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.

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!

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!

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.

Just Another Blog Update - With a Belly Rub!

Dear Readers,

It's been too long since my last update. Sometimes writing is easy, sometimes it isn't. Well, just to summarize my season - it was nice. Especially as I didn't have so many nights out on the bank. My fishing notes regarding this year however were quite good considering the seasons to come. I learned a lot of new things. I even managed to pull off a 4 carp night fishing alone. Considering the low number of carp in our lakes, it's more or less an achievement here.

Hopefully you will enjoy this picture of a very concentrated belly rub!

Sometimes it's good to have a landing mat with walls. Carp can get veeery active when you don't expect it.

Some product talk here. I started using the Prologic C.O.M. pod this season. It is really nice on tight swims, and its low profile is really stealthy, so you can stay below radar on waters where you don't want to be seen. The light attached to the pod is just to humor me, and to give me an indication where the pod is (in pitch black conditions).

My current set-up (Switching hangers to Prologic Windblades for 2015)

Rocky swims and RIGHT lines

Dear Readers,

It's been a while since my last blog entry. I managed to do some fishing since, and had some good experiences with new tackle.

As I have told earlier, the carp swims here in Finland can be rocky and weedy (a lot of these lakes formed during the last ice age, hence the rough banks). Normal monofilament usually ends up in the bin after a few fights with a carp, as the line gets "the rash" from the rocks. Braided line would just break almost in an instant. 

Now my issues with line have been solved with the Prologic Interceptor Fluoro Carbon Coated mono. It performs like a mono, with good breaking strain. It really doesn't get any scratches (because of the fluorocarbon coating) and after a trip it is as good as new. I am using 0,40 mm and it suits my needs perfectly. I can recommend this line to anyone who is fishing on rocky & weedy swims.

Ah - that will be it for my tackle related talk. 

The last trip I did was a nice two-night session fishing alone. I managed to catch a nice brace of carp, and I was more than happy being on the bank. I still had my fair share of misfortune, as my cameras remote controller died on a critical moment. Few good photos anyway, and here's a pic of my first carp of the session.

Big Fish Still Get Slaughtered...

Hi all!

This post will be quite grim, and I already warn my readers abroad:This post has a link to a big dead carp... Yet again, Finns have been skillful enough to fill lakes with all-killing gill nets. They are commonly using them to catch "trophy fish". This makes no sense at all - a fish caught with a gill net requires no skill at all. It just kills everything that swims in it. Even our Saimaa ringed seal.

That's enough of the almost-extinct endemic seal species - and on with the ramblings about carp. So a carp that was claimed to be the biggest fish in Finland was caught and killed. To the catchers excuse, he wasn't actually trying to catch a carp. To make things worse, the biggest tench in Finland was ALSO caught a few weeks ago with a gill net. This tench was caught and killed intentionally. Just to claim the record. What a sporty way of catching record fish! Yay!

Big fish are really important to the ecosystem in numerous ways. It is really important to release them every time it's possible. 

A nice common carp going back to do what he/she does best (that is being a big fish).

Ps. The carp in the magazine was claimed to be "closer to 50kg than 20 kg..." Yeah - right.

Midsummer Nights (and Jinxed Again!)

Dear Readers,

Midsummer nights in Finland are really different from nights in Southern Europe. It really doesn't get dark even at midnight, and time has less meaning. But as much as I love the bright night skies, I still prefer the embracing darkness of August nights.

Midnight "darkness"...

My brother caught a big carp on a trip with me. I seem to have been jinxed again! My trips with my brothers have been really good, but not for me. If my calculations are correct, I have blanked on nine (9!) consecutive trips with my brothers. My misfortune seems to be of a very personal kind, as all of my brothers have been catching quite good. I hope I can lift this curse...

One Midsummer Morning

Dear readers,

I started my Finnish carp season a bit late. This year I am going to try to fish the season more on the later side (summer&autumn). Years before I have been struggling with May and June fishing, so this year I am going to try something different. I started the season just on Midsummer. 

