Valerio Caccia

Fishing in murky waters

Anyone who thinks fishing is boring has no idea what they are talking about. A meeting with Senior Associate Valerio Caccia, who knows all the best spots in the Ticino, but sadly is not about to reveal them.

Stories about anglers and angling begin, logically enough, with big catches.

Pike (Esox lucius)
120 centimetres
12.5 kilos
14 December 2021, 5.17 p.m.
Melide, Lago di Lugano

Valerio Caccia pulled this fine specimen, a giant among predators, out of the lake not far from the Swissminiatur museum. He had been fishing for hours with his brother, but with no luck. It was slowly getting dark in Melide and he was beginning to feel the cold.

It was one of those typical fishing days that Caccia loves so much. Standing by the lake, casting the line, reeling in the bait, casting, reeling in, just letting the time pass by. “Whether you have caught anything at the end of the day”, he says, “does not determine whether it was a good or a bad day.” Or to put it another way: fishing interests him more than the fish.

What he is looking for when he stands by the lake and casts his line is tranquillity, closeness to nature, “a feeling of peace that I never find anywhere else”. It helps him to forget the world around him and clear his head. And it helps him to stay patient in his work as a lawyer. To find the best solution for his clients, not just the quickest solution. There is a link between his hobby and his profession: to come up with an effective strategy, you have to know where you are fishing and what you are fishing for.

To come up with an effective strategy, you have to know where you are fishing and what you are fishing for.

Now we find Valerio Caccia on the Magadino plane near Lago Maggiore, balancing on a small rock a few metres from the bank and elegantly casting his line. The swish of the bait as it shoots through the air in a high arc cuts through the silence. The rubber bait that Valerio has chosen today stinks of shrimp. Obviously, the fish around here like a touch of the exotic. Casting, reeling in, casting, reeling in, Caccia starts talking – and reveals some of his secrets (at least a little of them).

For example, a recipe for the perfect Arctic char:

• Hike for at least two hours, ideally three, to a mountain lake in the Ticino.
• Take some friends along.
• Put up the tent.
• Grill the char over an open fire, fresh from the lake: “it never tasted better”.

Or his three favourite spots, the best fishing in the 32 mountain lakes of the Ticino:

Lago Piiip* in the Leventina district,
Laghetto di Piiip*, well over 2000 metres above sea level
Laghi di Piiip* or Piiip*, the lake with two names

Oh yes, the big catch. What happened again? Caccia and his brother were already packing up when the pike took the bait. They struggled with the fish for ten minutes before they got it out of the water. It tasted, well, like pike, “more interesting to catch than to eat”.

have been redacted, at the request of Valerio Caccia. Not that he is worried that someone else might catch his mountain trout. But the idea of one day standing on the banks of one of those wonderful lakes, casting his line into the crystal-clear water, reeling it in, casting, time and again, a trout takes the bait, he pulls it out ... and applause breaks out ... no, thank you.

Valerio Caccia

specialises in cases in the areas of civil, corporate and property law. The 31-year-old has been working at Walder Wyss in Lugano since 2017. Having grown up in Camorino near Bellinzona, he is a true local champion when it comes to fishing. He began fishing as a child with his father and brother in the mountain lakes of the Ticino. Caccia owns five fishing rods.