November hunger?

For many swedes November is a dark month where nothing happens. It's dark when you raise up in morning, and it's dark when you get home after a day with working duties. It starts to get cold outside, leaves are falling of all the trees, leaving us with nothing but lazy evenings in our homes to avoid the cold winds outside. This is the truth for many these days. But this is not completely the reality for pike anglers.

November invites to great nature experiences. Our archipelago could be rough in autumn with lots of wind and cold ones as well. But the feeling of being almost by yourself out on the waters, surrounded by thousands of birds, colourful trees and empty bays is something else. If lucky, the pikes are willing to dance in very shallow waters and sometimes the really big samples show themselves on the best side as well.

As always time is running away just to fast and October is almost over by now. We are open one more month and interest is still high! As mentioned some months ago this is the first year we're open in November. We are so far having 11 more groups to come here upcoming weeks plus a few more requests.

Yesterday we received a good load of Svartzonker Mcrubbers! Finally we can offer what in my opinion is the best soft lures for pike fishing. 6 colours of McRubber and 6 of McRubber Jr is now available in the reception!

At the moment we are having just a few packages left in November. Are you in thoughts about going for some autumn fishing it's about time to make up your mind asap. The same when it comes to fishing in May 2015. Many requests and bookings done already!

// Daniel Wickman
   2014-10-29

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Yet another fishy weekend

November is approaching fast with barely a week left of October. Interest for pike fishing is still great and we are having 7 boats out this weekend plus a couple of guided trips. The groups that are here for the moment experience some hard weather conditions since wind squalls reaches up to 17m/s S/SE.

Last weekend a great fish of 115cm was caught during a fishing competition in town and I've heard reports about a few more pikes up to 110cm. The big mamas are out there but numbers starts to go down a bit from now. Hopefully our guests can find some of those mamas during their stay!

Next weekend we will be closed for fishing packages but after that we will host a dozen more fishing groups before closing down at November 30th. Autumn is a fantastic time to get close to the nature and experience pike fishing. I find it hard to beat when a pike is attacking your lure in really shallow waters. For sure some interesting weeks coming up with good chance to catch biggies.

We still have availability most weekends during the end of fishing season. It's also to be mentioned that interest for fishing in May 2015 is high and several weekend starts to be booked already. To avoid disappointment I therefore highly recommend to consider making a reservation as soon as possible if you want to experience post-spawn fishing in Karlskrona 2015.

And for those of you who are active on Instagram, we are to be found there as well! Just search for Dragsosportfishing and follow our activity!
 
Until next time, tight lines and cheers!


// Daniel Wickman
   2014-10-24

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Big pikes caught by our guests!

Just received a nice report with pictures from a Swedish group that visited us last weekend. They had good fishing and managed to catch several nice meter pikes. Kristoffer's biggest measured 108cm and pulled down the scale to 9,6kgs.

We're having 6 fishing groups here this weekend and upcoming weekend 8 more groups will visit us. Really fun with such interest in October fishing!

// Daniel Wickman
   2014-10-18

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Benefits with friends

Hi guys!

Mid week and I'm back to work after a couple of days off. Monday and Thuesday was spent on water with my friend Christian. We went out early mornings and back late afternoons just after sunset. With two full days out there I had some expectations about at least a few big pikes to be caught.

First day we tried several bays and had our best results in very shallow waters. By this I mean 0,3-1,0m. In these depths I find spinning flies to be the best option and so even this time. Together we caught a total of 27 pikes. 21 for me, and 6 for Christian. Poor weather conditions with low north winds, mostly raining and a bit low water level made it hard to fool any big ones.

Second day showed up to be better. First bay resulted in 16 pikes in a couple of hours. Mid day wasn't to good when we tried further out in the archipelago. In the afternoon we explored some new areas which gave results! Sometimes you need some help with opening your eyes for new areas. Areas that you might never thought about to be good for pike fishing but shows up to be. Christian asked me to drive to a place that he thought looked good on the sea chart and so we did.

At this area far out in the archipelago we caught many pikes and a few big ones. Biggest measured 99cm, we lost a 95+cm and ended up with a total of 52 pikes. Fun fishing at depths from 1,5-4m. Best working lures was Big Bandit, Big McRubber and McRubber. And yes, Christian got his revenge since score ended up 30 vs 22 caught for me...

Tomorrow we will have 5 new groups here at Camp Dragsö so hopefully they can have some fun moments during their days here. More reports to follow for sure!

// Daniel Wickman
   2014-10-15

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Busy camp with lots of fun!

Hi guys,

One week has now been passing by since Blekinge Pike Festival and we are once again having lots of anglers on site. At the moment 15 boats are out fishing and most of them on weekend basis Thursday-Sunday.

Yesterday we had great conditions for pike fishing and some nice pikes was caught by our guests. SW winds of 6-8m/s, mostly cloudy and average water level. Had a guided trip with some lads from Sweden yesterday afternoon and we caught some nice samples during the 4 hour trip. Two over 7kgs and some classic Karlskrona sized cucumbers of course. One of these pikes can be seen on the picture below.

