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.