Sakura et les bass du Mexique partie 2

Poursuivons l’aventure de la Team Croate lors du 14 ème Championnat du Monde de pêche au Bass au Mexique sur la lac de Cuchillo.
Let’s follow the second and last part of our croatian fishing dudes trip at 14th Annual Black Bass World Championship in Nuevo Leon, on Mexico’s Lake Cuchillo.

Le début de la compétition bass, initialement prévu le 1er Novembre, fut malheureusement repoussé pour des raisons de sécurité. En effet, un fort vent balayait le lac créant de grosses vagues.
The first day of the competition scheduled for Thursday, November 1, was unfortunately delayed for safety reasons due to strong winds and waves on the lake.

Le jour « J », nous étions impatient de démarrer la pêche. Nous montâmes sur notre bateau tandis que le vent venait caresser la surface du lac dans un vrombissement caractéristique. Le ciel était couvert, cela sentait bon la pêche. Nous étions parmi le premier groupe de bateaux à démarrer. Après deux heures de pêche sans touches, nous avons mis le cap vers un plateau peu profond. En marge de celui-ci, une cassure en escalier attira notre attention sur le sondeur. Alors que Dalibor était affairé à démêler une perruque, je pris la décision de couvrir la cassure au deep crank. Quelques secondes plus tard, première tape! Le poisson garde le fond dans un premier temps avant de remonter à toute vitesse. Il crève la surface dans une explosion d’écume et c’est à ce moment là que nous prenant conscience de sa taille. « Grande lobina ! » s’écrit Juan. Le poisson enfin dans mes bras, je ne pouvais pas y croire. Un vrai géant mexicain! Le poisson accusa plus tard 4.120 kg pour 62 cm sur la balance. Mon rêve s’était réalisé!
We welcome the first official day of the tournament impatiently. At the crack of dawn, as the wind is ruffling the water surface and the day is cloudy, we step into a boat in the water. The air smells of good fishing.
We start in the first group of boats and on the sound of the siren from the judges we march towards the position. However, as is often the case, for the first two hours of the tournament in this position we have no bites and quickly realize that we have to look for alternative solutions. We move to a very shallow plateau nearby and continue flipping. As we were exiting the branches, a crucial moment of the first day of the competition and our entire Mexican fishing adventure took place. We notice on the sonar that at the edge of the plateau the depth descends rapidly and gradually drops towards the open water to more than six meters. I intuitively decide to take the crankbait over that crossing to a deeper water. And then I get a bite. It wasn’t strong and the fish stayed in deep for the first few meters, then showed its full strength under the boat when it didn’t allow me to bring it to the surface. After I had finally succeeded, something I would remember for the rest of my life happened … the fish lunged directly into the boat engine, full-force, and in a water explosion tried to get unhooked on the surface, which was when I became aware of its size. The expression on Juan’s face and the words « Grande Lobina !!! »

En me remémorant cette scène, je ne peut m’empêcher de penser à un élément matériel clé de ce séjour: Notre tresse Sakura Sensibraid qui nous accompagne avec succès sur toutes nos pêches depuis bientôt deux ans. Une fois encore, bien que malmenée à plusieurs reprises dans les nombreux bois morts du lac, elle nous permit, sans faillir, de sortir une des plus gros bass du tournoi ! Après s’être remis de nos émotions, nous continuons la prospection du poste.

Un autre poisson de 50+ vient rapidement rejoindre le vivier, à ce moment nous sommes persuadés d’avoir trouver un hot spot. Quelques secondes plus tard, la Ryokan plie à nouveau, encore un joli poisson! Nous sommes conscient de l’énorme poids de notre « bag » en seulement trois poissons. Alors que les touches cessent, nous décidons de ne pas prendre de risque et d’aller peser nos poissons. Verdict, 8.9 kg sur la balance. Les pêcheurs présents applaudissent. C’est incroyable!
The sight was unreal, what I was hoping for the entire time was now a reality, in my hands. A real Mexican giant from Cuchillo. The precision scale will later show 4.120 kg and 62 cm. A dream come true! Talking about this catch, I have to mention a very important part of the equipment we used in Mexico, which is Sakura Sensibraid. I have used the Sensibraid for two seasons, from eging and ultralight to bass and pike fishing. We didn’t want to leave anything to chance in Mexico, so we were equipped with a 55 lbs braid with which we dug and plowed through the branches and stones for the first two days of training and tested it on the first day of the competition with one of the largest fish in the tournament. Good performance at throwing, strong resistance to damage and strength … I can’t ask for more.
Reasonably, moving forward we both continue crankbait fishing, going deeper and soon Dalibor’s Ryokan folds. A few moments later we secure another 50+ fish weighing over two kilos. At that moment we become aware that we have a hot spot and have to make the most of it, which is very quickly confirmed, as Ryokan folds again, and a bass of similar dimensions as the previous one ends up in livewell. The major difference in the presentation was that we came back to the shallows and tugged in the opposite direction, from the depths to the shallows. We have used the Sakura Ryokan series for a long time, they proved to be valuable in the fight with the Mexican lunkers, and once again it was confirmed that you can get a good quality rod for a relatively small amount of money.
We continue with crankbaits, with a huge weight between the three fish, but soon action stops and we can’t get a bite. We try to briefly drag the soft baits on the bottom, but nothing happens and we make a decision to try to fill the limit in other positions. We leave before the time to weigh the fish, because there is a couple of hours left until the end of the competition and we don’t want to risk anything. The moment we weighed 8,910 kg in three fish with the applause and support of everyone present will definitely remain engraved on our memory. Unreal!

