Lets leave tackle reviews aside for a few moments. It’s time for another Troutin’ Story, this time in the far north, the far end of Sweden, beyond the polar circle.

I never thought I’d go on such an adventure, at least not in the near future, but unstable as I and Stefan are, we somehow took the Bear Grills approach to a fishing trip. As extreme as we could find in a month and a half’s time.

After writing about 8-10 e-mails, and about 8-10 phone calls further in the future, we finally came across someone who would take us out fishing into the wilderness of Sweden after the 30th of August. That’s about when the fishing season ends for about everyone that far north, but that’s when we were both available for this trip, and we needed to find someone available to take us. Mikko answered our preyers, and booked us for a helicopter flight into the wilderness….

Do I even have to mention the next few weeks passed like they were days?!

28th of August, late in the night
Panic attack was setting in. I couldn’t collect my thoughts regarding all the items I’d pack. No matter how I’d pack them it seemed I would never be able to make them fit in my backpack. We needed to go as light as posible. But you know us anglers… you can never go to light when it comes to tackle. You’d rather sacrifice a few clothing items instead of that handfull of lures. That’s exactly what we did… We went as light as we could with our clothing, and squeezed more lures than normal in all our boxes, we both preferred jerkbaits, especially the sallow ones, and tons of spoons. Other than a backpack we had to drag with ourselves a big bazuca, packed with rods, and Stefan’s wet suit… he insisted we had to take that as well, even if I wasn’t totally in on it.

30th of August – departure day

Departure - Timisoara International Airport - in Romania

5 hours and 3 planes later, Mikko was already instructing us on how to set up the Tentipi we rented, and was ready with our fishing passes and all the instructions we needed. We were leaving in about half an hour. It almost seemed unbelievable it was all happening. Did I forget to mention I never set foot in a heli before?… I guess not… how bad could it be?

15:10
We are loading everything in the helicopter. The bazuca with all our rods doesn’t fit… until Mikko finds the only way to make it fit… huh… that was a close call. As soon as the helicopter lifted we both knew there was no turning back. It was all or nothing. After a few miles flying just above the tree line,  the pilot pulls the stick, and we start gaining some altitude, and perspective on the land in front of us: water everywhere you looked, large rivers, small streams, ponds, swamps… that’s how Lapland looks from above.

Water, moss, brush, rocks, swamps, water, moss, brush, rocks.....

Mikko said this is a very good spot for enormous pike

Notice the white spot!... That's near our camping site!

It didn’t seem much, but we got to our final destination, our camping site, a small patch of leveled earth, moss and stones, right on the river bank. This is it! All forms of contact are useless from now on. We only have a pick up date. If something goes wrong we’ll have to make due. It’s just us, nature, on our own “private” patch of land, “rented” for 8 days. Is it overwhelming? It sorta is, considering all the unknowns… we only know what’s around us from the map Mikko left us.

17:30
We set up camp, the tent is unlike anything we were used to so far, similar to an amerindian tipi. It had a ventilation hole that was controllable from a set of strings that were stretched down the mast of the tent. The vent would come in handy when we had to warm up or dry our clothes at night, with the kerosene warmer Miko gave us. After setting up the tent we wasted no time in organizing our luggage and the rest of the stuff, in and outside the tent. Next step, believe it or not was to set up our gear. We were going to fish today, until sundown. We were placed right above a 200meter long water fall, and from what we knew, upstream from the waterfall we would catch only trout, and arctic char, while downstream we will find lots and lots of grayling as well.

The large opening in the river, right above the waterfall forms a huge lake.

Our "cabin", the Tentipi starts to take shape...

The Tentipi is up, and functional.

Notice the vent...

Lets prepare our rods now, and start fishing. After-all that's what we came here to do!

The salmonids season closes today, so if we caught any trout, we had to release them… grayling and whitefish were the only 2 species that we were allowed to retain for our dinner grill. That shouldn’t have been a problem… would it? Especially if fish was going to be our everyday dinner.

