It's as if they take away our air, oxygen.
In my mind, I'm already imagining the next extra-regional competition with my friends to see who can catch the most trout.
It's not my favorite fishing, but it's the one that brings us together--the one that creates some healthy competition! Not the competitive one but the one of friendship, teasing and teasing that makes the day fun anyway.
I fondly remember the last fishing trip in October with my lifelong friend with whom we shared so many experiences, so many fishing spots, so many adventures and so many different techniques.
The Trotalago! Well, yes. In the fall season, for those who do not have a boat and are not members at any quarry, this is one of the most fun prospects.
The "chicken" trout. Some anglers vulgarly call them that, but catching them is not as easy as you might think.... Especially when it's 5° in this Verona pond and already half an hour before the morning opening there's a line of cars to grab the best spot.
The day is cloudy and windless, perfect for fall quarry trout fishing. We find a perch among the anglers and get our gear ready. The possibility of having two rods in the fishery forces me to keep one stationary and one moving. So, knowing a bit about the pond and the forage present, I present one with a "bolognese" setup with a bleak as bait (aimed on a 4 hook) and a 5g float followed by 3.
torpedoes
Strictly 0.16 fluorocarbon 50 cm rod. The other rod I keep on the move. I prepare a 3-piece 4.70m from 25-35g casting on which I mount a 30g G1.5 bombard (degree of sinkability that allows me to move the bait between 0.50m and 1m below the water surface at medium-fast retrieve). I opt for a 2.5m terminal and as a bait a "Frollino": a small spring run on a 6 hook to bait a small ball of orange paste, and on the tip of the hook I pierce the tail of a white grub.
I don't have time to finish the set-up that the bolo float starts jerking: here is the first shove. A 0.5 kg salmon trout.Very promising start!
We see trout boil on the surface so the surface approach gives us satisfaction. My friend copies my dynamic approach but, unlike me, attempts underwater fishing without a float with a slide as far as the second rod is concerned. As a bait he uses a mixture of batter plus camola with the goal of getting the bait up about 50 cm from the bottom. For the moment, my idea of fishing at a distance clearly prevails because the trout are biting on the cast about 40-45 meters from shore. But, as I haul in my seventh trout, the float begins to sink slowly without a gasp.I drop the newly caught trout on the bank and rush from my bolognese. It sounds like a train. It takes away my line even though the clutch is almost closed. My friend exults because he realizes that he can make up ground seeing that I have now had a big fish in my rod for ten minutes that I cannot lift off the bottom.
With a 0.16 line and terminal, I cannot force and have to play with the clutch. Nothing, even after 20 minutes the fish keeps turning on the first step of water before the shore. Who could have eaten a bleak? I think of a sturgeon. I resign myself. The race is lost because my friend is now 4-5 trout ahead. But suddenly I see a clear glow tending to yellow making a whirlpool. Crazy! A beautiful mirror carp. After another 2-3 minutes of fighting we wade it, take a picture and release it. Estimated around 5 kg.
I lost the race but even in a pay pond I had another experience that only the unpredictability of fishing can give. So "goodbye lockdown!" My head is already on to the next fishing trip with my lifelong friend.
