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.

Few short attacks after different species

After we had got back from Norway (report will come as soon as I have time and inspiration to write it) I had one week of vacation with my girlfriend. We had planned to make a road trip to eastern Finland. After an 1400 kilometers and 17 and a half hours drive from Norway it was really refreshing to hit the road again at next day….

On the second day we stopped at the city of Joensuu where it was supposed to be almost a 100 percent sure place for Dace. Only problem was that we had borrowed a fridge to our car, but nobody had told us that it has two different settings cold and HOT. So when I opened the fridge it was like sauna inside and you can guess what had happened to my worms and maggots. Oh yeah, all dead. Well, I decided to give a go with dead maggot. But all I could catch was one Roach and one small Ide.

Next day I bought a box of worms from Savonlinna and at the afternoon I gave a chance to them at one lake that was full of Dace. Or so I had read from the wonderful world of internet. I found a nice looking, very narrow sound with a strong current. That’s the place I thought because Dace likes to swim at the current. I caught some Bleak, Perch, Roach and one small Ide again but no Dace from here either.

The sand castle of Lappeenranta

We woke up at the city of Imatra and headed south to Lappeenranta. After checking out the famous sand castle we drove to the banks of Saimaa canal. There I had few hours chance to catch my first ever Sabre carp. There’s only one good place to hit Sabre carp in Finland and it’s here at the canal. From here I caught Bleak, Roach, Perch, Ruffe, Bream and White bream. It would be a lottery win to catch one with a three hours trying, so no Sabres for me this time.

At least I caught something from the canal.

Next week came and I made one trip after one “easy” species I still haven’t caught this year. It was a Black goby. I have one area nearby at my home it is almost sure to catch one. And because I was thinking like that it turned out to be very hard to find even one. It was almost getting dark when I finally managed to land one tiny, dark brown fish I was after. At last even one species I was targeting surrendered.

The Black goby (Gobius niger).

My last species hunting trial was at Saturday two weeks ago. I drove over hundred kilometers to one nice looking place where I was sure I can find some Common goby and if I was lucky enough maybe some Butterfish or even Two-spotted goby. I walked by the shore and finally found a nice still place with a sand bottom. And there was fish too. There was lot of tiny juvenile Three-spined sticklebacks but among them there was even some other fish and looked just like gobys. Hmmm, gobys in the mid water, could they be Two-spotted gobys? After an hour of hard trying I caught one goby from the school. And it was a Sand goby! What the hell they were doing at the mid water they were supposed to lay at the bottom. After that I went after the smaller gobys that were laying at the bottom like they should do. There was at least 50 of them at the very small area. Normally they are greedy bastards but now I couldn’t catch even one of them. They came to sniff my bait but didn’t even try to taste or swallow it. Nerve breaking endeed. On the way back to the car I tried to find some Butterfish or even some fish between the bladderwracks but all I could catch was two Perch.

So after all these trips I’m now on 41 species this year. Next on my hit list is a Carp, hopefully that trip will go little bit better.

A bit different midsummer festival

Because my girlfriend was still at Spain I didn’t have any plans for midsummer. No barbecuing with friends, no summer cottages nor rock festivals. So surprisingly I decided to go fishing. At Thursday night I packed my car, picked up a my trailer and boat and got ready to early morning start.

I was at the shore at seven am at morning. I dropped down my boat and headed to the place I had checked earlier from the sea chart. I trolled all the way there and a bit before I came to those islets I had a strike but I missed that fish. When I got to the islet I changed my tactics to spinning. I had tuned my lures for Garfish (I had been reading that it’s better if the treble hook is rigged to the lure by a short piece of line) but I still was quite amazed when I saw an Garfish following my lure to the boat. That gave me lot more trust for what I was doing. They really were there, it was truly possible to catch one!

After a several hours spinning and few shy bites I drove to nearby island and took a little nap at the cliff. When I woke up I tried to find some Black gobys but all I could caught was some Three-spined sticklebacks.

At night the wind calmed down, it was almost still and the scenery was really beautiful. I left my “home bay” where I had decided to mount my tent and spent my night and drove back to that very same islet. It was my third cast when I had a bite. The strike came straight from my spine and the fish was on. When the fish came to the surface for first time I saw that it was a Garfish. When it was quite close to the boat it took a tail dance I have saw never before. At this point I was 100 percent sure that the fish will get loose. But no, soon I had my first ever Garfish at my landing net. That was a great moment. After weighing and photographing the fish I fished a while more and had another bite from the same place. But another Garfish would be too much and I couldn’t set the hook.

Here it is, my first ever Garfish (Belone belone).

And the same fish with a lure it fell to.

It was almost dark now and I tried to find some small critters from the bay with a tiny hook in the light of my head lamp. I caught couple of Sand gobys (species number 37 for the year, Garfish was 36^th), Three- and Ninespine sticklebacks before my head lamp died. I had forget to chance the batteries before my trip. So it was time to get some sleep.

Couple of Sand gobys in the jar.

After breakfast I took another try with the small fishes. I caught another Sand goby in seconds and soon after that I hooked a small fish that turn out to be a Eurasian minnow. Wohoo, another new species. Then I decided to go after Garfish again. But it was completely different day today. Not even a hint from the fishes. And what was more it started to rain and the wind got worse again. I had planned to stay for two nights but the weather forecast told that it will be raining the whole day and whole night.

Minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus).

So I unpacked my camp and left back home. I had caught three new species for the year from which one was totally new for me. So I was more than happy for the result.

A Three-spined stickleback that I caught with a landing net. The creature just next to it is a normal sized maggot.