The last contest I attended in Romania was Amida Open.I care very much about this contest because we fish pikes.Pike fly fishing is a continuous challange.You never know where the pike lies hidden among the grassess, what does it eat , at what depth does it stay. There are a lot of questions and it’s up to you to find all the answers. It’s not an easy thing to fish pikes with lures but fly fishing pike it’s a little bit complicated.Besides the flies which must be lested or not you need to know also how to use different flylines from sinking to intermediate .You have to know also how to use floating lines or floating lines combined with sinking leaders. You have to fish depending on the place you fish.
At Cehu Silvaniei I met a deep lake with a maximum of 1 m, full of submerged grass, which forme some true underwater islands.The water was crystal clear towards the dam and a little bit muddy to the lake bottom.Some areas were large mats of algae and were covered by only 10 cm of water. The conditions were difficult if you had never fished before in such conditions.
The technical meeting was scheduled on Friday evening.Everybody was talking phrenetically about techniques and mounts.Some of us were drinking beer and some of us were smoking .We begin to make the groups and of course the draw was made .This time everybody had a contribution to the draw.It lasted until midnight until all have left to their rooms and begun to tie with passion. We managed to sleeep at 4.30 am.
In the morning there were minus 4 degrees , a cold wind, quite sharp, but clear sign that if the sun would arise it might warm outside.We went on the lake, we assembled our boats, we changed lines between opponents and jokes between friends, some of us were drinking coffee.
The lake was divided into 2 parts: the tail of the lake with a side full of reeds and less water and the lowerdown part ( at the overflow) with slightly deeper water and less cane. The monsters were there..they were waiting for us. The contest started..after 10 minutes I had an attack..but I missed it..no problem..I was fishing with the right flies…I launched three times in the same place..I had an attack again..I hooked..I drilled..and off it goes into the underwater grass..I didn’t like that.It was not a big pike but I would have scored at the bigining of the first round of competition. I looked to my right and left. Nobody had seen anything at all.They were all fishing phrenetically. Ok !I changed the streamer. I had fished with a double tail of rabbit zonker 2 hacks one made of buck tail and one maid of a white with orange marabou.I replaced it with one streamer made of flashbou and I begun to fish slower. I had seen that the water was very cold and they did not attacked very voracious.That was a sign that they were apathetic. It was a correct decision.In about 10 minutes I had a stronger attack.I was drilling..I was keeping the fishing wire streched..i was raised the pike from the water bed…I was able to see it. I saw it somewhere in the 50-60 cm. I put my hands on the fish landing..and the pike detached from the hook…I swore…I shaked… I did not know what was wrong because I did everything correctly.That was it.I tried to calm down. I looked around me.This time they had seen …I had a drill…they started to fish more motivated. Ok!I changed the direction of fishing towards the left bank.I was fishing with the same streamer.I had not had not even one attack for an hour and a half.I kept changing retriving styles and streamers.At one point a pike was hanging on my hook. I got it out of the water.. I called the referee.It was about 45 cm.Someone next to me caught a pike about the same size.Until the referee came I got another pike out of the water.Two contestants were 
already heading to where I was fishing.
They had seen that I caught better than in the other places.When the referee had about 5 m to reach me I got another one out of the water.They were all amazed.This pike was smaller than the others but I still put it in the net.. I measured all the pikes with the referee. Only two pikes scored. The guy to my right had one pike and I had two pikes. The score was one to two for me.My neighbour was moving towards the middle of tha lake. After about 15 minutes he pulled out of the water a pike of 72 cm…great..nice fish.But I saw that he had not a very good casting. He had not covered all the right side, plus he had had several failures.Therefore I moved to the right. A light wind started and when there were 25 minutes until the end of the first stick I hooked a 50 cm pike .I measured the pike and I told the referee not to came because I didn’t want him to bother my water.I put it in the net and I started fishing again. When there were only 10 minutes until the end of the first stick I hooked another one.That was it. There was a two hour break.We ate and then we came back to the lake for the second stick.This time I competed in the other side of tha lake where were reeds and shallow water.In that morning there were more contestants who hadn’t caught any pike.So it was going to be difficult.We begun to fish and I hooked a pike in 15 minutes… I driled and I droped the pike into the grass..not again…I didn’t discouraged. This had happened before. But this time it was not quite the same. In the morning there had been intensive fishing.Pikes were disoriented and frightened.Until the end of the stick I did not hook anything and nobody else did.The sun was going down. I knew it would be a drastic change at sunset.I was waiting for it. And so it was. When the light begun to fade the pikes were out for attack. Shoco was fishing right in front of me and at one time he had an attack..he dropped it…then Zoli had an attack from the reeds..he drilled full of emotions…he pulled it out of the water..64 cm…nice.I had an attack at the surface too but the pike missed the streamer.I launched again. The pike made a wave. I could have seen its head from the water coming to me.. I hooked.. it jumped out of the water with the streamer in its mouth..it felt and it detached from the hook..unbelivevable.Everybody was shouting like they were at a football game. Zoli came closer and he pushed out of the water another one..50 cm.It was 2-0 for him.There were only 15 minutes left.It was getting dark very quickly.The chance to catch anything was decreasing. I had two more attacks as spectacular as the first one.Suddenly a huge wave came to me from a submerged bush.It was coming directly to my streamer.I slowed down the retrive.It was really close…maximum speed. I stopped the streamer because I wanted the pike to catch it…it was hooked…yes!!!..I was drilling ..cheers from the back…the boys had seen what happened.The pike was coming to me.I turned to another submerged bush.I succed to turn it back.I was looking for my fish landing but I could not find it..oh my God it was in the water and I was not allowed to put my hand on the fish.The rules were: I had to take it out of water with a fish landing.Otherwise I did not score in the contest.The boys wanted to give me their fish landings, but again they were not allowed.So , with the rod in one hand and with a oar in the other I begun rowing .I thought I saw my fish landing but it was just a reed..so it was all in vain.The boys were shouting : ” Use samething from the boat “…good idea…I took the life jacket from the boat and I put it on the water.That’s how I took the pike out of the water…everybody was shouting. It had 67 cm and I had the second place.
In that night I tied other kind of streamers on same other hooks.It was samething wrong with the others because I lost so many pikes.
Next morning I was fishing on the tail of the lake.After an hour and a half of fishing I caught the ” crocodile”…77 cm.
And that was it. I took the first prize and the prize for the largest catch. 
I have to tell you that it was a friendly competition but the atmosphere was tense.I hope that Shoco is going to organise some more pike competitions because they are special and I hope that you will enjoy them too.
FISHING with SOTTO 