Late summer carping

After those few trips hunting small species I finally decided to focus on bigger fish. At the southeasterly Finland is one small and really nice looking day-ticket water stocked with Carp.

We drove there with Viljami in the middle of the last week of August. We started with ground baiting and loose feeding, set our boilie rods out and started to fish with match rods baited with sweetcorn. I had my first and only bite almost immediately and landed a nice Crucian carp of 740 grams.

The rest of the evening and whole night were quiet. When the darkness had moved off and we were able to see our floats again we dropped our sweetcorns to the water. I had nothing happening at my swim but Viljami had constant bubbling at his swim. He had several bites but it took few hours until he finally hooked a fish. It was his first ever Carp. Not a massive fish but a nice specimen of over three kilos. And about ten minutes later he hooked another one a nice looking fully scaled mirror carp of bit over two kilos.

Viljami is playing with his first ever Carp

And here's his second fish. What a nice looking creature.

We tried a while more and I even moved to Viljami’s swim in a hope of Carp too. But nothing else happened. We headed back home but on the way we decided that we will come back as soon as possible. Viljami had been bitten by Carp fly and I was still missing my Carp of the year.

About four weeks later we were there again. This time we concentrated more to fish with boilies. The dam has a bit deeper area and I had got some tips that the fish had moved there. We had our first run about five minutes later we had casted our baits in. Well, this Carp was smarter than we did and didn’t hooked itself.

Hours went by and we had the next run in the total darkness at then thirty. I missed this fish too but about half an hour later I woke up when two bite alarms were singing together. When I got to the rods there was only one reel running so I hit it and the fight was on. When we got the fish to the landing net was the other reel still giving some line out. So, Viljami grabbed to the rod. First the line was stuck to somewhere but soon it loosened and the fish was still on. We left the second Carp to the landing net, weighed (it was a six kilos mirror), photographed and released my fish and then made the same meneuvers to the other fish. Viljami’s third ever Carp weighed 5,5 kilos.

First fish of the second trip. A nice six kilos mirror carp.

Viljami with a 5,5 kilos Carp.

Quite soon after we got back to the tent came next run. It was my turn again but somehow I lost this fish as well. It felt a good sized fish too. So, back to the tent again. I didn’t sleep at all because everything was soaking wet and it was freezing cold out (and in a tent too) there. At three o’clock at the morning was time again to dash to the rods. This time I hooked the fish and after a short fight a really nice looking common carp was lying at the landing net. It weighed a bit over seven kilos and was released unharmed.

7,14kg.

Our last run came about two hours later. Now it was Viljami’s turn but unfortynately he lost this very good sized fish (of course all the big fish are getting away, always).

At the morning I still managed to hook and land a nice little Carp of 3,2 kilos with a sweetcorn. This was one really successful trip even it was raining all the time and at night there was freezing cold. But the Carp were feeding though we had something wrong at our rigs. We lost more fish that we could land, was it because too small hooks, too short hair-rigs or what? It’s hard to say but something has to be changed for our next trip after this magnificent species.

The mighty Carp was my species number 42 of the year. Next there’s something totally different coming again…

Turbo charged roaches and a slippery eel

At Friday 15^th of June my girlfriend  left to a holiday trip to Spain. I had promised to give her a ride to airport of Tampere and at the same trip I was able to check the local fishing possibilities. About twenty kilometers from the airport is situated some rapids called Kuokkalankosket. This is one of the best places in Finland for Asp fishing. So you can figure out what my primary target species was.

This was the place I caught my first Asp of the trip

I started fishing at noon. About one and a half hours later I had my first bite and I had a nice fight with an Asp of 1,4 kilos. Quite soon after my first fish I had another hit at the same place but then came the silence. Asps continued their chase of Bleaks but didn’t give any interest about my lures anymore.

And back he (or she) went. C&R of course.

I changed to another rapid. The Asps were splashing all over and I got couple of hits soon after I started. Few hours later I got a better hit and the fight was on.  It was a strong fish and I thanked it didn’t run down to the rapid. It was a nice fish of 1,7 kilos. I got one more juvenile Asp (about 300 grams) from the same place before I decided to chance place again. It was already ten a clock at night, I was supposed to sleep few hours in the car so I can fish all night after.

1,7 kilos of pure muscle and 95 kilos of something else

But I had come here to fish not sleep. So, another rapid, another shot. I started from the beginning of the rapid. There was few Asps  chasing  Bleaks again but all I could caught was a fail hooked Bleak every now and then. It was their spawning period so there was billions and billions of them in the rapids. So the Asps had more than enough food to chase and they totally ignored my tries to feed some plastic or wood to them. It was little bit over eleven now and it was getting a bit darker. I was leaving to another place to give a shot for a little Eel fishing with cutbaits (I had saved all my fail hooked Bleaks for bait) when I noticed a nice looking spot at the edge of the rapid. I casted my white Rapala Esko Team to the place and got a hit almost right away. It was a nice Zander of about 650 grams. Another cast and another Zander. Couple of cast without a fish and then I had bite again. The fish felt a bit different than those Zanders. And up came a Rainbow trout. Ten minutes, three fish, not bad!

