My first Asp! Well, it finally happened! Dreams do come true, especially those dreams that constantly haunt you but never seem to end up on the hook… How many evenings I spent on the Dnieper hunting for this powerful and beautiful predator. How many times my breath was taken away by its splash somewhere nearby, or in the distance… It kept playing with me - like with a child, while I hunted it - like an adult. I was ready to meet it, but it ignored all my «offers» for a meeting. And then this day came, and I wasn't ready at all… «Mother's Day», afternoon hours, my wife and I decided to take a walk along the Rusanivsky Canal in Kyiv on the left bank of the Dnieper. I suggested taking a spinning rod with me and trying to fish for an hour. I brought one box of small wobblers and one tail spinner from Savage Gear Fat tail 9g. Evergreen Poseidon Neo 05-10g spinning rod…, I mixed up the reel and took a 3000 Certate instead of a 2500 Daiwa Luvias, which had a slightly thicker braided line #06… YGK Bornrush. On the third cast, a small Asp took the Qwant 43SP wobbler from Flagman. I was happy about the bite, happy about the meeting, happy that I recorded everything on video, but sad that I called the Asp a Bream…, I really mixed it up because this was the first Asp I ever caught in my life. An hour passed. I walked along the Rusanivsky Embankment but didn't get any bites, came back to the same spot on the Rusanivsky Canal, but this time I put on the tail spinner. I cast under the opposite bank closer to the bridge and, raising the rod high, started retrieving to keep the tail spinner as close to the surface as possible. I added light twitches to the retrieve and immediately got a powerful strike. A strike, and the fish broke away… painfully, but without losing hope I cast again and again with a similar retrieve and this time a powerful strike (like a horse's hoof) and the fish is on the hook…. This was a fight for life and death. Who beats who… the spinning rod almost bent double, the drag sang like Caruso or Pavarotti… The Asp is in my hands, in my video, in my photos and in my adrenaline!!! The fish was photographed and released, but the memory will last a lifetime - that's for sure! Because this is… like first love, like your first car, like your first… you fill in the blank yourselves…😉 My wife is shocked, we didn't catch any perch, we finished fishing on this positive wave! See you soon, dear and respected Viskaart community! Respectfully yours, Dmytro Sharaburin (DShFishing)

Ukraine, Kyiv, Rusanivsky Embankment

11.05.2025

Spinning fishing

Asp

Free