Text and photo by Zlatan Starcevic;

-Pub first-

Boring autumn rain push us to a pub. First agreements about opening season at huchen are made here. We screw one another and lie each other heavier than that rain that is pouring outside. We hunt for huchen on Krivaja river, biggest affluent of Bosna river. It just to be rich with huchen, or danube salmon, as you wish, and its main prey- grayling. Fish caught in 70´s and 80´s were as big as those caught in Drina, or Una river. But illegal hunt made permanent damage. This noble species is cut down to a minimum these days. One needs to be so lucky to meet the queen.

-Autumn hunt-

It´s 4 in the morning. We pack our gear in a car while couples in love come out from a disco and look at us. That guys already caught what they came for. It is custom to drink a coffee and have a cigarette when we come on a mountain. We agree on strategy till dawn. A strategy our national football team manager would be jealous of. Where to cast a cof*, how to fish with wobbler, where to set a bullhead… Piece of cake… [ezcol_1half][/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end][/ezcol_1half_end] Huchen likes to lay in a rapids with first light. Behind the rock in the dark side. In the shadow. I imitate ninja while I am picking cover at a top of a rapids and looking is there fish for me today. Pack of large minnows comes into a rapids and settles there. I cast sinking Ugly duckling over them and start to pull it slowly. Rapids catches it and spits it on the other side. I am not retrieving it any more, I stop and wait till it sinks down at the gravel. One turn of a reel, and BAM! When huchen hits the lure, she hits it properly. In a morning hunt like this, it´s almost every time on a first cast. Yes, first. Later during the day those thousand huchen hunters are talking about come. When it starts to pump and shake head like a mad dog, I know I am dealing with a nice fish. If it starts to curl, it´s only a princess. [ezcol_1half][/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end][/ezcol_1half_end]

-Winter hunt-

Winter quarter. Schools of nases and danubian roaches swim upstream. Danube roach is in the middle layer, nase on the bottom. They swim to rocks upstream that still holds some vegetation. This is the time huchen is on a hunt again. When huchen attacks a prey, she does it fast and efficient. She swims fast, then dives behind the victim and makes halfturn, fast as a lightning and grabs a fish from a head. Here, at an end of a winter quarter I wait for her when the sun is in its zenith. I visit shallow rapids as well, for, in this holiday season, danube salmon wanders places like this looking for mate for spawning. When they find each other, they stay together till spawning time… -Back to pub-

Legends originate back in pub. We spread hands, we demonstrate how we hooked a fish and we curse fallen ones. In a pub huchen becomes a monster from B movies, and the biggest one will get what she deserves sooner, or later…