Garda Lake: dry fly fishing chubs

I have always fished on Garda Lake in the Lazise area with streamer, from the shore, hunting for perch, bass and any pike. But the lake is not populated only by predators, in fact even the cyprinids such as chub, carp and tench can be an excellent target!

From this year, with my friend Martino, I started dedicating myself to dry fly fishing of the large chubs that populate the pebble beaches of the lower lake, moving a little further up Lazise, ​​between Cisano and Bardolino. It is a fishing that has taken me a lot since the very beginning, fishing in sight, in open water, real fishes, autochthonous, but above all: on dry fly! The best time is spring, but then it dwells until mid-summer, fishing early in the morning, from the first light of dawn until the sun begins to beat on the lake. After that, the sun, the tourists, those who run, those who walk... the fishes move away from the shore and is the end of the games. This is why it is important to play well the chances that arise at first light. In fact this beautiful cyprinid early in the morning is calm and peaceful in the shallow waters of the lake, intent on eating chironomes, ephemeral and all that can fall from trees and reeds near the lake.

The equipment I use is a rod 8'6” line #4 armed with an reel 3+ reel carrying a WF4F floating line, in order to obtain the maximum distance with minimum effort, and at the same time a more delicate place possible. You can fish both with a dry foot and by putting on the waders to enter slightly and reach the most distant risings, and it is advisable to have a stripping basket to collect the line so that it does not get stuck between the stones being recovered.

As for the artificials and the tippet, they change depending on how we find the fishes. If we see that they are not intent on constantly insisting on hatching insects, I fishing with the tippet of 0.14-0.16-0.18 using hunting flies both in batting and moving it slightly after laying it, a killer in this case is the Eddie's Bugger which you can find in the terrestrial section of the shop. While when they are intent on rising, it becomes a bit finer and more complicated, and I use tippet of 0.12-0.10 with smaller and finer flies such as the March Brown, and the mythical Fly Ant on both #18 and #16.

All this reflects the basic rules of fly fishing to undermine the chubs in the lakes, that is with terrestrial, ants, and ephemerals. A fishing that may seem banal but that is not so, and that if you do all the things done well it allows us to capture, both the large chub, but also rudders, sun perches, and sometimes even bass! All in the name of catch and release, in the largest lake in Italy!

To fish together and experience these emotions go to page contacts.

Thanks for reading and see you soon :)

Matteo Lavezzini