Traditional Lake Fisherman Tracisio Dagnoli Shares His Passion and Heritage
“Excuse me sir, do you have perch fillets?” “If you’d like, I can prepare them for tomorrow. Leave me your name so I can take note…”.
In the baskets of the motor vehicle that Tracisio Dagnoli, born in Limone sul Garda on January 23, 1936, and a professional fisherman, displays every morning in Piazza delle Erbe, perch, pike, roach, and coregonids are still moving. That fish is truly fresh, and demand for delicacies from our lake is never lacking.
Life has been tough for one of the last “romantic and traditional” fishermen, as he likes to define himself, who returned to professional fishing after a lifetime working at hotel reception desks or managing other premises between Limone and Malcesine. “There was a need to work for the family, so in ’52 I started as a waiter, but for the last ten years, the allure of the boat and fishing have taken over. I cut everything off and decided to cast the nets.”
Family background and genetics
Elementary school education, a large family, five siblings including the eldest, Valerio, carrier of the Apolipoprotein A-I Milano gene, a little-known gene discovered in ’79 in his blood. A gene that helps preserve the heart and arteries despite high levels of cholesterol and triglycerides.
“They didn’t find it in me,” he says, “but I am the one who is healthiest of all.” He runs numerous activities involving commitment and passion, and in his free time, he goes to help his fishing friends. However, the genetics inherited from his grandfather Giacomo, an avid angler, father of eleven children and sacristan in Limone, could not ultimately be hidden.
“Yes, it’s a tough life, full of sacrifices, but you live in contact with nature and the lake, with fishing. The work involved with the catch must be done carefully, with love; only then can you realize yourself in what you do.”
Fishing activities and significant episodes
He started ten years ago by buying a boat in partnership, along with nets and equipment—things he later bought outright, remaining alone.
“I started on the ‘frega’ for coregonids, going to Malcesine to friends’ places. Going out together is safer. You leave at two-thirty in the afternoon, lay the nets, and lift them around nine at night because if the wind picks up, it’s dangerous,” continues Tarcisio. “It’s better to bring home fewer fish but stay safe.”
Bad episodes? “Have you ever seen the lake in a storm? Well, I wish you never find yourselves in the middle of it on a boat. Once, our protector, the Madonna of Montecastello, intervened, to whom we are all devoted. She’s up there in Tignale and watches over us from above.”
A lump of emotion when recalling an episode that must have marked him, but he prefers to brush it off quickly. Now he has a dream: to organize evenings and meetings to promote and value lake fish. Dagnoli will be happy to share his experience.
