Carp & surprises

After our last autumns successful carp fishing trip (http://fish-species-hunter.blogspot.fi/2012/10/late-summer-carping.html) to the southeastern Finland we decided to make new attempt this year too. First it was supposed to be only carp fishing trip but it turned out to be something even better….

Just couple of days before our trip I read from a fishing forum that there was some Siberian sturgeon stocked in the pond about a week ago. So besides the boilies, pellets and sweetcorn I packed few boxes of worms and bought couple of bags shrimps.

This time we started fishing at Thursday afternoon and continued straight to Saturday morning. After we had baited the area and set our carp gears up we decided to go to sleep so we could start float fishing early in the morning.

It was a bit chilly night because the temperature dropped all the way to zero degrees. But still we have several line bites until Viljami finally got a decent run at 3.15 am.  After a short fight I scooped a nice five kilos mirror carp to the net.

Rest of the night was much more quiet. I woke up at six thirty when it was still bit hazy. I did some rebaiting and checked my rods cause I had an feeling there would come a run at morning. And it came at half past eight. Well, it was one of Viljamis rods again. I was standing right next to his rod pod so I crabbed his rod and shouted him to continue the fight. This time it was a six kilos common carp.

Fish of the misty morning.

Before noon we baited couple of swims with pellets and some shrimps to attract the sturgeons. I had few cautious bites before I hooked my first fish. It was a strange fight. My 12 foot match rod was bended over for about five minutes and the fish made only one short run during the fight. Finally we managed to slip the fish to the landing net. And there it was, my first ever Siberian sturgeon. It was foul hooked from the anal fin but still I’m counting it as a new species. 

My first ever Sturgeon going back home...

Few hours later the bailiff Marko came to see how were we doing. He dropped some hashed worms to my swim and just ten minutes later I was on again. The fight was different than the first one and first I thought I was fighting a Tench. But soon the fish started to kite from side to side and moments later I had caught second Sturgeon of the day. This time it was hooked properly from the lip. Viljamis swim was dead as a stone so I asked him to try mine. About fifteen minutes later he also caught his first ever Sturgeon.

Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baerii baerii).

That's a one happy fisherman!

That was it. All we caught later was couple of small Perch.  The second night was warmer than the first one and we were sure there’s gonna be some serious carp action during the night. But how wrong can you think. There was no action at all. No runs, not even line bites. But hey, this is carp fishing. It’s not easy even at well stocked day ticket waters.

I did not catch any Carp but I caught a new species. I think the trip was even better I could imagine.

After that trip I have been fishing for Pike several times. So far my biggest one weighed 6,3 kilos so the really fat ladies have evaded me yet. My friend Ville joined me about a month ago and managed to catch a nice fish of 9,4 kilos.

That's another happy fisherman.

So far this autumn has been quite mild so I hope the Pike season will be long and fruitful….

Danube gobies

At the start of the August I flew with my girlfriend to the Central Europe for one weeks summer holiday. We started our trip from Budapest and travelled from there by train to the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava.

I set my phone to alarm at 4.15 of our second morning at Bratislava. After a quick breakfast I left from our apartment and headed to the Danube river. When I got to the shore I realized the current of the river was way too fast to fish from the bottom with my light gear. So I decided to try if I could find any new species between the rocks at the shore line. The only bait I had was a can of sweetcorn I had bought from the supermarket the day before. Well, sweetcorn is useless when playing with small hooks and hunting for gobies, bullheads etc. So I started to turn around the rocks and finally managed to find some small worms to use as a bait. After that it didn’t take too long to catch my first Danubian fish and it was also my first fish from the Slovakian waters. There is several different species of gobies at the Danube river and of course I caught the only one I had caught before. The Round goby has conquered also the Europe’s second longest river. Soon I caught another Round goby. 

Round goby (Neogobius melanostomus). Bratislava castle on the background.

At one point I was bouncing my mormuska outside of the big rocks at the shore. Suddenly something much bigger dashed from the depths of the river and hit my bait. Luckily the fish did not make any sudden moves and after a quick fight I landed a Chub of almost one kilo. Not a bad fish with two meter long whip rod and a 0,14mm line! After that I had to leave back to our apartment because we had a bus to catch. Our next destination was another capital and after a one hours bus ride we reached Vienna, Austria. 

The Europen chub.

Sadly I had not time to fish at Vienna because we spend only one night there. Next day we travelled back to Budapest by bus, rented a car and headed to the biggest lake of the Central Europe, Lake Balaton. When we finally got to the south end of the lake I had a strange feeling at my right ankle. It was aching and swollen. When we looked it more closely we found two small holes from it. A snake bite! Now I remembered that I had felt some twinge and found out my ankle was bleeding when I was fishing at Bratislava. Well, we managed to find a local doctor who prescribed some antibiotics for me.

Was it one of these that bite me?

