After a long night sleep in our comfy Coleman tent a coffee was really refreshing at 5:00 o’clock in the morning. I was going to fish the largest, and deepest of the lakes in the area. You have to understand that glacier trout are really finicky, considering 9 out of 10 days they feed on insects rather than minnows. Of course the large ones prefer the minnows, but those are solitaire and cautious, and more often very difficult to catch.

Mobile phone panorama of lake Bucura

Let’s now get back to some more fishing. I only fished for 3-4 hours without any results, other than a couple of strikes. Trout were present, as I’ve seen a couple jumping, and a lot of them feeding on flies on the surface, but it seems I haven’t been able to convince any of them. It’s not my last day here, and we still have a lot to explore, as you’ll see.

Enough fishing for the day, we have some serious hiking ahead of us. Even if we have set foot to go to the deepest glacier lake in Romania (no fishing rod this time – no permit to fish in that area), we passed the mark that should’ve lead us there, deviating 20 minutes from our original trail.

It's Romanian for "Danger"

Nice excuse for a break ... "Let's take a few pictures:))"

Is this the right way?... NOPE

We decided to follow this trail to one of the tallest peaks in the area, Retezat peak 2483 meters high. In total a 3-4 hour hike to the summit, and another 2-3 hours back. It’s a medium difficulty hike, that I don’t recommend if you’re scared of heights, because it’s as nature left it, except the trails are marked.

Only 2251m ?!.... Another 231 to climb

Made it to the sumit.

Another cell phone panorama of Retezat peak

The weather was with us on this day. No wind on the summit... no one could believe it

This was it for the day. We were exhausted when we got back, so no fishing.

Next day we were engulfed in thick fog, so our plans to go to lake Zanoaga were again left aside. After the fog scattered enough we decided to to make a shorter hike, considering the weather was unstable, to Peleaga summit, 2509m high – 1.5-2 hour hike to the summit, and about the same back. This is a medium to light difficulty hike, with a few rougher spots.

Here dogy, dogy...

Peleaga summit.

Retezat mountains

Enough hiking … I have a special date with some trout mamasitas.

After returning to base camp from Peleaga, I just couldn’t stay still. I had to go fishing. As I said, until you figure them out you’d think these trout are impossible to catch. I’ve had a lot of strikes, but again, no fish. Something wasn’t right. I had to fool them somehow. I’ll have the next day just for doing that, and nothing else. One entire day just for trout fishing.

Long hike for no fish!

Tired as I was, I just couldn’t get up at 5 o’clock again. We woke up at 8-8:30, had our traditional food breakfast: home made dried and smoked ham, tomatoes, fresh cheese (darn… my pack was heavy on the way in), had a coffee, and now I needed a plan. I’ve seen a lot of minnows with large black spots on them, white belly, almost black back. None of my spoons matched the description. This might have been one of the problems. Luckily I always carry a black marker with me, just in case. I’ve put my artistic talent to work, and painted about half of the lightest spoons I had with me. No need for the heavy ones. This lake wasn’t very deep.

I finally cracked the glacier rout code.

Panther Martin no.2 on the job

Packed and ready… let’s do some trout fishing. They were feeding all over the lake. Anywhere was a good place to start. After struggling with my hand painted spoons for about half an hour I had about 10-15 strikes, but still… couldn’t catch any. Have tried the Megabass Izabella spoon again, but with no luck on this lake. The area was overstocked with black and yellow striped flies. I could easily mistake them for wasps if I didn’t know better. I needed something to imitate, at least the colors, because I wasn’t fly fishing. I must try out those Panther Martins. It was really sunny outside, so I chose a copper bladed one with yellow body and black stripes. It was an instant hit. Only 2 casts and the fun was on.

I was catching about every 5-7 casts, and had at least 1-2 fish follow the spinner each cast. Just amazing. I finally cracked it. The majority were under 30cm, but in 3 hours fishing I managed to catch about 20 trout between 25 and 35cm. Tons of fun these little guys.

And when you thought there was no one to take me a picture.

I was starving, so i had to go eat some, but got my ass back for some more fun. They weren’t as active as they were earlier. A storm front was closing in, so I had to get me some picture worthy fish. Surprise… only the larger ones were biting. After catching a few 30-40 cm ones I had to change to a larger spoon. I just couldn’t resist the temptation. Lucky guess… on the first, and last cast I’ve nailed he largest one so far. Amazing fight on 3lb line with this one.

The big one on the last cast.

The rain just started pouring after this one, so I had to report back to base. It was an amazing C&R experience, with no one to bother me. Had tons of fun. The landscape here is amazing, as you can see from the pictures, and you might be surprised of what kind of wild life you might see. For the first time in my life I’ve seen a wild marmot… didn’t get the chance to get a picture, as it was running scared on the Retazat mountains vertical cliffs.

