BIG ONE IN LAKE MANTOVA

I never thought I would write these words so soon after the previous time. After the results obtained during the last fishing trip, the desire to verify the validity of my theory was very strong.

Work commitments made me hesitate a bit but a phone call with Gerardo was enough to convince me to carve out some time for fishing.

A dry night though, nothing more.

Saturday morning at dawn we are at the lake, we load the boat and leave, same position, since the points are already on the GPS, we dock, feed and prepare the baits... the usual 5/6 hours pass again, then the tram tram begins of departures. All carp of medium to small size, we unhook them and release them directly from the dinghy, but the activity is important and we remain confident. At 3 am the first noteworthy departure, always there, always among the seaweed Gerardo captures a beautiful queen. Sleep is lost, we discuss strategies, coincidences, what we perceive from the various bites... then at 4 a.m. a blow, a rod is no longer there, it's smashed with the reel against the indicator, but no line comes out, I start anyway to recover in the hope of feeling life on the other end. There is! I feel it moving, probably the algae are limiting its movements. We go out in the dinghy and find ourselves with a prairie next to the line, we exchange the rod several times and take turns trying to free it from all that grass. As soon as the line frees I feel that the size is different from other fish, but I'm not deluding myself, it's just a more powerful fish, I think. It's finally in the landing net, but I don't see it until we get back to the boat.

When I see her I understand why she was pulling so differently, but I still underestimate her, when at the scale we realize that she passes the fateful threshold of 20 kg the happiness, mixed with disbelief, explodes. The strategy bore fruit by differentiating ourselves in where to look for carp, we managed to catch one of the most savvy and probably largest ones in the lake. We put it in the bag, we wait a few hours to take the usual photo also because I want both of us to be immortalized together with the fish, it doesn't matter who moved the most grass, who fought it for the longest or who put it in the net, together we realized a dream that we have carried with us for years and this capture repays us for everything and therefore it belongs to both of us. We wait for our friend and member of the Imperial team Stefano, who runs to take two photos and some videos of us, we toast to the capture and go home. Hoping it's not the last!!!

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