Twenty-one

I have visited our neighboring country Estonia several times but have never fished there before. At June it was finally time to fix this horrible mistake.

I arrived to Tallinn by ferry on the morning and started to drive around to look if I can find some nice looking fishing spots. After checking couple of places I stopped to River Pirita just about five kilometers east from the downtown of Tallinn.

Nice, sheltered fishing spot.

At the time I got to the river it was raining buckets. Well there was a couple of bridges nearby so I moved under the bigger bridge and found a nice sheltered place to fish at. My only goal for this trip was to catch at least one fish no matter the size nor species.

Let it rain...

This was actually a very easy job. There was tens of aggressive Three-spined sticklebacks hanging around and it took about two seconds to catch the first one. I had added a country number 21 to my list. I caught about ten more sticklebacks and few Bleak before I headed shopping (just couple of cans or bottles of beer, long drinks and wine) to the town.

Estonian Three-spined stickleback.

After packing my summer refreshments to my car I parked to the harbor and went back fishing. I was fishing at the dock and thought I’ll catch some Round gobies and maybe some Perch. The other half went right when I caught about ten gobies. I also caught one small Viviparous eelpout as a surprise catch.  

Round goby (Neogobius melanostomus).

Viviparous eelpout (Zoarces viviparus).

A nice trip in not so nice weather gave me nothing less than a one more country fished.

Stay tuned. Some more countries and fish species coming soon….

Starting the 2014 season

Long time no see.

During the autumn I made several attacks after Pike but nothing worth mentioning happened. Well, I bought a fly fishing rod etc. for Pike fishing. Once I borrowed a belly boat from my friend I was totally hooked. So I was forced (yeah right) to buy a belly boat of my own as well. I caught some Pike  during the autumn but all the big ones got around me from the distance.

Me and my new toys.

Now, after a long and mild autumn the ice fishing season has finally started. I have made few bait fishing trips after a Pike but results have been crappy. After three full days trips I have landed only two smallish Pike.

Viljami with a huge Pike he caught...

At the end of  January we had a meeting of Finnish species hunters. The meeting was at the place where I had a great start for the 2012 season (You'll find the report here).

There was about fifteen of us hunting for Fourhorn sculpin, Baltic herring, Eelpout and what ever will hit our baits. During the day many of our group caught one or more lifers. I caught four new species for my 2014 lists including Smelt, Three-spined stickleback, Baltic Herring and Fourhorn sculpin. The Viviparous eelpout was one species I didn’t caught though everybody else caught at least one.

I was too lazy to take any pics at this trip. But hey, luckily you can find better report (in Finnish) and some pictures at Juha's blog.

I haven’t decided yet if I’m gonna do some serious species hunt at the Finnish waters this year again. I’m now on 10 species so the start has been quite good. Well the time will tell what I will do.

Quite soon I’m travelling to Canary Islands with my family. It’s not gonna be a serious fishing holiday but I’m still quite confident I’ll catch some new species to add to my life list as well….

SUPERB SEASON OPENING

On third of January I had a day off from the work. The weather forecast looked fine so I decided to go fishing. I had heard good news about Viviparous Eelpout and Fourhorn Sculpin fishing from my friends. So I headed to the Airisto.

First species of the year.

About quarter past nine I dropped my pirk of the platform and very soon I had my first fish of the year. It was a tiny little Perch, but still a fish.

After a couple of more perch I noticed that there were some little fish on the surface. I changed to small mormuska (you can see it on the picture) and it took less than a minute to catch species number two. A Three-spined Stickleback. I think this is a species that is still missing from Steve Wozniak's long list.

Three-spined stickleback, on the right a small white mormuska with a white maggot

Every once and then I tried with a herring rig, in case there were some Baltic Herring around. And there was, ONE, WOHOO !

Baltic Herring

A bit later I finally caught my first and the only Fourhorn Sculpin. This fish is ugly like hell but somehow I stll like it a lot.

Ugly duckling

The European Smelt (Osmerus eperlanus).

Quite soon after the sculpin I caught another fish with my herring rig, and yes, it was another new species for the year. A small, toothy and stinky Smelt.

It was almost three 3 p.m. (it was gonna be dusk at four) when I was almost giving up. After all, I decided to try one more spot with a pirk. I felt one tiny bite and then nothing. I tried for a while more and started to lift my pirk up. When it was close to surface I noticed that there was a tiny fish on the hook. And I haven’t felt a thing! It was longish and wiggly, It was a Eelpout!

Tiny and wiggly Viviparous Eelpout.

Spiny and slimy Ruffe

After that I fished for a bit longer and caught one more species. The Ruffe is a slimy pest which lives everywhere. But now I was happy to catch one.

Eight species on a one day is a great result, much more than I expected. What a start for the year!

PS. I forgot to mention that eight species. It was a Roach, species you can catch almost everywhere and when ever you want.