Autumn trip to Lake Šmartinsko in Slovenia

“One of the first things we were told about this lake was that there were 2 areas which were deemed as either ’night‘ and ‚day‘ zone fishing. „On the back of some good local knowledge from the ‘Carpers Paradise’ guides we opted to fish the day pegs only as we were told that all the fish seemed to had made their way to the deeper water at the dam end.“

„As soon as I’d set-up I went out in the boat locating some areas which looked OK and that were hopefully clear of the many underwater tree snags which had been left after the lake was formed. „Although the initial spots we chose were in clear water areas we quickly decided we had to get closer to some of the underwater trees as the fish were showing around these areas.“

„At this venue only casting is allowed but you can use boats to bait-up around your markers. „Therefore a hefty cast was required to reach the spots.“

„For my rig I used a simple Combi Rig – size 4  hook and fluoro leader and a 25lb hooklink with a 4oz casting lead. „My boilie selection for this trip was varied as we didn’t really know what the carp would go for, however due to the fact the lake is full of smaller carp from the 5-10lb we only used 20mm boilies – choosing Monster Tiger Nut, The Source and The Crave.“

„Fishing a lake in the winter in any country is hard and this was no exception. „We were hit on the first day with heavy rain and high winds and the swim soon turned to a muddy pit!“

„However on the first day we were rewarded with a nice 35lb mirror and we were soon getting plenty of runs off my areas on The Crave. „As the week progressed we were getting runs off all our spots but as were getting plagued with smaller fish we went for double 20mm hookbaits along with various snowman presentations using the White Chocolate pop-ups and Hardened Hookbaits – all in 20mm.“

„In total during the 6 day trip (fishing days only) we managed 24 fish over 20lb, the best a 46lb common caught by Lee Minton. „It was a great first trip to Slovenia and we will be definitely be heading back next year.”

Paul Austin