ISSN 1847-2915
Angling from boat and the shore, big game and spearfishing, boating
CROATIAN ADRIATIC angling hot spot
* Systems for deep water fishing * Insanity in Palagruža waters * Light Jigging - an easier way No. 1 - MARCH 2014. - 20 KN - 2,62 € - 3,65 $ - 4 KM - 212,8 DIN - 3,2 SFR
* Needlefish * Bobtails
JIKKO knives
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Redaction, Zagorska 23, 10430 Samobor Tel. 01/3691 693 Fax. 01/3691 694 brankarel@brankarel.hr www.ribolovnajadranu.hr
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Editor-in-Chief: Mladen Marković mladen.markovic@brankarel.hr Proof reading: Anica Rusan Stjepo Martinović Prepress: Marija Janjić Jurica Marković Online issue editor: Marija Janjić
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Contributing editors: Mark Inoue, Marin Huzjak, Stjepo Martinović, Igor Nuić, Dare Horvat, Marin Tušulić, Zdenko Huzjak, Carlo Leone, Paolo Polimeni, Saša Rakar, Vlada Vuković, Miljenko Omazić, Stefano Corsi, Željko Sokač, Slaven Čubrić, Mario Druscovich, Silvio Martinović, Vicenzo Caccico, Valentina Prokić, Branimir Hranilović, Janez Mužić, Ivica Škec, Anton Roca, Aljoša Hribar, Lovorka Pobor, Albin Pobor, Zoran Mijat, Tomislav Vujić - Bluefin, Tonći Luketa, Gordana Mijat, Tomislav Jukić, Ante Pekas, Nicola Zingarelli Publisher: BRANKAREL IZDAVAŠTVO d.o.o. Zagorska 23, 10430 Samobor CEO: Ivana Lisak ivana.lisak@brankarel.hr
Cover: Archive Maguro Pro Shop Editorial is not responsible for the views and can cite the author. Manuscripts and photographs will not be returned
LIST OF ADVERTISERS Maguro Pro Shop Jikko Blue Springs Maguro Pro Shop Frigomarine Maguro Pro Shop
page 2 page 3 page 7 page 67 page 91 page 104 5
FISHING CHARTER in Croatia
“Galeb� - Charter boat Beneteau Antares 36 Full time professional experienced guides are available and the boat is fully equiped with top quality equipment.
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Information
Ribolov na Jadranu mladen.markovic@brankarel.hr brankarel@brankarel.hr Phone: +385 91 2269 894 www.ribolovnajadranu.hr
Dear friends of sea angling! ANGLING IN THE ADRIATIC A COMPREHESIVE GUIDE TO THE UNIQUE EXPERIENCE OF SPORTIVE AND RECREATIONAL FISHING ALONG THE CROATIAN ADRIATIC COAST AND ISLANDS, COVERING ANGLING TECHNIQUES, TACKLE AND GEAR, BAITS AND LURES, FISH SPECIES AND BEST ANGLING TIMING, COMPETITIONS, CUISINE, EQUIPMENT TESTING ...
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ear anglers, aficionados of salt water fishing, it was exactly ten years ago when I decided to continue publishing a magazine dedicated to recreation ad sportive fishing – but letting aside the whole fresh water sector, I used to cover by the UDICA (Hook) monthly, and to adhere to sea angling exclusively. Thanks to some friends of mine, notably the distinguished Croatian journalist Mr. Stjepo Martinović – at that time in charge of the Croatian edition of the Italian NAUTICA magazine – I got in touch with Mr. Stefano Navarini, editor-in-chief of the Italian Pesca in Mare monthly, who most friendly offered me to start the Croatian edition of his review… and so I did. But, after several fishing seasons we agreed that fishing in the Adriatic, due to many genuine features of this “bay of the Mediterranean Sea”, cannot be duly covered neither by translated articles nor by a general profile publication – and so we turned to solely Croatian edition under the name of Ribolov na Jadranu (Fishing in the Adriatic). For a full decade, Ribolov na
Jadranu has been a kind of pioneer magazine, always opening new frontiers, bringing information about new fishing gear, stories about innovative fishing techniques and disciplines – followed step-by-step by importers of angling equipment and organisers of competitions and similar events. In fact, for many years we enjoyed monopole in interpretation of modern sportive and recreation fishing, from modest angling in the shore waters to the big game tournaments, always introducing innovation and making sportive fishing a real leisure. But, just as in every other business, crossing frontiers actually means setting new goals; that is why we decided to abandon our printed issue and dedicate to a multilingual on-line portal under the same name, combining thus our tradition and former achievements and modern, more attractive communications means. For the time being, we have fully switched to the Croatian edition on-line, while others – English, Italian, German and Russian – will follow, to answer an ever growing interest of foreign visitors to out country, not only worldwide popular for its summer holyday