Jerkbaits were the preferred lures in the stretch of river we chose for this afternoon, but no grayling… it’s 21:00 and we’ve only caught trout so far. It’s frustrating considering we planned to eat fish every night. That’s how our food was portioned. But right on my last cast I miraculously manage to catch a grayling. If we would’ve planned it, this was almost impossible, but …. we have dinner … As Bear Grills always sais: “Food and fire are always good for moral!” ) If you haven’t tried baked onions and grilled fish… you have to… it’s impossible to describe how good that is.

Dinner!!!!!

31st of August 2011
5:00 Beat and tired, I truly can’t remember how we fell asleep last night. Stefan woke up first… his internal clock is like magic… and after waking me up as well, we established a game plan for today, and the days to come. Today we’ll explore the large lake formed on the river, right upstream the waterfall, trying to figure out a way to get across.

5:30 We got out of the tent, made our morning tea. Coffee was “banned” in our camp, and by the way… the tea we bought tastes like detergent. But that’s the tea we had, that’s the one we’ll drink, that’s the one we’ll learn to love.

Green tea... detergent aroma

6:30 The rain doesn’t seem to fold. It keeps on going, and we finally start fishing. Up to 50-150 meters from the shore, this large pool formed on the river, had water knee deep. We had to get where the fish were, and that meant at least waist deep water.  We went thru jerkbaits like crazy, to find the best one to catch them no matter where we were throwing them. I finally find the ONE, Rapala X-Rap 08. 5-6 casts with this lure caught me the same amount of trout… WOW! WOW my ass… I realized I only had 2 of them , and the first one was lost after the first 6 casts. I cast the second one, and after 4-5 more casts, and the same amount of trout caught on it, another hefty one brakes my line… As soon as they felt they were cornered, they started hitting their head against the rocky bottom in order to escape the lure. These were no ordinary trout by any mean.

Rain, fog, clouds... that's our weather for the next 8 days

Salmo Minnow 5cm was good, but not good enough...

I had no more X-Raps… And this was only the first day of fishing. Stefan quickly realized on what I was catching them… X-Rap it was for him as well. He caught them one after another. He had 3 of them. Lost 2 in a matter of 40 minutes, but he still had one left. You can trust me he would guard this one, even if his life depended on it.

Stefan noticed the X-Raps I was throwing, and started catching them one after another...

I was searching thru jerkbaits like crazy again, in order to find another one that was close to that efficient. I had to change my main line to braided, because I was loosing to many lures fishing with monofilament. I couldn’t control them very efficiently because of the elasticity of the line.

Did I say... one after another?

10:45 The excitement was cut short by Stefan. He sliped on a rock in knee deep water, and was already wet to the bone. In solidarity, you know what that means… get back to the camp site, make a fire, and change clothes, even if I would’ve preferred to fish some more.

That's the spot, where Stefan landed on his back in knee deep water

Later We went further up, towards the end of this large basin, where the river was flowing in it again. As I expected, Stefan, in each spot we fished caught them one after another with the X-Rap, while I was still searching for the right jerk bait. I got the beating of my life… but in the end I had an idea. After struggling to catch a few ones with a Vision Q-Go from Megabass, I had the idea of getting the feathered treble from a popper and adapt it to a Lucky Craft Pointer 65 SP. As soon as I did this, I started catching again, not only that, but it caught me the largest trout of the day, after a nearly humiliating experience, while I was constantly looking at Stefan as he was catching them one after another… This was the last trout of the day. We had to get back to camp, and build a fire.

First, and the only char we'd see this trip... and to think they lured us into this area...

Cute little fella.

Megabass Vision Q-GO... landed a few fat ones!

Pointer 65 SP, caught the largest trout of the day

1st of Septeber
7:00 After the exhausting hiking, fishing experience of yesterday… we knew we wouldn’t get up at 5 again. Stefan woke up first… The rain was still pouring. We took our breakfast inside the tent today. Scrambled eggs, cheese and a hefty portion of hungarian sausages .

The plan for today is to hike up to where this large pool in the river ends, and try to cross the river. Yesterday it looked as we could do it, an if we did, we had a new areas of virgin open water just for ourselves…

Hiking in any direction was challenging. The 50cm moss covering everything, felt like walking on a giant sponge. The moss was only interrupted by shrub, rocky terrain and swamps, no formed paths, other than those created by reindeer. The trip would take the entire day, so we packed all we needed in our backpacks.

