Cold night asp fishing session

Hi!
Few days ago I had an interesting fishing session I want to share with you. 

Last autumn I was working late and days were very short in Poland. Even if I leftwork earlier and go straight to my fishery I started fishing when it was already dark. My fishery was Odra river near Wrocław - big river with many different predators. I like to  hunt mainly for chub, asp, catfish and zander although while the water is very cold now my main goal is zander and maybe asp. You can find a lot of information about my night fishing techniques on my blog, i.e.:  Spinning at night

The day I want to write about was a great fishing day.  It was very warm despite it is a late autumn, there was a mild west wind and the air pressure was falling slowly. I knew I had to go to hunt for night zanders. My fishing spot was an hour of driving away. It is a straight and shallow fragment of a river with a lot of small and bigger rocks.

I arrived there just before it was completely dark, and I was able to look on the water and try to notice some signs of fish activity. Unfortunatelly there was none. I started to cast in all places that had a current, were shallow and close to the rocks. Those are places where most of baitfish hide. I tried many different lures - mostly  shallow running wobblers (8 - 12cm) with a very delicate action. Finaly I saw some movement. Undoubtedly some predator was hunting near to me. Delicate splashes on the water and lot of running baitfish. I had a bite after just few casts but I was unable to set the hooks. After that I changed location and something weird and awesome happend. In just 2 casts I caught 2 awesome asps - 73cm and 84cm! Big and fat predators in complete darkness were hunting more intense than you can imagine - splashes all over the place.

After catching those 2 lunkers, making some photos (very tricky alone in a darkness with smartphone) and releasing them i had one more bite, but i didn't set the hook properly.  It was a really great day, but I knew what I was going for after some previous trips. I will write about that soon! 

How to make a good fishing photo?

Fishing is all about those magical moments when we forget about the whole world. Unique feelings after catching a big fish we hunted for months or beautiful sunsets with a rod in your hand in the favorite spot. For me those moments last forever. I remember a big carp I caught in the middle of the night in the full moon light 10 years ago. 

The best way to preserve those memories is to make a photo. Sounds easy - today everyone has a good camera in the mobile phone and we make dozens of photos every time we see something interesting. Unfortunately it is not that easy to make a GOOD photo. I'm sure most of you can tell that there is the difference between his photo and photos we can find i.e. in fishing magazines.  For me it is a big challenge to make a decent photo hen you have only few seconds if you want to release your catch in a good health. Im not a top expert in this matter but I wanted to share with you some of my observations. If you have something to add in this matter please leave a comment.

Most important thing that makes a great photo is its ability to convey emotions. One way of achieving this is tightening the shot. Focusing on one element prevents viewer from distraction and emphasizes one particular scene or moment.

 Next important thing is taking a photo of an angler with his trophy. This simple shot can be very tricky. First of all NEVER take a photo of a dead fish. Instead of good emotions your photo will show nothing but sadness, a nice scene with the death in the background... Fish should be alive with lot of colors in a bright light with no grass, dirt or blood on it. Angler should smile and h should hold a fish in the way that allows to hide his hands and fingers as much as possible.

Another great way to take a photo of an angler with his trophy is to take a shot of some action - like landing or releasing the fish.  Photo like this will look a frame from a movie. It will be natural and full of emotions.

Personally I lake to take a landscape photo the view of my favorite fishery in different seasons, time of the day and weather reminds me of all moments I spent fishing alone or with my friends. Some of them were printed and now they are hanging on my wall. 

My photos aren't perfect, but I'm really happy with them. If there is something I don't like about them I try to correct it. Although photography as well as fishing is a field where you will never achieve perfection... and that is the most addictive in it.  

Zanders in the middle of the mountains...

I have to big passions that drives me to leave my home as often as possible to look or adventure. One of them is fishing. This hobby started for my my father when he took my fishing for the first time long time ago. No we still go fishing together and those moments are really important for me.

Second hobby is trekking in the mountains. This passion began with meeting my wife. She loves mountains and everything related with them.  Now we spend almost all of our vacations in the mountains.

Needless to say, that if it was possible to connect those two passions I didn't have to think twice. Fishing for my favorite fish - zander in a big dam reservoir on a mountain river (Dunajec), surrounded by mountains (Pieniny and Gorce) was like the best idea ever.

Czorsztyn is a huge and deep artificial lake with clear water and lot of different species of fish. You can catch here natural lake species like pike, perch, zander, bream, roach, but also species that usually live in mountain streams and rivers like trout or danube salmon. My goal was of course zander and this year I visited Czorsztyn a few times with success. Fishing in deep so lake is different than fishing in my other fisheries. Normally I look for zanders in shallow spots: 2 - 5m (6ft - 15ft) but now my shallow spots were 10m (30ft) and sometimes I had to fish much deeper - up to 25m (75ft). I had to learn a lot, but many bites and beautiful zanders rewarded everything and I know I will fish n Czorsztyn lake more often next year!  

Night spinning - fishing for big predators

Spinning at night.

There is nothing more magical than waiting with your rod, until the sun goes down and everything around turns grey and darkness falls. This is the time of big predators going for their prey. This is the time when big river becomes wilder, more mysterious and at any time you can expect a powerful hit at the end of your line. Spinning at night is magical... For me personally it is much more difficult for so many reasons, than spinning during the day, but I love this kind of fishing. And here is why! 

It will start soon...

First of all, if you want to achieve success you need to know your fishery like your own pocket. You need to know exactly how to approach the fishery without any noise, you need to know where to stand to be comfortable and with the possibility of landing a big fish without using light (It scares the fish and you can forget about more bites). You need to know exactly what lure you should use and how and where to cast it. There is no place for trying. Every cast has to be perfect. At night You will cach much less fish than during sunrise or sunset but they give you much more excitement and usually they are bigger...

In Poland at night we usually hunt for wells (HUGE European catfish) and zander (European cousin of walleye). Those are really big fish that feed at night naturally. We use mostly crankbaits (for wells) and slashbaits, minnows for zander. Fishery should be shallow with looooot of prey and the angler should be patient and ready to wait few hours until predators arrive to feed. If you won't catch your main target you can expect many different predators come for your bite - like barbel, asp, pike or chub. Everything can happen at night.

Big Asp caught at night

Not every trip will be successful, but believe me, that it is worth to try and spend a few night spinning at night. If you finally get your bite it will be unforgettable and you won't stop trying. Night fishing is magical. Period! 

Zander at midnight