The seasons started

I actually caught my first fish on the seventh of january this year, that’s some kind of record! But then winter hit us finally with cold weather, sno and icing of the bays. But that lasted only just over a month and now most of my home waters are ice free so yesterday me and my oldest son was out again and we both caught small pikes in shallow waters. We also saw about 15-20 pikes on shallow waters, I estimated the biggest ones to be somewhere around 15-16 lbs! I don’t know if the breaking of the ice is some kind of signal for the pike to start migrating to shallow waters for spawning perhaps because there should be so many fish in shallow waters otherwise. There are still about 2 months until spawning should be at its peak!

It’s funny, every time I go out I usually start with trying a few new flies then perhaps something proven like green and gold and then if nothing works I put on red and white. And it’s remarkable how often that color get the fish going!

Hello, you missed me?

Okay, I am sorry. I’ve had long spells before where I have been quite lousy at updating this blog but this is probably an all time high. It is however not a coincidence that my latest blogpost was just a few weeks before the fishing season started for real here, because I have never fished as much as I have this year and 95% of my fishing has been in my home waters chasing that elusive brackish water Pikes that patrol the shoreline of the Baltic sea.

Even though there might be a few days left to fish in this season it is really coming to an end. And to summarize it has been both a good and a frustrating season. It’s been good because I have never caught so many pike during one season as I have this year, I have also gotten the opportunity to fish another water more frequently together with a friend who has a boat on a completely different spot than I have, which has allowed me to go to spots I couldn’t with my little boat.

It’s been frustrating due to the fact that despite all my efforts and all my days out I still have nothing really big to show for it. I’ve been in contact with a few really big ones, but not close to as many as last season where I got into a really bad period where I lost many 5-6 fish that all of them would have broken my current personal best pike on the fly. But I’ve still learned new things this season that I am gonna take with me into the next one that will improve me. I am well aware also that where I fish are not regarded big-pike area, it is the very outskirts of the worlds biggest archipelago and very elusive. But I have a goal and a dream and I will pursuit it.

I am gonna try and post more regularly from now on, especially now that we move into winter and there won’t be as much fishing. Here’s a few photos of me and some friends of mine from this past season for now, see you soon!

Pike bum

Fall pike fishing

Been out quite a few times lately with mixed results. What I have been getting are a whole lot more pikes per outing than before, but still missing the bigger ones. Tomorrow we’re going out to some big-pike-waters, hoping for the +100 cm one. Here’s some photos from lately.

Fall fishing with dry flies for grayling

I’ve been lousy to keep you up to date with what I am doing. You better friend me on Facebook if yo want more regular updates 🙂

Anyway, two weeks ago I went up north for a little fall trip fishing for grayling. It was so much fun. The fishing was mediocre but all else was fantastic! Just wanted to share with you some photos from it. Hope you like them!

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Fish your fly all the way

Last weekend I had our annual pike fishing trip, more on that misfortune later. I’ve been bringing the video cam along my last few outings trying to catch a little pike fly fishing action. On this little clip you can see me doing a classic mistake, not fishing quite all the way in. On numerous occasions I’ve had Pike take the fly just by my feet and it always pays of to fish the fly right to the shore. You can see here that just as I lift the rod to cast again it looks like the fly gets stuck, well it gets stuck in the mouth of a nice pike. Naturally I didn’t hook it, and my reaction is a little late 🙂

Fishing on the 9th of April (Fishing day no 3)

So on monday I managed to get out on my second fishing during Easter. This time I had my entire family with me, all three of them. A good day with fishing, picnic with barbeque, rowin the boat and raising hell. That last part was mostly Wilmer who did because he was not entirely happy being out all day 🙂

We managed to catch one pike once more, but it is still way too cold in the water only three degrees celcius in the shallow bays. So hopefully warmer weather will come in soon making it warmer in the water which will give more pikes to come in.

No photos this time, will do better next time!

Fishing 5th of April (Fishing day #2)

So this past thursday I got out on Pmy second ike fishing this spring. The warm and sunny weather we’ve had earlier had changed to cold and clear weather these past twp weeks. With freezing degrees in night and not more than 3-4 degrees celcius during the day it was still very cold in the water. This particular day I was also met by strong southwestern winds. Kinda bad conditions.

I had a blast anyway, fishing for about three hours and also going on the boat for the first time this season. Still not a working engine on but it is also kinda nice to row the boat in a slow manner, most spots are reachable by rowing anyway. The bright and sunny weather combined with cold waters with almost no vegetation on the bottom yet mad the fishing hard. I did in the end manage to land a coupikes, not more than a couple of kilos. And I also had a follower that looked very strange, almost sea trout shaped….

Fishing premier!

Oh how I had waited! I missed out on the late autumn fishing in October and November due to much other comitements and then winter came hard and the ice has been covering my bays ever since January. But now it was finally time to get out again, and fishing premier for me (as you know) means fly fishing for pike! A couple of hours, a quick float tube transport to the closest island and fishing from land like it often is for me.