20:30 After an entire day of fishing, with out initial plan, a partial failure: we didn’t find any way to get across, but had the best fishing game, upstream of the pool, we explored yesterday. We’ve only caught large trout today. Unlike yesterday, this area wasn’t as ideal for the X-Rap, which dove a bit deeper than needed. We’ve found that Yo-Zuri Pin’s Magnet and Lucky Craft Flash Minnow 95MR were doing a much better job.

Yo-Zuri Pin's Minnow Magnet, the star of the day!

Trout are genetically born to swim all their lives… so you can imagine it’s hard to make them understand it’s time to stop, even for a few moments, but in the end they had no choice, their muscles had to fail sometime, but so did our arms, which were in need of a brake, after 2-3 of these giant river trout.

This was a day of extremes, exhaustion, and tons of big ass trout. Stefan felt the need to slip for the second time, and we had to withdraw to our “comfy” cabin again… I would’ve preferred more fishing, but we had a pact… and had to keep to it. It was to risky to be anywhere far away from camp alone… anything could happen… far away from, well…. everything.

Panorama of the water-fall near our camping site

Keep tuned for more wild adventures!

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 →

Relax is one of the biggest and most respected soft lure companies in Europe. It started from Poland in the mid 90′s and extended gradually, soon to be reaching the United States. Every year their bait range increases with new items being added to the product family.

Relax Kopyto is one of their first model and maybe the lure they are most proud of. They call it a legend, a lure which has written history in predator fishing. A star lure, with an incredible action and fish catching abilities.

We taught that’s a pretty bold statement for any soft fishing lure and decided to put its name to the test.

When it comes to colors and sizes, Kopyto lures are all about diversity. They come in 7 different sizes, starting from 1 inch (2.5cm) all the way up to 6 inch (15cm). This size range offers versatility in terms of target species and techniques.

Relax Kopyto offers a huge range of over 200 colors, making sure even the most pretentious anglers find their desired patterns. It’s such a big color range that you can easily get lost and confused trying to browse all of it.

Softness & Material
We can agree that one of the biggest secrets of any soft bait is the material composition. It’s one of the key elements in the lure’s action equation. It has to be resistant, yet allow for a natural and appealing swim. The Relax team took this thing very seriously, when manufacturing their lures, and Kopyto is no exception.

It has a pretty tough body, yet the tail portion bends easily on each side.
There’s a simple test you can use with any shad shaped soft lure, that will give you a good clue about whether or not it has a consistent tail action. You only need to hold the lure in a vertical position, with the tail facing up. If the tail bends close to the lure’s body and the paddle is at a good angle, there’s a big chance that the tail will emit good vibrations even at the smallest traction.

This is exactly the case for Relax Kopyto. The tail construction and paddle positioning make this lure a really aggressive softie.

Kopyto initials covering the lure's body.

Durability
Kopyto has a really good material composition, which makes it resistant to predators teeth.
What may happen is that you loose the tail from time to time. The tail portion is pretty thin and because the paddle emits powerful vibrations, predators tend to attack and hold to this area, so it gets ripped off.
It happened to me on several occasions, when fishing for perch or zander (wallaye), to remain without the tail. This is really not such a big deal, as it mainly happens with small fish, not able to swallow the entire lure. Overall Kopyto has a good ratio between softness and durability.

Engineering and Design
Being born out of the European fishing market, Relax Kopyto was meant to address freshwater fishing using the classical jigging technique. Unlike the Japan market, revolving around bass fishing, this soft lure has nothing spectacular regarding packaging, details and finish. It doesn’t posses salt nor scent impregnation. Relax kept it simple, focusing only on action and material.

But if there’s one thing to give credit for, it’s the Kopyto original shape. Let’s be honest, this lure started a new design trend. Because it was so efficient it was copied by a lot of competing companies all over the continent. I think I’ve seen more than ten copycats out there and most of them are really far from the original, mostly due to the material used.

