As José Ortega Y Gasset asserts in Meditations on Hunting: […] Every authentic refinement must leave intact the authenticity of the hunt, its essential structure, which is a matter of a confrontation between two unequal species. The real care that man must exercise is not in pretending to make the beast equal to him, becauseRead more
The pre-note to begin with shall be a confession about my forgivable absence here: I completed my military service of 20-days in July and spent another 20 days for vacation in August this summer and right from early September my seasonal job has begun. In fact, before all these, I (with my wife) hadRead more
A new short freshwater session around usual places before the breakfast hour at the weekend… With a sneaky pike biting my lure right in front of me that had me literally scared for the moment and a bigger one who jumped over the water and bailed out… Just worth to clip a note here:Read more
At first I should say, it will absolutely require so much to describe the last trip with all senses as I met the fish of my lifetime so far and no doubt I will fail doing that… But even halfway is going to be enough to admire and worth coming back for reading afterRead more
Now it seems that it has been two month since my last post(excluding the ones on my YouTube channel)… This seemingly dead period contained a couple of searches for sea bass in Thrace and a search for a new freshwater spot in Istanbul. Despite no sea bass has shown up to strike for I could not matchRead more
Like we mostly set off for a vacation in any possible cases, as my semester and Bahriye’s winter break coincided, this time was no different for some wandering, discovering new places and fishing for sure… The destination was Izmir Peninsula… The apart that we hired was in far west of the region therefore theRead more
The first post of Single Hook was dated on 5th of March, 2017 and there has been 35 posts(with extra 4 drafts to be published) since then. It was quite a long time ago I started off seriously logging my fishing experiences and I am more or less pleased with the way the things aroundRead more
After the first bluefish post of the season, there has been three(or four?) more times that I (some with Adil) casted with the same target around the same spot. I had better present the total account so far in the post hereby… First to note is the clear fact that the Sea of Marmara hasRead more
On the last two Fridays, Adil and I searched for bluefish action in its exact season, where the first one had taken place in the west coast of Istanbul that ended up with no fish(no traces even!) and the second was right in the midst of the Bosphorus bringing the positive expectations. The total distanceRead more
[I am gradually getting afraid to miss writing the last session’s report while a new article for Oltacı is waiting for me to be edited as well… Things continuously rush my current busy routine but I must push the energy to do all and have this post done in a midnight hour right now.] LastRead more
This season, Fridays will be one of my off-days, which provides a nice coincidence as Adil has the same off-day. So after a long period of time, we planned a freshwater session for the near spots last week although the weather forecast was strong breeze and light rain with little probability. The worst case scenarioRead more
This week I had a chance to spend just an hour for fishing before the work. The weather was extremely foggy(that I hardly reached the spot) and a bit cold with the autumn; but refreshing in all sense. I had better not extend the report as it was pretty much the same to those previousRead more
The figure displays an example which serves that the correlation between casting range and total castable area is not linearly proportional but geometrically proportional. Briefly and informally: Whenever you double the casting range, you quadruple the castable area. So one always had better keep up the healthy lines and good casts! Just a note aside…Read more
We are constantly watching American bass and pike fishermen use topwater frogs in order to reach some ”untouchable” areas in the water where weeds, lily pads etc. cover all the surface where you just can not fish with lures other than frogs. Here, frogging can literally be counted as a subculture indeed. However in Europe,Read more
The new season contract of my job has come with a full two-day off per week allowing me to care my personal time in a better way. I have not been to a freshwater shore for fishing for more than two weeks due to some rainy periods. As Windy forecasted no rains and no disturbingRead more
Since my teenage years, I do not regard any special dates(such as birthdays, new year’s days and even my wedding anniversary) as ”so special”. Being this is completely a personal point of view, I do not perceive time as we strictly arrange it just to communicate and ease our lives. To me, it is ratherRead more
Disclaimer: Fishermen stories are supposed to contain high exaggeration or some make-up parts. But the following is not! As September has just come by and people (a few though) were sharing some bluefish reports from and around the Bosphorus, I pulled the car for one of the nearest and the most trustable spots of mineRead more
This week I, by myself, have attempted to go out for a morning session in freshwater which is about 150 km away from home, but some couple of reasons restrained me from doing it. Then this morning, I targeted a nearer spot that can be considered as being in the heart of the city andRead more
Now revisiting the first episode of this season, I see it took two-and-a-half months to come back for the second. Having finished another intensive season of my job, there was no barrier for keeping up The Expedition series live. As I storied in a post here before, we have been planning to buy a new car whichRead more
As the weather is getting warmer day by day, water temperature is increasing accordingly that leads the fact LRF season has literally been opened! A national feast on the weekend created a two and a half work-off day was a big opportunity for an urban fishing session with light stuff. Main targets should be mackerel, blue fish, scorpionfishRead more
Having two weeks after the pike season opened, we finally had the opportunity to set off for The Expedition: Season 2, Episode 1… My wife (Bahriye, I shall put her name as she seems to join some future expeditions and so will be permanent subject) prepared cookies for breakfast, I had the equipment overhauled, AdilRead more
