Pike: Sometimes Bigger Is Better

Dear readers,

I was fishing for pike last weekend. I wanted to test how paddletail shads work on my lake. Well, I went through several lures and I fished for two hours without any bites. After that I didn't change the spot, but changed the lure type. So I switched to a 20 cm Savage Gear Line-Thru Trout, and on the first cast I had a bite (but lost the fish). A few casts later I got a nice pike of 5,8 kg. It's not always about finding the right color, but the right action. You just can't be blind with one type of a lure, and think this is going to work 365 days a year. In my opinion, you will have more constant fishing with a range of different lure types than having a single lure type with all the color variations. You won't probably have the best color of the day, but you will have less blank days.

Oh yes - the topic of this blog was big lures. I found out that 20 cm lure is too small, so I changed it to a 30 cm Line-Thru Trout. And I started to catch pike with it. Even the small 2-3 kg pike were hitting the lure viciously. A 30 cm lure is just a snack for the big pike.

But hey, I'm just a beginner on pike fishing. Don't believe me :) 

A 20 cm Savage Gear Line-Thru Trout is in all kinds of trouble here!

Pike: Comfortably Fat and Spotted

So, you've never heard of spotted carp (besides some koi). Well there's no koi carp in Finland. This blog entry is again about pike. Fishing lakes, to be precise.

Some might say that my catches are rather modest considering the size of the pike I am catching. I don't actually care, because I am having way too much fun fishing. And that is what I want when I go out of my door.

I was fishing last weekend:

On Saturday I managed to catch some pike (up to 3,5kg) with Savage Gear Hard Eel 25 cm. I then switched to spinnerbait (Da'Bush) and headed up close to the reeds. Some 5-7 smallish pike from there (up to 2,5 kg), and after this I decided to head back for deeper waters. The big pike weren't hanging around the reeds (at least for now on this spot). I browsed through my lure box for something different that I could use on deeper water - and still have a strong swimming action on slower speeds. Luckily I had one 20cm Savage Gear Line-Thru Trout (Albino) in my lure box, so I decided to give it a try. I had two casts which were not producing anything. On the third cast, I had two strikes which I couldn't connect. I was devastated. The fourth cast was empty, but just next to the boat a pike struck the lure viciously! I was thinking that this is just another 3kg pike... wrong. The rod bent quite steeply and I started to think this was not a 3kg pike. After a strong scrap just below my boat I got the fish into the landing net. A nicely formed pike (you could see the belly from above the fish) Nice! The next cast I connected again. The scrap was still quite hard - and I managed to net even a bigger pike than the last one.

A different pike (and heavier) than the one on the picture below. Pike are absolutely magnificient creatures! Treat them with respect.

 

Well... actually you DO look a bit fat!

My trip on Sunday started quite nicely. First cast with the same line-thru trout resulted in 4,5 kg pike and the second cast (bite already on the drop!) got me a fat 5 kg pike. (These were smaller than the ones I had on Saturday, but they are still really nice fish in my standards.) I had some really fantastic pike fishing, changing lures from every now and then - catching totally around 25 pike in 4 hours of fishing. Cannot really complain. I must get some resin to fix all my swimbaits...

Something Else

Dear readers, confessions are hard to make. I had a very tough carping season, with some success, and a lot of blanking. Carrying on my blanking streak to October, I decided it was time for change. It was time for pike fishing.

I know this blog is not about pike fishing, but I sincerely think I wasn't supposed to write about blanking either. So I headed off to a lake to start my serious piking after 10 years of "idontfishforpiketoomanyteeth". I fished from my old boat, and managed to catch a single pike, and I was already happy with that. Some lakes can be notorious for their pike - they are not always easy to catch. The pike fell for Savage Gear Da'Bush Spinnerbait 32g in color FT. 