Application
Kopyto works its magic when fished on a jig. Jigging gets the most out of this bait. I caught pretty much all freshwater predators using this soft lure. Species like pike, perch, bass, catfish and zander simply nailed this lure, when properly presented.

If you improvise a little, you can really stretch its application range. I’ve also fished Relax Kopyto on weedless jigs, and the smaller models (2.5” and 3”) work excellent armed with an offset hook. This lets you easily cover techniques like Carolina or Texas with this lure.

Light jigs do pay off!

My favorite presentation with Kopyto is to fish it slowly, using minimum jig weight.
Even though it’s all-year lure, Kopyto really kills it in the spring, before spawning. Big females are protecting their nest, males are highly aggressive and Kopyto is the perfect solution to take advantage of their territoriality.

Big perch love skirt jigs

Action
The lure’s perfect proportions contribute to an amazing action. It’s not just the tail that emits underwater vibrations. Due to the perfect link between body and tail, the hole body moves and emits strong signals. Just pull it through the water and you’ll quickly notice the body movement. No wonder predators can’t resist it.

Kopyto's flexible tail and large paddle are "quilty" for its agressive action

Conclusion
I think the fact that you can find this lure in my personal Top 10 Walleye Baits pretty much sums it up.
Relax Kopyto is an efficient lure and over time has helped me catch more fish. If you improvise a little, it can be fished in multiple manners, using weedless jigs or offset techniques. The size and color range on this model is huge, much bigger than on any other soft baits I’ve used before. Oh, and yes, I think this comes pretty close to a legend.

About Adrian

Professional angler, web enthusiast and tackle fanatic. Always in search for new things that can improve his fishing.

View all posts by Adrian →

In the past years tuning and customizing reels got a voice of it’s own, and starts to change the face of fishing. Faster bearings, lighter and lighter spools, more performant braking systems, out of this world handles, full bearing supported knobs, and lots more can make a reel more than you bargained for.
But the question is: ” Is it all worth it? Are there tangible results? Or is it just playing tricks on us?”

Boca Bearings Orange Seal, ABEC #7

We are trying to find some of the answers in the next test. We have chosen 2 reels for the test to see if Boca Bearings really make a difference: an old and famous reel, Abu Morrum 3601 Mag, and a new Shimano model, Scorpion 1501XT.

Morrum 3601C Mag

Shimano Scorpion 1500/1501 XT

We tested their performance with their factory bearings, and afterwards, did the same tests with Boca Bearings ABEC 7 Orange seals, throwing 5.5g (3/16 oz), 10g (3/8 oz) and 15g (about 1/2 oz) weights. How noticeable is the difference in casting distance? Is there any difference, or it only makes the reel feel smoother? I guess we’ll just have to find out, won’t we?

Considering we’ll do the testing only for a few hours, we decided to leave the bearings dry… We’ve tested them afterwards, oiled, and actually didn’t feel the difference (using Friction Zero ZPI oil or High Speed Oil from Boca).

The cold was keeping us company

The rod used for the test is a custom St.Croix SC5 5S68MXF,  6’8”, 6-14 lbs, 3/16 – 5/8 oz, ex-fast action, medium power. Not the best casting rod, but it was the one that loaded the best with all the weights used in the test. In order to draw a conclusion, we did a few accommodation casts with each of the weights, and afterwards did 5 more that were accounted for. In the end, we calculated the arithmetic average of the 5 distances measured.

Exact measurements, no cheating here

1. Abu Garcia Morrum SX3601C Mag casting distance:

Orange Seal Boca Bearings(OSBB), compared to original, manufacturer bearings:
- 5.5 gr. – 9 m extra with OSBB, meaning +26,6 % gain in “performance”;
- 10 gr. – 6 m extra with OSBB, meaning +13,6 % gain in “performance”;
- 15 gr. – 11,6m extra with OSBB, meaning +24 % gain in “performance” ;

Avarage gain in performance (distance): 21,4 % with OSBB.

Observations:
With the manufacturer, original, bearings (almost 12 years old, since this Morrum was mada – according to its serial number) Razvan used to cast with the tension know completely untightened, and the magnetic brake set to 5, out of 10.
After replacing the bearings with OSBB, he couldn’t make one cast with those settings. He had to tighten the magnetic brake to the maximum, and make a few small adjustments with the tension knob to be able to cast them. The hybrid Boca’s seem to spin darn fast.

