Freshwater Flats Fishing
There is a new technique which at this time is catching on among light spinning enthusiasts. Practiced for some time in Italy, is from Spain where is receiving a big promotional boost, we call it Freshwater Flats Fishing (FFF) and now we will explain what it is about.
It is dedicated to lure fishing for ciprinidae, not a novelty if we think of asps and chub, but in this case we are referring to fish that formerly we did not think it was possible to take on a lure if not by sheer luck, carp and barbel in a special way. Spain, both for the climate and for the wide variety of species that inhabits has enabled a rapid development of this technique and those who practice it in the Iberian Peninsula have access to at least four different species of barbels that can take a lure, in addition to the carp. The latter, in some lakes overpopulated by minnows, have become extremely aggressive and will not hesitate to attack poppers and hard baits, in addition to micro softies.
The fishing is practiced with light bass rods, 3/8 oz or 1/2 oz, the Skirmjan Freshwater series has appropriate models, 8/12lb lines and thin leaders, from 0.20mm to 0.30mm, if possible in fluorocarbon to increase the abrasion resistance, very important for the environments in which we fish, and a variety of baits. For fishing we practice the most, sight fishing – the real reason why we called it Freshwater Flats Fishing, as it is in practice very similar to the tropical fishing in the flats – we can choose from a variety of hard and soft baits depending on the aggressiveness of these new predators.
We have had great success with the Punitor 85, the evergreen Piper, the PJB95, SPopper 65, the killer Trago Vib and Jubarino. Among the most successful soft baits the 2″ Sligozzo, 2.5″ Sator Worm, 2.75″ SV Craw, Freaky Rock, 2″ Sligo, RA Shad in different sizes and the Virago, both in 2 “and 3 ” size and most of all the 4″ Virago rigged with a OMTD OH1500 TSwimbait hook skipped on the surface. As you can see for the jig heads we count on our “sister” company OMTD, which offers a wide choice of models well suited to this technique.
Many of the hard bait just mentioned, as well as the larger sizes of the RA Shad and Virago, are excellent choices for free casting without being able to see the fish, which is necessary in the colder months or when they are not feeding in shallow water. If in Spain this type of fishing is especially practiced in large reservoirs, in Italy many of our staff have found their gold mines in the drainage canals and in general rather small waters, the street fishing, a technique that has something in common with the FFF, has taught that you can catch beautiful fish in small waters. In this case they fish mostly with soft plastic worked very close to the bottom.
The Freshwater Flats Fishing seems like a very interesting technique, it allows us to fish for quite large animals on light tackle and most of all to sight cast to them. Being able to see a 20lb carp sucking in your soft plastic is priceless.