Fishing with Chef Sorin Bontea, pike or nothing!

It is no coincidence that Chef Sorin Bontea wins most of the challenges he participates in, be it pike fishing in the stages of LRS, Chefs at Knives or Asia Express. I got to know him better in the Danube Delta and after a few days of fishing together, both for pleasure and in competition, I can say that he is one of the most competitive fishing friends I have. Even if you wouldn't say so at first glance. So, let's go fishing with Chef Sorin Bontea!

Because many of you asked what fishing gear and lure Chef Sorin Bontea used for fishing in the above video made in the Danube Delta, well, you should know that he beat us with the strategy, the rod, the reel, our thread and spoons.

Fishing with Chef Sorin Bontea, the equipment

It all started at Private Citizens' Cup when Sorin came to my boat and asked me what I was fishing for pike in the Danube Delta. I responded as usual with oscillating, spinnerbait, glider, minnow wobblers, various gummies, lures that I had and showed them being strung through the boat. "Too many, who are you fishing with for the first time of all this?" Sorin asked me. "Well, I think I'll start with Linx" I replied instantly. "What are these, that I don't have...Why don't I have these?" Sorin finished the discussion. Robert Boanța and I rummaged through the kits and gave him some Linx spoons of 8 and 10 grams. I explained that the silver ones are the number one choice and when the sun is strong to use the yellow or copper ones.

When fishing with Chef Sorin Bontea, Bucătarului lake, the fight is broken from heaven

Shortly after the Private Citizens' Cup, we met again in the Danube Delta to fish with Chef Sorin Bontea, in June, at a stage in the ALRS national championship of raptor fishing from a boat. Since we were all staying in the same location, at Egreta Hidroturism, in the week before the competition, outside the official area, we went fishing together again, on the "Bucătarului lake" in the video. This is where the downfall began. He beat us with a score of 20 on 3-4-5 pike me and Boanța, Ciprian Hriscă and Danilov, her Tinu Hanganu, fixed with our spoons, Berti Linx. And with a combo that I also gave him for pike fishing, composed of a Daiwa Tatula 2.10 m rod, Daiwa Caldia 2500 reel and Stroft R2 textile line. Not only did he beat us, but he was the only one of us who caught that the pike were stationed in certain areas and you had to stay anchored in the same place all day, a piece of information that agile then used in the contest. We do not.

Fishing with Chef Sorin Bontea, Romanian Spinning League

The official training days of the LRS stage followed, days in which Sorin found two productive areas on Lake Isac and Gherasimova where he applied what he had learned from the previous game. Naturally it worked, he messed around, put GPS points, the strategy for the competition was half done. Not being a formidable opponent for us, it's normal that we all took Sorin to the "baschalie" before and during the training days. Including Bobo (Mihai Bobonete), also participating in the LRS championship, had declared in a previous interview:

I don't know who encouraged the chef in this fishing thing, but I tell you he's a direct Citizen! :))) Just kidding, Sorin is a very good friend of mine and we are both beginners to some extent. Buckwheat initiated us both and with the passage of time and with our failures, I realize, both me and Bontea, that Buckwheat needed geese for the evening poker... Otherwise we have boats, hoods, equipment... ice on boat… Luxury.

When fishing with Chef Sorin Bontea, the Linx, blame him

Right before the competition, with the status of a private citizen at the front, Sorin "cleaned" us all through the fishing kits, asking for Linxes from most of the competitors and friends. He did not forgive Hriscă, Stîngu, Preda and of course Eugen Berti, the manufacturer of Linx spoons. In fact, I don't think he forgave anyone. He told us after the contest that he had then collected no less than 50 Linxes of all colors, sizes, and weights. The strategy was now complete: he knew where, he knew how, he had what and in addition, what we didn't know, motivation, he wanted to beat us in the competition as well. Everyone. One of the basic rules of winning a contest is to want it more than others.

Fishing with Chef Sorin Bontea and Adrian Constantin

Together with his partner, Adrian Constantin, a kind of Reactors 3 and 4 in pike fishing, they stuck to the strategy and in the 1st leg they managed to get a 27th place out of 64 participating teams. In the second leg, he blew us away, getting a 6th place, being among the few teams that managed to catch their 10 scoring pike. Final of the competition, a well-deserved 12th place, objective achieved. He beat all of us, me, Boanța, Hriscă, Berti, and 58 other teams with pretensions of competitive fishermen, but at this stage, compared to Sorin...we were the real private citizens with a participation diploma .

At the beer after the competition, Sorin asked Berti what he did in the second leg... he answered that they only managed to catch 5 pike out of 10. caught a lot, from the morning with the silver Linx d'ala and when the sun rose with the brown d'ala! Didn't I tell you that yesterday?" He had told him, Eugen then told me... in the second leg when he couldn't catch his pike, he looked in his kit for a "brown" Linx in translation. of copper. Stun, there was none left, guess where all the Lynxes were!

Tzack, pac

And as Chef Sorin Bontea shows us in this picture, next time he will beat us with Tzack, another Berti oscillating spoon that he started collecting.

Back to the Linx, it was no accident that Sorin caught with this wobbler, nor that most pike anglers have it in their kit. For me, the Linx story began in 2009 on a day of December...

Do you think the story stopped there? Well, no, look what he did at chub, also in the LRS stage.