Another season has come to an end and we are now planning for next season already. As usual I will hearby give you a summary of this season both in text and pictures. During the last nine months we've had the honor to host fishing guests from no less than 16 different countries. If I remember right, the list of represented countries is long, but I'll give it a try to write them all! Most anglers are coming from Sweden, Holland, Poland and Denmark, but the list is way much longer. Germany, Finland, Czech Republic, France, Latvia, Belgium, Russia, Slovakia, Hungary, USA, Austria and Romania. Sorry if I forgot any, I'll make it up to you in next years summary then! :)
Many first time visitors has been seen at camp Dragsö this season while even more of our guests has returned for yet another fishing experience in Karlskrona area. I will get back to the results later on, but overall I experience that many anglers left us this year with the opinion that size was better this year and sometimes even amounts.
We had a record early opening this year since winter was warm and no ice covered Borgmästarefjärden in the first months of this year. A few years ago we wasn't able to launch any boats until mid April but this year we had several boats ready from mid February. Our official opening was rescheduled to mid March instead of beginning of April thanks to this situation. A few groups took their chance to experience early pre spawn fishing with a few of them leaving with excellent results. Local anglers managed to catch more than 80 pikes/boat and day several times and every weekend pikes above the magic 10 kilo mark was caught.
Our guests wasn't the only ones to succeed in the early months. Me personally experienced excellent pre spawn fishing, especially when it comes to sizes. Many +90cm and several +100cm as well with my top fish measuring 113cm and 11,35 kilos. Not to forget the stunning pike caught by summer coworker Willy in mid February. 114 centimeters and fat as a pig, weighing more than 14 kilos! Guess if I'm looking forward to next spring? I can really recommend to try late February - March next year if ice is gone. Our boats will be ready as soon as possible next season!
After a warm winter, water temp increased quickly and this made pikes ready for spawn in the middle of March already. Normally I would say that most pikes spawn within a three week long period but this year we caught pikes with eggs more than six weeks after first reported spawn signs. This might have been for several reasons such as north winds and the fact that pikes started their spawning earlier than normal. Spawning always affects the results in fishing but actually nice pikes and numbers was reported throughout spring season, even though some days as always offer poor fishing. But that's what fishing is all about. Some days are good, some days not so good. Conditions change and so do fishing results as well.
April & May was as always busy times for us with many guests visiting us and five new cabins being built. Since we were more or less fully booked during several weekends, we also decided to purchase two new Master500 boats with 40hp engines. It didn't take long until these also were booked so today we can proudly offer 20 high quality aluminium boats with 4-stroke engines.
Personally, I experienced good fishing during most fishing sessions in late April and whole May. Many pikes between 90-108cm and nice numbers several times as well. New staff member Jakob followed me several times and did a good job netting my pikes! ;)
Local anglers also caught nice pikes during this period. One boat managed to catch six pikes over +100cm mark in one day just to mention one example. Fishing day of any anglers dream!
In mid May we once again hosted French group in Krolik company. Some of you might remember that these guys always catch good numbers and this year was no exception. In six days of fishing the nine lads managed to catch a total of 1131 pikes and a few of these pasing the +100cm mark. Other guests also caught good numbers and maybe most interesting, several pikes over +110cm was reported.
We also hosted returning guest Yannik from Belgium. They started their stay in the end of May with several days of very hard winds, and by that hard fishing conditions. The end of their week long stay for sure outweighed the start since they managed to catch more than 50 pikes over +80cm and four of these more than +100cm. Maybe the best May period during my five years at Dragsö. Hopefully next year can top this years results!
As always fishing activity goes down in our summer period so June to middle of August is not a time when we specialize our business for fishing. Most cabins etc are rented out for week long visits or longer to holidaymakers but for sure some fishing is made. Actually this is a rather exciting period with very strong pikes and warm weather (well, at least 20 degrees) makes fishing sessions pleasant.