I was also testing a new 2016 model of Okuma Azores 40S spinning reel. In our waters, it is the perfect pike reel, and according to my testing - it really is. I was fishing with my Patriot Pike Specialist (244cm up to 75g), and casted even 25 cm Hard Eel with it. Of course I had to be gentle with my casting, but it still managed to do the job. Don't still go above the casting limit. I won't be responsible for any breakages. :)

I changed my spot to a deeper area, but I still wanted to fish with the spinnerbait. I let the spinnerbait sink to the bottom, and started to retrieve steadily (with ultra-short stoppages). The first cast brought me a hard fighting 80 cm pike (3,5kg). In total I caught around 8 pike from that small area in a matter of couple of hours.

In the next day, I caught a 101cm (6,2kg) with the same Da'Bush spinnerbait. In total, I caught around 40 pike in 4 days of fishing. Not a bad start for my re-established piking career. I was more than happy, and I have got to admit, pike strikes are addictive. This will not be the end of my carping, but it is the start of my piking.

The pike with the lure still hanging in its mouth.

101cm pike after 12 pikes - it sounds all too easy. But it isn't :)

Long Time No See

I was fishing again - for carp - unsurprisingly. The weather was not actually really nice. Fishing alone when it rains can cause a bit of claustrophobia. Spending almost all daytime and nights in your tent is not my idea of spending my time in the nature. Enough with the whining and let's move on.

Of a two night session, I managed to catch just one carp. But luckily for me, I was more than happy. It was my biggest linear carp and also an old friend from my last autumn fishing sessions. You can click on this blog entry and compare it by yourself. Of course it's the same fish. Anyhow, now it was fatter than last autumn. Really happy about that. Also I noticed that no way this fish has spawned and would be in this condition in the middle of July! This particular carp had not spawned. I wonder if some of the fish are going to spawn at all?

I am really happy with my Prologic Commander Unhooking mat. Due to its folding stucture, it is compact to carry around. The side and end walls are high, keeping the fish safe.

Midsummer Carping 2015 (and The Small Issue of Bright Skies)

Hi all! 

It's been a long time without any carpy pictures, so I decided to go and take some new ones. Of course, it was not an easy task, as I was fishing a new swim. I once wrote to the Carp Core magazine about new swims and blanking, so I know quite a bit how "carpy looking" swims can cause you some hard times. Luckily, this was not the case this time around.

I managed to prebait the swim just once, so I wasn't really optimistic about catching anything. Luckily the weather was nice with some sunshine, wind and clouds. The night was also quite cloudy, so it wasn't too bright for carps liking. In Finland, June nights are so bright you can read a book outside even at 2 am. Sometimes that is more or less an issue when you fish a night lake (where carp feed only in the dark hours). So having the clouds up in the sky was a good thing for me.

My setup was this time again my trusty Okuma Trio 55 Baitfeeders and Prologic Fastwater 9'6" 3,5lbs. I just can't tell how nice it is to battle carp with this really compact and lightweight setup. I will not got back to using 12' or 13' rods. Casting distances are rarely a problem in Finland anyway, sometimes casting 10 meters is is enough. Doing that with 13' rods is really not easy :) Besides, I usually fish alone - netting the fish is so much easier with a shorter rod.

During the night I heard some carp jumping in my swim, so I woke up every now and then. It really wasn't a good nights sleep. So when I got a definite liner at 4 am, I was getting more and more excited about actually getting a bite. A couple of hours later I got a screamer run. Rushing outside the tent and grabbing the rod was as fun as ever! I can say the fight was really hard, and I was pushing my line (0,405 mm Prologic Interceptor Fluoro Carbon coated monofilament) to the limit. The fish pulled the line through some rocks close to the bank, so I was more than happy to have the fluorocarbon coating on my line. I think braided line would have snapped in an instant... 

I managed to net the fish and my new unhooking mat was tested for the first time. The fish was a great looking common carp. I was more than happy with the result.

Up Close And Personal

There are a lot of good guys making videos of true carp fishing. For instance, you can go and watch the work of Alliance Peche, short movies by Frank Pizon or the Vienna boys' production Metropolis Carp. Of course there are a lot of great videos made, but these few are mentioned just as examples. (Also worth checking out is a Finnish video made by team Siloneula).