If it matters, with all the braking systems set to zero, the spool spinned 18seconds with the manufacturer, original bearings, and 50 seconds with the Boca Orange Seal’s.

2.Shimano Scorpion 1501 XT casting distance:

Orange Seal Boca Bearings(OSBB), compared to original, manufacturer bearings:
- 5,5 gr. – 5,2 m extra with OSBB, meaning +14,9 % gain in “performance”;
- 10 gr. – 5,2 m extra with OSBB, meaning +11,1 % gain in “performance”;
- 15 gr. – 9,8 m extra with OSBB, meaning +20 % gain in “performance”;

Avarage gain in performance (distance): 15,3 % with OSBB

Observations:
Settings with the Scorpion 1501 XT, as well as with the Curado 51E are a breeze. In this case, in need of thumb control, for maximum distance, I only pulled out one of the centrifugal brake blocks. A few adjustments from the tension knob here and there, and off we go.

Amongst the 2 reels, it’s the most controllable, as easy as it is with the Curado 51E.

With all the brake blocks deactivated, the spool spun 29 seconds with the manufacturer original bearings, and, in this case (the spool wasn’t filled with line), with the Orange Seal Boca’s it spun 1min and 15 sec.

As you’ve seen the decade old ABU had poor performance with the original bearings, and excelled with the Boca bearings, the difference being the most noticeable. The gain in performance with the Scorpion is less evident, but if you come to think about it, with a 1/2 oz weight, there’s a very visible difference in casting distance, even with this new generation reel, this distance will definitely improve your catching chances, especially on a clear water reservoir, where every foot counts, in this case instead of casting 160 ft (49m) you’ll cast that necessary 33 ft.  (9-10m) further, increasing your chances to catch that spooky fish.

It’s obvious Orange Seal Boca’s are a gain in performance. Is it worth it? That’s for everyone to decide.I’ve changed all my spool bearings to Boca’s, if that’s any consolation:) , and will continue to do so in the future with all my new reels. They are by far the cheapest quality upgrade, excepting the carbontex drag.

Boca's and pike are made for each other

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 →

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.

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Pike is one predatory fish I really enjoy chasing. It’s extremely aggressive, powerful and a spectacular catch.  There are also many myths related to pike fishing. Some of them are true, most of them aren’t. Trying to elucidate them, I answered some questions based on my pike fishing experiences in places across Europe.

Me, pike fishing on a river in Sweden in late august.

1. Hunger, curiosity or just predatory instinct?
Many people are convinced that pike only feeds because it’s hungry. This seems a pretty obvious and universal sentence, doesn’t it? OK, then this means you can’t catch pike if it’s not feeding, right? By believing this you will also have the perfect excuse for not catching anything. “Well you know, pike wasn’t feeding today”. Yeah, just bad luck.

The thing is that pike is a predatory fish, and that makes a big difference. It’s predatory instinct means it doesn’t always strike out of hunger. Pike are very aggressive fish and they tend to defend their territory against any intruder. How I see it, this is the key to fishing pike successfully using artificial baits.

What we must first do is locate pike and try to give them the perfect lure to eat or wrestle. Usually when pike don’t feed, they will react protecting their territory. Our job is to find something that can’t leave pike indifferent.

Stefan with a big mama on a cold spring in the Danube Delta.

There are times when you don’t get any decisive strikes, just light taps, that generally make you to set the hook earlier and miss the fish. It happened to me many times, usually in heavily fished waters, where pike tend to be very cautious. If you are confident that that spot holds pike, than lure change is the name of the game, until you grab their attention. In the end, either out of curiosity or out of irritation they would strike firmly. Also do not forget the fact that sometimes pike like to toy with their pray before they eat it, so don’t lose your patience and focus on making them grab the lure.

2. Big vs. small baits

Salmo Skinner, a must have lure for trophy pike.

Big vs. small lures. The eternal lure size dilemma. Does using a big bait ensure big pike? Are trophy pike caught only on huge lures? Well, my answer to the above questions is: no, not always. I’ll try to explain it in the rows bellow.