Every week during summer we arrange pike safaris which you can read summarys from in the blog archive. Nice to go out with mainly beginners and share the passion that we so much enjoy. In total 224 guests participated over this summers seven pike safaris.
In the end of August we officially started autumn season and immediately with good results. First half day guided trip resulted in 20 pikes and days later I went out with a friend with continuously good results. 47 pikes in the boat over a little less than two days with a few pikes around the meter margin as well.
Just a couple of weeks later we started to see many anglers coming to Dragsö. September is always a popular month for fishing and this year wasn't an exception. Luc Lemestre came back in the middle of September and they managed to catch monsters during their stay. One day when I was working he shouted "Daniel! Big fish!" from their veranda. When I started to talk to him I understood why he was so happy. Earlier that morning he managed to catch a beauty of 116 centimeters close from camp Dragsö. Impressive fish!
Many guided tours were on my schedule in September and several of these tours resulted in multiple nice pikes between 90-109cm. In just three tours in middle of September we managed to catch following streak: 109, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 92 & 92cm. Nice times!
To sum September up, overall results were good but with approx 200 anglers visiting during this month of course not everyone succeed. Some days boats vary between just a handful pikes up to 20 pikes/boat and day, while other days results could vary between 10-50 pikes/boat and day. It's also very clear that guests that have been fishing in our area before fish better than first timers but that's not so surprising. Therefore, I always recommend to go for a guided tour especially the first time you plan to visit us, to receive important knowledge of how, where and when to fish.
In the end of September we also worked together with Stinger Productions to create a video about our camp. During two long days we worked hard to get all material needed and the result was totally worth it! You can watch it here:
Camp Dragsö Sportfishing presentation
October was a very busy month this year since a lot of competitions was arranged. The first weekend of October is traditional since Blekinge Pike Festival is arranged. More than 300 competitors starts from our camp and all cabins/boats are booked each year. Fishing wasn't to much to cheer for this weekend and in our boat we fought hard to finally reach 20 pikes over two days. My biggest fish measured 97cm and showed up to be enough for a 16th place out of approx 600 competitors. In total the longest pike during these days measured 106cm.
Furthermore, I would say that October didn't give as good results as normal. For sure some days were better than others but in general results was poor. I'm not completely sure why but one reason could be that water level kept on changing dramatically and for many times, One day negative -50cm, the next day back to normal and just a few days later going down to negative -65cm. Never good in shallow fishing areas since pikes are moving when their home grounds changes so much.
But, It's not to be forgotten that some anglers really found the right spots during October. Massive pikes of 121, 120 and 119 centimeters was reported in the middle of October by local anglers and such big fish wasn't reported during any other months this season as far as I know.
In the end of October the big final of Sportfish Masters was arranged in Karlskrona with 130 fishing teams competing to win. Very hard conditions with no wind for half day and variating water level but in the end several teams did very good. Team Mouse Fishing ended up with very impressive 509cm on their top 5 longest pikes. Crazy number for such "poor conditions". Karlskrona archipelago really delivers and we are very pleased with this interest of course!
November was our last official opening month of this season for fishing guests and it couldn't start any better. Frequenter guest Jakob came back for a couple of days fishing and even if the amounts wasn't great, he caught a big beauty of 113cm and over 11 kilos. This lady was caught on a always working McRubber in motoroil colour.
Overall November is a rather quite month for us with less fishing pressure so we brought half of our boat fleet up for maintenance, one by one. Lots of hours are spent on changing parts, painting etc to make our boats look nice and ready for upcoming season.
Well I believe this is the end of this years summary and I hope you enjoyed reading. I want to say a big thank you to all of our readers and guests that has been visiting us during season and also wish to see you back next season! It's been a very funny season and I'm already very eager to start next season. There will most probably be a few more reports during December before I go on my holiday. A five week vacation mainly in Asia is on my schedule and will be back at Dragsö in mid February.
Thank you once again and have a fishy winter!
// Daniel Wickman
2015-11-27