Biggest sample so far this weekend caught by our guests pulled down the scale to 9,6kgs and 108cm. Excellent fish!

Most fishing now is set to all kind of bays. Everything from 0,2-2,0m is interesting with water temps from 12,5-15 degrees.

A couple of days ago we also received our first delivery of Svartzonker Sweden lures. I think many of you readers are familiar with their lures including famous tail bait McTail and soft bait McRubber in variating sizes. These lures will from now on be available for you guys in the reception to buy on site. In my opinion some of the best lures out there for pikes. Just google Svartzonker and you will find out that they catch plenty of fish and even the really big ones!

Monday and Thuesday I will be visited by a former class mate Christian. We studied together on the sportfishing academy so It will be a nice reunion and two full days on the water!

Take care and more reports to follow for sure!

// Daniel Wickman
   2014-10-11

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Time for a summary

As you might have seen, or should I say not seen, the activity here on the blog has been low during the weekend. It's been a busy one with more than 300 anglers starting from Camp Dragsö in this years episode of Blekinge Pike Festival. Overall, I have to say that it's been a great weekend even though our own results in the competition was poor.

Saturday morning we were all ready for the two day competition and ate our breakfast at Dragsö restaurant about 6:30AM. Fishing started 8:00AM and our plan was to fish in the west part of the archipelago. We tried bays, we tried the coastline of Tromtö/Hasslö, we tried islands. Nothing gave satisfying results. Me, Patrick, Andreas and Patrik caught a total of about 22 pikes on the first day. No fish measured above 80cm which was the minimum length for registration. Sure, conditions were really bad, but no fish above 80cm felt like a huge disappointment.

Day two started out as bad as first day. Strong sun, no wind to talk about and crystal clear waters. After a few hours wind started to create some minor water movement and by this pikes got a bit active. 25 pikes were caught in our boat but only one measuring just above 80cm and this was for sure not going to help in this years episode of Blekinge Pike Festival.

Just about an hour before the end, rumours started to spread around the anglers that a pike of remarkable 128 centimeters was caught in Karlshamn. Back on Dragsö, where officials of the competitions had their temporary office, these rumours were confirmed. The pike was judged to be 126 centimeters and of course voted to be the winner pike this year.

In total 15 pikes was caught above 100cm and with the 126cm sample in a clear win. closest fish behind in second place measured 108cm. Actually the winner Roy also caught a 102cm pike on the first day, which made him end up with a total of 228cm and by that also won the second competition day 1 + day 2 length price. In the second place, both in single length and day 1 + day 2 length, Nina Simon finished with two meter+ pikes. First day 108cm and second day 102cm. Really fun to see a girl end up with such a great result!

So this years episode is now over and we now look forward to a continuously nice autumn season. Upcoming weekend we await almost 40 anglers who will try to find a monster like the 126cm caught last weekend. We still have about 14 degrees in the water and air temperature around 14-16 degrees in daytime so it's for sure comfortable conditions, except for today since the wind is blowing yourself away with local squalls up to 19m/s.

So down below you will see some mixed pictures from this weekend and as usual also a picture of the winner pike!

// Daniel Wickman
   2014-10-07

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Coming up: BGF

Hi out there you fishing enthusiasts,

Thursday and within first days of October. At least I and many local anglers knows what this means. It's finally time for Blekinge Pike Festival!

Today about 20 anglers arrived and many more to come tomorrow. More than 300 anglers will start from camp Dragsö this year on saturday morning and we have very different weather conditions this time. Last year water level was negative 50 cm which made fishing really hard. It didn't really help out when having strong winds either.

This weekend it looks much better. South/South-east winds from 5-7 m/s in average and a bit cloudy (if they are right this time). If the calculations are right we will also have +/- 0 cm above average water level which for sure is nice both for fishing and boat driving.

It's for sure going to be an interesting weekend and of course we will participate as usual. I will be fishing together with former Dragsö Sportfishing guide Patrick, my boss Andreas and our friend Patrik. Second Dragsö guide David will be fishing in company with Jens from Jenzza Lures. So for those who want we will be posting some pictures and updates during the weekend as usual.

Competition price rules are a bit changed to this years episode. There are actually 3 ways to win in this years festival. As usual the longest fish overall will be the main winner of Blekinge Pike Festival. There is also a price for the longest fish caught on day one + day two. So the angler that will catch the longest total length from his/hers longest fish on saturday + saturday will also be a winner.

The third price and new for this year is the daily starting point prices. There are 5 starting points so each of the two days, the angler on each starting point who will catch the longest pike will be a winner.

More reports to follow during the weekend and for you guys who compete this year, please respect the rules of the competition and most important, respect each other out there.

// Daniel Wickman
   2014-10-02

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