The first rays of the sun were just hitting my swim when I had a run. (FYI - The sun rises 3:50 in midsummer... That's quite of an early morning.) I tricked the fish with Prologic Banana malt snowman 20mm+20mm (the swim was baited with PL Banana Malt Stick&Method mix). I was also using a new mainline, Prologic Interceptor Fluoro Carbon coated mono (0,40mm). The line performed really well, and despite playing the fish around the rocky&snaggy swim, the line didn't have any scratches. I am really happy with this.

A nice start for a (hopefully) successful season...

The long & lean common carp had some marks from spawning, and it was not really on its prime condition. Anyhow, the carp put the scales to 12 kg. A nice start for the season.

[For all the smart people who are asking why I am wearing a beanie in midsummer, I would like them to watch this video about Finnish "summer"..]

The Importance of Catch and Release

Dear Readers,

I was just thinking if I would write about this issue in some magazine, but I reckon this is the best way to deliver the message. As I have previously written, catch and release fishing (C&R) is quite a new thing in Finland, and coarse fish are mostly regarded as trash. Well, here is a series of photos to point out how C&R can be sustainable when done in the right way. This photo series is about the same carp caught in three consecutive years. The fish has been putting on weight every year.

Linear carp "Pöhkis" aka. Simpleton in 2011

Linear carp "Pöhkis" aka. Simpleton in 2012.

Linear carp "Pöhkis" aka. Simpleton in 2013

I already wrote in my earlier blog about the ESSENTIAL TACKLE considering fish welfare. C&R is not a religion about tossing the fish back in the water, it is about the best practice getting the fish back into the water. I really insist that all people doing C&R or selective fishing should pay attention to fish welfare. For instance, a lot of Finnish pike anglers don't have an unhooking mat. That is totally wrong. The boat floor is not the right place to handle a fish. Without the protection of the unhooking mat, the fish will loose a lot of its mucus layer. The mucus layer is really important for the fish, as it protects the fish from infections and parasites. 

What I always bring with me when I am fishing (fish welfare tackle):

- Big knotless landing net (Prologic XLNT)

- Landing mat (Prologic Inflatable with small walls)

- Weight sling (Prologic)

- Forceps & disgorger

- Camera tripod (and a lot of technical gimmicks to get the photo taken really fast)

These things are not lightweight. But it is the price you have to pay for fish welfare. If you are not ready to carry several kilos of fish welfare tackle, you should not be fishing at all. After all, it should be about fish welfare, not fisherman welfare. 

Sweat & tears (no blood) - C&R done properly!

Prologic Senzora 13 Bite Alarms Tested

Dear readers, 

As I wrote in my hands-on review about the Prologic Senzora 13, no final judgement can be made about an alarm system just testing it for a one session (or just in your living room). So, making a thorough test takes easily a complete season. I don't actually know how many sessions I did, but the alarms were tested in varying conditions, from 30°C to - 2°C (rain etc. included). My set of 4+1 was in use in all of the sessions, so I got a good picture how the alarms behave. To put it is short: they worked just fine.

So no fuss, no problems, and the alarms produced reliable bite detection. That's all I want of my alarm set. I think I will stick to this set for a longer time.

Lucky summer days and mornings.

The Learning Curve - And The Happiness of Not Learning a ****!

Hi all. It's been a while since my last blog entry. Nonetheless, the season is over here and it's time for some reflection on my doings.

When I started carping, I got off to a flying start. I think in no less than 15 minutes I had hooked my first carp. It was more than easy, as were my following catches. I hardly knew the meaning of word "blanking". Luckily, years have taught me better.

In every form of fishing, you get better by doing it more and more. This is true no matter if we are talking about match angling, fly fishing, etc. I remember my first time tench angling. I was struggling just to get one, and this went on for a few trips. Two years spent entirely on tench fishing on the pole taught me a trick or two. If I remember correctly, one of my last trips was when I caught 25 tench in a five hour session. The catch in total was like 40 kg+. At that point I knew tench angling quite well (at least the pole techniques). I knew if I wanted to catch tench, I would. Some part of me just loves the effort of trying to catch and learn. The way of becoming an angler. At the same time, I love the things I don't know. They truly are the reason why I return to the bank every time. Casting for the mystery.

Luckily, carp fishing has still remained quite mysterious to me. And I think I want to keep it that way. Some things are clearer to me now, and some not. I am a biologist, so the nature around me hardly has any mystical or magical essence, as from my point of view, it's just genes and evolution. Spruce = genes (and it's fenotype), birch = genes (-..-), carp = genes (-..-).