Let’s consider big pike. It obviously has more experience and is much more cautious than regular sized pike. Experience means also fishing smarter. Big pike, being aware of it’s size will try to preserve as much energy as it can, using qualities like camouflage, strike speed or very sharp teeth much better than a small pike. Big pike will mainly attack big prey, because that means a very consistent meal. A meal that will last for days. They won’t chase every little thing that swims by, that’s for sure.

Prey fish have no chance in front of these strong and sharp teeth.

You’re probably wondering, he said that big pike aren’t caught on big lures only. That’s right! Here you have two reasons why this happens.

The first reason is, as I said before, big pike are much more cautious. This means that if you throw lures sized bigger than the actual prey in the water, big pike might notice something’s not right. In most cases pike won’t strike. This means you should adapt your lure size to the prey fish in those bodies of water. Reading the water, and observing even the smallest of details can be crucial to your fishing.

Another case is when pike are in a feeding frenzy. Do you remember when your lure is chased and missed by a small pike, and just a moment after a big mama strikes? Well, that’s exactly what I’m talking about.

In this cases, a smaller, normal sized lure can be animated in a more aggressive manner, and can bring you more and sometimes even bigger fish. You will say, in this cases almost any lure might work. Try taking my advice and see what happens. You’ll see, it makes a difference.

These are only two cases in which normal or small sized lures can be more effective in fishing big pike. I’m sure there will be many other similar situations you will face on the water, so always keep an open mind when choosing your lure size.

3. Where can we find pike?
Being a very smart predator, at the top of the food chain in many waters, pike takes big advantage of the underwater structures. Structures can be anything from weed beds, underwater trees or boulders, even deep ridges or underwater edges that are close to shallow weeds. On big lakes formed on rivers, pike can also be found in areas where smaller streams flow into the lake or where currents form in these lakes.

Fishing on a big lake in Sweden, I discovered flowing water with underwater weeds where pike were hiding. I only caught about two or tree pike, before arriving to this place. The flowing water area was full with pike and they were feeding like crazy. This may also be because of the higher oxygen concentration in the water. My colleague and I caught about 30 pikes between 8 and 15 lbs in that spot alone. Even the local guide was amazed, saying he never caught so many pike in that particular place. It really was a terrific  pike fishing day.

When everything else failed, stream fishing got us a lot of good sized pike.

Another way to locate pike is to search for places that hold prey fish. In these places you will normally find pike feeding. Many of the structures mentioned above are perfect for holding prey fish. Pike uses all these structures in her advantage because of its strong camouflage. Once you discovered these places, you can also adjust your lure type, size and color, in accordance to what pike is chasing. Prey fish can normally be found in shallow water in the spring and they tend to move deeper as the summer wears on. As you can imagine, pike does exactly the same.

4. Is pike a solitaire predator or does it hunt in schools?
Pike follows the exact pattern of many predatory fish. This means that small pike usually hunt in schools, while big ones tend to become more solitaire. The small ones, being less experienced, tend to hunt in schools because this makes things much simpler. They use ambush to catch their prey.
Big pike on the other hand, use their camouflage, extreme speed and sharp teeth to deliver an instant deadly strike. They don’t chase prey for long distances, they hunt more efficiently, with short, lightning speed strikes.

Andrei managed to trick a big one, but promised to let her go, so they're both smiling.

This isn’t really a rule, but in many cases you won’t find small pike in the same area with big ones. They are as much territorial as they are cannibal with their siblings.

This one was lucky enough to survive the bite of her elder sister.

5. Size matters. Is small pike no fun to catch?
Pike is a spirited fighter and will always be ready for a great battle. Small pike can be a great opponent also if you adapt your gear to the size of the pike. A 3 to 6 lbs pike can be a great catch on a ML spinning rod, using lets say a light 6-8 lb line.
Because I’m a big adrenaline fan, I always use lighter equipment than anyone else uses for the same fish size. This is because I want to enjoy each fish fight. Frankly I don’t think there is a fish size that’s not fun to catch, it’s just choosing the right gear for it.

