BASS FISHING IN ITALY - introduction
"A bass is a bass, everywhere" how many time you heard about
these words?! A matter of fact is that black bass behavior is precisely
the same, whether you live in Italy, United States or Japan.
About a brief story of this sport here in Italy, the black bass (Northern
Strain) has been introduced in the country almost at the end of the '800,
with sport fishing and food purposes. The specie has not been considered
until beginning of the seventies, when the bass become a popular game
fish and one of the most appreciated catches together with trout, carps,
pikes and chubs. Even if there is not a real bass fishing tradition in
Italy, where long poles, bobbers and live baits still lead the preferences
of the anglers and the sales at the tackles shops, bass fishing grown
up slowly until today and our favorite sport has not been afflicted by
the global crisis of the field.
Nowadays, the Largemouth Bass is present everywhere here in Italy, from
the big natural lakes right in between the country and the border of Switzerland,
down to the deserts lands of Sicily Island: every pond, reservoir, natural
lake, even river is stocked with black bass. The average size here is
more or less comparable with the Japanese waters, with bass from five
hundreds grams to one kilos, but even nice fish over two kilos are not
so difficult to catch, especially during the spring time. But Italy is
also the country of contradictions and unusual problems: in some districts,
for example, severe regulation do not allow releasing the bass after the
caught, because it is considered like a dangerous non native fish and
un-healthy for the other species - we risk huge fines for that -. Another
problem is due to a lack of catch & release practice: the reason is
due to a cultural background that came out from the bad days of the world
wars, where the peoples suffered a lack of food and was forced, from the
events, to poach fish in every body of water. So we still need to work
hard and educate the people to think about the future generations and
save our resources, teaching them about the importance of a bass released
after the caught.
About my personal story, even if you are interested to hear about it,
I joined bass fishing back in '85 as fly fisherman. I'm always been an
angler, since my childhood, but I also searched about more excitement
over the common traditional style fishing I talked aboveﾉ that's why I
started fly fishing before and lure fishing as last level. I'm been member
of B.A.S.S. since '89 and, together with a group of avid bass anglers,
I founded the Italy B.A.S.S. Federation later in '98: it was the 51st
Federation in a raw. I am still dedicating my life to the development
of B.A.S.S. over the country, educating the peoples to catch & release
and respect for our eco-system. I also cooperate like freelance outdoor
writer for a couple of well known fishing magazine in my country: Mosca
& Spinning (translated like "Fly & Lure") and BassMania,
this last one totally dedicated to bass fishing. Despite the appearances,
I am a shy guy and I like to spend lot of time with my close friends and
family, and you know how the sense of family is important for an Italian.
We also have lots of outdoor activities over here, strictly related to
bass tournaments. We have different kind of tournaments, most of which
are played since '88: club competitions, invitational, opens, and a national
championship. But the number of anglers participants is still not so important
like in the States or even Japanﾉ the real average of participation for
a typical tournament is between 20 thru 50 boats per event, with a turnover
of approximately 150/200 anglers involved. Actually, the most important
trails are Italy B.A.S.S. National Championship - made in cooperation
with the Italian National Fishing Federation (F.I.P.S.A.S.) - the B.A.I.T.
/ N.B.A. Open Championship, the BEBA BassMaster Tournament, and others
small club competitions. We have no "professionals" here and
very few sponsorship came supporting each single trail, so every effort
is made by our personal joy and passion. The rules have been inspired
at the beginning from some American B.A.S.S. members and anglers stationed
by the U.S. Military bases in North of Italy and then modified to match
the national behaviors and requirements
As conclusion, I also would like to introduce you to part of our character
and what Italians really feel about bass fishing. The bass fishing is
a moment of aggregation for us, a way to stay together and share ideas,
experiences and humorsﾉ we're determined during the competitions, but
also we can't wait the time to check in again and spend three or four
hours for the meal at the table discussing about the day spent on the
water - Italians usually spend lot of time each day during the lunch and
dinner, this is a good way for us to socialize and discuss with our family
members and friend -. Also the tackles shops are often a point of reference
for the bass anglers: we use tackle shops to buy our favorite tackles
but also to meet with other fisherman and discuss about the tips for next
tournament. So bass fishing, and fishing in general, is a social-cultural
part of the life of each male person living in the country (womens generally
do not like to join the sport and they influence only fewer than 5% of
the total participation), even if the modern behaviour of young generation
prefear other kind of recreational activities like music, playing soccer,
driving cars etc.etc. That's why we still need to work hard with promotion.
That's a brief introduction to Italian bass fishingﾉ next I'll show you
in deep about one of our typical National tournament, or how we work to
build up one of the two fishing magazine mentioned above.
Thanks for your attention and Bass Wishes,
Paolo Vannini
↓click to enlarge
