Maxime
Relax and fully enjoy nature and its surroundings…
- For you, Epinal Tourisme is: A land marked by history and warm alleys in summer nights
- Your favorite local dish is: Blueberry pie
- Your favorite local touristic place is: Les Abbayes de Senones
That’s good!
In the middle of winter in the Vosges, I took my moped and called a friend of mine after deciding to go fishing in a pond to enjoy a nice moment in the heart of nature.
We arrived at 7:30 in the morning. By the water, the sun hadn’t showed up yet and I thought we had gotten up too early. Never mind, we started unpacking our equipment anyway. I remember having trouble preparing the fishing rod because my hands and fingers were so cold. I first started by uncoiling my telescopic rod to adjust my line according to the depth of the pond. That day, I was particularly interested in fishing perches, so my main bait was a living minnow baited on the hook. Our goal was to find a shoal of fish of at least 10 inches.
Beginner’s luck?
At 9, the first sunbeams appeared and warmed our faces, which was a real moment of comfort. 5 minutes later, we got our first bite: my float disappeared and with a sharp movement, I stroke to stick the hook in the perch’s mouth. After a brief fight, I managed to catch a beautiful, 9-inche perch. I sustained my momentum and decided to keep fishing with minnows, so I threw my line in the exact same spot. Only a few seconds later, I had a new bite. We were happy to have found this shoal of perches. If my memory is right, I fished 11 perches in total, which were between 7.5 and 14 inches.
Unexpected meeting
Then came the twelfth bite and at this moment, I felt that this one was different from the others. My float actually disappeared 12 inches under the water, and it never came back. At the time, I felt like I was getting hooked to the bottom of the pond, but I decided to strike anyway. My rod bent in a second and the line started moving. I felt like a bear was pulling at the end of the line. There was nothing I could do about it! I couldn’t pull, even for a few inches. The thing had indeed decided to stay at the bottom of the pond. The reel of my fishing pod made noise like never before and about 12 inches of line were now out.
An unforgettable moment
In total, the fight lasted for 30 minutes, and it is only at the very end that the fish showed itself. A huge zander had come to feed on perches, and I can tell you I got lucky: the hook was barely holding at the edge of the fish’s mouth and because of that, it couldn’t break the line with its thin, pointy teeth. Thanks to the position of the hook, I got to fish this beautiful zander. It could have cut the line so easily if it had approached the line differently. This is how I went home with a 3-feet-long zander of 14.5 pounds! This is why fishing can always bring incredible surprises.
