Pike and rubber
November 5, 2025Lacustrine. What a passion!
Text and photographs by Marco Altamura
The echoes of the last few outings in search of sharp-toothed predators have not yet faded away, and already the twentieth day of December is approaching, the date that kicks off fishing for lake trout on the great lakes of the North (Verbano). At last the cold weather is biting and all the conditions leading to the capture of the prized salmonid converge in one place, spinning from shore to the silvery pelagic predator.
After all, I can consider myself a forerunner of such a practice since, as early as the mid-1970s, I was "beating" the shores of the Lario, Sebino and Verbano with the intention of catching a phantom, mysterious, almost mystical fish such as the Lacustrine trout; even then my efforts were mocked by friends who told me I was a "visionary" and practicing a kind of masochistic exercise, except to recant when I showed them fish weighing a few kilograms with dazzling beauty. I have caught so many Lacustrians since then, yet each time it is magic! Every year the "ritual" is fulfilled and, in splendid solitude, I accompany my passion in search of a dream, a finned and silver-livered dream that suddenly materializes out of nowhere giving me unique and unrepeatable sensations.
Beyond the romantic aspect, this year this type of spinning is even more coveted by the fact that I want to make a substantial technical modification that will be able to give me some not inconsiderable advantages; I have always approached this practice using a very powerful rod and a nylon monofilament in the spool to have the possibility of enjoying long and precise casts. Well, this year I plan to use a super braided thread of 0.15 mm thickness of green color, in this case the 8XPE Evergreen by Asso Fishing Line, combined with a 0.30 mm thick fluorine terminal, Asso Superfluorocarbon.
The low thickness and overall stiffness should guarantee me longer casts and effective ferrates even at long distances, and the quality of Ace products tested in the search for big pike in cold season will not fail to assure me great reliability even in very low temperatures.
A less powerful rod imposes itself as a choice in the presence of braided super strands with the possibility of bringing vigorous ferreting and handling the fight even with large trout with a wide margin of success. I will talk more about this in the months to come, but as of now I can be sure that the choice made will not make me regret past experiences and will add a new piece to my fifty years of experience aimed at finding this wonderful super predator.