This
spring it was time for a more exotic destination: the famous Romanian Lake known
by the name of Sarulesti (after the biggest settlement on the lake) or Raduta
(after it's owner Robert Raduta). the pick-up at the airport in Bucharest went
fine, on the bumpy drive to the Hotel situated directly on the lake, there were
the first impressions of a very poor country, where horse carts are still a
popular means of transportation. The first view of the Lake came as a bit of a
disappointment to me: I had imagined it to be bigger and less brown. But I knew
that besides some gigantic carp, there was supposed to be an enormous population
of Zander in there. And even though the fish
were more occupied with breeding than with eating we were going to catch quite
well. After a short greeting and a meal Uli and I didn't want to stay on land
any longer and joined the guide Paco in his boat to be updated on the current
conditions and hot spots. We had been promised cold clear water, but the water
was already very turbid with a visibility of about
20-30cm. It didn't take us long, to get the first contact of
Zander.
Rather small fish took our various plastic shads
and Paco's dead bait presented on a drachkovitsh rig. Normally the lake is
strictly C&R, but the hotels kitchen
had ordered zander, so we were aloud to take some.
Wobbled as Jigged
After Georg
and Walter arrived in the night, we devoted ourselves to the fish and their
preferences for the next few days. (Slotter-) shads in
bright yellow,
with or without some green and red turned out to be the most reliable lures, but
also colours with a lot of glitter (black, silver, gold) and pure white caught
their share of fish. Surprisingly effective was a rubber bullhead imitation,
which wasn't even very bright coloured, but a rather smudgy black-yellow. Just
to bad I had only one with me and it disappeared in the mouth of a
pike way to soon, obviously Robert had worked
on the pike population by stocking some fish from the Danube delta. Of course I
only fish with steel leader afterwards, but can't get a
pike of that size to bite again. Now I take
an extra short stout rod with a
multiplier in the boat, equipped with a big black and silver
bomber. As soon as the shore is
within casting distance I switch to that rod for a few casts and apart from two
smallish pike surprisingly also two rather big
zander go for the shallow diving
plug. The
next days we fish almost exclusively with
soft plastic baits, but on a morning when the bite is slow I try a
Frenzy Diver with a bright
yellow belly and catch a zander on it. When
we switch boat teams in the afternoon and I go out with Georg I manage to catch 7
zander on that
plug and, after I lose it, on a
simliarly coloured Risto Rap.
Afterwards a strong wind starts bothering us and everybody except for Uli takes
a half day off from fishing. The wind also seems to adversely affect the fishing
and even though we do keep on catching we can't help the feeling, that were
staying behind the possibilities of the venue. Uli tells us, that last time in
May he caught a lot more and then a much more aggressive
presentation of the lures was
necessary. We do catch almost equally well with quite different styles of
presentation. Georg reels in the
soft bait with pauses to let them sink all
in all quit slowly and catches as well as
Uli with his tried and tested style of ripping the rod upwards and then reeling
in while lowering it again. I do 1-3 twitches or Jerks with rod and then let the
lure sink back, before reeling in and putting the rod back into the starting
position.
Two From The Delta
While
we continue to fish busily, Robert is on expedition in the delta of the Danube,
where seemingly he has leased the fishing rights in a quite big region. One
evening he's back and asks us, if we want to see a big catfish. He has brought
catfish with him, because he wants populate the upstream part of the lake, which
is separated from "ours" by a few barred pipes. For one part as a attractive
fishery, a sort of
"wels brothel" for lure fisherman but also too control the bream population
which moves in this part of the lake for spawning. With all-terrain vehicles we
are driven through the night and then we really get to see two gigantic wels
catfish which are brought from a basin on a truck to the lake. And finally this
holiday is over like all holidays much too fast. This lake is certainly and
excellent occasion get a good training on zander fishing. It also holds huge
carp up too almost 40 Kg, not so interesting for lure fisherman, but it means
that, according to the season, the fishing possibilities are limited, when carp
fisherman claim whole shorelines for themselves. But that shouldn't really
affect the success of fishing all too much.
Accommodation and fishing: Raduta Tours Or book via: Raduta
Angelreisen
This
spring it was time for a more exotic destination: the famous Romanian Lake known
by the name of Sarulesti (after the biggest settlement on the lake) or Raduta
(after it's owner Robert Raduta). the pick-up at the airport in Bucharest went
fine, on the bumpy drive to the Hotel situated directly on the lake, there were
the first impressions of a very poor country, where horse carts are still a
popular means of transportation. The first view of the Lake came as a bit of a
disappointment to me: I had imagined it to be bigger and less brown. But I knew
that besides some gigantic carp, there was supposed to be an enormous population
of 
After Georg
and Walter arrived in the night, we devoted ourselves to the fish and their
preferences for the next few days. (Slotter-) 
The
next days we fish almost exclusively with 
While
we continue to fish busily, Robert is on expedition in the delta of the Danube,
where seemingly he has leased the fishing rights in a quite big region. One
evening he's back and asks us, if we want to see a big catfish. He has brought
catfish with him, because he wants populate the upstream part of the lake, which
is separated from "ours" by a few barred pipes. For one part as a attractive
fishery, a sort of
"wels brothel" for lure fisherman but also too control the bream population
which moves in this part of the lake for spawning. With all-terrain vehicles we
are driven through the night and then we really get to see two gigantic wels
catfish which are brought from a basin on a truck to the lake. And finally this
holiday is over like all holidays much too fast. This lake is certainly and
excellent occasion get a good training on zander fishing. It also holds huge
carp up too almost 40 Kg, not so interesting for lure fisherman, but it means
that, according to the season, the fishing possibilities are limited, when carp
fisherman claim whole shorelines for themselves. But that shouldn't really
affect the success of fishing all too much.