Trout day! Trouts, video-clip and lures

Last sunday I was fishing for trout with spinning rod. I used handmade lures and great trout lures from Smith - mostly D-Contact, but also Jade and D-Incite. 

It was a nice day - a little bit cloudy, but only a few drops of rain dropped. I started late ~8AM because, but we stayed there almost till 2PM - with some breaks.

The day started well with catching a nice 40cm(16in) trout on the first spot. After few casts accross the stream with handmade lure I made a little bit longer cast downstream. My lure dropped in the calm water. I draged it with a few twitches to the stronger stream and BAM! Very powerful bite! After a short fight nice trout was in my hand. I released it carefully after taking a photo :)

Few next spots gave my nothing, but the water was really nice and I knew it is just the matter of time until I will get another bite. Maybe an hour later finally something started to change. I had a lot of missed bites. Trouts were rising to my lure and than just touching it or biting really carefully. Very hard to set the hook. Of course sometimes I managed to deceive some of them. Most of better bites I had with Smith D-Contact and Jade. New lures my friend Baptiste showed and gave me.

Smith lures are very very very good quality. Nice colors, heavy trout twichbaits that are quite easy to use and sometimes they make a difference!

Like this day. They are very lifelike and maybe that is a part of their secret... In fact I think they are one of my favourites now! If you want you can read my post from the past about my trout lures here. Lot of them I still use, but also I've added some new ones:)

This time I was also using a sport camera on my head and I tried to film make a clip from my fishing trip. It was my first time so I think I must learn a lot but it was really fun to do it:) I already uploaded my clip to Youtube. Fell free to watch and comment!

Fishing camp and cooking !

In winter fishing trips are usually short - because of day length and temperature. Although sometimes I go for danube salmon or sea trout and spend there whole one or two days. 
In this case if i don't want to freeze or get seek I need to use the same equipment I use in summer while longer fishing camps.

Cooking equipment!!

Hot coffe and grilled sausage during the cold winter day is something awesome and helps me to return to the game!

 There are 3 main elements of my cooking equipment. Multitool, Portable BBQ and mobile gas stove. When it is summer and you have access to dry wood you can replace bbq with simple fire, although it could be difficult in winter. There are many types of light small mobile bbq's like Gelert Portable BBQ

My best memories from long cold fishing days are related with small picnics in the middle of fishing, cooking fresh coffee and talk with friends about the experience from the first part of the trip, working on some strategies for the "second round" 

Small gas stove is cheap and easy to use. For longer camps You can think about something bigger, but for one days trips Gosystem Trek Classic Cartridge Stove is exactly what you need!

The only thing you need now is a good multitool to prepare your meal, clean you fish for the bbq or repair your equipment. In you still don't have one - it has to change. I find Leatherman Skeletool CX Tool as ideal for me

Good fishing trip is not only about fishing. It's an adventure... Try it and maybe... come to Poland - I'll show you how we do it! :)

Today I want to show you my best tackle box/bag. Best because hand made and adjusted to my needs. Why I decided to make my lure bag by myself? I have a lot of different size pike crankbaits, twitchbaits and jerkbaits. Some of them are thicker, some slimmer, but all are quite fragile and it is easy to scratch the lacquer. On the other hand I like to change lures often and I hate tangled treble hooks.

Finally i found out how to solve my problems. I bought an inflexible thermic bag (~10in high), and different size foam pipe covers.

Next step was to cut pipe covers in equal length pieces and put them into a bag. Another way was to buy PCV pipes, but foam covers are better for fragile lure lacquer.

There is one more benefit of this bag. If you take out one of pipe cover pieces, you have a perfect place to put your beer  while fishing :)

Make Your own Handmade Tackle Bag!

Braid to Braid knot

One of the most annoying things In fishing tying good knots.

Good or bad tied knot may decide if you win or loose a fight with the fish of Your life. It is necessary to check knots as often as possible, after every caught fish.

Another thing is to find a good knot. While there is a lot of good knots to tie your lure to the line or even bind braid with mono line or fluorocarbon, the real challenge is still to find a good “braid to braid” knot.

I tried a lot of knots. Some of them were good but hard to tie, some were just bad. After all I found a good one (I think so) And this knot will by my choice for a long time for tying braid to braid.

Try it! You won’t be disappointed!! 

Asp - fantastic sport fish!

Asp - sometimes called "salmon for the poor" is an awesome game fish. It is very hard to catch - you can catch it  only with artificial lures - but the bite is every time spectacular and impossible to forget!

How does this fish look like? Like this! :)

Asp on this photo is at about 28in but in big rivers like Vistula and Odra they grow up to 40in and 20LB! This one on a photo is my PB, but i hope I will face a bigger one soon !

Typical asp spots:

Asp live in big lowland rivers - they feed mostly on bleak, but also sometimes on silver bream, roach or small chub. Asp is a super fast predator and when you stand for a while by the river you can watch his attacks on the shoals of bleak. Check out on YT movie!

How to catch this fish? Chack out another YT clip made by my friend from Hunter Lures!:

If you want to catch an asp you must try it with special lures. Lot of polish lure producers make special wobblers for asp - for example Salmo thrill or Gloog hermes, but for me the best one is HUNTER SPIRIT! But it must be used with VERY fast spinning

Sometimes when the water is cold and asps are not as fast an aggressive i use some different lures and then i fish a little bit slower:

On the first photo you can find a long slim spoon and different upgraded soft lures, the second photo shows wobblers for slower spinning - HUNTER SOUL, HUNTER CHAMPION, Rapala Husky Jerk, Salmo Sting, Rapala Original and one hand made wobbler -  special for asp. If you want to catch an asp you don't need any more, but these lures and lot of time:)

I realize, most of you will not have an opportunity to fish for asp, but in this post i wanted to show you, that somewhere in the world are different than bass sport fishes and hunting for them can be exciting!!

Kogut – polish jig – fantastic lure for zander (walleye) and perch mostly, but pike and trout also!

Beginning of kogut lures:

In 1980’s few people from south of Poland received bucktail jigs from the USA. They didn’t know how to use it, no one knows what does “jigging” mean but tried try in many different ways. Finally Someone discovered right way of using this type of lure. First zanders in Poland were caught with bucktail jigs in Kozlowa Gora Lake (described erlier on this blog)........
To read more - Visit this site:
Kogut lure - How to make??