resorts and amazing sailing/ cruising opportunities, but more and more for its unique and outstanding attractiveness for fishing aficionados. The season in the Croatian eastern Adriatic lasts at least eight months, from April to December, the variety of species matches the one of warm oceans and the infrastructure is at an impressive level, whether in the sense of accommodation and boat rentals or concerning guided tours and on the spot assistance. The Croatian fisherman boats fleet is growing rapidly, many people have turned to tuna and other highly appreciated sport species fishing specialists, the legal environment is clear and friendly (since July 2013 Republic of Croatia is an EU member state) and security conditions fairly above European average, what is well confirmed by comparatively small incidence of injuries and life loss on the sea per annum, when we take into account that millions of tourists swim, dive, sail and fish in our sea for most of the year. Of course, every sea has its specific nature – the Croatian Adriatic is, as the famous Swedish yachts designer and skipper
Pelle Petersson (America’s Cup participant) once said, a very tricky sea, which does not mean that one should be afraid or reserved, but just that you have to respect its nature, its winds and currents, ebbs and tides. The eastern Adriatic is a really amicable sea, once you approach it with due attention and perfect feeling for all of its – sometimes tricky indeed – sudden weather changes and temper variations. But, exactly therefore you’ve got us – Ribolov na Jadranu – to be your host, to offer you all kind of information and friendly support… to make your fishing adventure an unbeatable pleasure. I the months to come, we shall be informing you about everything relevant, from the best seasons to catch certain species to services in the branch – and, of course, we shall also be reporting about your angling successes, because there is no better promotion for any destination than excellent catch. With best and friendly regards, Mladen Marković editor-in-chief
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Angling destinations
CROATIAN Adriatic hot spot
The Adriatic Sea is still one of the world’s cleanest seas, known to thousands and thousands of tourists who enjoy in carefree sunbathing and splashing in the shallows along the shore. But the Adriatic Sea can provide a great deal of pleasure to angling enthusiasts due to its rich variety of fish stock. What does that mean? Simple! If you have any kind of fishing equipment and an adequate bait, the Adriatic Sea will thrill you because you can catch dozen of different fish in one place that are a real delicacy Written by Mladen Marković photo archive of the magazine Ribolov na Jadranu
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he Adriatic Sea allows fishing all year round due to its convenient location, although Croatian sport fishermen mainly stick to the coast in the winter from November to April with occasional visits to catch calamari, which are especially valued for quality, unlike calamari from some other seas. The specific bora and south wind are known to paralyze boating and then only fishing from the coast remains. At that time only one fish species is caught from the shore
Sea bass from Lošinj cove
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using the spinning technique, but many await that time because it is the time to catch sea bass, a cunning predator chasing small fish that takes refuge in a protected cove. But in late February, March and by the end of April the fishing of amberjack takes place and by that I mean capital examples often over 50 pounds. Since the beginning of April until the end of the year there is a continuous fishing of blue predators, that starts with hunting Atlantic little tuna, usually using a trolling with artificial lures, but in recent times Croatian fishermen increasingly
Atalntic bonito from the island of Mali Lošinj
Small dentex - caught in the waters of island Cres use the spinn technique with poppers and stick bait lures in catching these fish. Namely, at that time the little tunny approaches the outer islands, that is their banks and catches can sometimes be more than good. However, for the little tunny to start “its businessâ€? the sea needs to have a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius, otherwise it sticks to the open sea. As April 1st is approaching, the phones of Croatian sports fishermen are heated to the boiling point and there is only one questions - what is the temperature of the sea? If the temperature does not reach 15 degrees, it is necessary to go far out to sea to the border with Italy, and that can only be achieved by those who have boats bigger than 28 feet because the open sea is very rough, with lots of waves. The Adriatic Sea, which is quiet and beautiful, takes on a whole Cove of Mali LoĹĄinj is hot spot for sea bream
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Fishing from boat
SEA BED
fishing in the Adriatic Saddled bream Best time of day: morning, evening Baits: sardine or needlefish fillets, small squid leg Size: 0,10 - 0,60 kg
SEA CURRENT
Sea-bream Best time of day: the whole day Baits: hermit crab, different kinds of maggots, sardine fillets, mussels, pieces of squid Size: 0,10 - 3 kg
Brown meagre Best time of day: morning, evening Baits: sardine fillets, maggots, pieces of squid, crabs, mussels Size: 0,25 - 4 kg