The wind was medium hard from nothrwest and it was very cold in the water still, very cold! Very few spots had any weeds on the bottom and the water itself was very clear. The hard winds made it hard to fish some spots but my normal favorite spot delivered as it almost always do! First cast at that spot gave me contact with fish directly and the cast after it was hooked, and the first fish of 2012 was landed! I managed to hook and land another one shortly after and had a couple of more following. The other side of the island gave nothing but I was still very pleased as I went back home after two hours, it was on now for real!

Fishing 2011-09-16

So for the second consecutive friday I managed to get out of work by lunch and do a couple of hours of fishing in the afternoon and for the second time in a row I had a lot of contact with fish. I was only out for a relatively short time but in retrospective a whole lot of things happened!

My last meeting for the day at work I glanced out the window and judge by my surprise when a majestic sea eagle came soaring by outside with a flock of seagulls circulating it. A clear sign that I needed to get out of work and go fish instead, so I did!

I took a phone meeting in the car on my way down there and only stopped on the hourly drive to drive trough McDonalds for some burgers to go. Once I got down I suited off and put waders on and walked the familiar way trough the woods down to the small channel that I need to paddle across with the float tube to reach the island where I do most fishing: “The pub”. I am gonna save the story of the name of that island for another post.

I went down the gravel road, stepped off it into the woods, past trough the rocks, the swamp and then as I came up on the cliffs leading down to the channel I suddenly see a majestic deer standing 20 meters in front of me almost down by the water. I stop and we both freeze for a second just looking at each other when the deer suddenly chickens out and runs off into the trees.

I got such a good feeling from this encounter. All of a sudden one of the worst work weeks in a long time is blown away from my mind, my mood is on top and I feel genuinely good! It was like mother nature herself decided to give me a gentle push towards focusing of the right thing. Privileged is a word that comes to mind. I am privileged, I have this fantastic nature at my doorstep, I have two fantastic sons and a family who are healthy and loves me. I have an interest that I will live for the rest of my life. I am privileged.

Inflate float tube, fins on, pack on the back. Paddle.

Last week I had a fish strike on the first cast, a long cast just over a weed bed, it was not gonna happen today though. The wind was still from north west but way harder today, and from where I want to cast it came straight from my right. Not ultimate when you have bigg ass flies with 4/0 hooks flying around your head. I gave it a try but I had to go further down the island, as I do I slip and fall quite badly on my hip on the slippery cliffs!

I limp on and also swap from the blu zonker fly I tied earlier this week because I wanted a lighter fly to cast in the wind so I put on the firely one I tied last night. So new spot and new fly and wouldn’t you know I got a strike directly! I just saw as it hit the fly about 6-7 meters out from me and I thought I had it hooked but after a couple of seconds it dropped off, damm! Quickly out again but nothing, and ten more cast but noting more. At this point I start to think that it might have been my only chance of today.

I loose confidence in the red/yellow fly and dish deep down the box to try and find a white/green fly, my most successful color and finally find one! First cast out and about 10 meters out a vicious strike to the fly but once again I manage to miss the hooking. Quick cast again to the same spot, full concentration retrieve and just as I thought I had missed it, only about 4 meters from the shore where I was standing it struck again this time so hard I almost dropped the rod because I was just about to life the fly to recast. Needles to say I missed to hook that one too.

But the annoying thing is that over the next 20 minutes I miss two more strikes, and I am by now getting frustrated and confused. What is also frustrated is that it seems most strikes has been from the same pike, and by now it is a little careful. With every cast I do it follows the fly in but won’t bite anymore. I try to change fly but with no success.

I decide to leave this spot for a while and cross over to the other side of the island to try and see if that lagoon is better today than last week. But with the same winds this lagoon is almost completely sheltered and way too calm for the pikes liking. I do give it 20 minutes or so before deciding to go back to the other side again. I stop on a spot a little further in this lagoon, I still want the pikes on the other spot to rest up good. Now I am sorry to say that the trend was steady, first cast out and BAM! A solid strike but not even close to hooking it up! Argh!!!

I make ten more casts at this area and just as I was going to reel up and move I see a pike standing in the weeds about 6-7 meters out from me. I try and cast the fly a couple meters behind it and slowly retrieve it while it sinks down to the correct depth. Just as it pasts the pike he swims away from me, obviously startled from the fly. I lift up with the plan to cast the fly in his general direction just to hook up the branches behind me instead. Not my day today.

It takes me a minute to untangle everything, and once I am done I standing there considering if I should go back to the first spot or do one more cast here, at this point I am not very confident any more. I am in a “what’s the point” mood. But I decide to give it a shoot. Which was great. Because after six missed strikes I get a strike and I finally manage to hook it properly.

A strong one but not too big, so I pretty soon get it to shore and land it. Wise after last weeks try to take photo I put some more effort into it and manage to catch myself and the pike on the same photo this time!

Suddenly I feel much better, and I feel that I am rewarded for not giving up after so many missed fishes. But just to make sure I am not too happy I miss one more strike before going home.

Another great day, another fantastic start to the weekend!