So yes, carp fishing is an action where a monkey (Homo sapiens) uses a lot of time and absurdly expensive and elaborate tackle (made of carbon, plastic and metals) just to see a fish (Cyprinus carpio). So where's the magic then? The "magic" is just a product of our own imagination and our want to make things meaningful. Life itself, possibly has no bigger meaning, so fishing might be as important as anything. From this perspective, I find carp and fish in general, as magical creatures capable of possessing my mind. It's a way better story than the monkey-version!

Yes! It's a monkey (Homo sapiens) ALMOST kissing a member of the Cyprinidae-family (Barbus barbus).

A Chance to See Me!

Hi all,

Usually I spend my time in solitude. At least that's the case when it comes to fishing. Now you have the opportunity to see me and talk about carp angling. Maybe not the best way of spending a day, but still, a way of spending time.

The place is: Raision Meri & Metsä, Tasalanaukio 1, Raisio

Time: Thursday 10.10.2013 (The shop is open from 10-18)

And below you see a picture of one of my carp catches from this year (this was from a double run)

August glory, an early morning carp.

A Double Date - It Can Get Tricky

Dear readers,

It's been a while since I last wrote. Sometimes it's quite hard to get your ideas together to write about something new or even remotely interesting. This blog has been running now for about 3 years now if I remember correctly. Sometimes it is just normal to have a small pause in writing.

I was fishing my new spot, and was happy to get a run in the middle of the night. I took my right hand rod and I played the fish closer to the net. What surprised me was that my left hand rod alarm started to go off like crazy. I thought for a second that I somehow got this fish tangled into the other line. After that one short second, I realized that I had another fish on the other rod.

So I netted the first carp quickly and took the left-hand rod and started playing the second fish. Luckily, I managed to land the carp into the same landing net, where the first carp was waiting for company :) I can honestly say that the situation was really much easier to handle with my Fastwater 9'6" rods, which are powerful, but really easy to use in tight natural swims. 

After some trickery, I managed to take photographs and release the carp back into their watery haunt. Didn't get any more runs that night. I guess sometimes the feeding periods can be very short and savage.

The smaller one of my double date.

Short Rods For Carp Fishing

Dear Readers,

I suddenly remembered that this SHOULD be a blog about carp fishing. So, here is a picture of a carp for you. This was the first time my new Prologic Fastwater 9'6" 3.5 lbs rods were out there. I love them. A lot. 

So why the short rods? In most cases, our natural lakes have only tight swims where it's almost impossible to cast properly with a 12' rod. Also, the fish are so much more fun to land with these shorter rods... Combined with Okuma Trio 55 Baitfeeder reels, my combination is really lightweight and still packs a lot of power.

A nice wild mirror carp. Wasn't held in a sack, but photographed just after the capture.

The Importance of Catch And Release

Dear Readers,

The upcoming season has got the grip on me. No hope of going ice-fishing, as I think only carp. A sad story, yes, but still it's nice to be obsessed. Obsession is way better than depression. A summer person can't be too happy in Finland, so just thinking of summer gets me going.

Anyways, I have something to say. Every now and then someone catches a carp by accident. I mean here in Finland, almost all of the carp are caught without intention. Sometimes by foul-hooking on lures, on gill-nets, etc. Way too many of these carp are killed, usually just to be photographed for a local newspaper. And that is a pity, as people should know better. Carp is not the best fish for consumption anyway. We have zander and perch for that.

My message is actually a competition. Carp Of The Thousand Lakes will give (to be precise, I will) a prize for the best Catch&Release Finnish carp for 2013. The best C&R is not determined merely by the carps weight. The "competition" will be called "COTTL Let It Go".

Just Let It Go...

One beautiful mirror carp on its way back home.

Winter Is Coming - And The Problems of Carp Fishing

As I am writing this, a winter storm has arrived to Finland. It is sweeping the world with fury and ice. Nice to be indoors.

In carp fishing, and in fishing in general, I like the secrecy of things. I don't want to see the fish I am after, nor do I want to know the size of the biggest fish in the lake. That would definitely ruin it for me. Seriously, I am never going to a lake where the fish are known by their weight or by name.

