COLOMBIA - IL VIDEO DEL NOSTRO VIAGGIO

Un video veloce,... 14 minuti di follia piscatoria in un posto che ci è rimasto impresso a fuoco nella mente!

Quick video, 14 minutes of fast and furious fishing in a place that got impressed in our mind.

Noi si torna ad Aprile e maggio, se vuoi essere dei nostri contattami pure a vagabondfisherman@gmail.com

We go again in April and Mayy, if you wanna join us just contact me at vagabondfisherman@gmail.com

ULTRA LIGHT FUN, by Tomislav Jukic

Here goes an article by my friend and great fisherman Tomislav Jukic about Mediterranen light game, hope you enjoy.

ULTRALIGHT FUN

No surprise, my favourite type of fishing is spinning, casting artificial lures and retriving them back, trying to mimic bait and attract target fish to bite. I dont like to sit arround and wait for fish to come, i like to walk and find them by myself, and offcourse at the end catch them.

So many different spinning options and techniques, from saltwater to freshwater, from the biggest bluefin tunas and monster GTs to small stream trouts. Million of different posibilities.

I have done many offshore fishing trips in my fishing career all over the world and

my favourite type of spinning is 110% popping for GTs, but with limited time and resources i cannot spend all year fishing for them in far away oceans.

So like many others i have to adapt to my close to home waters and species.

I live in Slovenia, and we have amazing rivers, streams and lakes. I spend also a lot of time in Croatia all year round where i do mostly saltwater fishing.

Many anglers are using very strong rods for small fish that are the most common catch arround areas where I fish, and I dont see where is the point. Why not enjoy fighting small fish with light rod? It is not like fighting a 100 kilo fish with big and heavy fishing gear, but you will still have crazy fun fights and you will definatelly hear a lot of screaming drag. Isnt that the best noise there is in the world? Better noise than exaust of a sports car thats for sure.

You should feel the adrenalin when you hook 1kg fish on 0-5gr rod. And still with some experience fish will be easily pulled out.

All this began 5-6 years ago, when i bought my first ultralight spinning rod for fun, casting weight 0-5 grams. I didnt even know what im going to fish with this rod as it seemed to light for everything. I paired it with small shimano 1000 size reel, thin braid and leader, small jig hooks and some soft plastics. And the result was something i didnt think it will happen, crazy addiction, crazy fun and a lot of adrenalin.

On the beginning, i used this setup for small ponds filled with trouts, for fishing in small harbours and from docks, using small woblers and soft plastic smelly worms. Many fish were cought and more and more lures tested. Later i found schools of bonitos offshore, and i was sure i will not land any as rods were to light. But i tried, and bonitos from 1-1.5 kilos were landed on small 5-7gr casting jigs, the fights and runs were amazing, sometimes we even had to follow hooked bonito with boat as we were almost getting spooled. Crazy crazy fun. Than we were fishing for seabass from shore, top water strikes, biggest were up to 2 kilo! You should see bended rod, on the limit, but rod did pull the fish out. On sandy terrain many different type of breams were cought on Gulp sandworms, one of my favourite lures for ultra light spinning. Mackarels and horse versions of them in unlimited numbers. We also had great topwater action when fishing for bluefish, 2 kilo was the biggest. Great topwater lure is comming from Croatia, hand made Monarch Dok Sparky 10gr. This lure is also great for seabass, bonitos, bluefish, trouts and also pike.

If i think good i have cought almost all species that are at least a little bit predatory in their nature that live in areas where i fish.

There is no water where you will not be able to use ultra light fishing gear, except if fishing is not allowed.

I never, never leave home without one of my ultralight spinning setups in my car.

Im spending my summer free time in Croatia, from Istria to Dalmatia, and this rods will always catch fish. Specially in pike of the season when water gets very hot and fishing gets slow, this small lures will still catch you many many great fishes.

What is also great when fishing ultralight, with right lures on right terrain you will have excelent results also from shore in any time of day. Check the conditions, currents, wind, any kind of topwater action, bottom structure, try different lures and you are on for sure.

Now after so many years of ultra light spinning my arsenal of ultralight rods is getting bigger and bigger, more and more different species are getting cought, and im realising how many possibilities ultra light spinning actually has.

At the moment I’m using Yamaga Blanks Blue Current series of rods, and my opinion is they are one of the best rods for ultralight spinning on the market at the moment. I tried many different brands and almost all of them were good, but the Blue Current from Yamaga are diamonds. I have four and I use them all (well one is new and not tested yet). I use different length rods, 6.10Ti 0.4-6gr, 7.2Ti 0.5-8gr, 7.6Ti 0.8-10gr and the new 7.7Tz 2-9gr, that I’ve heard is best of them all. Old version of Yamaga Blanks Blue Current series named Ti (Titanium guides), is now replaced with Tz series (latest Torzite guides) and that means even sharper action and sensibility due to lighter guides and at the end even lighter rod. Short 6.10ft rod I use mostly in harbors, as rod is short I have advantage of controlling the fish when maneuvering her around some structures, ropes and other things that could cut through my line. Is also very good if we are crowded on a small boat. Long 7.6ft version I use mostly from shore, where casting distance is important. Also sometimes from boat, when there is top water action but fish are very careful and as soon as you come close they will disappear in deep water, again, longer rod more casting distance. My most used and my favorite of all is 7.2ft, its perfect all round rod, with good casting distance and still not to long when we are a few anglers fishing from boat. I use it 90% of my time. So nice rods with a lot of power, but still so light you can enjoy fighting even the smallest predatory fish. And they will bend good on all size fish. I use Shimano Stella 2500, Shimano Rarenium 2500 and Daiwa Theory 2508. Varivas Sea Bass braided line PE0.6, all kind of leaders from 0.12-0.25, all sorts of small wobblers, casting jigs, surface lures and soft baits mounted on jig hooks. If there is a moment when I find bigger fish, when my PE0.6 is not enough, I have spare spools with a bit stronger line, and problem is solved. I only did it one time, so there are really small chances you will ever have to do this.