Forbeard Best time of day: night Baits: sardine, anchovy, shrimps, mussels Size: 0,15 - 5,40 kg
Even though the weather is above average warm lately, the time for real fishing is now because the autumn is a great time to catch any kind of fish which are caught by this method. We bring you an overview of what the Adriatic sea has to offer in the days just before the winter. We didn’t count in the squid, which is a story for itself and which we will discuss some other time. When we fish from the boat, we most often do it in two different ways; when the lead is at the bottom, and leader in front of it, or when the lead slides, when it is on the basic nylon and leader is connected to the base with rolling swivel. When to fish for certain species, which baits to and how big are the fishes we normally catch from the boat. 22
Conger Best time of day: night Baits: sardine, anchovy, pieces of octopus, shrimps, mussels Size: 0,50 - 50 kg
Dusky Grouper Best time of day: morning, evening Baits: alive or dead needlefish or squids, saddled seabream, mullet, sardine Size: 1,50 - 150 kg
Two-banded seabream Best time of day: night, morning and evening Baits: maggots, pieces of squid, crabs, mussels, pieces of sardine Size: 0,10 - 1,50 kg
Wild seabream Best time of day: evening and early night early morning Baits: maggots, pieces of squid, crabs mussels, highly aromatized pastels Size: 0,15 - 1,50 kg
Sheepshead bream Best time of day: early morning hours, evening Baits: sardine fillets, maggots, pieces of squid, crab shells, pastry Size: 0,15 - 2,50 kg
Black seabream Best time of day: early morning or evening Baits: sardine fillets, maggots, pieces of squid, crabs Size: 0,25 - 2,50 kg
Gilthead seabream Best time of day: early morning, evening Baits: purple dye murex, smaller mussels, peanut worms, big maggots, sardine, hermit crab Average weight: 2,5 kg
Common seabream Best time of day: morning, evening Baits: live small needlefish or squids, pieces of squid, crabs, mussels Size: 0,50 - 8 kg
Swivels John Dory Best time of day: calm, whole day and night, best in early morning Baits: sardine, live bogue, cephalopods Size: up to 3 kg
European hake Best time of day: day and night Baits: sardine, picarel, Mediterranean sand smelt, crabs Size: up to 6 kg
Lead
Red scorpionfish Best time of day: evening, early night, morning Baits: sardine, cephalopods, crabs, mussels Size: 0,10 - 5 kg
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Fishing from boat
SYSTEMS FOR deep waters fishing
How to set a bait at deep sea, are there some systems, which are the best, which hooks to use, how to arrange the tackle… many questions are arriving to our office these days, in the period when there is not so much fishing (in the winter) and when many are trying to fish in deep sea Written by Tomislav Vujić – Bluefin
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always get to answer our reader’s letters because – You’ll do it best! – is the editor’s response. He gives me this assignment casually, in between his meetings. - Yes, now that the fishing is in “cold mode“, I
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always get the short end of the stick – I try to defend myself, but I always get just a hand wave. – It is not difficult to give advice when it’s high season and when the fish bites, go fishing now – I tried, but a wave again is all I got… you can do it! Yes, now is the time when greater amberjack is caught with
vertical jigging, but what about the other types of fish? How to catch them? Kabura jig? Tenya jig? Oh well, most fishermen still fish how they first learnt, with a hook, at the bottom. What systems to use and is there any point in fishing now? Is it better to stay at home? Of course you should go fishing regardless
of the season because you can always catch something, that much is true. Anyway, fishing is a lifestyle, not a craze! John Dory, conger, comber, sand steenbras … are not to be discarded! But what systems to use for fishing at deep sea? When our fishing team which is connected to the office with an
FOUR BASIC TACKLES FOR DEEP WATER FISHING
1. Sliding sinker rig
2. Drop rig
3. Sinker sliding to hook
4. System with two hooks and sinker on special leader
umbilical cord gets together on a boat, there are always competitions, if we can call it that. We are all super smart and we all claim the same thing – my system is the best! Of course, it can soon be seen who had assembled the kit properly and who – is fishing. Those who don’t have much luck that day are not in an enviable position. Of course, I always rub it in their nose that their system is no good, because if it happened to be me who didn’t have any luck that day, I would be in the same position. The first fish is important, no matter how big it is, and the kit is assembled as soon as possible, just to be the first one to lower the hook and to catch at least a 5 cm comber,
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Vertical Jigging
SEASON 2014.