That small episode pretty much ruined my plans to go fishing to the lake Balaton or some of the canals and small rivers flowing to it. Well maybe next time. Instead we went to have some bath time to the town of Heviz. There’s a spa which is build by and on a thermal lake. The lake has a good population of fish too. I managed to catch couple of Western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) with my bare hands but as you know I’m only counting the species I’ve caught with a hook and line.

Couple of nights later my ankle felt much better (by the time we had returned back to Budapest) and my alarm clock was ringing again at 4.15 am. It was time to fish at the Danube river again. I chose to fish right under the Margit bridge right in the center of Budapest. I set up my bottom rig ready for a later use but started to find out if there was any life between the shore rocks. And I got an answer right away when a fish hit my mormuska from the second hole I tried. This was it. It was a goby of some kind but definitely NOT a Round goby. When I carried on I managed to catch two more of this new kind of gobies and of course few Round gobies too.

The scenery from my Budapest swim.

I also tried to fish with my bottom rig but it felt almost like a waste of time. When I used a sweetcorn as a bait I couldn’t get any bites and when I used a worm the rig barely hit the bottom before there was a Round goby hanging around at my hook.

These guys were everywhere.....

Afterwards I got a confirmation from Dr. Akos Harka from the Hungarian Ichthyological Society that all the three new gobies were Big head gobies (Ponticola kessleri) which is native species in the Danube river system. Big head goby was my species number 132. You can find my all time species list from here.

Big head goby (Ponticola kessleri).

Well, this was not a super species hunting fishing trip (and it was not supposed to be in the first place) but at least I caught one new species. The Danube river has a huge potential as a species hunting region and I’m pretty sure I will be back there some day.

Tench, finally

Last night I made a few hours session after Tench. It has gone about five years since I've caught a Tench over 20 centimeters.

I started to fish at seven pm. and about one and half hour later I finally felt some tenchy movement at the end of my line. It was not a huge fish. It was not even a big fish. But it was a Tench, a species that has been laughed at my face for years......I caught You, now it's time to find some bigger ones.

This and that

It’s been over three months since my last post. After my trip to Sweden I have been fishing only at local waters. To save you all from a suffering, I'll keep my report as short as possible....

Ville with his second ever live baited winter Pike. 6kg sharp.

The winter was long and persistent so I made my last ice fishing trip to the Baltic at the 18^th of April. And what a trip it was. Totally I had 36 runs with my live baits from which I caught 14 pike. And the best part was the pike were decent size too.  Here’s a list of my six biggest pikes of the day: 7,2kg/6,7kg/6,5kg/6,45kg/5,55kg and 5,35kg. That was not a bad way to end the ice fishing season.

A fat lady on the way back home...

Two weeks passed by before I made my first open water attack. I decided to go after Ide. I caught few of them. Not any trophy ones but it was still fun to catch'em.

In the middle of May came our friends Daron and Darren from England to fish with Jarno and me. On the first day they went with Jarno to hunt some Vimba breams. Saddly I couldn't get day off from work so I missed this trip. All of them managed to catch at least couple of Vimbas so the trip was a success. 

On the next day we borrowed my uncles boat and headed to the Archipelago with a Whitefish on our minds. When we found the island (it was a "bit" foggy at the morning) it didn't took too long to catch our first Whitefish. Together we caught about 15 of them. Not a super good day but at least we had fun.

Daron and his first ever Whitefish.

Fishing is not always so serious....

Then came the last fishing day of their trip. This time our target species was an Ide. Again a species they haven't caught yet. The season was at it's end already but still they managed to catch two Ide each.

Darren was very pleased to catch an Ide.

Even I caught one....

In the change of the May and June my girlfriend travelled to Spain again. Of course I offered to give her a ride to the airport because that ment I had a chance to catch some Asp again. Jarno hopped on too and so we had 24 hours to hunt for Asps. My trip started very well when a good sized fish hit my Rapala lure after an hour of fishing.
After an longish fight Jarno scooped up my fish and then I just realized the size of the fish. It was by far my biggest Asp ever. A beautiful fish of 4,2 kilos.

What a nice fish!!

After that I managed to catch three more Asp though they were all small. For some reason Jarno failed to catch any........well he caught few Perch, a small Zander and this one.....

The one you really don't want to mess with.

After that trip and between those trips mentioned above I have made some shorter trips after different species. I don't have any goals what it comes with species hunt this year (all the new species are still welcomed of course) but it's still always nice to catch different species with different methods.

At this point I have caught 21 species from the nearby waters. One to mention is the first Round gobies from my home bay just couple of hundred meters from my home door....

Visiting the neighbors

For the whole winter I was searching decent last minute travel deals to make a fishing trip somewhere south and warm. Only suitable trip I found was to Cape Verde in the beginning of the February but somehow I missed even that one. So, after reading some Swedish blogs for few weeks drooling their nice catches of Thorny skates, Dragonets etc. I decided to book an cruise ship tickets to Sweden. And after an 11 hours of sailing and eight hours of driving I was finally at the shores of fjord Gullmarsfjorden at the west coast of Sweden. 