I’ll definitely come back next year for some more adventures!

P.S. All trout were released!

About Andrei

Professional angler, rodbuilder, lurebuilder, if it's about fishing you name it, he does it. He hates "relaxing", and takes each day as a challange. Whenever he's got a spare moment he's either fishing, cycling, hiking or training his ass at the gym. He's fishing for more than 20 years now. Strictly on artifficial baits from the age of 7, he's always on the look out for the newest stuff and techniques out there.

View all posts by Andrei →

It all started last year, with an exceptional trout fishing trip trough Romania for a week, when I’ve fished all over the country, trout only. Rivers, lakes, whatever I could find, I investigated. I knew I’d go over 2000 meters in 2010 both hiking and fishing all together. Nothing on earth like it!

Splashy big fella...

Try to catch them by hand if you can. It's what happens when you leave home without a fishing net.

I decided to go hike fishing for 5-6 days. I got my car to the actual end of the road, where I left it for the next 5 days. From there a 2 hour hike to the place where we would camp. I had at least 60-65 lbs of luggage, so not such an easy hike. I really enjoy sight seeing, hiking on designated routes on summits, or other glacier lakes, so it’s not all about fishing. There’s nothing like it in the world. This is how freedom looks like, no cell phones, no one to bother you. It’s like problems never existed, you’re lost in the moment.

You thought this hike was easy? Just climbing on rough terrain. No wonder cars or bikes can't get there.

Nice soft moss all over the place.

To go on such a hike you need some basic equipment, besides your designated fishing tackle. You can’t leave home without a good pair of hiking boots, but that’s a must for any fisherman, tent, sleeping bag, stove. Besides your large backpack, I’d recommend a  smaller one just for 2 to 6 hour hikes that can fit the basics: food, waterproof clothing, water, your camera, and of course, some fishing tackle. You might enjoy a nice synthetic fleece that acts as a wind stopper as well. I’d highly recommend it, as at over 2000 meters altitude,  temperatures can plummet 10-15 degrees in less than 5 minutes.

If you prefer warm food and tea the stove is a must. You have about zero wood at this altitude, plus you’d ruin the scenery,that’s almost 100% intact.

Lets get back to after that 2 hour hike to “base camp”.

For whoever knows me, I can’t stay put, not even if I’m dead tired. As soon as me and my girl friend got the tent installed, and everything inside it prepared for the first night sleep, we made a 30 minutes hike to a nearby lake. We lost the trail, and had to follow the boulders that were going straight towards the lake. I’m used to jumping rocks and boulders, I actually prefer hiking over this kind of terrain, as it keeps my brain focused, and forget about the fatigue or muscle pain, but for whoever is not used to it it can be hell on earth. This is the extreme side of fishing, I guess.

Still not tired? You'll have to climb this to go to bed ).

Luckily it's all downhill to the lake.

We got to the lake, and it only took 20 seconds to spot a few trout. It’s a shallow glacier lake, not more than 1.5m-2m deep, but it’s filled with trout. Not the largest, but enough to have fun. Even though the lake has tons of minnows, these trout are focused on insects. That means they are really hard to catch on spinning gear with regular tactics. Even so you can trick them with dead accurate casts. I don’t know how many of you are used to spinning sight fishing, but it’s tons of fun, and you can see it all happen. You just need to find the perfect lure that they’ll hit as soon as it touches the water. For me the Megabass brown Izabella did the trick. The steps were: spot a trout, concentrate, cast into it’s field of vision so it can hit your lure as soon as it touches the water, and you’re on. Not all of them will get your lure, but you’ll trick a lot of them this way. They sometimes need to see the lure move for 1-2 seconds before actually biting.

Preparing my rod.

This is how paradise must look like. I didn't think it would get better than this... but it does.

Not the largest trout you'll see, but still, good practice. Izabella didn't let me down this time.

I’ve caught a few of them. Nothing picture worthy, but I had a lot of fun perfecting this fishing technique, and of course, releasing them. We had enough for the day, so we return to the camping site for a long night rest. Tomorrow we have a long hike ahead of us, unlike anything we’ve seen in our lives.

Keep tuned! I have more to tell…

About Andrei

Professional angler, rodbuilder, lurebuilder, if it's about fishing you name it, he does it. He hates "relaxing", and takes each day as a challange. Whenever he's got a spare moment he's either fishing, cycling, hiking or training his ass at the gym. He's fishing for more than 20 years now. Strictly on artifficial baits from the age of 7, he's always on the look out for the newest stuff and techniques out there.

View all posts by Andrei →