bass fishing in Italy, again....

[Otay Michael]

I'm over here shooting a series of art in Italy for a month, and a bass fishing friend I made while shooting Croatia three years ago said his country was fishing in the Black Bass Fishing World Championship at the same time, so I decided to go and make art in that area. It ran last Thursday-Saturday, a three day event at Lake Bolsena, in South Central Italy.



Russians ran anywhere to win, and beached one boat, and sunk another in two of the three days!


The tourney allows three teams from each country, two per boat, to go for added weights to determine the winner. Five fish limit per boat. The lake is a lot like Clear Lake, it's volcanic, so very healthy year after year, but not as warm, so the Northern strain bass don't get over 8 lbs., with the average being a half pound I'd say. Big fish were four pounds, and a few of those were brought in every day, with 'big bags' being 16 lbs.

It was crazy, the wind was so bad, and the waves were so big, the Russians had one of their three boats grounded on day one, and they sunk one on day two. These guys are so into winning (no money, just bragging rights), they'll do anything to win, including run the 10 mile mile lake to the windy side and fish six foot waves! But they didn't win, the Italians did, but not from lack of trying. The S. Africa team came in second, and

Here I am, sandwiched between the President of the association on the left, and the tournament director on the right. This was just before weigh-in on day one.


My buddies team did ok, I think 5th out of 10. Teams came from Mexico, Russia, Spain, Venezuela, South Africa, Croatia, Italy, Portugal, Swaziland and Germany.



Met a doctor that was 'a driver' (and boat loaner too) for the tournament for my Croatia friends team. We became friends and the tournament ended Saturday, and being a fisherman himself, wanted to get a few before heading back to his home town of Venice, so he took me out for a half day of fishing with him.



The water was very clear, which I personally don't like. The wind stopped mid way through day three of the tourney, and was glass when we went out. Loved all the giant boulders in certain areas, thought the big wake baits my buddy loaned me would get me a monster, but alas, skunked till the last hour, when we went drop shot.




Got good fishing last 15 min. of otherwise a slow day. Landed one of three bites. The last one was a real nice one, guess a kilo (two # or so) to kilo and a half, and she did not want to come in, and came unbuttoned before I saw her, close to the boat. Oh well.


Here is a great report from the 5th annual, when it was in Mexico and the USA had a team in it:
http://www.insideline.net/weeklynews/2009/09-1111.html

[Otay Michael]

Here we are after the final day three weigh in. It was tough fishing, sometimes a team would come in with one, and sometimes the other had a limit, with a big one or two. It was a neat venue with fishing three teams, then total all weights. I think it helped keep the pressure off a bit, but each team agonized how to get better, as I attended a bbq the first night with the Croatia team, who invited the Swaziland team too, and you should have heard the talk of what changes were to be made, etc.. The extra two guys were backup, and some teams had additional staff.




Here is the town I'm based out of right now, Orvieto. Made some great art there today/tonight. I'm nine hours ahead of you guys. Have two more weeks here, and plan on fishing an even better lake, up by Venice, called Garda. Can't wait.

PS The boats were loaned by the host county. Needless to day, the replacement for the sunken one ended up being a skiff. No one wanted to loan the Russians one after that! Who would? Most the loaners were run by the owners, so they got to learn from these guys while they ran them around. Don't know if they made any money, I don't think so.

PPS The Italians won due to d/s. The Mexicans did not fare well, they never used it before, never had to on those big bass lakes down there. Croatians did not know how to either, that cost them too. Imagine the Venezuelans got hurt too, they only fish PEACOCKS!!! The event was held down there a couple of years ago, and in Mexico twice now.

[The Jerk 936]

That's cool. We should build 3 teams to represent the USA next year.

[george]

Let me know when and where for next year, Im in!

George

PS.. What kind of are work did you shoot?

[Otay Michael]

Let me know when and where for next year, Im in!

George

PS.. What kind of are work did you shoot?

George, I shoot what one would call 'fine art photography'. Folks visiting my gallery in Del Mar think they are, quite often, paintings, but they are photos. Pretty much straight, little darkroom type work, dodging and burning. But I do shoot a lot of long exposures, creating 'ghost type folks' in most of my art. It's won me a lot of international awards.


Here's one from my first of 10 trips to Italy, back in 1989. Milano.

Want to see more of my Italy series, here you go (I've done some 60+ trips world-wide now, so there is a lot you can see on my site):
http://www.seewald.com/italy.htm

Made some great abstracts today, in Lesina, So. Italy. I'm updating daily on my FB business page, like it if you'd like to follow along: https://business.facebook.com/Michael-S ... 7624036616

[AaronAgner]

I just got back from Italy. I was there for my honeymoon, so naturally, i went bass fishing. haha. I fished Bolsena about two weeks ago and it was a lot of fun. Very beautiful lake with virtually no other boats. I caught about a dozen bass with two of them right at 4 lbs. Needless to say, the guide was way more excited about those fish than i was. I told him that he needs to visit Clear Lake or the Delta. But overall it was a great time and i would recommend it to anyone visiting italy. http://www.smashthegiant.com

[Otay Michael]

Great job. Yes, when I went out I saw about 8 other boats all morning, and that was from one end to the other.

[Brian D.]

thanks Michael. Good post.

[george]

Hello Michael, your work is pretty awhsome! I will come out to your gallery the next time I am in that area and check it out in person.

George

[Otay Michael]

Thanks Brian. It's nice to see our sport growing world wide.

________

Thanks George, look forward to meeting you.

[jeff bradshaw]

Cool stuff, thanks for sharing.

[Marc]

I have fished several lakes in Italy, including Bolsena in 2004. Loved the entire experience; and yes, dropshot was the deal and new to the locals back then. Next time I need to fish bass in Sicily where they grow bigger.

ciao,
Marc