The lures that gave me most of the action

A nightly Rainbow

Now it was finally time to move on. I had found a perfect looking place for Eel fishing earlier at the day. I set my rod out with a piece of Bleak on the hook. This was a first test for my new ProLogic bite alarms too. The alarm worked almost too well. I didn’t even get my ass on the stool when the alarm was already giving small signs of bite. The rod tip was nodding softly and the baitrunner reel was giving line centimeter by centimeter. I got enough of waiting anymore and decided to strike. And fish there was. I felt some kind strange wiggling at the end of the line, could it be Eel already. And it was. Amazing, I had been fishing for five minutes and yet I had caught my target species. After the Eel I caught one Zander with the bait. Actually I had at least ten bites, but I couldn’t hit anymore fish.

Eel of 1,16 kilos

I checked one more rapid (the most popular one in the area) after the Eel fishing. Didn’t catch anything else so I thought that it was finally time to give up. 21 hours of nonstop fishing is enough even for me. I hopped to my car and drove to Tampere. There was my next destination, a small pond that has a good population of small Tench, fair sized Crucians mixed with some Carp.

The sunrise at the rapid.

But before I started to fish again I took a few hours nap at my car, bought some more snacks from the supermarket and just chilling out a bit. At six o’clock at night I was ready to fish again. My groundbait was slowly making its job and there started to be more and more fish activity at my spot. First I caught only some small Tench, after nine some Crucians appeared to the place and some of them even excepted my sweet corn as a dinner. But I didn’t managed to catch anything bigger. I didn’t even see any Carp.

My biggest Crucian carp weighed a bit over 400 grams.

At midnight I gave up again and started my way back to home. For some reason I was quite tired and it took about six hours to get back home. It’s a pretty long time for a 170 kilometers of ride. I stopped twice to get some sleep between driving.

After all the trip was another success. Once again two new species for the year (now on 35). The Asp was my target and the Eel was very welcomed bonus. And I will catch that Carp later this summer….

500 kilometer road trip

At 30^th of May we were heading to Helsinki with my friends Jarno and Viljami. There was good chances to catch few new species from the waters of Helsinki and we were also planned to make one stop on the way.

Guys are searching the Brook sticklebacks.

That was the reason why Jarno came with us. There’s only one place in Finland where is healthy stock of the Brook sticklebacks found. None of us had never caught one, so it was worth trying. I started with a small piece of worm, but the fishes only nibbled it. Then I changed to a piece of white maggot and almost immediately caught my first ever Brook stickleback. Yes, mission accomplished!

I caught couple of them more, Jarno caught two and finally also Viljami caught his first and only one. This was great stop on the way to Helsinki. Everybody has caught so called lifepoint. But now it was time to move on. All the species of Helsinki were waiting for us already.

My first ever Culaea inconstans.

By the time we finally got to the Round goby hot spot, our friend Vesa was already fishing there. He had caught about ten gobys yet. So, baits to the sea, gobys were waiting for us. It didn’t took too long when we all had caught us few gobys. We spend couple of hours there, caught lot of Round gobys, few Perch and Roach. We even caught few Sea trout juveniles.

The Round goby. They have been suffused all over Helsinki already.

Juvenile Sea trout (Salmo trutta trutta). As I had said before, species is a species.

 Next stop was a tiny pond in the middle of the Helsinki which has a good population of Belicas and Prussian carps. Jarno and Vesa focused on Belicas while Viljami and I were trying for Prussians. I barely got my float to the water when it was already going down. It took about 30 seconds to catch my first Prussian carp of the year. Viljami got his first ever in few minutes too.

Vesa, Viljami and Jarno on the action.

 About half an hour was enough there.  Clock was ticking and we had few places left to visit. Next we headed to one of the many islands of Helsinki. From there we tried to find one mysterious fish called Dace. I had an strong opinion that Dace don’t live in the coast (although all the identification books says so). But I was wrong and that was not the first time. In twenty minutes Vesa caught a fish that was not Roach, not Bleak, not small Ide. No, it was in indeed a Dace! Our schedules were stretching when we tried to catch more of them. But no, that was the only one we saw this time. So, forward said granny in the snow.

That was the point where we said goodbye to Vesa. After that we spend at least half an hour extra in the traffic jams at Helsinki. It was about five thirty in the afternoon when we finally arrived to our next destination. This small pond (very, very secret one) has a huge population of small Tench and Crucian carp. We spend about twenty minutes there. I caught 20 small Tench, but we didn’t even see anything else. It was maybe because we used maggots as a bait, sweetcorn would be better for the slightly bigger Crucians.

Tench of all eight centimetres.

 It was time to our last destination of the day. It was another pond and it was situated in the middle of the woods. The target here was another non indigenous species in Finland. The Brown bullhead. Vesa had told us that this is quite sure place to catch one but I was still amazed as my float started to move seconds after it hit the water. And there it was, small, spiny and whiskery fish, Ameiurus nebulosus. After all we caught quite a many of them too. And Viljami finally got his Crucian carp from here as well.

My species number 29 of the year, Brown bullhead.

Then we hit the road again, at last we were heading back home. About 500 kilometers and sixteen and half hours later we called it as a day. But it was all worth it. I caught six new species for the year from which the Brook stickleback was a totally new for me. So my year count is on 29 now and my total species count is on 112. Viljami caught five life points today and Jarno had his one too.

Great trip with even better company. Thanks to Viljami, Jarno and Vesa again.