Dream on, fish on, fishing for pike on Lake Sărulești

It's a word: in life there is a time for everything and I wanted the time to come for a moment as intense as the one lived at Relax Trophy. It seems that when you want something, it will happen, usually when you least expect it. And especially when it comes to pike fishing on Sărulești Lake.

The Dream, fishing for pike on Sărulești Lake

Two weeks before the competition, I had no partner or boat, but I wish something had happened and I could go. It seemed to be the last chance to fish this year, I also missed it because the last outing on the water had been at the stage LRS from the Delta. They and as I sat like that and dreamed with my eyes open, the miracle materialized in Andy Arif who knows how to make complicated knots that do not unravel and break. In the present case, he tied textile thread with monofilament, that is, he proposed it to him Radu Iscru to go fishing with me on the pikeperch on Lake Sărulești and to solve everything at once he gave us his boat and found us a sponsor. I don't know how to accept Radu, nor did I want to ask him, especially after a year in which I tried in vain to find a partner for each contest.

I met Radu two weeks before the competition, but it was as if we had known each other for a lifetime. The whole thing was facilitated by an ad-hoc technical meeting, held in the cold and rain around the boat, somewhere on the outskirts of Bucharest when the boys started to disassemble the electric motor that was beating and truncating, to replace wires and other hooks.

Passion for pike fishing

Radu is so friendly and pleasant that he is one of the few that everyone agrees is a "super boy and a super fisherman". Rarely such a consensus between colleagues! From the first discussions, Radu told me with enthusiasm specific to another age that the shawl for him is a story in itself. His story, not the shawl's. He says it's not about the fish, it's always about the fisherman and that in order to meet the catch, you have to feel the places, be intuitive and empathetic (he thinks he's empathetic with the saddle but I assure you it's the same with everything around him).

It is difficult for me to explain his theory, but it has something of the calm and security of a Zen master who makes the snake dance after his finger. And that with a smile on his face humming a piece of classical guitar! Of course Radu knows all the theories related to structures, technique, colors, water temperature and all moods But beyond all this, he has a philosophy of fishing. It's a combination of trust in him and in the fish that is his partner. He treats him as someone who needs to be felt, understood and let go. It is a very good principle to apply to anyone. He often says about him that he is a cancer and I know what he means by that: "don't try to tell me too much, I already know".

Most of us talk about past games, drills, events, fish sizes. Not Radu! For him, fishing is here and now and every fish is unique. Don't count, don't compare, enjoy everyone! He is constantly thinking about fish, good music and friends. Out of this combination comes a man in harmony with everything around him.

I saw Sărulești again after more than 4 years of break.

Sărulești is the lake I learned to fish for pikeperch since 2015 Ștefan Stoica. I did an intense course with Stefan in which I learned places, angles of approach, landmarks on the shore, astral hours of the hall, the importance of adequate equipment, etc. Beyond the whole theory - free to the imagination! I remember very well all his lectures and especially the fact that after teaching the recipe, he came up with surprising elements that seemed to contradict it. I think that's the most important lesson: learn and then do what you want. He taught me to approach things with flexibility and creativity.

Anyway, fishing in Sărulești has something magical and it seems to me that I fish in an upside-down world where houses, trees and churches are in the water and not on the shore. A kind of Atlantis. It is not in vain that the miracle happened on such a special lake. And I wanted a pike fishing at a contest organized by Robert Boanţ precisely because I've been watching for a long time Relax Trophy. By the way, the first gums I learned to fish for in the pikeperch were some Kopyto gums that I took from a market (ehehei what markets used to be) right from Robert.

Back in the future, fishing for pike on Lake Sărulești, Relax Trophy

So here I am on my school lake, with pike rods, equipped with thick threads, with big gums and completely free of prejudices about what I have to do. I associate pike with women and pike with men, and the pike is a kind of man I don't really know how to deal with, one who stays all day under an old Dacia under which he only comes out if you annoy him enough or when he gets hungry. He is grumpy, aggressive and rigid but he is also comfortable, opportunistic and impulsive. There's also that stubborn guy who makes an obsession with a certain color! He likes heavy noises and sometimes he's determined, so determined that you don't know what hit you! Not to mention, the saddle is a complicated type and must be approached with method and patience!

