Spawning is here

Hi guys,

New week and a new report to share with you guys! Not much time spent on water last few days to be honest but at least a short afternoon session yesterday. Since I only had a few hours to fish I decided to stay close to Dragsö and its surrounding bays. Several guests reported about slow fishing last few days with few decent pikes and rather low numbers for being Karlskrona. With these facts in mind, I didn't set my expectations to high.

First drift resulted in 3 strikes where only one small cucumber decided to stay on the hooks. Went for a new drift in the same area and soon a 91cm fish was caught. Nice! It was a good fight as well so great fun so far. I continued on drifting in a big bay over 1,5-2m of water with strikes regularly on my Mc Rubbers from Svartzonker. I was surprised to see no other boats around on a Sunday in this area but just minutes later another boat showed up a few hundred meters away. When I moved my eyes to the other boat insted of my line, a good strike almost pulled the rod out of my hands (well at least it felt like it). The fish started to swim towards my boat so I needed to reel fast to not lose this fish.

Soon enough she stopped by the boat and started to pull out line instead and forced her way to the bottom which always is a nice sign! The fish wasn't as big as she felt, but just under the meter and for sure still a good fish! What I didn't see at first was the fact that this lady dropped many eggs in the boat. A better sign of spawning can't be seen. But, for those of you who will fish our waters upcoming couple of weeks, pikes can still be caught of course. Not all pikes are spawning at the same time and water is still from 3,5-7 degrees - pikes ready to eat will be possible to catch for sure!

Anyway, I felt satisfied and quitted fishing with 7 pikes caught and as many lost ones. Another report will be posted later on with guest pictures from Andy (Sportfishing Dalsland) who visited us during this weekend with some friends. Their top fish measured 97cm and he also reported about some great fun out there. Thank you for your visit!

Easter is coming up and at least 11 boats will be out during the end of this week. More reports to follow :)

// Daniel Wickman
   2015-03-30

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Mouse in the house

Some of you guys might already know it by now but a few days ago we received a big load of MOUSE spin/jerk fly lures. Personally I'm very impressed with this lure and have been so for several years now. Skilled angler Tony created these pike candy flies many years ago and tied them by hand which in the beginning took several hours for each fly.

I started to fish with these creations about 3 years ago and many of you guests that have been joining on guided tours have seen me used these lures with success. Finally MOUSE is available on the big market as well and we are the first shop in Sweden to sell these. 6 colours is available and in two different sizes. 22cm is the regular model and for those who believe in bigger lures we also have a 30cm available.

In my opinion this lure is a must have for fishing in Blekinge archipelago (and for many other waters). Easy to cast and good quality "fly" since they are hand made! MOUSE have a very specific action and can be fished very shallow or used at greater depths if you add a small weight on your swivel.

MOUSE 22 cm - Approx weight when wet is 50 grams
MOUSE 30 cm - Approx weight when wet is 70 grams

Watch following video to see the fantastic action that pikes cannot refuse!

// Daniel Wickman
   2015-03-25

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Another monster pike!

Hi guys,

Another weekend has been passing by and our first guests have now left Camp Dragsö for this time. Since we only had one group here this weekend both me and trainee Jakob took the chance to fish both Saturday and Sunday. Conditions didn't look to good to be honest. Saturday was very windy from north with +1 degree in the air and snow/rain was cooperating to pour down on us. In think wind measured up to 17m/s in squalls so it was tough fishing for sure and we gave up already after 4-5 hours. We managed to catch 20 pikes in shallow water of 0,4-2,0m and our top fish measured 92cm.

Sunday and conditions totally changed overnight. Wind direction had turned and was straight south by lunch time when we left Dragsö for some afternoon fishing session. Water level went down from being +25cm to -45cm in less than 24 hours which forced fish to move a bit outside the really shallow bays. Water temperature was also dropping from 5.0 - 6.5 degrees down to 2,5 - 4,5. This didn't matter for us, for sure!

I choosed a big bay with variating depths and drifted to see where the pikes seemed to be at the moment. It didn't take long until the first pike showed up and inhaled my Svartzonker McRubber. We found the key of the day and about an hour later I got a good strike over 3m of depth. The fish didn't fight good at first but soon enough started to pull line and stayed by the bottom. Jakob secured the beautiful lady in the net but it took us some time to realize that the fish might be over +10kgs. When I lifted her I said to Jakob that "Yes! This is a 10 kilo pike!". After some photos and measurements we summed up a 113cm pike with a weight of 11,3 kilos. Happy times!!

We continued on and caught pikes on almost every drift. Late afternoon I felt a good strike on great distance and immediately told Jakob "This is a good fish!". Directly this fish started to swim towards the boat and didn't stop until she just had a few meters left of line. With lots of energy left, she started to go crazy around the boat but soon enough this beauty was secured by Jakob in the net. This fish wasn't as fat as the previous monster so I decided to not weigh the fish. She measured 108cm though so for sure another good sized fish!

We ended up catching around 15 pikes and several more around 80-90cm so with conditions in mind this was a very good fishing trip! We caught fish on McRubber, McTail, Wolf Tail Jr & Mouse spinn fly during these days.

I receive a lot of questions at the moment regarding spawning. In my opinion spawning has not started yet. Maybe in a few places but so far I have seen no signs of spawning and water temp is not enough to break lose the sexy time yet.

Upcoming weekend we will be hosted by several skilled anglers from up north when Andy and his friends from Dalsland will go down south for some pike action. Hopefully fishing will be contiuously good!

