Hey again, it's
been a while.
Yesterday I
did my first whole day trip for pike this summer season, and what a trip it
was. It quite made up for the fact that I've missed pretty much the whole spring
season as I've been busy with other activities.
The trip
took me and a friend of mine to the western side of Helsinki into Espoo and as
far as the tip of Porkkala peninsula, in search for some new fishing spots. the
day started with heavily overcast weather and a steady south-eastern wind, nice
fishing weather, the forecast though promised clearing weather and the wind
turning east so we expected a difficult day.
The first
spot we stopped in, by a couple of small islets and some reeds outside a wide
bay area, made our hopes for the day go up as we caught a pair of angry small
pikes with some jerk baits and lost or didn't hook around half a dozen more.
But as we made our way farther towards the Porkkala tip the weather started to
clear up and for the next few hours we only had pikes nibbling at our baits as
we combed through or made notes of any spots that looked worthwhile. when we
reached the Porkkala tip we took a break in the nice guest harbor of PorkkalaMarin where we spent an hour or so, where after we started our journey back.
As we made
our way back towards home we stopped at a couple of spots that we had scouted
when we came, but here the same trend continued, we only had some nibbles on
the tails of our baits, until we came to a narrows by a wide bay. Here we found
some active fish, ending up with a couple of angry takes that we could not hook,
ending in a beautiful 93cm pike that took my firetigre colored spinner bait
with force. the fight that followed was short but full of action as the fish
tried constantly to swim under the boat in less than 1meter of water, but in
the end my friend was able to get it in the net and in the boat for quick
measurements before it was returned in its own element.
After that
spot we continued to come back towards Helsinki occasionally stopping at some good-looking
spots, without any further success.
As the sun
started to set we came to a narrow inlet into a small bay where we on some
earlier trips had had good fishing, and I decided to try out with the fly. we
started fishing on the western side of the inlet with the plan to fish first
that side and the return on the eastern
side. the same pattern continued here too, we got some nibbles from here and
there without much success until we were on our way back on the eastern side of
the inlet. at that point we were fishing an area with around 2m of water almost
up till the shore. I was casting my green and orange fly with a sink 3 line and
suddenly felt the line tighten as if being stuck in a rock.
I began
tightening the line to loosen the fly from the rock it started to move slowly
to the side which vas when I realized it was a FISH, I tightened the line more
to put some pressure on the beast to get it to the surface so that I could see
the size of the thing, but with no success even though I bent my 8 weight rod
to the handle. at first the fish seemed docile enough as it just swam slowly
near the bottom until it seemed to tire a bit, at that point I got it of the
bottom and up to the surface so I could se the fish for the first time, and it was
big, not very long but the size of its back was astounding. when the fish came
to the surface it became spooked of our presence and decided to take off, I
bent my rod till the handle but even so the fish managed to drag a good amount
of line , probably around 25 meters, before I could get it to halt, after that
it still made a couple of shorter sprints but in the end the net was calling. As
my friend netted it I looked at the beast, and the size of it, in awe before
releasing it after fast measurements which showed its length to be 107cm, even
though it had quite substantial damage on its tail, and girth to be 51cm. a
truly magnificent creature.
After the
fish was released we continued to fish the eastern side of the inlet, but did
not get any more fish from that spot and decided to return to the starting spot
to see if we could catch some of the fish we had seen in the morning. we fished
the area again but with the only contact being a nice pike of around 3 kg that
my friend caught with a spinner bait in the reeds, and decided to move on to
the last spot of the day as the daylight was slowly fading.
In the last
spot some reeds almost facing the open ocean we found some fishes although they
continued the same approach as so many before them just nibbling at our baits.
as the last rays of sunshine fell behind the island we were about to finish for
the day as one last pike slammed my red and black spinner bait. after a short
an uneventful fight my friend netted the last fish of the day with the length
of a respectable 98cm
And after
that it was time to head home
So in the
end it was a difficult day as expected, with some really good summer pikes in
between. The water temperatures varied from around 19 degrees Celsius in the
shallow bay area's to 13 degrees in the deeper open areas.
Till next
time.