Like all kind of spinning, leader is a must. I connect 1.5m long fluorocarbon leader with my braid using Albright knot, and than on the end of my leader comes small snap tied with Palomar knot. All these knots are very easy to tie and will take very short time to complete.

When landing the fish I like to use mini lip grip, and small pliers for taking hooks out of fishes mouth. As I release almost all fish I try to fish without barbs most of the time, I only take fish that I know I’m going to eat it fresh. And I think that is what everybody should do.

Few fishing stores that are close to me and can supply me with all the gear I need for ultralight spinning are Maguro Pro Shop in Croatia, Carpio and Monster Bite fishing tackle from Slovenia, Vagabond Fisherman from Italy.

Tight lines to all!

Tomislav Jukić

THE IMPORTANCE OF FIELD TESTING A LURE

Questo è un post un po' particolare, l'intenzione è far vedere come cerco di lavorare sui miei artificiali.
In particolare, essendo sempre alla ricerca di nuovi materiali e finiture, diventa fondamentale provare intensamente sul campo il nostro lavoro.

La storia è questa: avendo trovato una verniciatura particolarmente brillante e piacevolissima alla vista a esca ultimata, era necessario testarne eventuali controindicazioni in pesca pratica... niente di meglio di due settimane sul campo, una in Colombia e una alle Andamane, con tra di esse quei 20 giorni senza il minimo lavaggio o cura per l'artificiale.
Una cinquantina di catture assortite tra carangidi, mackerel, cubere, tonni, e altre specie più o meno dentate, oltre ovviamente ai vari pesci slamati, hanno costituito lo stress test ideale..

L'esca scelta per la nuova verniciatura è stata un popper da 65 grammi, molto versatile, proprio per la possibilità di attirare tante abboccate da quasi ogni razza di pinnuto predatore. Insomma il poverino ha visto l'inferno acquatico o quasi. Persino il peso in coda in acciaio cromato ha riportato segni di denti.

Alla fine del test, senza problemi strutturali di nessun tipo, ma già lo sapevo, è apparsa una criticità nell'adesione dei vari strati tra verniciature e resina, come visibile in coda e presso la girella ventrale; problema che si è presentato solo dopo molte catture, ma che è abbastanza per non introdurre la nuova finitura sulle esche commerciali fintanto che ciò non sarà risolto ( e credo che già lo sia... aspettiamo prossimo test ).

Vero che, per molti, una finitura anche molto meno resistente è totalmente accettabile, ma qui si preferisce lavorare diverso e non fare pagare bei soldini per qualcosa che poi si disgrega in mare... comunque la soluzione è già in vista :)
E' in pratica sempre il pesce alla fine a decretare il successo, quindi, per questo portiamo sempre in mare i nostri giochini prima che sullo shop :) Spero che sia apprezzato :)

This is an unusual post, the goal is to show how I like to work on my custom lures.
Being always on the search for new materials and finishes, it is mandatory to try them accurately on the field.
Short story is as follows: as I found a very special paint with highly reflective power and very pleasant to the eyesight, it surfaced the need to search for any drawback on practical fishing... no better test than a week in Colombia followed by 20 days of inactivity with no rinse or wathever care for the lure followed by another week in Andaman.
I caught about 50 fishes on this lure, with jacks, mackerels, cuberas, tunas and more, not mentioning of all the missed strikes and lost fishes, by my opinion the perfect stress test.
Chosen lure was a 65 grams popper, very versatile model that could attract any kind of predator. the poor piece of wood saw hell in water. even stainless steel tail weight has reported toothmarks.
At the end of the testing, without any structural problem, it appeared a issue in the adhesion of different layers of paint and resin, as can be seen near the tail ( where you can also see the thickness of the protective layers ) and the belly swivel; this problem appeared only after many catches and can be considered absolutely statistically acceptable, , but in my opinion it is enough to call for further improvements before hitting the shop ( already under development ).
Well, somebodyelse would consider more fragile finishes totally acceptable, but we try to maximize the strenght of our lures for the happiness of the fisherman, rather than make people pay big euros for something that melts down when touched by a fish :D
It doesn't matter how sexy can be a lure, it is always the fish to determine its success... so, this is why we always bring our lures for a bath before than in the shop ;) Hope it will be appreciated :)