Tag Archives: ultralight fishing @en

Players!

Spineri @en, , , , , ,

12832547_689102554566024_5912742379522368401_n

Every year, Sakura boyz bring to daylight a piece of fishing gear that takes our breath away.  This year that are Players rods. 8 spinning and 5 casting models look absolutely amazing and we couldn´t wait to get our hands on them. We decided to try ULST and ML+ model and here are our experiences.

_IMG_3527

ULST model iz UL toy with solid tip, 2,18 in lenght and 0,5-5 grams of casting weight. It is conceived as a weapon of choice for soft lures, but it´s much more. It handles little spoons, twitchbaits, even smaller inline spinnerbaits with no problem what so ever. So, it´s excellent choice for trout and perch fishing, but it has  enough power to cope with uninvited guests, like smaller pike, chub, even a barbel.

_MG_4499

Players ML+ is also very versalite. With lenght of 2,13 m and casting weight between 3 and 15 grams, it´s great tool for soft lures and it also feels great casting and handling twitchbaits and topwaters. Soft lures around 10 grams together with twitchbaits and topwaters up to 10 cm suit him the best, although ML+ model has enough power to cast and work even heavier lures, like 105 mm Naja SuB.

13620791_745629165580029_1831168366192781537_n

Because of its sensitive tip and strong backbone, it´s an excellent choice for finesse fishing for bass, or river fishing for chub, or asp, as well as sea fishing for seabass, smaller bluefish, etc.

playa

 

We don´t wanna waste too many words about design, it´s enough to look at the photos. We find it beautiful. It´s important to say that all Players come with Fuji guides and KR concept, Fuji reel seat and monoblock handle for better balance and sensibility.

play

For info about rest of the Sakura Players range, there is a link, and to see how ML+ model works in practice, click on a YT video!

http://www.sakura-fishing.com/cannes/players/

Jarun lake

Spineri @en, , ,

_MG_3229-Edit-1

Jarun lake is a place where one can enjoy in many things. It is called Zagreb sea and it offers many things that real sea provides. Long walks, beautiful girls, cocktails in bars, and of course, fishing. Jarun, among other species, holds nice population of perch. Nothing big, 25-30 cm long fish is already a nice catch, but there are so many of them one can spend all day in chasing these striped bandits.

And all of it in urban street fishing kind of way, where one eye can be looking at the tip of your ultralight rod, and other one can enjoy in roller girls that are common at the shores of the Jarun lake.

_MG_0016-Edit_MG_0010-Edit

There is no such thing as ´best lure ever´, lets be honest. Since Jarun lake is connected with Sava river with canal, it´s water level is not always the same and water clarity isn´t always the same. So, there are some colours and presentations that work better than others in some conditions. If we would have to choose only one lure for Jarun lake, that would be our all time perch favourite Sakura Slit shad. But we like to try new stuff so we sometimes deliberately forget it in a trunk of a car.

[ezcol_1half]_MG_3196-1[/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end]_MG_3234-Edit-1[/ezcol_1half_end]

As it is everywhere in the world, clarity of water dictates lure colour. Best colours for clear water are natural. In other conditions, when water is murky, or we fish in deeper water colours like pink, orange, or yellow are great choice. Sakura Slit shad in ayu colour brings best of both world, because of it´s dark back and yellow belly.

Days when Jarun lake´s water level is slightly elevated are the best for fishing. Predators come close to the bank and feed on little fish and larvae. Proven softbait on a jig hook is all one UL angler needs to have a really good time. When water level starts to fall and clear, things get a bit complicated. It´s the same everywhere. This is the time when one has to make an additional effort to catch some fish. Texas rig, carolina rig, split shot, or drop shot rig are some words that are good to know in those times. Or you can try some new stuff.

_MG_3228-Edit

At the end of the season we got some new toys to try and play with from Vagasky Lures. It was clear at the first sight that some of these lures will be a killer for perch. Time when fish isn´t so active isn´t the best time for trying new stuff for sure. One with lack of confidence, knowledge or experience can easily be fooled, or dissapointed if new lure doesn´t catch him a fish. No matter good old proven lures didn´t catch any. Luckily, years of experience gave us a dose of self-confidence so we decided we´d give Vagasky Lures a try in heavy conditions. Couple of nice fish proved us we were right at the start- Vagasky Lures do have couple of killer lures when perch is target. Until we test it more, only three words: Dali, Picasso and Monet.

_MG_3207-Edit_MG_3213-Edit-2

When fishing is slow, presentation of a lure is as important as lure itself. Even more. Softbait on a light jig head is always first option. Second option is to think what and where fish eat when they don´t eat for real. The third important thing is the amount of stimulus needed to one moody perch (zander, bass, ..) takes a bite. Fourth, and it could be second also, is down-sizing.

_MG_3198-Edit-2_MG_3206-Edit

There are no roller girls these days on banks of a Jarun lake. Jarun lake perch are in some lethargic mood. But if you come to Zagreb in an early spring and you have your fishing gear with you, Jarun lake is a great option and you will be suprised with it´s (natural) beauties. And perch are nice, too.

Baby face killers!

Spineri @en, , , , , , , , , ,

_MG_5339

We present you 2 spin rods:

Garbolino Ghetto rider ul and Garbolino Game hunter microlure.

