Pikesafari #5 2014

Hi pike enthusiasts,

Another week has been passing by since I last wrote and this means it's time for a new pike safari summary. Yesterday we arranged this years fifth safari out of seven. For sure the warmest safari so far with approx 30 degrees in air and 22+ in water. Maybe not the best conditions for pike fishing but for sure a pleasure to be out there!

We were fully booked once again and actually more than fully booked after a minor reservation failure. So this time we went out with 11 boats and 41 anglers this beautiful evening. As our first stop we stayed at islands Ivö, Utö, Ekeskär and south Tromtö. In my boat today I had guests from Denmark. Our first stop was successful and we caught 4 pikes quickly even though no pikes measured good numbers.

Continuously we moved on to Smörpundsholmarna, also called "Dangerous islands" by our guests, as our second stop of this safari. I experienced fishing to be really hard since a lot of vegetation was present at this place. All the grass and other seaweed made it very hard to make casts and fish properly.

We stayed for about 50 minutes and then gathered up to go back. A little delayed we summed up the results and happenings of this safari. A total of 30 pikes was caught and at first we thought that longest pike was going to be 83cm but it showed up that one even longer fish of 95cm was caught, photographed and released. Even more fun when winner was a young girl accompanied with her dad. Fish was caught just about 15 minutes before the end.

Another successful pike safari is to its end and we already have 3 boats booked for next week. Hopefully there will be some reports of my private fishing and results before next safari summary!

Take care and thank you for reading!

// Daniel Wickman
   2014-07-25

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Pikesafari #4 2014

Hi fellow readers,

We're in the middle of Swedish summer now and our camping is very busy. Of course fully booked camping and so even the pike safari. Unfortunately we had to say no to several guests since all spots were taken a few days before the safari.

With sunny weather, 24 degrees in the air and comfortable winds of 4-7m/s from south-west. These conditions gave me and David some great opportunities to choose fishing locations. Since the outer part of archipelago has been delivering decent sized fish lately we decided to go to Hasslö as our first stop yesterday.

It wasn't just a regular pike safari yesterday and this for a very special occation. Ingvar and Marie-Louise who follows everytime made their individual 100th pike safari and I had the honour to go with them yesterday. They've been attending pike safaris since year 2000 so this is their 14th year to join! Local journalists were also interested about this fact so they went here yesterday to make an article.

Anyway, at the first stop I told my guests "So one cast, one fish right?" and this showed up to be correct. No more than 2 seconds later I hooked a decent fish that measured 81cm. Most pikes was fighting really well and the first one was no exception.

We caught 5 pikes at the first place in my boat before we gathered up and went to Kobebus just south of the city. At this place we continued to catch fish and ended up with 8 caught pikes plus a bonus perch of good size.

Back at Dragsö we could sum up a total of 28 pikes and actually the first pike caught in my boat of 81cm showed up to be the longest of the day. This gave special anniversary guests Ingvar and Marie-Louise another pair of winner caps! They have now won 12 times out of 100 safaris.

Will be back in one week with another pike safari summary!

The last picture is a pike that I caught earlier this week and measured around 107cm. Beautiful isn't she?!

// Daniel Wickman
   2014-07-18

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We extend fishing season!

We've got some great news to share with you guys! Normally we're closing one week after Blekinge Pike festival which means around mid October. Last week we decided to change our opening dates since I'm from now on going to work not only seasonal but all year around.

Therefore, we are now open until 30th of November 2014 but with one exception. Since temperatures are going down in October/November we will only offer Exclusive and Luxury fishing packages after 12th of October 2014. This is due to several reasons. One is that these cabins have better heating and more comfortable living during cold months. The other thing is that our close to cabin servicehouses with showers/toilets are closing down in mid October.

We are already receiving reservations for late October so if you plan to go fishing in Blekinge this autumn we now offer extended opening and by that also another type of fishing since late year fishing is set a lot to bay fishing!

Except for this fact we have now also bought ourselves one new boat. This is a Master410 that we will equip with a Yamaha 25hp engine. Nice and smooth boat for 2 persons in my opinion.

Since I will be working all year around now we will also offer guided fishing trips all season and also put in the boats next year as soon as ice disappear. Great news right?! We are excited and looking forward to a longer fishing season and finally some real autumn/early winter fishing.

Please do not hesitate to contact us via phone +46(0)455-15354 or mail at info@dragso.se for reservations.

// Daniel Wickman
   2014-07-12

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Pikesafari #3 2014

Hi!

Another weekend is approaching and yesterday it was once again time for another pike safari. With a full campsite more guests were following this time. 9 boats and 35 anglers in total to be more precise.

Yesterday we had strong winds from N-NE which made our plans a bit more complicated than usual. About 9m/s in average and up to 14m/s in squalls. Since we got quite limited in possible areas to go to, we decided to stay close to the coastline. First stop of the evening was Tvegölja just south of Verkö. At this place no boats did really well with best boat catch no more than 2 pikes.

After a little more than one hour we continued just a bit west to Mjölnareholmen/Kalsholmen and those islands which are located very close the the city. With hard winds pushing in fishing was quite hard to be honest. In my boat 2 young lads and their dad followed for their second time. Within the last 20 minutes we increased our numbers from only 2 pikes to 5 and also a few more strikes missed. Our biggest measured 79cm and 75cm. Fun thing is that most pikes was caught on different lures. A few on Mctail with bigtail (40cm), classic Hi-Lo wobbler and spoons.

Just before 9pm we went back to Dragsö to sum up. Results were variating but a total of 22 pikes was caught overall. Obviously winner pike measured 1 centimeter longer than the 79cm pike thas was caught in my boat so 80cm was top fish of the night.

Now I really hope that weather gods can give us decent forecast for next week so that we can enjoy fishing in more comfortable conditions. We shouldn't complain about or ride back to Dragsö though which gave us a beutiful sunset!

// Daniel Wickman
   2014-07-11

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Pikesafari #2 2014

Hi to you all,

It's become time to post another pike safari summary since we earlier tonight completed our second safari of this season.

This evening 21 anglers joined in for some fishing. With really strong winds from S-SW my options of where to go was quite limited. Squalls up to 15m/s and a lot of beginners with poor boat experience in an archipelago like ours is not really making my options any better. Therefore, I decided to stay fairly close to the city.

First stop was just east of the city around the islands Basareholmen and Karlsholmen. In my boat I had a german guest and two young Swedish lads. First stop delivered 3 quick pikes with a top of 75cm but after that pikes just wasn't ready to dance. We tried several different lures and spots but nothing seemed to work.

After a little more than an hour we went inside the wind protected area between city and Dragsö called 'Borgmästarfjärden'. Just about one hour was spent here before we went back to Dragsö again to sum up the evening. We only managed to catch one more pike in my boat at last place but when we got back to Dragsö I was told about a 85cm caught during the very last minutes. This pike showed up to be the longest of this evening so Görgen and his friends was rewarded with nice pike safari winner caps!

Lastly, we can say that we all got ourselves good amounts of fresh air and water sprinkles during the evening! Not more than 9 pikes in total so we hope to break that by far next week!

// Daniel Wickman
    2014-07-03

 

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