For my part, I think that I want to keep my dearest moments and experiences to myself. Sharing something that you truly love is actually really personal. Also the work made by the people mentioned above is probably enough, as I really don't believe my version of "true carp fishing" would be better (or anywhere close :)) The feelings you have, the moments you live - they are something I find pretty hard to share. I remember a Ernest Hemingway quote "Somebody just back of you while you are fishing is as bad as someone looking over your shoulder while you write a letter to your girl." (Still don't know if Hemingway really said this. Internet quotes can be dodgy :))  Some things are just too personal to be shared. A part of my fishing is a piece of the essence of who I am. That part I am not ready to share.

You can be sure that I will write trip reports also in the future. It is nice to share some things from my trips, but you can be also sure that a lot of the stories will never be told. And I will never tell you the story how my backlead got stuck between rocks and I consequently ended up losing a fish. That would have been my first carp of 2015. Instead of a picture of that carp, may I present you a video full of carp runs... where no backleads get stuck!

All Fish Are Equal

Every now and then, I find pictures on the Internet where people are abusing/disrespecting their unwanted fish species or a fish below target/specimen size. I find this attitude disturbing. 

A fish, no matter its size or species, is still a fish. A fisherman should ALWAYS respect their catches, no matter what they catch. 

I always treat the fish I catch with the same procedure (of course I don't use unhooking mats for 20 gram roach, you silly). Fish welfare is a priority, even when I catch a small gudgeon while barbel fishing or a 600 gram ide while targeting carp.

Naturally, I oppose using livebaits. I don't know how many pike anglers would like me to hook a 10 kg pike from it's mouth and back ... just to "have a big bait". It is not just disrespectful and inhumane thing to do for the fish, but it is more like being in the stone age of fishing culture. It doesn't matter whether the live fish struggling in the hook is a 10 kg pike or a 100 g perch - it's still a barbaric thing to do. (Don't even get me started on the ethics of C&R predator fishing with livebaits. There is absolutely no point there.)

A true modern fisherman has a strong respect for every fish. All fish are equal.

Bream might be a nuisance fish while carp fishing. How we treat the unwanted catches define us as fishermen.

Middle of Nowhere

So, the season is just about to start. We had a spell of warm weather this year and we got rid of the ice cover a bit early (at least in Southern Finland). So this actually means two things: 

1) I must start making my boilies and rigs quite soon

2) I must plan what lakes to fish

Part 1 of my plans will probably fail miserably, and I will be tying the rigs just before my first session. Also, probably no self-made boilies either. But anyway, that's life. Considering how much you need to be organized to fully function in todays world, I prefer a bit of chaos in my fishing and preparations. Besides, a lot of people think that only the simple people need to have their surroundings organized. I must be very smart then :)

OK. Now to the second part of my "What to do"-list. Planning. More or less, I will be fishing a few of my already-familiar lakes and maybe doing some discoveries (if I have the time or motivation). A lot of the time my "discoveries" have been... well... more like disasters. I remember one time I was checking out a remote forest lake, which had very swampy banks. When actually getting to the bank (walking 1 km in very rough terrain and bitten by around 200 mosquitoes) I found out that a big animal had visited my swim as well. Checking the huge footprints and big piles of soft poo, I had a gut feeling, that it wouldn't be wise to fish this swim at all. The only reasonable thing I could do then was to walk back to my car and drive away. Of course, the markings were made by a bear. I am not afraid of bears, but considering all the goodies in my bait-bag, I am really not keen on fishing with bears. :)

Fishing in the middle of nowhere (around 2009). The place was actually quite nice (if you like deer flies)

Still, sometimes I have been very lucky, as some places I've discovered have been really kind to me (like catching carp on the first night on a new lake). Going to new lakes can be frustrating, but sometimes it is like getting to know a new friend. 

No matter the size of the carp, getting the first carp from a new lake is always happy time!

Pointless Ramblings - vol. 23

So days are getting longer here and I am reading fishing reports from my friends in Southern Europe... It gets me a bit jealous as it still takes some time before our season really starts. Weeks feel like years at this point - still eventually we will get rid of the ice cover on the lakes.

