30 smashed

Last Sunday I made an couple of hours trip to one small river that is normally full of Gudgeon mixed with some small Chub too. But this time I really struggled with both of them. I started with a bit bigger bait and focused to catch some Chub but didn’t have even one bite.

About an hour later I changed tactics. It was time for Gudgeon yet. I put on a small piece of worm and started to drift my bait in the bottom with the current. And what happened. Of course I caught a small Chub on the very first try and soon after that I caught another one. But still no Gudgeon. I had some bites still which were 100% Gudgeons so I knew they are there.

Chub (Leuciscus cephalus).

Old trick, chancing worm to a maggot made the trick and I finally managed to catch two tiny Gudgeons too.

The monster Gudgeon.

These were my species numbers 30 and 31. So forty, here I come.

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.

Quick session

Yesterday I had an short fishing session on the nearby lake of my parents in law. It gave me six species, Bream, Perch, Roach, Ruffe, White Bream and Rudd that was another new species for the year.

One of the most beautiful species in the Finnish waters. Rudd.

That was a nice view to the lake.

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.

Spinnerbait fever

I made my first Pike attack of the year with my friend Tomi about an week ago to the sea area nearby (for those who didn’t know we have brackish water at the northern Baltic Sea so Pike and many other freshwater fish species can live at the sea too).

We started with jerkbaits and Storm suspending jigs. Tomi caught one pike of about three and half kilos in few minutes and I had a bite soon after that. That was a fast start but it went dead for couple of hours after that.

Few hotspots later we pushed our boat in to the rushes and started to fish with spinnerbaits. It didn’t took too long to me have a first bite. I felt instantly that it was a decent  sized fish. After a short fight I lifted my species number 19 of the year in to the boat. A nice Northern Pike was weighing 6,3 kilos. On the next cast Tomi caught a smallish Pike too and then it was silence for couple of hours again.

My first Pike of the year.

 In the afternoon we found a short piece of reeds where the Pike were a bit more active. We caught altogether nine Pike all with spinnerbaits. Biggest I caught from there was a fish of about four and a half kilos.

 

Not a super but nice start for a Pike season in a nice weather and with a nice company.

Searching for Flounder

Waiting is on again....

About an week ago we made a whole day trip after Flounder with my friend Jarno. There's nothing to tell to posterity. We caught altogether seven small Whitefish and seven Perch.

My first Whitefish. A huge fish of about 100 grams.

There was also a unpleasant episode with the local fishermen. They came with their boat, saw us and our rods on the shore and dropped their gillnets right over our lines. And believe it or not this is still just normal behaviour in the archipelago of Turku.....

There's a gillnet buoy about 30 meters from the place I was sitting.

So, no Flounder this time. Hopefully I can make another trip before the fish are leaving those shallow waters.

Third time tells the truth

Back by the river again. This time it was completely different action. I caught Roach after Roach after Roach with my five meter whip rod. I also had my feeder rod (without feeder, only a rig with a sliding lead on my line) on action. I casted it little bit further almost in the middle of the river. I was hoping that there was some possibilities for bigger fish there. First there was only odd Roach and Ruffe eating my worms. About an hour had past when I stroked once again and felt something slightly heavier in the end of my line. And yes, there it finally was. A Vimba bream of bit under 300 grams. Soon after that I caught another one. Then it went back to Roach and Ruffe again.

Vimba bream or Zarte (Vimba vimba)

In some point I was thinking about leaving and going to another river on the way back home. Maybe I would have a chance to catch one Ide there. I had already packed my whip rod and almost everything else away when I saw an shy bite at my quivertip. I stroke and there was something bigger again. And yes, it was an Ide (Leuciscus idus).

So because I now had my Ide I decided to stay for a little longer in a hope of bigger Vimba. And somebody heard my wishes. Quite soon I caught another Vimba and it was decent size too. It was not an monster but weighed 456g (just about one pound) just eight grams under my PB. I caught one more Vimba before I left back to home. That was a one nice day.

 

After the Vimba bream, the Ide and a Bleak I caught on match fishing competition at Tuesday my year count is on 18 Finnish species now.