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IGFA Corporate
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 River fishing may be a real challenge and needs a very different approach
After many years of carp fishing, in the last 4 years I suffered of a very deep lack of motivation and enthusiasm. Too many waters are crowded of anglers and easy and relaxing carp session may become a real hard job. Some magnificent Italian waters like Scandarello, Pusiano and many others are always full of people in the pursuit of a big one and the fishing is becoming a real nightmare. I sometimes hate the “social part” of the fishing since I am spending too many hours each week writing about carp fishing or making plans for carpfishing (I am in charge for the main national magazine) to share my odd spare time with a dozen of others anglers around. I would rather like to be left alone with some good friends to have a fish or two instead spend all the time talking about rigs or baits. Being a “well known” angler is such a beautiful experience but, sometimes I need to be left alone and do my fishing without anything to proof. I must admit this is not an easy job if you are always on the media!
For this reason I progressively left the boring lake fishing to move on something I really love; river fishing. I understand that most of the carp fishing lovers do like the still water fishing but, river fishing can be a real dream and if you are lucky to spend a session or two on a good water you will understand why I am so keen of this kind of fishing situation. I am quite lucky to live next to one of the most productive river in the Country (Italy) with literally, dozen of miles without any form of fishing at all. Tiber river, this is the name of this almost “personal “very last heaven and river fishing the main subject I wish to talk about.
One step behind.
The very first time I fished for carp along the Tiber was during the autumn of 1997 as soon as I moved from Tuscany where I previously lived, to Rome where I live now. Next to my door, there is the south part of the river and just 5 miles downstream the Tiber’s mouth where the river goes into the Tirrenian Sea. Here the water is strongly polluted but the number of fish is quite amazing considering that you may fish for carp and chub and meanwhile, have a sea bass or a mullett on a ledger rod. There is some fantastic fishing there but pollution makes our sport a very dirty job indeed. Anyway, the very first time I fish for carp there It was after a week baiting campaign based on 25 kilos of maize and 5 kilos of boilies. I was not too sure about the real carp population there due to the fact that the water is very rich on salt and the sea goes into the river for some miles during the uptide hours. But some previous experiences next to Venice lead me to the idea that carp loves mixed waters and the richness of natural food (crayfish, small flat fish and mussels) is the key to understand why carp loves this water situation. Proof of that was my very first session that produced many runs including some nice fish next to the 20Lb! Most of the carp were nice powerful common and I must admit it was great fishing. But not exactly what I was looking for. A 20 lb fish is still a nice catch but as carp specimen, I wish to try for something bigger…This is the main reason I moved to another part of the Tiber river. |
 North of Rome
The north part of the River is a real heaven.
Tiber is stopped five times by big dam to protect the Tiber valley and Rome from any flood and this has created several perfect fishing situation even if not many others anglers may reach some of the most productive swims.
The first dam, next to the city or Orvieto is called “Corbara Lake» and years ago was the home of some of the biggest common carp ever caught in Central Italy. Professional fishing with nets and the wrong attitude of traditional anglers to kill the fish has dramatically reduced the carp (and zander) stocks. Today, a 12 kilos common is a very good fish on this nice, gin clear lake.
Another nice dam is called “Alviano” just 45 km downstream and here, the situation changes quite fast with some very good carp but, also, a bigger fishing pressure on the very few swims available. Downstream Alviano we move to the small Gallese Scalo dam that looks just right but not very comfortable for fishing and the bigger Nazzano dam, crossing the National Park of Tevere Farfa. Here fishing may be great but there are some problems that keeps our sport quite hard; fishing season is very tight and night fishing is not allowed. I have not had any session there in the recent past since the time local administration stopped us using engine powered boat. It was a very sad day since I bet this part of the river holds some of the biggest specimen including some fish above the 25 kilos marks. For 5 km Tiber river is not fished anymore and a quick look there is enough to understand what this water may be able to produce! Down stream the Nazzano dam we move into “my favourite” part of the river. Rome is only 50 km far and there are just 5 –6 swims available and reachable with a car. You can not also find any slope to slip the boat and the nearest club is too far …This is my fishing dream and the place I learnt how to approach river fishing and have some good fun. Here will follow some river fishing thoughts and I hope to help someone of you to catch a carp or two. |
 How to choose a river’s swim
On my fishing experience, this is the 80% of the job followed by a 15% on bait presentation and only 5% on bait. I know most of you will agree (not the Bait Companies)!but fishing for big carp is not a matter of casting a stinky boilies and wait for a run. It is something better and requires an hard application and an accurate feauture finding.