As some readers probably know, I have some experience in different fishing styles. (Two days ago I was fishing for zander on dropshot-lures, and I actually DID catch a nice zander!) Of course I always prefer carp fishing to other types of fishing, but every now and then I get distracted :) I can say that I started fishing probably at the same time I was learning how to walk. So being a fisherman instead of a carp angler has a time advantage of 25 years or something. 

What I will always do in the future is that I will try different fishing styles, approaches and target species. I will never be a 100% carp angler (I'm probably 95%), as life is too short to be narrow-minded. There is always new things to discover and fish to be caught. It's not just about aligning your 720 degree semi-stiff chod-roundabout rig. But trust me, carp is still my no. 1 species, and you will see this also in my future blog updates.

A small linear carp caught while doing some stalking somewhere around 2010. I remember catching this with Okuma Sheffield -centerpin reel and Prologic MP Specialist 12'. It was pure joy, even the fish was small.

If I remember my catches right, I have never caught this linear carp before. A nice catch in the autumn 2014 darkness. Here the setup was Okuma Trio 55 baifeeder and Prologic Fastwater 9'6" 3,5 lbs.

So my pointless rambling is coming to an end (this time). Maybe on my next blog I will have some interesting things to tell about my boilies or rigs. OR maybe I keep on talking b-shit. :)

Best regards-

Henrik

Fishing Plans For Season 2015

Hi all!

What is different this year is that I probably start making some of my own boilies. I experimented on some boilies a few years ago, but as I was fishing successfully with Prologic baits, I had no interest to go on with my bait production. Now the time is different, and I will start the long and winding road of baitmaking. Of course I have some ready ideas, mixes and flavours, so this will help me a lot. Luckily I still have some of my trusty old bait, so I don't have to depend totally on my own recipes. 

On another perspective, I am not totally sure how I will enjoy my long hours of boilie making, but I don't think I have an option. So this year you can expect some reports on my boilie development and possible catches. I hope it will be fun despite all the hard work.

One of the few carp I have caught from Finland that I can call fat. Most of the fish are long and lean. This fish is also in the photo below. (The net looks dry, but it isn't. Polarizing filter does wonders to reflections)

This beautiful common carp was really loving boilies (as you can see). Let's hope she will get obsessed with my own boilie recipes and I will catch her a few kilos heavier.

Wind(blade) of change

I have usually changed a lot of my set-up between seasons. It's a long time from November to May, so it's too easy to start changing all of my tackle when you have nothing else to do (I am not into ice fishing at all). 

The biggest change will probably be just that I am starting to use the Prologic Windblade swingers. They are really good looking - than not being the main reason for my change. I have been looking for hangers/swingers that really are not prone to hard wind. Getting beeps all night long due to the wind is something I hate. Turning alarm sensitivity down isn't a good option either. You might miss cautious bites and dropback bites.

Last spring I was fishing with a friend, David. I noticed how nicely the windblades worked. (Photo from Smartinsko lake)

One thing I am definitely NOT going to change is my rods. Prologic Fastwater 9'6" 3,5lbs are the best rods I could be fishing with. I am going to stick with them for years to come. Last summer I was playing a carp with one hand, easily controlling the rod lifted high. It couldn't have been possible with longer rods. Also the short butt-section of the rod gives me freedom to play the fish as I want. (Of course I still have my 12' rods for lakes that require longer casting distances). Rods are forgiving while playing the fish, yet you still have total control.

A blog update usually requires a photo of a carp and its captor. Well here you go! This one was caught from Slovenia.

Indoor Carp Fishing

Hi all!

I might not be a big surprise that I am a keen gamer as I am a carp angler. So when I was approached by guys who are combining them, I was really interested in cooperation. Some of my blogs are on Dovetail Games Fishing -website. It is a fishing simulation, and at its current situation it is in development. It's on Steam early access, so enthusiastic gamers can go and check it out (link to my latest blog entry there).

http://dtgfishing.com/freedom-of-the-true-wild-arctic-fishing/

I have used some old texts, but will also publish something new there.

Best regards-

Henrik