Day 1

At Friday morning I awakened from my sweet and cosy hotel (read; my Mazda) by the shore. After checking there’s enough ice at the bay I headed on the ice and started fishing with sabikis. My first goal was to find out some baitfish from the middle of the bay. But the Herring and Mackerel were not biting today. After catching some small Whiting and Coalfish (which made good baits too) I headed towards high cliffs little bit further and started to fish there.

Me at the Hotel Mazda.....It was bit chilly there.

The first fish from there was my new PB Black goby of 11 centimeters. After that I caught also couple of nice Shorthorn sculpins and some smallish Cod. For them I was using my basic Perch setting with a small pirk and a small single hook baited with maggots under it. I also had couple of other rods out. Another one quite near the cliffs baited with shrimp and another further out in the deep water baited with a strip of Coalfish fillet waiting for Rays (skates) and whatever may show up.

Black goby (Gobius niger).

I caught only two fish with each of the rods. The one at the deep water gave me to small Dab and the first fish with the other rod was also Dab. But then I had a second bite with it. And up came something bit different. It was my first ever Dragonet. A cool looking and brightly coloured male. That was one of the weirdest looking creature I’ve ever caught. I want to say thanks to Hans once again for the spot on hint for the species.

Common dragonet (Callionymus lyra). A bit weird looking or what?

And weirder it gets. What a mouth.

Rest of the day was quite quiet and all that I caught was couple of small Cod.

Day 2

Saturday brightened sunny and windy as all the three days I was there. I started my day fishing by the cliff edges searching for Shorthorn sculpins and other little critters. I caught five sculpins from which the biggest was my new PB of 302 grams. At some point I went really close to the cliff and was sight fishing trough the hole. I was bouncing my mormuska at the bottom when suddenly the whole hole went black. A big school of small fish was swimming under me. I was sure they were Coalfish but decided still give them a go. I lifted my mormuska from the bottom and the fish started to nibble it right away. Finally, after a very long minute or so I hooked one of them.  I was very surprised when I noticed it was not a Coalfish but a small Pollock. And that meant I had caught my second new species of the trip.

Pollachius pollachius juvenile

Here was about ten centimeters of ice.

When I finally got the fish photographed the rest of the school was long gone. Soon after that moved to the deeper water but all I caught was some Dab, couple of Whiting, bunch of Cod and one Flounder. So two days had gone by and I had caught two new species so far.

Sunset at Gullmarsfjorden.

Day 3

Sunday was my last fishing day of the trip. I planned to start once again from the edges of the cliffs but couple of Swedish guys were faster than I was. So I made some changes to my plans and started from the middle of the bay and the rare Starry ray on my mind. I had two rods out for the rays (aka Thorny skates) and I fished actively for other species with one more rod. I soon caught couple of Whiting, one Dab and my second ever Norway pout with it.

It was about ten thirty when a loud and happy “YES, YES, YES” was echoing over the bay. One of the Swedish species hunters had reached his goal to catch his first ever Starry ray. It was a nice fish of about 1,1 kilos and a length of 46 centimeters. There were few more Swedish fishermen around me and we all went there to admire that magnificent fish.

Starry ray aka Thorny skate (Amblyraja radiata).

When I was returning to my rods I saw that my rod rest had felt over. I grabbed the rod and pulled some line from the reel. The line was pulled tight slowly but steadily and I decided wind to the fish. Now I felt something different at the end of my line. It felt quite heavy though I knew it’s not a big fish. After a nerve wrecking winding from over 50 meters of water I finally saw the fish. And it was Amblyraja radiate, a Starry ray or Thorny skate. A real dream catch of mine. Though it weighed only 410 grams it was still my first ever ray and one of the best fishes I’ve ever caught.

I think this is the reason they are called Starry ray.

Soon after the ray I packed up my stuff and headed towards the cliffs, the Dragonets on my mind. I didn’t catch any of them but some Cod, Whiting and Dab. There was one hole from where I caught four Dab in a row and after them I had one more bite. It felt a bit different and up came a Grey gurnard (Eutrigla gurnardus), another new species of the day. From the next hole I caught another gurnard as soon as I had dropped my bait to the bottom. It was getting late soon but there was one more surprise still waiting for me. After couple of more Dab I had a cautious little bite and after my strike I felt something tiny at the end of my line. When I got it to my hands I first thought it’s another little Whiting but then I figured out it was indeed a Poor cod (Trisopterus minutus). Three new species on one day was even more I expected.

Grey gurnard (Eutrigla gurnardus).

The last new species of the trip. Poor cod (Trisopterus minutus).

The whole trip was a success and fishing on a clear thin ice (7-20cm) and at the clear water was nice change to my homely ice fishing trips. Gullmarsfjorden is great fishing destination with awesome landscapes. This was my first but probably not the last time visiting and fishing there.