Fishing in rivers and canals like Dese, Mincio, Zero, Ombrone and Tevere river,I learnt that very few swims are real “holdings areas” and some places looks just good but very far from being productive. It is a mixed matter of bottom, snags, current and natural food available and only the 15 –20% of the river has got the right conditions. Fish location may be very difficult and this job will be even harder if you follow some basic rules and spend some time to see any sign the water may offer. Water observation is just a part of the river fishing and I learnt that many others factors impact the end result of our efforts.
First of all, when speaking about a river we must think about a long liquid snake made on turns and straight banks. Each turn, each bank is different but shows exactly how the current is moving. I have enclosed some drawings made my old mate Loris Perin, the younger part of the Perin Brothers family, a powerful carp fishing machine very expert on any river fishing. Understanding where the current hits the bank is the key to fish on a river even if many anglers think that carp is a still water fish. I have never caught a carp (I mean a real carp) on flat steady waters with soft and stinky muddy bottom!
On every turn we always have a deeper bottom and a shallow area; the deep water area is always where the current hits the bank. Here the bottom is harder, and even an heavy leads can be easily dragged away by the water.
Here a rule of the thumb to choose a swim:
- steep banks (where the water hit the bank)
- strong current hitting the bank
- hard bottom
- rocks and snags
And the swims we may avoid;
- small bays with soft bottom
- shallow water (a part from springtime)
If you have a look on a long stretch, how many good swims are really…good? Not many and, most important, always very hard to reach without a boat. |
 Rigs for river fishing.
My 1999 – 2001 season was fantastic even if the start was terrible. I choose a small swim on the Tiber river with quite a few snags, mainly woods and some rocks. The current was steady and the chosen lead was a 120 grams Trilob or a Dumpy Pear on a 25 lb lead core connected with a carp safety rig. The hooklenght was quite light with a 15 lb braided and a size 4 hook and my choice was to mix some Method with particles and fish with that for few hours. My session are quite short, not more than 6 –8 hours and this one was the first on a brand new swim. I was not very confident even if I knew that my fishing was on a previously unfished part of the river. I cast my first rod under a tree and while I was ready for the second rod cast I had a quick drop back. The very fist fish was an huge crucian carp close to 3,5 kilos and the proof that the swim was good!
I re cast the rod in the same position and 5 minutes later I had a very powerful run followed by a furious fight with the big fish flying away. The size 4 hook pulls out after few minutes and I was only partially disappointed! The new swim was good, may be too good to be true. I quickly changed the rig and I choose a size 2 Fox XS tyied on a 25 lb hooklenght. This new rig produced 2 more fish that day; both very powerful and on perfect conditions; a 33 lb and a 28 lb common. Both fish were powerful but far from the fighting machine I experienced on the first lost carp!
The second fishing session produced another 33 lb common and then 6 fish lost! 4 carp were lost due to the braided not strong enough on abrasion resistance and 2 more due to the hook pulls out.
This lead me to another important choice; a 25 lb can not be strong enough and there are not monofluorocarbon lines that can afford such heavy fishing condition. My new rig was made on 35 lb Quicksilver and size 1 Fox XS and a “weak line” solution to have the lead off at the very first time. Some of the carp went lost due to the lead snagged on the woods giving the fish a chance to force the hook and the hooklenght.
With the new rig I experienced 5 fish more on the landing net and some of those were simply superb! The biggest was a 23 kilos mirror with another mirror at 17 kilos and 3 beautiful common next to 15 kilos. It was mid December and the weather changed on heavy rain that made any fishing impossible due to the floods. I went back on my swim this year in March after a shirt baiting campaign based on maize, tigers and few Salmon Caviar boilies. Again I had 2 fish, both lost due to some new snags on the bottom. But it was also time to try something different, perhaps some bank fishing to explore the real potential of my river. But this is another story. |
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Roberto Ripamonti