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t doesn’t matter who the first one was, there are many old and new jiggers here now and they make good catches. What will be remembered is that the first pictures of amberjacks caught with jig near Blitvenica came from boat Shiraz III, and I am very proud of that. We will remember Mladen Marković, the editor of Ribolov na Jadranu (Fishing in the Adriatic), who pushed us into the “fire” with his serious set of jigs, as a mentor of one new fishing technique, and that is something that can’t be erased. Shortage of fishing days cannot be compensated so I honestly have to
show respect to the fishermen who are jigging now, and who are in charge of these waters. In the first two days of this year I managed to lose two fishes, while some guys had better results. It is important that two years later, the jigging is still alive and even stronger than ever. Another thing makes me happy; big companies managed to cleanse the equipment and break many low quality brands. Almost every boat has at least one Jigging Master or Black Hole set, or just a rod. Jigging Master as a brand has definitely made history of jigging in Croatia. Whoever is at least a bit objective (I don’t have to and don’t want to be because I adore my Evolution
First amberjacks caught from Shiraz III
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The choice of different baits at Shiraz III
It’s the first of January 2014 and here we are, two years after first catches with jig, a few miles off the coast of the island of Žirje. Is everything the same? Of course not. A few years ago most boats and fishermen that sail in these waters and look for a huge greater amberjack were hibernating. There are different stories about how this jigging madness started in the Adriatic. It can lure 30ish boats out in the open sea on the day after New Year’s Day. Written and photographed by IGFA captain and IGFA Representative Saša Rakar
Vertical Jigging
INSANITY IN THE Palagruža waters
A record catch off Palagruza surprised many fishermen because, even though some of them did not believe that, a now iconic fishing, is the confirmation of the new fishing discipline - Vertical Jigging Written by Sasa Rakar, authors photographic archives
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he end of the fifth and sixth month have never been a “prime time” for fishing at sea, especially this year when we can not have a few days of good weather. Offshore fishing offered fun trolling on small tuna
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and was really abundant, and I hope that this is an announcement for an excellent big game season in the Adriatic. I sailed to one tuna trolling at the Shiraz III to find the fish and found it to fourteen nautical miles of Blitvenica. At this time of the year when the season merging tuna is in full swing, it is an easy
job for the purse seine. You can find a group of ships with a radar in the Jabuka basin waiting for the schools of tuna to rise closer to the surface or to form into a larger flock so they could be more easily merged. These ships are equipped with a searchlight sonar, that can find tuna in a circle of few miles and the
circle guarantees that the tuna is near. The fish was plentiful and we enjoyed it a bit , and in the next two days we had about a hundred catch & release fishings on Iglan with guests from Kuwait (including the day on the Shiraz III). Fishing was not spectacular, but the total strike to all the rods, which were pulled
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Light Jigging
AN EASIER WAY
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If you want a bit of calm action and an almost certain catch for lunch and if you need a break in vertical jigging, then a light slow jigging technique is for you. The positions are the same, but the difference very big. Jigging with kaburas, tenys, inchiku jigs and in our country still insufficiently known bucktail jigs is a game that offers a lot more possibilities of improvisation and can be practiced in all crevices and slopes around the island and even on muddy and flat bottoms. There are countless combinations with the rigs for the bulletin and the tandems of jigs Written by the IGFA captain and IGFA Representative Saša Rakar
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will just scratch the surface of this kind of fishing and show my toys and briefly explain how I use them. If someone sees some big mistakes in my writings, just ignore them, they were probably caused with my learning methods and experimenting with a variety of systems and lures. I did not find some quality advices for this kind of fishing in Croatia, except for the description of the manufacturer on the jig packaging. There are
several types of slow jigs, but for now I will refer to ones I am writing about. The word slow speaks for itself and the intended action. Kabura, inchiku and buck tails with their silicone strips or tails flying in the current should represent the calamari, which is their favourite bait. While other jigs lure the fish in their decline, slow jigs are designed to create a light action at the bottom by adding a slight twitch of the tip of the rod and in slight movement upwards, with breaks, where the fringes of the jig and the
Parallel drill on the Molix Theos and Molix Thasisa
Molix jig Theos caught the biggest number of tines and amberjacks off the Blitvenica lighthouse
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