Small pike can be extremely fun to catch also. They are more energetic, will make more jumps, and you won’t get bored chasing after the big one.

Just use the right gear, and no matter how big the pike is, each strike will turn into a great battle.

Bonus 6. Is pike good for eating?
Who cares? We’re going to release them anyway. Especially the big ones .

Two sisters, going back to send their mama.

About Adrian

Professional angler, web enthusiast and tackle fanatic. Always in search for new things that can improve his fishing.

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I’ve been asked a lot, during some endless chat with different fishermen, what lures do I like most, what are my favorites for some specific application. You know, the same type of questions that pops in at every start of a relationship, questions like: “What’s you favourite color/actor/book/movie..etc?”.

The truth is I do have favorites, even though I try to get all objective and distant from my tackle box, and try to leave no room for subjectivity, I must admit I have “feelings” of some kind for my equipment. It’s impossible and much less fun not to get attached to these things.

You sort of realize this after you get caught playing with your new custom rod in the living room (sometimes even talking to it), making false casts in your back yard under your neighbors suspicious looks or waking yourself up by trying to set the hook while having a personal record fantasy. Not to mention you can easily take a one hour conversation on any type of fishing line.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking. And no, you’re not a fanatic, you’re just a passionate angler. That makes two of us.

After getting used to the fact that I’m pretty selective, and have favorite lures for about any fishing technique or species, it’s time to share them with the rest of you out there. I thought of starting with a species of fish that’s very common in Europe, similar to the American walleye, a fish called zander, which is also a very popular game fish.

One of my all time favorite zander lure types are soft baits. I consider these to be extremely versatile, meaning they can come in handy in a big variety of situations you face on the water.

Let’s take a look at the lures I wouldn’t leave home without when fishing for zander. If you can’t find them in your tackle box, I strongly suggest to give them a try. You never know, they might end up in your personal top 10.

Because European zander is very similar in his behavior with the American walleye, I really think these soft baits will do a great job in walleye fishing also.

1. Relax Kopyto
Relax is a famous soft bait company located in Poland. It has a big range of soft baits aimed for many species of predators. Relax Kopyto is a big hit when it comes to spin fishing for predators. It’s an aggressive and super effective soft bait. It has a fantastic fish attracting tail action which makes this lure deadly for zander.

Relax Kopyto 6.5cm, a universal size that will make walleye and zander go nuts!

Kopyto is my favourite zander lure, especially during spring time, when zander becomes very aggressive and start protecting their nest. Kopyto comes in 6 dimensions, starting from 3.5cm to 15cm. When fishing for zander I usually use the 6.5cm and 7.5cm models.

Andrei showing off with his killer Kopyto lure on a 1/0 Gamakatsu hook.

2. Mann’s Shad
The first thing you notice about Mann’s lures, is that they are really really soft. This thing gives them a unique tail action and body wobble, which send out huge vibrations.

Mann's shad is by far one of the softest bait I fished with.

Mann’s shad comes in 4 sizes, and 12 colors and was initially developed for pike and zander fishing. What I like most about Mann’s shad is that it can be fished at extremely slow speeds, which makes it perfect for natural, slow presentations.

This little guy just won't let go. It must be the Mann's effect.

3. Relax Aqua
Another Relax candidate, would be the Aqua shad. It’s the perfect bait for the classical jigging technique. It has a wide tail action that can really make a difference, especially when dealing with suspicious zander.

Relax Aqua will never let you down when dealing with suspicious zander.

The soft materials (silicon) used to manufacture these baits are also very resistant, and don’t affect at all the underwater evolution.

Me and a 8lbs zander who couldn't resist an Aqua shad on Sarulesti lake.

4. Cabela’s Aqua Glow
One of my favorite lures for offset techniques. I use it a lot when fishing Carolina or Texas rigs for zander in heavy cover areas. It works great at a slow retrieve, because it vibrates at every movement of the rod tip. I mainly use this lure when river fishing, in filled with structure areas, like boulders or trees. It has an incredible swimming action, making it an all year lure, regardless of the water temperature.

Cabela's Aqua Glow, an all year lure just perfect for offset rigs.

