasn´t sure if it was a rock, or a fish, but I decided to set a hook anyway. My Ghetto rider bended as fish wildly swam downstream. I managed to turn her, and it jumped out of the water. Rainbow! Another jump, some more pumping and here it is, in my hand. For a moment only. Each time I try to catch it, she goes ballistic! Finally, it lies tired on a side. Silver beauty rests in my hands just as long as robbie needs to take couple of photos and then it jumps out of my hands. That´s some crazy ass fish, I think to myself.

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We get out of river bed just by the powerplant and got back couple of hundred meters upstream. Waterfalls, one after another but with not much water. Tough terrain. We finally hit one that is richer with water and has a deeper pool. Again I lay my hopes in Slit shad. Cast in a corner of a pool takes trout around 30 cm out of its shelter, but it misses my lure. I decide to let it rest so I aim straight in white water. Lure dissapears and only a second or 2 laterit stops. Maybe it jammed between 2 rocks, I am thinking, so I nicely try to free it with a tip of my rod. As line got tense I realized rock moves. I set a hook as hard as I could and fish got mad. She pumps like crazy, Ghetto Rider is bent like I am fighting big bass, and fish is all round the pool. I am yelling for my friend to come down and help me, but he´s talking on his cell phone and doesn´t hear me screaming. He finally sees I am in a trouble, but trout is tired enough I can pull her in a shallow water. Beautifull brown trout rests there for a while, while Robbie sets his Canon and after a number of photos I bring it back to life and there it goes. I light a cigarette to calm down and buddy goes back to his cell phone. I wanna catch that smaller one as well. i rig new Slit shad on a jig hook, cast it and half a meter before that rock I was aiming another nice trout grabs my lure. I yell Robbie, Robbie again, he turns around, sees my bend rod and he´s like, oh no, not again! I start to laugh. Ghetto rider tames this as well, fish is soon tired, I wanna unhook it while my buddy gets down and in that moment fish twitches, runs thru my hands, my boot slips and I lose my balance as I try to turn to catch it once again and I fall in water. What the hell, some have to get away! We get out of the water satisfied and go search for some tamer terrains. We find a dam and decide to give it a try. 10 minutes later Robert catches nice dark trout and that´s it. Time to eat something. We fish some more after, Robert lands nice grayling again and the day is at his end.

Tomorrow morning after coffee we pack. Time to go home. We got what we came for, we saw giant brown trout and we´ll sure come back.

Perchin ́ at Mrzla Vodica

Spineri @en

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We like perch fishing. So, When Danijel called and said one of his budddies caught couple of fish around 40 cm, we didn ́t think a lot before we said we are coming.

Mrzla Vodica lake has nice pike population as well so I decided to work off couple of bass fishing with my Garbolino Ghetto Rider. Although its main purpose is ultralight and light fishing, he handled couple of 40 cm long bass without any problem, so I had no doubt I had nice chances with smaller pike.

Night before our fishing trip I fell asleep around 1. Still, I got up 3 hours later without any problem. First I picked up Robert, little after our buddy Krmpa and around 6 AM we were watching beautiful Mrzla Vodica lake from the dam. 3 guys were fishing there, they had some pike already.

Our buddies, Danijel and Dule came, we bought daily tickets and had a quick coffee in caffe bar by the lake and we were ready for some perch action. Robbie and Krmpa headed on the left, I saw pile of rocks in water and school of small roach swimming around it. If there is only one place in the lake that holds perch, this is the one. 5 cm Sakura Slit Shad proved me right in next couple of casts. I caught couple of smaller fish in first few casts. Robbie and Krmpa took off lures they had, put Slit Shad on a snap and catch some perch as well.

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Danijel in a cove right from the dam catches pike, another bites off Dule ́s fluorocarbon leader so I decide to tie a wire trace. Next half an hour, I can ́t get perch to bite. I take wire trace off, tie fluorocarbon leader back on and I am back on a sunny side of the street. From old demolished house half in water, between 2 strips of water vegetation, I get bites one after another. After perch demolished slit shad, I decide to try something else. I choose some noname chinese soft lure and bites are not that often any more.

Time to move on. Dule and me are now at the part where lake is widest. This is where old Mrzlica river bed was and there is a lot of cover in water. This is where Dule caught big ones so we decide to spend some time here and thoroughly scan this area. Water is deeper here and I expect bigger fish so I rig 6 cm long Orka Oskar on a 6 gram jig head. I scan the place in couple of casts first, and then I let my lure sink all the way down and start to reel in. I feel weight on a tip of my rod, perch must of took the bait a moment it sank and stayed like that. Rod tip down, reel in slack line and bam! I hooked it, it ́s a nice fish, he pumps down in a place, I can ́t lift it in a start. Ok, here it comes. Now i just have to to get it out from cover and I can breathe again. Here it is, I got it by its jaws. Hook penetrated so shallow I am sure I would lose it if I used stiffer rod. Anyway, I caught what we came for so I am calling Robert to come and make some pictures. Little after, fish slowly swims away.

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Rest of guys move on, Dule and i stay in this spot. Sometimes later I hear Krmpa screaming. He said he would be satisfied with one trout around 2 kilos, so I thought that ́s what happened. As fast as we could, Dule and I came to them and saw Robbie holding nice perch. Meter stopped at 34. 34 bumpy, striped, barbed centimeters, good enough!

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After that we took a break, ate some cevapi and had some beer. 2 beers later, we went to check out left, more cultivated side of a lake. Same all, same all. Bunch of perch, smaller though, and couple of pikey. After that I decided its time to take a nap. Folk music that was coming from a car that parked beside me woke me up. Time to hit a dam, time to go for a trout. I was throwing twitchbaits for an hour and then put metal jig on a snap. I cast it as far as it goes, let it sink and then reel it with short twitches. In one moment, Krmpa is yelling at me to see smallest perch ever that he caught, so I am turning head and i am like, leave me alone, I had enough of striped ones for a day. I turned my head back and I saw brown trout following my metal jig. It was fish over 50, maybe even more than 60 cm long. I guess it saw me as well cause she turned away that moment. Even now I can see that goldish side and mighty tail without closing my eyes. It really is a great scene. Back then, i was pissed off! I threw rod on the grass and wondered what would happen if I saw it earlier and twitched jig in fornt of its face? Would it strike?

 

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I stayed alone at a dam at the end, but without any result. Maybe next time..

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