// Daniel Wickman
   2015-03-24

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Monsters and a little this with a little that

Hi fellow readers,

A new week is here and it's actually our opening week! On Thursday we will unlock our doors and welcome our first guests of the year. Fishing is still very good both in numbers and sizes. More and more boats are seen out on the waters for every weekend that passes by and more boats there will be! At the moment we are now having 20 boats in our fleet and several of our most popular weekends in April and May are fully booked.

Well enough about that! What else is happening at the moment? A lot of building is going on at Camp Dragsö since 5 new cabin suites are in process to be done in less than 3 months from now. Much work behind the scene with the boats to make them ready for upcoming season and any day now we will start to mount new Lowrance chart plotters on our boats.

Today we also said hello to a trainee from Swedish Sportfishing academy, Jakob, who will be around for a month so for you who have a scheduled visit to us shortly, don't hesitate to say hi to him!

I also have a catch report to share with you guys! Went out yesterday for a long trip. Of course I was out to track down a beauty, preferentially a fat one. My bag was prepared with coffee and other essential complements to make a full day out there on my own. Fishing started out rather slow in the N/NE winds but soon enough some small cucumbers started to bite. After about an hour I got a lazy strike on my Mcrubber in a spinning stop. I saw the fish when she striked about 10m from the boat and immediately understood that it was a better sized fish even though she didn't act like one in the beginning. Soon enough she was secured in the net and ready for some quick photos and measurement. Length was set to 96cm and with a belly ready for spawning very soon.

I continued on and caught a few pikes here and there. After lunch I got my next chance to catch a B I G fish. I tried to go a bit deeper and moved outside the bays to go for 3m of depth. Just a few casts and a massive fish showed up behind my lure from far distance. I fished my McRubber just 30cm from the surface and the fish continued to follow my lure from about 7-10m distance to my boat. The closer this monster came the more frustrated I got. Goose bumps appeared on my whole body while I estimated the fish to be at least +115cm and with a super wide back like a bull! She followed all the way to the boat just to disapear to deeper waters when she realized that something wasn't correct with her potential piece of lunch. God Damnit!!

Continued on after a long time casting for the monster without success and managed to catch a few decent pikes. When my day was over I could sum up 17 pikes with top fish of 96, 93 and 88cm. A lot of fun but it really sucks to get defeated by a Karlskrona monster... Next time, Ms. Pike!

// Daniel Wickman
   2015-03-16

 

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Another fishy weekend

Hi guys!

Back at work after a nice weekend without any working duties. Of course days off means time on water and this weekend was no exception. Saturday I went out together with my friend Ola for a whole day out in the beautiful archipelago. Very windy and cloudy all day but pikes didn't bother. We tried several bays from 0,4-2,5m and most places delivered throughout the day.

In a few hours time I managed to rush in the lead to 8-3 in amounts with McRubber and Mouse spinning fly as most successful lures. Ola continued on with Söderjiggen and Wolftail Jr in tånglake (eelpout) colour with variating results. It didn't take to long until he was back in numbers and after lunch score was equalized, 11-11. One of Ola's pikes was a beauty of 96cm.

Late in the afternoon we drifted in a bay where I've caught big fish previous years. Conditions looked good and I had a big strike immediately but without setting the hooks. Therefore I dropped in our achor to make some more casts but this didn't deliver anything so soon we were drifting again. Just a few minutes later my McRubber was brutally attacked by something big in the surface. A massive head and open mouth was the only thing I saw before my rod bended like never before and I shouted to Ola "10 KILO PLUS! 10 KILO PLUS! GET THE NET!"

The fish was fighting good but very soon I managed to see the fish properly and got a bit disappointed. This was for sure an old lady with her better days in the past. Huge head but thin back and body. Soon she was secured in the net and my McRubber was totally inhaled. 22cm lure but nothing visible from the outside as you can see on the picture below. She measured 105cm and after some quick photos she swam back to her home.

This fish was remarkably similar to a fish that former trainee Anton caught at our camp about 2,5 years ago. The pike he caught measured around 95cm and was caught about 3km east of where I caught my fish. Probably not the same pike, but still funny! See pictures below.

And by the way, we caught 25 pikes in total with score 14-11 on my behalf...

Season is approaching fast and soon we will host our first guests for the season. Excited!

// Daniel Wickman
   2015-03-09   

                                                                    Ola and his 96cm pike

Strange colours.. Pike swam to Chernobyl?

105 cm of love

Anton with same coloured pike, 95cm, 2,5 years ago

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We open up 19th of Mars!

As the headline says, we have now decided to open up our camp a bit earlier than previous years. Normally we would open our camp at April 2nd but we have now changed this to a new date, Mars 19th. This means we will be open for fishing packages two weeks earlier than estimated and we have already now received bookings for the first opening weekend!

Fishing is continuously very good even though the weather has started to make things a bit more difficult. One day wind is super strong and this makes most bays very murky, just to change to be almost no wind and sunny the next day. So far nice fish continues to be reported and 10kg+ pikes seems to be caught every week. Went out for a half day trip on Saturday with my girlfriend and once again a nice fish was caught. Weight scale showed 8,5kgs and just over the meter in length (picture). A beauty!

Tried Sunday as well but winds came in strong which forced me to stay in the surrounding area. Most places was affected by the wind and murky waters wasn't to good for pikes this day. Only 4 small cucumbers in 2 hours before rain/snow started to drop down in excess. I decided to end up the day after realizing that my fingers was to frozen to feel anything anymore.

Even though we're closed this doesn't mean we have nothing to do. It's actually the opposite. Many booking inquiries every day and boats to be prepared for fishing season.

Stay well mates and more posts to come soon!

// Daniel Wickman
   2015-03-02

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