So, start fishing for pikeperch on Sărulești Lake

Radu prefers to look for a good place for two hours and to fish for 20 minutes and not the other way around. I knew for sure that he would not want to waste time on perch, so at the end of the first day he found us with 3 perch and no perch, but with the confidence intact. From my past experiences with Ștefan, I have 4 places in Sărulești that I always visit. On the first day Radu chose to approach 3 of them and in the second round we will try the 4th.

At the start of the second round, luck made us wake up late and wake up 3 minutes before the start, when we found that there was no more gas in the tank, so we had to leave last from the start. Of course we found the place we wanted to fish occupied by 4 boats and we had to move to the next one on the list.

Precision in pike fishing on Sărulești Lake

We waited for about 2 hours until we found a convenient angle, but Radu's confidence increased seeing with his eyes and that's because he felt that the squirrels climb there, on small water, to eat. Here two schools of thought stood out: we swear that we caught all 6 fish on the shallow water and we fished for 5 hours in the same place visited from time to time by fish. Others claim that there is a pit where the fish live and that they are activated from time to time, but that they remain in the water deep enough. I don't know how it was, but I know that the fish came from an extremely narrow area of the threshold, with a hard substrate, with stones and reed roots and small water attacking aggressively like a fish that feels vulnerable in shallow water. It turned out that they were circulating on the plateau between the island and the end of the promontory and that between 9.30 and 14.30 it was more active on the island than at the opposite end of Sărulești. Towards evening it was activated there. Among other strategies applied by Radu were also highlighted: long plywood launches on the side so as to protect from colleagues the place where I fished, the change of rods between us, the change of the angle from which I fished.

Perfection in pike fishing on Sărulești Lake

The first pony was caught by Radu and this came to confirm that it makes sense to insist. Then I caught 3 in a row, a woodpecker and a carp. Radu told himself that he had to resolve the situation and caught a 65cm ponytail and a 75cm catch of the competition within an hour. With 9 fish I finished the second day on the 2nd place a short distance from the first place.

We manage, fishing for pike on Sărulești Lake

The strategy for the next day was to try the same place again in the first hour but we imagined it would be busy and we tried to find another hot spot nearby, which we failed to do. After 4 hours without any fish, we went to catch the 10th fish, a 25cm perch and with it we climbed to the first place. From this moment, things happened quickly and after a few spectacular reversals of the situation in the standings, we ended up catching in the last 3 minutes of the competition a perch that would bring us from 3rd place back to 2nd.

Between agony and ecstasy

Of course, the position in the ranking didn't matter as much as the emotions, the hope and the joy at the end. It was like a race in a mountain rousse. All this time Radu kept his composure because, in his words, "We can do it!". He would have been as quiet in 5th place as he would have been in 1. As he himself says: pike fishing is about the fisherman, about confidence and concentration. He would have fished the same, for the love of the game both in and out of competition.

Happiness is a small thing

After the end of the contest, I'm not sure what happened! It's just a state of euphoria hard to describe. The joy comes from the confirmation that almost impossible things can happen and happen unexpectedly without something glorious to announce them. And it happened to me! Girls don't necessarily want to win competitions and I'm not at all proud to be better than a boy, nor are they and can't be. I felt the need for a moment of triumph so that I would no longer feel the unspoken question "why do you come, why do you like it?". I wish I didn't have to explain myself every time. More exciting than anything was the reaction of those who enjoyed me so much!

Own Your Next Catch. And you’ll never have to tell the story of the one that got away.

The one who made all this happen asked me if I was happy. Yes Andy, are! Radu but he was also moderately happy and was already thinking about the next game and what he had learned from today. He has already forgotten about the fish in this game, he is thinking about tomorrow. I understood something from this experience, namely that nature, the world, life in general, responds to those who strive to make the good around them happen. What I experienced is not a coincidence and, although it is magical, it is perfectly explainable: Andy and Radu did everything they could to make my dream come true. It was that simple! It's hard to thank them enough but I will try to do the same for someone who dreams of something almost impossible.

It's been 7 years and a month since I started fishing… :)

I'm going fishing

Sounds crazy I know

I know nothing about fishing

But just watch me go

Ioana Alexe

If you liked this article, read on Ode to the Pike Fisherman by Ioana Alexe