Late June update

June is soon to its end and not much activity when it comes to fishing business. Last weekend we celebrated Swedish midsummer and for once we enjoyed very nice weather. Warm and sunny with barely no clouds in the sky. As always our camp was full both when it comes to cabins and camping pitches. Me myself have spend only a few days on the water lately. Not really any big ones, but some days with OK numbers. During the last two trips I've caught about 15 pikes in total with one fish over +90cm.

Water temperature went up fast in June. We are now having about 20 degrees in most areas, even in the outer archipelago, which is about 3-4 degrees warmer than the same period last year. You can also see this when it comes to sea grass growth. Some areas is already getting difficult to fish at if you don't fish weedless hook setup.

The day before yesterday I went out together with summer co-worker Nick who more or less never had been fishing before. After a few hours in low wind and sparkling sun, we managed to catch eight pikes. Nick caught his first three pikes in his life and you can tell of the picture below that he was happy about it!

At the moment we are having all the boats cleaned from barnacles which takes some time. Tomorrow we will arrange this summers first pike safari and as it looks now it's going to be good conditions. Normally, most posts here in the blog is written in English but this summer we will write the pike safari summarys in Swedish. Mainly because most guests that joins during these trips are Swedes. But as always the other posts, like this one, will continuously be in English.

I hope you all have a nice summer so far and to be back soon again with new reports!

// Daniel Wickman
   2016-06-29

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June is rock 'n' roll!

Hi guys!

Finally we've got some fishing friendly weather and what happens? Well the pikes are willing to dance and the last few days has been great. Extremely strong pikes, many bites and a few big ones to.

The day before yesterday I went out with Philip from Stinger Productions and we mainly focused on the outer part of the archipelago but also around the islands just south of Karlskrona City. We managed to catch 11 pikes with the top fish measuring 104cm. And Philip, remember now that I wrote we ;) This fish was caught on a Beastly tail 23 from Renz-Stein lures and she went totally crazy. The whole fish went up in the air, danced for a bit and showed her inner anger about being caught by me. At first we actually thought this fish was more like a good +90cm fish but we were very wrong since she measured well over the meter margin. Nice!

Yesterday I went out on my own for a half day trip. Cloudy and rather strong winds from east. First cast gave me an 86cm pike and just the next cast an even bigger fish of 93cm decided to bite. Fishing continued to be good and a well conditioned fish of 99cm was caught just an hour later. Actually, I caught 11 pikes within the first 90 minutes and only two of them was smaller than 80cm. Good average size and such power in all the fish at the moment. Even the small ones are fighting more than well!

Furthermore, I actually lost an even bigger fish that striked very close to the boat. Unfortunately, this fish only got her teeth on the tail and wasn't hooked.... Next time I guess!

When I drove back to Dragsö I was up to 17 pikes which is a very nice result for being in June, half day and alone in the boat. Good times! Now I'm really looking forward to the next session, probably after work fishing later on this week.

At the moment I'm mainly fishing with the Beastly Tail 23 which has becomed one of my favorite lures this year. We have four very hot colours of these available in our reception, including a custom Dragsö colour.

The good thing with this lure is that you can fish it really slow and shallow during the cold months, while some weight added makes this lure a killer in the summer. Rigged with only a shallow screw and one or two treble hooks, it's great in cold waters. Some prefer a single treble hook in the belly, while others like me prefers to use two smaller treble hooks. Sometimes the pikes are biting close to the tail, while sometimes they tend to strike close to the head so therefore I prefer to use two treble hooks. Most times the pike is just hooked in one of these treble hooks so in my opinion it's not really a problem with using two rather than one treble hook.