Ghetto rider

Ghetto rider is a fancy spin rod which will hardly leave you indifferent. Hot red blank with Fuji K series guides, split handle made of red and black eva foam and Fuji skeleton split reel halter will leave you speechless even for a moment. To some, design like that will be avant-garde and progressive, to others it´ll be a total miss. If you prefer classic rods, I doubt it you´ll even take it in your hands and try what it feels like. Well, too bad for you.
First round guys from Top fishing store ordered sold out in a day or 2. I only managed to try one last left that was reserved for someone. I was stunned. I thought it over and ordered one eventually. I assigned it for trout fishing and couldn´t wait for the season to start. First half an hour I fished with it, I thought I couldn´t set a hook. Truth is I felt every stone my inline spinnerbait stratched. It felt like a bite because of a super sensitive rop tip. First fish i hooked was a small brown trout. Every one who caught one knows how nervous that fish is once when hooked. Over the rod tip I felt every single move, every twitch it made. That trout could jiggle for an hour and it wouldn´t fall off. I cuddle it for a while and then I realised it can wrestle with much bigger fish. So it did.

 

Game hunter

Game hunter, partly because of a camouflage pattern and thicker handle above reel holder (25 mm diameter), at first looks kinda beefy. For real, there are not too many differences compared to Ghetto rider. It is 30 g heavier than Ghett rider, but once you mount reel on, you can hardly feel the difference. Reel weighting around 250 g works well for both of them. Game hunter has normal guides, finish is nice, and it´s quite similar to Ghetto rider with it´s action. Same as with Ghetto rider, blank is super fast and sensitive, rod tip detects shy bites well, but it has strong backbone which can cope with bigger fish than you could imagine. Although print on a blank says microlure, this blank can cope with normal lures without any problem. That is work horse, for fishermen who catch fish and who don´t bother with high end components and make up on the rod. Considering we are dealing with 2 very similar blanks, general impression can be said in 3 words: baby face killers. In 4 words, wolf in sheep’s clothes. In 5 words.. No, I am just kidding. Both of these 2 are great for what they are made for. Thay cast and feel small, UL lures superb. On the other hand, you can cast a 20-25 grams of a weight with it. 10 cm slit shad with 15 g jig hook, for a n example. We did it, it is possible. How ever, they feel the best with softbaits up to 7 cm and 7-8 g, twitchbaits between 5-8 cm and metal jigs up to 10 g. We landed few bass around 1,5 kilo, barbel around 2, couple of asps over 60 cm, and so on. These boys can do it. Ghetto rider is more expensive because of Fuji k series guides (which trully are tangle free!), Fuji reel halter, it weights less and its design is great. If you ask me. On the other hand, if you like ´more common´ rods better, with Game hunter is a rod for you. Whichever you choose between these 2, you can´t go wrong.[ezcol_1half]_MG_4675[/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end]_MG_4677[/ezcol_1half_end]

Game hunter je radni štap, za ribiče koji love ribu i ne zamaraju se opremom, šminkom i high end komponentama. Nadam se da mi nitko neće zamjeriti kada napišem da je game hunter ekonomična verzija ghetto ridera, i to jako, jako isplativa.

S obzirom da se radi o jako sličnim blankovima, opći dojam za oba se da izreči u 3 riječi: ubojice dječjeg lica. U malo više riječi, oba štapa odlično odrađuju ono za što su namjenjeni: bacaju i osjećaju male varalice, bilo da se radi o jig streameru vezanom na 2 g glavici, ili nekom tviču od 5 cm. I kad lupi manja riba, zabava je zagarantirana zahvaljujući punoj špici koja odradi i prenese i najmanje trzaje. Pri drilu veće ribe, ostatak štapa ulazi u fajt i sa ribama do 2-3 kg nema problema, pa makar se radilo o mreni oko dvice u jakom štromu. Klenovi, bassevi, ili pastrve oko 50, kao i boleni veći od toga nemaju šanse. Mada smo bacali i 15-20 g teške jig udice sa 10 cm dugim silikoncima, preko 10 g i 7 cm dugih silikonaca ne bih išao. Isto vrijedi za razne žlice i pilkere. 5-10 g je optimum. Što se voblera tiče, 5-7 dugi tvičevi bi bili optimalni, a do 10 cm nema nikakvih problema sa kontrolom i vođenjem. ´Meps´ dvojka je taman, a ni sa trojkama nema problema.

Svoju cijenu ghetto opravdava opremom (fuji k stvarno je tangle free!), malom težinom, jako dobrim općim dojmom pa i dizajnom koji je nesvakidašnji. Fujijev split halter, koliko god čudno izgledao na prvu odlično leži u ruci i poboljšava osjetljivost, jer su i dlan i kažiprst na blanku. S druge strane, ako vas ne smeta malo aljkavija završna obrada, ako trebate radni štap, za stvarno malo novaca (oko 400 kn) u game hunteru dobijete štap sličnih performansi. S obzirom da s oba štapa možete pokriti ultra light, light pa i medium light ribolov donekle, ozbiljno konkuriraju za best buy do 500 kn, odnosno 1000 kn.

[ezcol_1half]_MG_4671-Edit[/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end]_MG_4673-Edit-2[/ezcol_1half_end]_MG_5309[ezcol_1half]_MG_4655[/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end]_MG_5215[/ezcol_1half_end]

 

Specifications:

Game hunter

lenght: 2,22 m

tip diameter: 1,2 mm

butt diameter: 10,2 mm

handle lenght: 44 cm

lenght from reel till the end: 37 cm

weight: 144 g

casting weight: 1- 7 g

guides: 9

space between guides: 90-32-24-19-15-12-11-10-9 (cm)

diameter 24-15-10-8-6-6-5-5-5 (mm)

— — — —

Ghetto rider

lenght: 217

tip diameter: 1,1 mm

butt diameter: 9,6 mm

handle lenght: 38

lenght from reel till the end: 33

weight: 115 g

casting weight: 1- 7 g

guides: 9, fuji k series

space between guides: 92-30-21-18-15-12-11-9-8

diameter: 24-15-12-10-8-7-7-5-5

 

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.

[ezcol_1half][/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end][/ezcol_1half_end]

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.

[ezcol_1half][/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end][/ezcol_1half_end]

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…