You might wonder why I think that way. Well, in my opinion wildlife should be wild. Semi-domesticated fish aren't that wild or worth the effort of fishing. Don't get me wrong, I care about the fish, but not about fishing for them. It's not the fishes fault that they are stocked and fished the wrong way.

Harsh words, yes, but I don't like the mainstream of carp fishing. The state of our sport is all about PBs, tackle sales, stealing fish from public waters into private lakes, etc. I repeat what I said in my earlier blog. - this style of carp fishing will destroy the sport, or actually already has. I hope our lifestyle will actually be a lifestyle yet again, with a taste of eccentricity.  Who wants to see or read anglers talk about 390 degree, semi stiff hangaround rig? Seriously?! That is just  a plain stupid way of looking into this wonderful and dreamlike world of carp fishing. 

Eccentric or not, here is a photo of a hidden carp. I was crouching by the landing net to get this photo.

Fully scaled dark mirror carp. Definitely not my PB or caught while sleeping in a deluxe "Bite-enhancer" bedchair.

Pic Or It Didn't Happen

Dear Readers,

Yet a few weeks has passed and I have something to say again. We are having an early winter and the temperatures have been even -10 Celcius. Now it's a bit warmer, but how long, I can't say.

The season 2012 was ok. Didn't fish as much as I would've wanted, but still I managed to get some good experience and some nice fish. Don't get me wrong, me and my fishing friends managed to land very nice fish. Only some of them have been portrayed on my blog.

I don't actually want to keep an accurate record of my catches nor do I want to share all of them with the rest of the world. Sometimes it's better to keep low profile even in the case of success. I can say I catch carp on a constant basis, which is somewhat of a miracle in Finnish waters. But I don't want to shout out too much of my catches. There is a fine line between writing a blog and showboating.

I mean if I just report every single fish I catch on every possible forum, it would eventually get attention from the wrong people. I like that carper number is growing steadily and slowly here. I don't want it to become a mass sport overnight. If and when people start carping, they would know the tackle better and take better care of the fish. I have read too many stories of catch & kill carp stories from Finland that I don't really want to cause a hysteria of carp angling. In my opinion, slow evolution is the way to go.

All in all, Finnish carp are smaller than their southern relatives and more rarely caught. Despite of that I think carp fishing in Finland is the best carping in the world.

By saying this, here's another pic of a carp (not)

Brrrr... Cold

Dear readers,

It's getting already quite cold here and the water temperatures are dropping steep. Not bad, but combining low temperature, hard wind and rain, the weather is not so pleasant for carping. Maybe I am getting old or too comfort-loving... Probably the latter, but really, spending nights by the lake soaking wet is not probably the sanest thing in the world, is it?

Anyway, a picture of a warm SUMMER morning carp. I took notice that the sun behind the camera isn't that good for the picture. A carp and my skin are so pale in colour, that the picture burns very easily... Not much to see in the picture, but the fish was beautiful. I have never caught that one before! Oh- and notice the camera shadow in the carps belly. It's not always easy when you are doing all by yourself!

Take note how NOT to take a photo. This one is quite heavily photoshopped to even see the outlines of the carp. And yes, there are a lot of carpers out there doing some photoshopping on their carp to get stunning colours... Luckily I got some good release photos on this carp.

Autumn Greetings

Dear readers,

It's been a while since I last wrote a blog. I have still been quite busy fishing for carp and spending time with other things I love. I have had hard time finding the time to write. Life is full of choices, and sometimes spending a few hours in front of a laptop might not be your cup of tea when alternatives are more tempting. Anyway, on with the story.

This season has been quite good with its ups and downs - some blanking and some good nights. Just as it should be. At one point I was quite fed up with catching carp every night and happy that I had a blank night quite soon after that. As I previously mentioned, blanking is an essential part of carp angling. If you are not blanking, you are fishing in waters that are way too easy. And carp angling shouldn't be too easy.

Tonight temperature will probably reach zero Celsius degrees... Winter is coming fast. Yet there is still enough time for some great autumn carping. Last trip me and my brothers had a good session with one of us banking two carp, including a personal best. I hope I have the time and the energy to go chase some autumn carp.

An autumn carp has just been netted and the net is disassembled for lifting.