Lacustrine. What a passion!
December 9, 2025
Three artificial in crystal waters
February 25, 2026
Combo Casting
Text and photographs by Marco Altamura
In life never say never! Not so long ago and right from the pages of one of my Monthly Reports, I asserted that I considered myself a "generalist pitcher" i.e., a spinner who uses equipment that is not specifically designed to bait a single type of predator, but rather an angler who did not preclude himself, always and in every situation, from catching a wide range of predatory fish.
Some time later, I am ready to backtrack at least in terms of the equipment to be used to bait the King of our inland waters, the pike.
This past fall, in fact, I had the opportunity to use a baitcasting combo capable of casting "full-bodied" artificials, and I was completely won over by it, so much so that I gave myself a gift for Christmas: casting rod capable of casting artificials up to 120 gr and a size 300 spinning reel.
Obviously, such a high-performance equipment needs very reliable components starting with the monofilament or braided line; I had no doubts and loaded the spool of my new reel with mt 150 of the excellent home-made braided line Asso, l'8XPE Perfect Storm 0.32 mm thick, which provides excellent abrasion resistance and tightness in casting even with artificials of a few ounces.
Unfortunately, when I went fishing with this combo, the pike season, at least from shore, was drawing to a close, but next spring, as soon as the ban on exocide fishing falls on "my" Lake Maggiore, I will come back with renewed enthusiasm in search of some nice, sharp-toothed predators.
In the meantime, I rearrange my gear and prepare to arm my rubber shad in order to cope with the killer instincts of our most iconic predator.