A community report by Christoph Oepp
Dear fellow anglers,
It was time for a holiday again. Lake Garda in northern Italy is one of Europe's most popular holiday destinations — sunshine, beautiful beaches and great food. Any angler will immediately think that such a large and varied water must hold some cracking fish. A few sparse articles online about fishing at Lake Garda confirm that there is a healthy largemouth bass population here. Useful information that actually helps you get to grips with your target species, however, is almost impossible to find. So I want to share everything I experienced at Lake Garda with you here.
One thing upfront: it exceeded my expectations by a long way.
The view across Lake Garda alone is simply breathtaking.
Fishing Licence for Lake Garda
There are three different regions around Lake Garda. This section is intended to help you obtain a tourist fishing licence in the Veneto region. That Veneto — including the towns of Lazise, Cisano and Bardolino — is prime black bass territory was confirmed before I even wet a line: in September 2016, the Italian largemouth bass championship was held here, and countless expensive bass boats were cruising the shallows.
The Veneto licence is available from tourist information offices (e.g. Vicolo Cieco Arsenale, 11, 37017 Lazise), and sometimes from the reception at campsites. You fill in both sections of the licence with your name, home address and date of birth. Local police do occasionally check licences. Once completed, you take the licence to the post office (e.g. Via Francesco Feliciano Scolari, 32, 37017 Lazise). Look for a yellow sign with blue letters reading 'PI'. Present your completed licence and pay €15.50. This entitles you to fish in Veneto for 30 days.
Bear in mind the post office opening hours — it generally closes at 12:30 on Saturdays and does not reopen until Monday.
With this licence you can fish a number of waters throughout Veneto — including, according to a member of staff at the tourist information office, a stretch of the River Po that flows through the region. There are, however, a few exceptions.
For more detailed information, the two tackle shops in Affi (Via S. Pieretto, 29, 37010 Affi) and Peschiera del Garda (Via Venezia, 9, 37019 Peschiera del Garda) are your best bet. It is worth bringing everything you need from home, as the selection in both local shops is very limited.
Tackle for Italian Largemouth Bass
Here is the tackle I packed as an example — it worked a treat. A 2.11 m perch rod with a casting weight of 3.5–21 g, paired with a 2500 fixed spool reel loaded with 0.13 mm braid and a 1.5 m, 0.25 mm fluorocarbon leader. The rod should have a fast action blank — the kind you'd use for river perch at home — because largemouth bass bite in a flash and spit the lure just as quickly once they sense something is wrong.
Because of the floating weed and bottom vegetation, fishing rigs with offset hooks was the only viable approach. Spinnerbaits or jig heads with a weedguard might also work. What is absolutely certain, though, is that the bass smash 7–10 cm creature baits and soft lures with a ferocity that is hard to believe.
Which Lure Colours Work Best?
Because Lake Garda has very clear water, muted, natural colour patterns proved most effective. A good starting point is to fish lures around 7 cm to locate the largemouth bass. Once you start getting bites from smaller fish, switch up to lures around 10 cm to tempt the bigger ones.
That said, smaller lures are by no means a barrier to bigger fish even when targeting black bass. Given the significant variation in wave action and wind strength, bullet weights between 5 and 15 g are essential.
Essential Kit for Lake Garda
The lure presentation was often tricky due to wind, waves and weed. A pike rod of 2.40 m with a casting weight of 15–60 g, a 3000 fixed spool reel loaded with 0.18 mm braid and a selection of wire traces is also worth bringing — pike can be caught around Malcesine, 34 km north of Lazise. Fishing the steep drop-offs found in that part of the lake is not straightforward either. You need to present soft lures between 10 and 20 cm on 15–20 g jig heads at exactly the right depth. Work through different depths systematically, and once you get your first take, use that depth as your reference point. An unhooking pliers and a few stinger treble hooks should also make it into your bag.
When fishing from a promenade or harbour wall, a landing net is essential to land fish safely.
Great bank fishing opportunities: harbour walls and rocky, weedy shorelines are equally promising
Good Spots at Lake Garda
As a general rule, any spot with a depth of 1 to 4 m and plenty of bottom weed is worth targeting for largemouth bass. That is where they hold and hunt. You can often watch them chasing prey at the surface. Loose weed floating on the surface is also a good indicator of a productive spot. My most successful spots were along the harbour promenade in Lazise — very much street-fishing territory — and around Cisano.
Watching the professionals competing in the Italian largemouth bass championship drift close to the bank in their bass boats made it clear very quickly that these spots hold fish.
Keep an eye out for no-fishing signs. These are often found at harbours which, frustratingly, tend to be the absolute hotspots — but are off limits. It is, however, perfectly legal to fish from a boat. Boats up to 40 hp can be used on Lake Garda without a licence.
The Best Time to Fish
Thanks to lower campsite prices, travelling in the off-season in September is well worth considering. It also turned out to be the right time to target largemouth bass. Midday proved to be the peak feeding window, though you can catch fish throughout the day as long as there is light and the visual predators can be fooled. It is worth noting that largemouth bass have excellent, long-range vision.
Fishing is only permitted from one hour before sunset until one hour after sunset.
Eel fishing is an exception to this rule.
Largemouth bass can be caught at Lake Garda throughout the day
Getting Bites
As already mentioned, bites are lightning fast. A quick strike is essential in most cases. Occasionally you barely feel a take at all, or you suspect you have caught a piece of weed drifting in the waves — strike anyway to be safe. When the fish is on, though, it kicks up quite a fuss. Largemouth bass are, famously, exceptional fighters for their size. They leap clear of the water just like salmonids and try to shake the hook from their mouths. Keep the line tight at all times — otherwise the hook and lure will fly free from that wide jaw.
Other Species
As mentioned under the tackle section, Lake Garda also holds a good head of pike. The fish look slightly different from the pike we know at home and carry a really striking pattern. The odd perch also turns up as by-catch when targeting largemouth bass. After dusk, eel become catchable — in September they appear to be making their way to the Sargasso Sea via the lake's outflow, the River Mincio, making them relatively accessible. The large number of anglers sitting out sessions around Peschiera del Garda also suggests a good population of non-predatory species such as roach and bream, as well as carp. In a class of its own is the Lake Garda trout, which — along with other salmonids — can be caught in the northern part of the lake.
Pike and perch are also present at Lake Garda
Summary
If you want a great holiday with your partner or family and still get to pursue your passion, Lake Garda offers some truly memorable largemouth bass fishing for very little money. One thing I feel strongly about: treat your catch with care, and if you land several fish, please return at least some of them. Here are the key points once more:
- Fast-action perch rod up to 21 g casting weight, 2500 fixed spool reel, 0.13 mm braid, 1.5 m of 0.25 mm fluorocarbon leader
- Finesse rigs
- Offset hooks, soft lures and creature baits, 7–10 cm, bullet weights 5–15 g
- Look for spots with weed growth and floating vegetation
- Watch for surface predator activity
One hour after sunset it is time to pack up the rod — unless you are targeting eel
Thanks for reading — I hope that one day one of you can put these experiences to good use :)
Christoph
About the author: Christoph (31, from Augsburg) is an environmental and process engineer and, like most of us here, a thoroughly passionate angler. His favourite target species is zander, though he also fishes regularly and enthusiastically for pike and perch. Christoph discovered pikeandperch.eu through YouTube and has been a keen follower of the channel and blog ever since.