Initially, I had better intend to claim the reason why there has not been a post over here for quite a long time: My current job fills a whole year except the summer season with an intensive tempo. Therefore, I occasionally have an opportunity to trip out for fishing throughout this ”dead” period. Plus, justRead more
During the semester break for a couple of days, my wife and I are visiting (on now) the Aegean coast, specifically an ancient city whose harbor serves a nice environment for some inhabitants like seabass, bluefish, common dentex, bonito etc. After an evening fishing session with no actions for the first day, IRead more
As one of my few possible urbane activities, I casted again for bluefish last night in Bosphorus whilst the water temperature was slowly decreasing to favorable level. Being an intensive worker, if it takes two weeks for me to cast a single night, I assume it is me lucky to have the time around. NearlyRead more
I have finally had my new light range reel that I have been planning to buy for months! There are mainly three features for me to have: CI4+ technology (that I am in love with) providing a super light weight for a 2000-sized reel: 165 gr Relatively high gear ratio (6.0:1) and 79 cm lineRead more
Urban fishing is a style executed in -as its name asserts- nonrural areas like city centers, canals etc. Being defined by means of simplicity and easy fun, it does not require much effort to cast for your target since you are not supposed to get that far. Plus, the feeling of being integrated into theRead more
As mentioned in the previous post, there had been a strong intention of ours for a saltwater expedition after all of those freshwater expeditions. Warm waters allowing for giving chase to various rock species; bluefish migrating towards Marmara and Aegean Sea; seabass hanging around all year round… Hopes should be alive for an angler! DespiteRead more
As this expedition resembles the previous ones in lots of senses, I had better put the post as brief as possible and rather state the differentiated parts. The day before the expedition, there was a serious indecision on tripping freshwater and/or saltwater in our message group. Because, nowadays, there is also some good news fromRead more
Due to our summer vacation breaks, we kind of missed the taste of freshwater expeditions. Everyone had been with their families and there it was time to burn some fuel and check out some of our lovely spots. Adil was absent being abroad and Onur was in a work-day; so I decided to take myRead more
Almost every angler tend to expand their equipment by buying new products from the fishing market all around the world. While some -including me- is able to control this intention, some is unsuccessfully not… Indeed, each and every year, thousands of new fishing materials are released to the market pool. Therefore, it is not fairRead more
For the last two weeks, my wife and I have been on summer vacation touring the Aegean coasts with a caravan. Istanbul being the initial point to Bodrum as the furthest… It has been a real pleasure in total account; yet I could hardly find favorable oppurtunities (times and spots) for fishing since we always need toRead more
As I was writing the last expedition post, I thought it was going to be the final shot before my summer trip. Well… It did not flow that way… We actually did the last of last on July, 5th. Three of us met almost at midnight and were present by the water even before theRead more
It might be a bit late for me to try spinners with single pluggers. Five of them have been thrown off among some other fishing stuff since I gave up trebles. Therefore, before I set off for a summer trip, I thought I had better arm my spinners with hooks. Other than the common useRead more
Before all sets off for summer vacation, two of The Expeditionists -Onur and I- took the last chance for an expedition to Thrace again while Adil unfortunately missed his plane and was late to join… Because of the torrid weather, we planned the trip lasting only for morning time and met so early accordingly thatRead more
A mini popper with 5 cm length and 4 gr weight, which I bought from Bulgaria some time ago, has its paint peeled off after countless uses and I were just to recolor it today. My wife saw the naked lure and told me she was willing to paint with her nail polishes. Here are theRead more
The theme of the sixth episode had already been determined on the way back of the fifth: New fishing spots! Four of them were marked on Maps and The Expeditionists set off from the night for Thrace… As dawn was welcoming us, we reached the first place which is known to be a zander andRead more
We, “The Expeditionists” (as the name of our message group), were back again on the dusty roads of Thrace, chasing after pikes and perchs but essentially some plain pleasure in the nature. This was the fifth time around, as the title claims… Places were mostly the same, some artificial lakes in Thrace. This was aRead more
This was going to be the fourth freshwater trip of the season in Thrace, this time with my friend Adil (I had better mention his name for future posts as well)(I fished with him in Canakkale)… At the last moment, another friend of mine, Onur, messaged me and said he was eager to join us.Read more
Once I was casting in water with waders at pitch black night, a piece of sharp metal on a rock that is buried in the water tore my waders off suddenly. Freezing water penetrated through and I felt the cutting effect on my legs. But it was another story to post… Here is how I simply getRead more
Disclaimer: The following are highly on personal choices. So one must not tend to use it as guidance. I list here what I have been using steadily for years and I have not replaced with any equivalents. Meaning that, I love hundreds of other stuff as well while these are irreplaceable for quite some time.Read more
As I was doing some research about history of fishing, I stumbled upon a magazine called Popular Mechanics, dated May 1953. There are lots of cool information when spinning was getting popular and I feel like I need to note it down and share here… Read more
Back in early Spring 2016, a friend of mine from Canakkale called me and my other friend for inviting us a fishing trip for a day and night. As the season offers both salt and freshwater oppurtunities, we both immediately and willingly accepted the call, got the packs ready and bought the first possible busRead more