Another important detail is that each one of these lures is salt and garlic impregnated, in order to mask fish-spooking odors and to make the fish hold on to it longer.

Aqua Glow strikes again, 9lbs zander on a calm spring day.

5. Orka Shad
Orka is another European bait company, located in Serbia. It produces great soft baits, that I began to love more and more. In the beginning I was a little skeptical about the quality and efficiency of these baits, mainly because of their low price, but after testing them in different waters they really got my interest.

Orka Shad, a great serbian lure designed for around the world fishing.

Orka Shad comes in 13 sizes, starting 4cm to 26cm. I caught a lot of zander at sizes ranging from 7 to 11cm. Try also not to underestimate the bigger sizes, because the 14cm lures sometimes made a huge difference. Their strong tail action make it impossible not to trigger the fish’s natural response to attack.

This lure can really put a big smile on your face!

6. Orka Shad Tail
The Shad Tail is another must have in any tackle box. When everything else seems to fail, this lure works wonders.

Is this close to Paradise, or what?

It has a particular shape, with a shad body and a grub tail. Its specific vibration and tail action make it the perfect bait for tough situations, when fish don’t seem to be responding even though you know they’re there. There were days, even in zander tournaments, when switching to this bait got me 4 good fish in less than 10 minutes, from the same spot someone else fished for an hour before me without catching anything.

Shad Tail, just perfect for zander punkers.

7. Bass Assassin Turbo Shad
Bass Assassin is a soft bait company, located in Florida, who’s been around for about 20 years. I fished a lot with their Freshwater Shad Assassin lures, and one of my favorites is the 4” Turbo Shad.

Turbo Shad, one of the top lures from Bass Assassin.

It has a solid shad body with a paddle tail that generates great action, making it irresistible for European zander. This is another lure I often use for offset fishing. It’s shape allows the fish to swallow it instantly, and helps me make a good hookset, without losing many fish. I usually fish this lure with 1/0-4/0 offset hooks.

Perfect hookset on a 4'' Turbo Shad.

8. Bass Assassin Curly Shad
4” Freshwater Curly Shad in another Bass Assassin lure that makes zander go wild.

Bass Assassin Curly Shad with it's unique shape and tail position.

The winning recipe, dark colors for crystal clear waters.

It has a unique shape and tail position, which sends subtle vibrations, just perfect for cold water. Its tail acts like a rudder that steers the bait into a circular fall that really attracts predators.

A 6lbs zander, caught this winter on a -3 degrees Celsius day.

I use it a lot during the cold season, when river fishing. The slit in the belly, make this lure a good candidate for offset techniques, such as Texas or Carolina.

9. Charlie Brewer’s Slider
Maybe even without realizing, Charlie Brewer really came up with the ultimate finesse lure for zander. I’m talking about the 3” and 4″ Bass/Walleye/Striper Grub. As the name suggests, this lure was not intended for zander, but believe me when I tell you, it really is a powerful zander soft bait. Its vibra-tail causes an irresistible wobble that instantly awakes predatorial instincts.

Charlie Brewer's Slider designed the perfect zander finesse lure.

I fish this bait with a 6-10 lb line and the lightest weight possible, using a slow, steady retrieve with small movements from the rod’s tip. This grub can also be very efficient when fished in a drop-shot rig.

10. Big Byte Baits Shad
I initially bought this lure having no idea it was designed by Big Byte Baits. The 3” and 4” shads are amazing on lakes with big and aggressive zander. They work great with 2/0-4/0 jig hooks and weights from 1/4oz to 1/2oz.

Big Byte Baits, the name says it all!

This shad has an incredible swimming action both when fished using a rapid and aggressive retrieve, or at a slow-steady retrieve. It is also very efficient in river fishing, having caught many Danube zander over 10 lbs.

This lures, designed for walleye fishing, are also adored by his European brother.

So there you have it!  These are my favorite soft lures for fishing zander. They are the soft baits I trust the most, and I really think that with these 10 baits I could handle most of the tough situations faced on the water.

What about you? What’s your top 10? Did I miss anything?

About Adrian

Professional angler, web enthusiast and tackle fanatic. Always in search for new things that can improve his fishing.

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