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.

Awesome find from my friends

About an week ago I got an SMS with a picture of Ninespine Stickleback. Half an hour later came another message with a picture of Belica. I answered to it and asked what the hell are you doing at Helsinki (There has been so far the one and only place to hit Belicas). And back came another SMS where they said that they are right at the neighbourhood.

Of course I didn’t swallow that so easily. The day after I saw them and of course I tried to question the place from them. And of course they did NOT tell it to me. However, somehow I managed to conclude where they have been.

I also had a totally harmless fishing buddy, The Grass snake (Natrix natrix).

Soon after that I was on my way to one little pond in the southwesterly Finland. When I finally found that pond it took only couple of minutes to hit my first Ninespine stickleback of the year. And about five minutes later I was holding a small silvery fish on my hand. It had a very short lateral line so there was no other options. It just had to be Belica!

Ninespine stickleback (Pungitius pungitius)

Belica (Leucaspius delineatus)

Yesterday I talked to my friend and they had have confirmation from a fish biologist, they truly were Belicas.

So couple of new species to add to my yearly list. Actually I had another short trip to another little pond couple of days ago. From there I managed to find few small Crucian carp. So my count is on 22 now.

Species is a species, even the smallest specimen will count.