I have the tradition – writing some reports about fishing trips, competitions, events and etc. Recently I don’t do it. But not at this time Another wonderful tradition is visiting Cyprus every May. But last May was an exception. And me my wife decided to go on October.
It was the first visit at this time and it was very interesting for us. And one the most interesting thing was the fishing competition. It is challenge for me and my wife, because we don’t have this fish in Russia and we have 10-14 days a year for getting knowledge of bass behavior, improving our skills of bass fishing. And as at every kind of activity the most correct way to check your level of skills is competition. 

At that visit we’ve landed to Cyprus on the 14^th of October and from these any practice was illegal on the Tamasos Dam. In addition me and my wife have never been at this Dam. It was the great premises to lose this competition

But I asked to friend of mine  Dmitri: ”What does Tamasos Dam look like? It looks like Kalavasos on the map. Is it right?” “No, It looks like Kanaviou a little bit. There is a lot of grass there.” – he answered.

And I went to Kanaviou the day before the competition. It was a very high water level, a little bit grass near the cost. During the that day I have check an interesting behavior of bass out – it was near steep coast, but is wasn’t necessary to be close to a great depth. Bass was near the coast and at the of grass. The best lure was wacky rig (GY Senko). It provided to catch all fish – small, middle and big. The fishing technique was very important, it was necessary to make it rather dynamic. With this knowledge I was before the competition.

And there the competition day. Gradually all competitors come to Tamasos. We were glad to see guys again! Discussing, jokes, laughing And the start of competition! One part of competitors ran to right, another one – to the left. I had a plan to go the opposite side of the dam in the beginning, but I realized that it was possible to get there by car, that’s why it is pressed by the fishermen much more than our coast where was difficult to get.

The first thing was necessary to check out was the bass reaction to wacky rig. I decided to do it in the dam angle. I got there and scared two small basses which went under the tube. From the second cat I’ve caught the first bass for 30 cm. The reaction was the same like at the day before – greedy attack ! It was the first part of victory! After that I’ve caught 3 or 4 small basses from this place.
To go to the pressed side (right) of the dam was wrong as I thought, I went to the left. In 10 minutes I’ve seen Yury, Dmitri and other competitors. It was necessary to overtake them, because not caught fish were in front of them. In this way I have got to upper part of dam having at asset one 30 cm bass and a lot less 30 cm basses.  A lot of flooded trees were at the upper part of the dam and a lot of less 30 cm basses were there. But I’ve caught 39 cm bass there near one of them. It was the tree with roots hanging over the water, it was necessary to make 4 or 5 casts to put the lure the closest to the roots. And as I made it I have seen a good fish was going to my wacky It was the first good bass for me at this competition.

After that I have gone a big part of shore and caught one 30 cm bass and a lot of less 30 cm ones. In this way I got to central part of the dam with 2 narrow bays. It is necessary to say a lot of competitors have gone through that bays. At the first one I’ve caught 32 cm bass by popper along the vertical wall of stone. And there were 2 wonderful bushes with branches hanging over the water. It was very important to cast the wacky rig close to center of bush as it possible. Every time I did from the 4-5 attempts, but as I did I got an aggressive fish reaction. In this way I’ve caught 3 wonderful basses 37-38 cm.!

The final part of time I was going to spent time at the beginning of this dam where was wide shallow water and I hoped by the evening the wind will subside. At that situation I hoped to find and catch good fish by topwater. Going to that place I’ve met my wife. She has caught several basses more than 30 cm. (one of them was 41 cm.).

But the wind has changed the direction and there were the ripples on the water. I was sure there were a good basses there. I tried to catch anything by texas rig from 2 positions and I could catch a very important bass (about 37-38 cm). From this moment I was sure a will take a good place at that competition, because I had 5 basses 37-39 cm.

At the finish I met my wife. To my surprise she has caught 5 basses more than 30 cm and 2 of them were 41 and 42 cm.

After the calculation of the results we were pleasantly surprised – I took the first place and my wife Margarita took the second place and caught the biggest fish of this competion. As two years ago at the Dipotamos dam.