21 May, 2024 | Carp | Angler Blogs | Articles

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Dan Cleary: Pelagicevo Perfection

Dan Cleary shares his successes from an incredible week in Bosnia targeting Lake Pelagicevo’s monster carp population!

Dan says…

I visited Lake Pelagicevo in Bosnia & Herzegovina for the first-time last year in April 2023.

Driving the 1200 miles (2000km), I felt I had an OK session catching 14 Pelagicevo fish to 44lb (20kgs). I thought this was adequate, but I know the session could have been so much better. So, I immediately booked a session for April 2024 with Kristof Cuderman. On this trip I broke the 1200 miles by stopping off in Frankfurt, before continuing onto to the lake the following day, which worked out so much better.

My target for the trip was to catch a 50lb+ fish…

At the draw I was second to pick out of the hat from 4 pairs, so happily picked my number 1 swim choice which was the same (29) as the previous session. It soon proved to be a wise choice as I got off the mark quickly with my first fish only half hour after the draw – a lovely upper 30lb mirror.

The weather forecast was pretty much perfect – overcast mid-teens in the days, and cold into the single digits at night, down to zero on one night. When the previous week was upper 20’s up to 30 degrees, so the fish got their feeding heads on.

I decided to go down a boilies-only approach with Peppered Squid in 15 & 20mm sizes and was able to bait up all three spots via catapult from the opposite bank.

Over the course of the week-long session I used just 20kgs of boilies but this was needed as action was consistent every day and night!

In the end I managed to land 34 fish out of 36 takes – including 10 over 30lbs, 9 over 40lbs and 4 over 50lbs, with 7 over the European 20kgs mark and the biggest going 55.1lbs/24.99kgs.

It was certainly a session that I will not forget in a hurry!

-Dan