Summertime memories

We still have quite a lot of (mushy) ice on the lakes. Nothing happening here.

Well, my so-called friends have been cheering me up with pictures of green banks and carp catch photos. Summer will come here, eventually. While waiting for the summer to come, the best way of getting my mood up is to browse through some old fishing photos! 

This beautiful common carp was caught from Slovenia (picture: David Primozic). I think I forgot to smile!

Blip. Blip. Bliiiiip!

Dear Readers,

It's been a while and the blogging break is now officially over. In the future you will be seeing shorter blogs, longer blogs, or whatever. So be prepared for anything. I thought about changing the name of my blog to somewhat more descriptive of my pointless ramblings. 

So in the future it's not going to be only about carp, but also about carp. So without further ado, I present you: Carp Of The Thousand Lakes!

Hello! It's been a while! (this carp was from Slovenia Photo: David Primozic)

PIKE: Start of The Season

Hi all!

Thank you again for visiting & reading my blog. It's been a while since the last blog updates, but anyway, I think writing a blog is like running a marathon, not a 100 m sprint.

I started my season just the next day after the ice had left the bank where I keep my boat. There were still some ice slabs floating in the lake, so the water wasn't too warm yet. At least the sun was shining - which is a good thing for fishing in the very early spring. Warming water usually means active fish. 

The start wasn't too good, but I switched to a new spot on the lake, where I had struggled last autumn (not catching a single bite!) Somehow my thoughts started wandering during my drive from the first spot to the second. I just love bright colored lures, especially when everything else in the surroundings are still dead and colorless. 

Colors. LOT OF COLORS! In the background is the new Patriot Pikehound 7' 50-100g rod.

So the new spot wasn't too easy, but I still remembered the rule from last season: "on this lake thou shalt not fish with paddletails!". So I switched to S-curve action lure (Line-Thru Trout 20 cm). The first cast gave me this 102 cm pike. It had some kind of a big wound on its back. I felt sorry for the little critter. Hopefully it will recover from his/her wounds. 

After catching my first pike of the season, I switched to SG Shine Glider 18 cm and started catching again (totaled around 7 pike). I fished the reeds with the new Patriot Pikehound 7' casting rod. I really liked it, as the rod butt section is quite short and really easy to handle while switching hands. Not my choice for pelagic pike fishing, but for casting in the reeds - a really good choice indeed!

What in the world happened to you?! 

Pike: Hungry Little Buggers

Hi all!

Some parts of the Baltic sea are already fishable, so some of my friends have already started their pike season. Alas, I just can't find the time at the moment to hit the waters. Hopefully, I will have more time in the near future.

Just a small suggestion to pike fishermen, who are more or less uncomfortable with bigger lures - don't be! Big lures can sometimes be the only lures that work - whether you are targeting small or big pike. Last autumn I read about guys using only small spoons for pike. Yes, these CAN work, and they are worth the try. But you can blank by using too small lures.

For instance, I was fishing with normal sizes softbaits (13cm), and was blanking. Then I switched to the 40cm Real Eel. You know what happened?

This happened. A smallish pike hit the 40 cm Real eel. It didn't want to bite the small 13 cm lure.

Yet again, this is not the ultimate truth. Only an idea that can sometimes be true. Be open-minded about your fishing, and sometimes you can discover something.

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 :)

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.

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