Effective fishing with an artificial fly without chest waders, or waders is almost unthinkable today. Wading allows spinning and floaters to reach places (and fish!) not yet available.
The coastal strip of vegetation effectively prevents access to the water surface. – In such conditions, fishing for pike with spinning is impossible, too much weed – complains colleague Waldek, which has been leasing this small lake on the edge of the forest for several years.
There is no vegetation only in early spring, for the first two, three weeks of the season; then you can catch up to your heart's content – he adds apologetically. Yeah, but now it's full summer. Water lilies are blooming, and the dragonflies circling over the exuberant weed perform breakneck acrobatics in the air. Only in the middle of the lake there is no vegetation. Every day in the evening you can hear clearly, how pikes hunt there, you can see the panic jumps over the water of the fleeing rudd. When I was casting very far, I managed to hook some pretty nice pikes a few times – explains Waldek. – Unfortunately, I did not tow any of them to the shore. They all went into the weed right away, and there's nothing you can do about it.
Or maybe still? Of course, I don't have a pontoon, and there is nothing to dream about renting a boat in this remote area. What would be, if I tried to get into the water in my pants? After all, the lake is shallow and it is not said at all, that I will not be able to reach the water table.
You'll take a bath like nothing – advises Waldek against – the bottom is very muddy here. Seeing, however, that nothing can stop me, he reluctantly agrees, to try.
Step by step
A quiet summer evening – the sun goes down red, somewhere in the distance a tireless woodpecker knocks on a tree trunk. Dressed in chest waders, with a spinning rod raised above the head and a fishing bag under his arm, I carefully step into the water. I go step by step and explore the bottom in front of me. Water vegetation and reeds separate
sideways, as if a giant carp was swimming through it. Waldek was right – legs droop to the middle of the calf. I shift my entire weight onto my left leg and sink into the silt by a few more centimeters. Thanks to this, however, I can check with my right foot what the bottom is in front of me, can I take it a step further. I slowly shift my weight to my right leg, completely, however, only then, when I am absolutely sure, that I will find enough support on the bottom to stand safely.
About ten minutes have passed and here I am about twenty meters from the shore, and behind my back I have "tons of weed". The water is up to my stomach; I'm not going to go any further, because standing longer in one place the bottom always collapses by a few more centimeters. It will be safer this way.
There is a water table in front of me. Waldek is watching from the shore with admiration, I throw the wobbler along the vegetation belt with a light wave of my stick. The bait floats on the surface. With short strokes of the stick, I lead the wobbler into the water, but every now and then I let it emerge. On a slightly faster pull, when my lure suddenly accelerates, which is deceptively similar to a small fish chasing something, the wobbler was chased by itself. Rapid ripple on the surface, water droplets in the air and my lifted rod bends beautifully after a reflex strike. The fish makes a quick run towards the water lily. I immediately press my finger against the spool of the reel. "Emergency brake” it worked and the pike turns back. Big? – Waldek standing on the shore wants to know everything right away. Instead of answering, I focus on the haul and half a minute later I have an 85 cm pike in my hand.
I can see out of the corner of my eye, that Waldek is impressed. I have asked myself many times: why only fly fishermen perceive the advantages of waders or chest waders, while spinning enthusiasts and live fishing colleagues are satisfied with traditional short rubber boots? After all, in waders or chest waders you can fish in places completely inaccessible to anglers fishing from the shore.
It turns out very often (especially when fishing with spinning), that thanks to trouser boots or waders, you gain the few meters that determine success. The water closer to the shore is usually very shiny, and predatory fish always avoid such places, in which spoons appear in their field of vision every day, centrifuges, wobblers or rubber bands.
Therefore, cautious predators stand on the border of aquatic vegetation or among the branches of submerged trees, however always there, where you can't throw in from the shore.