Après la pesée, nous retournons sur notre spot. Je passe au spinnerbait car le crank ne donne plus. Choix qui s’avère payant! Mon spinner est stoppé net, le poisson se débat violemment entre les branches mais celui-ci se décroche quelques secondes après. Nous ferons ensuite deux nouveaux poissons au spinner, juste assez pour atteindre la limite! En fin de journée le vent commence à baisser ainsi que l’activité.
On returning to the boat, we decided to return to our position and keep trying. As the crankbaits still weren’t working, I decided to try spinnerbait, which turned out to be successful. we get two more keepers on spinnerbaits, just enough to fill the limit.

Nous finissons la première journée à la sixième place avec 10.035 kg. Nous sommes devant plusieurs équipes Américaines, ce qui nous rend très fiers!
At the end of the day, we have two more fish and we finish the first day in sixth place, of 45 pairs, with a fantastic total of 10,035 kilos.

Avec Dalibor, nous décidons de démarrer le second jour sur le même spot que la veille. Les conditions sont différentes, le temps est clair, sans vent. Nous n’arrivons pas à faire mordre le moindre poisson. Nous faisons face à un grand dilemme, continuer à chercher de gros poissons ou aller chercher une limite de 5 « keepers ». Nous finirons tant bien que mal avec quatre petits poissons.Nous sommes vraiment deçus, persuader que se résultat nous fera terminer en fin de classement. A notre grande surprise, nos 2.585kg du jour nous permettent de finir à la 28ème place, ce qui sur deux jours nous ramène une 13ème place sur 45 équipes. Nous sommes trés satisfait du classement. Pour une première participation, nous finissons devant l’équipe professionnelle Roumbanis and Watson et devant de grandes nations telles que l’Espagne et le Portugal. Et cerise sur le gâteau, j’aurais même battu mon record personnel!
Dalibor and I entered the second day with a clear vision to fish in the verified position. The day was bright, without any wind, and the position simply didn’t work. We couldn’t get smaller fish or keepers, which we had caught with spinnerbaits the day before. All in all, the position that had previously given us a 10+ kg limit now couldn’t get us any bites. To keep the story short, despite all the effort we put into combining techniques and strategies, we ended the day with four smaller fish and were convinced that we’d end up at the bottom of the table. Soon we found out that Dalibor and I finished13th out of 45 teams in the final pair ranking. As a team, we finished 8th in the competition of 15 teams from all over the world. That Dalibor and I won the 13th place in the competition of 90 anglers in 45 pairs, and were one place above the professional American anglers Roumbanis and Watson. That we, as a representation of a small country, left behind some great bass nations like Spain and Portugal. In the end, that I caught my PB, which will, to me, remain unnatainable in Croatia.

Je garderai un souvenir impérissable du Méxique, de la fraternité entre les équipes, en particulier de notre driver Juan Garza. Je n’ai qu’un désir, celui de revenir le plus tôt possible afin de me mesurer une nouvelles fois aux monstres de Cuchillo.
I will remember Mexico by fantastic atmosphere and interpersonal relationships within the team, socializing with other competitors, the warmth and hospitality of our Mexican hosts.

Je tiens à remercier toutes les personnes qui ont rendu ce voyage possible et tout particulièrement Sakura Croatia et Sakura Fishing pour leur confiance.
All that wouldn’t have been possible without the help and support from various sides, including Sakura Croatia and Sakura Fishing from France, which I thank once again and I hope that we justified their trust with this result.