Ghosts of The Deep

When carp fishing isn't difficult, it's extremely difficult. The story is, of course, different in heavily stocked waters and lakes with freshly stocked or naive fish. Hook-happy fish are also easy to catch. But mostly, the cunning and old carp of the deep are like the creatures of imagination.

When you catch such a creature, the moment is like a dream. And when the fish swims away into the abyss, so disappears the image of the fish from your mind. The only evidence for that the fish was real are your photographs.

What I really love in Finnish carp angling is that most of the fish in any given lake have never been caught or ever will be. They will remain ghosts of the deep. I will remain happy not catching them all.

I just love looking at old catch photos. They keep me sane on blanking streaks...

Change of plans - blanking is good

I've taken up gardening. It's good for your mental health. You can't be blanking with sunflowers, can you? You won't get your tackle smashed by roses? Plus, the travelling isn't a problem.

In my garden I have found some lobworms, and they are said to be good as a fishing bait. Sunflower seeds are also good when soaked and cooked. Good for carp! And that leads to my subject of the day. Carp.

Well... My last trip was a blanker. It's nice to have them once in a while. It makes catching feel a lot better. When I had good fishing, and I was catching EVERY night for a long period, it made me want bigger fish. And in an unhealthy way. It was like smaller fish (8 kg or 17½ lbs) weren't what I wanted. And when you start thinking that way, boy you seriously need some blanking!

Fishing for pleasure comes down to two things: fish welfare and fisherman welfare. If you are not feeling good about what you are doing: stop. It can be a long and treacherous way of going. You just forget why you are fishing in overall, and start focusing on wrong/trivial things, like the weight of your catches. And soon, you loose the love for fishing. Just because you weren't reflecting what you were doing.

It's nice to go out for some good carp fishing. It's more than you can ask for when you are having a grill full of salmon fillet and garlic potatoes. After that you have a warm cup of tea and rest your eyes on a moonlit pale silver lake. And listen to the silence of the night.

The Ketchup Bottle Effect

In Finnish language there is a saying about a ketchup bottle. At the start you are not getting any, and then, KAWOOSH, you're getting plenty (or too much). This is a very uncommon phenomena in finnish carp angling. Most often, we're not getting any, and if we are getting, it's small time and seldom...

So far this year has been a success. 9 nights carp fishing, 7 nights with landed carp! And these are on different lakes, with two new spots included. It's not like I'm playing it safe. It's just that I am getting carp better than ever. I fear that I have learned something about carp fishing (!)

The most difficult thing here is that you really can't discuss the conditions with someone else fishing the same lake. That's because you are alone on the lake! It's a nice thing, but you can be doing things quite wrong with no feedback. You really can't tell whether you need to correct your rig, your spot or feeding methods...

But when you get it right, you can be very successful even in the hard waters of Finland.

600 hours = one carp

Carp fishing in Finland is just as it should be. Basically there are no commercial waters (except a few ones, which are under very low fishing pressure). What we have in Finland is 187 000 lakes of over 500 square meters. Of that huge amount of lakes, hundreds are stocked with carp. These lakes are mostly situated in Southern Finland.

On most occasions, there are no official records of carp stockings. In some cases there are some official markings of when and where some amounts of carp were put. Usually they have never been fished for carp since the stocking occured.

So when I start to fish a new lake, it is always a mystery to be solved. Where in particular the carp of this lake like to feed... or are there any carp left? So when I wake up in the middle of the night because of my bite alarm going crazy, it's a lot more that just catching a carp... It's more like a discovery!

Sometimes it's a struggle with long times of blanking. This summer started with ending a streak of ca. 600 hours of blanking! The unhappy time ended with me catching a 9 kg dark-marble coloured mirror! Oh the joy and disbelief! I already thought my bite alarms were jinxed...

But as H.T. Sheringham once wrote:

Carp Table

One day = eighteen hours. *

Eighteen hours = one potato

Ten years = one carp

*summer calculation

Carp fishing in my opinion shouldn't be as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. It SHOULD be difficult, and EVERY bite should be considered as "happy time". Big fish I like, but chasing PBs is just one way of carp fishing. I don't find that kind very rewarding. Learning is rewarding, and discovery.

In this photo is the remarkable fish that ended my epic blanking streak. I'm not fishing the lake at the moment, so let's see if I am returning to that lake again some year. 

Waterlog weekend

I (and my brother) had the honor and pleasure to attend this years prestigious Waterlog Midsummer Madness angling weekend. The weekend of angling took place on the Severn at Waterlog Angling Club stretch. We were accommodated at The Grange at Ellesmere, which is also the headquarters of Medlar Press.

To cut the story in short, the people were more than hospitable and the weekend was just about the best midsummer ever. And no MOSQUITOES! Although I was bitten by a dung beetle, no serious harm was made. We had a good weekend with good company, good food and ale & wine. What can you ask more? Well - I asked for some cricket, and we got some. It was about 30 Celsius and sunny, but we Finns wanted to have some batting. Good hosts, didn't let us down.

We did catch some good fish. In total there were 3 barbel caught in the weekend, one by me (6 lbs) and one by my brother (A DOUBLE FIGURE).... I have to admit that the fish were caught on dodgy tackle (carbon rods) and some magic pellets (embraced by the man Martin Bowler himself). I also caught a minnow, a dace and a chub. The photo is of the minnow (looking like a chub)...

A grumpy ol' chub.

Spreading the Word

Carp fishing isn't well known in Finland. Actually, the number of carp anglers is counted in tens. No, not thousands. Just a few fanatics are doing it and they are mostly regarded really eccentric because they are fishing for cyprinids. In Finland cyprinids are mostly considered lesser species with low value in sport fishing.

In my opinion, more people should know about coarse & carp fishing. What I've done is that I have been an educator on a few angling nights on a carp lake. People are attending nicely, and this year was the third year of educating new carp anglers. And we've managed to get new anglers every year. That is good. It's also good to catch something when fishing. The carp in the photo was caught after the next morning after the angling night. It was 4,6 kg (ca. 10 lbs). Beautiful fish! 

A fully scaled double figure common  is always a nice catch. Would like to catch a 30lb fully scaled...

This year I also did a publicity angling day where a lot of people came to see carp fishing. Also I had time on the radio and newspapers. It was kinda silly, as I didn't know any of that in advance. Answering questions about the ethics of c&r-fishing is quite difficult. Especially when it is going to be broadcast on the radio. Luckily I think I managed well. :)

Cheers and tight lines- Henrik

My first carp ever

There isn't an experience like catching your first carp. It is really something, especially when you have never seen one before.

My first carp was on the first day of August 2007. I prebaited the swim earlier that day, and somehow I decided to go night fishing. It was already getting dark when I arrived.

I set my cheap wannabe-rodpod on the bank and cast the first rod out. The rod was actually a light/medium action match rod, which had absolutely nothing to do with carp tackle. The reel was 1500-sized fixed-spool reel. It held about 80 m of 0,28 mm monofilament. A real treat for handling hard fighting big carp!

But what happened next was a bit of a mystery. After casting the first rod out, I started to assemble my carp landing net. It was my new 52" net, so I wouldn't have any problems in fitting the possible carp in the net. (How wrong was I then...) I tried to put the pieces together in the landing net, when suddenly all the world just flashed. I mean, a sudden bright flash just amazed me in the night. I really don't know what that was.

After regaining my focus, I tried to put the landing net together. Again, I was interrupted...by my bite alarm! It just went totally crazy, bleep after bleep. The rush was so fast. I jumped on to my rod and lifted it up and hooked the fish. My reels drag was set really loose, so I tightened it. The fish went on with the long rush. I tightened the drag even more. Suddenly I realized that something was wrong with my reel. The drag knob was broken, as I couldn't put on more drag force. Just a couple of seconds later, I realized the drag force was on full and the fish just went on.

A couple of meters later and with a bit loosened drag force, I started to do a tug-of-war with the fish. I had no idea what species the fish was. At last, after a lot of minutes, I gained the upper hand in the fight. When I got the fishes head up, I was in awe. The barbs of the carp were pointing up to the already starlit sky. It looked like an ancient creature, a dragon from another world. Carp! It was a carp! My knees went wobbly, and I really needed to land this fish.

Too bad the landing net wasn't set up. I had to keep the net open with my fingers, so getting the fish to the bank was easier said than done. Luckily after a few attempts I managed to get the carp into the net.

I took a few photos (weight was 7,5 kg which is about 16½ lbs), and released the fish. I hadn't caught the fish, it had caught me.

Welcome to my blog

Dear readers & fellow anglers. There is also specimen & carp fishing in Finland, and this blog is intended to tell stories of fishing in Finland.

The first blog with fish & fishy things will appear on this blog next week. Hold your breath, count the seconds.

Best regards-

Henrik