There are several ways how to add weight onto your rubber lures. Lately, I've been using Svartzonker screw in dots. These works perfectly and are easy to mount and change. You just screw them in like the shallow screws, and they give great balance to the lure if you mount them centrally. The good thing with these is that you can choose yourself if you want to have the weight close to the head (lure will sink head first, bottom bouncing style) or mount them further back in the lure, which in my opinion creates a more realistic movement when you do spin stops. Lure will sink more like in a horizontal line and the tail will do the work for you :-) Many strikes lately have comed when I stop reeling, and it doesn't surprise me because the tail looks super yummy when stop reeling and slowly sinking. Try it out!

// Daniel Wickman
   2016-06-14

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Spring season to its end

Hi guys,

As the headline says, the main spring season is now over and we're actually already in the second week of June. Literally, time is running away. Last weekend we had eight boats out during the Sportfish Masters qualification round. Right now we have a little bit of a calm period since fishing season is over and summer season is a few weeks away. As always, summer is the time of the year when all our cabins are booked weekly by "regular" camping guests that comes to celebrate their holidays. Every Thursday we arrange pike safari with start in the end of June. Always a very popular event and I guess this summer will be no exception.

I was thinking that it might be about time to write a little summary of the spring season. Actually, spring season started very early this year since ice was gone in the beginning of February. We had our first boats ready in the last days of February, and the first guests didn't wait long until they came for some cold but nice pike fishing.

Local anglers caught many nice pikes in February, but also in March. The first couple of weeks in March was a bit difficult though since some cold nights resulted in ice coming back in the shallow bays. With rather warm day temperatures, ice was most days gone before lunchtime anyway.

Some days offered very good numbers, several days with amounts up to 50 pikes in the boat. Good numbers spiced with some nice sized pikes made March a nice month for fishing this year. The most busy days we had about 50 anglers at the same time during March, but since we have 21 boats and 31 cabins, 50 anglers is not even close to be a full camp :)

With warm temperatures overall, spawning started in the very end of March but as always (Try to remember), not all pikes are spawning at the same time. Some boats found good areas even during this time with several fat +100cm pikes caught by our guests. But as always that time of the year is a lot about finding the right spots where the spawning process has not yet started.

Mid April offered very tough conditions this year. Wind was turning like a clock more or less every day and I think all guests that came in mid April to the end of May this year will agree if I say that numbers was a bit low but the amounts of followers was some days ridiculously high. This year I must say that we did see many big sized pikes either just sunbathing or following our lures. Many multiple time returning guests told be before they left this year that they have never seen this many big sized pikes like this year before.

From the end of April and onwards we had up to 70 fishing guests at the same time. Busy days and especially this year since we were one man short on the fishing staff side this spring. About 15 guided trips was on my schedule during May so I had quite busy days with guiding, reparing boat propellers, handing in and out boats etc. Nice time but I must say that personally it's nice to have a little bit of a calmer period now.

I have already mentioned it in a previous post, but it's worth to tell again. A few weeks ago we bought another Master500 boat so our fleet is now up to 21 boats, 18 of them Master boats. It's for sure an impressive fleet but this last purchase will mainly be a reserve boat in case of any boats problems during high season of fishing.

During May three very big pikes was caught by camp Dragsö guests. Last year the biggest fish measured 116cm. This year, only in May, three even bigger pikes was caught. 119, 118 and 117cm was the biggest ladys and for sure that is some impressive pikes!

In a few days from now I will try my luck again on the water. Nice fish is still coming up so hopefully we can manage to trick a lady or two :)

During the summer period it will most likely be a little less posts here but keep an eye every now and then. If we have some reports to share, we won't be late with posting them.

Before I end this post I wanna recommend you all who consider coming this autumn to soon make up your mind. A few weekends in September starts to fill up so it's for sure about time to make a reservation to avoid disappointment.

Take care!

// Daniel Wickman
   2016-06-07

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Monster pike!

Finally! Yes! Amazing! I'm speechless. Two days ago I went out together with Philip for some pike fishing in the sun. About 23 degrees, only sun and very strong north winds made our expectations low for the day. Fortunately, we was proven else since a huge fish was landed in less than ten minutes on our first stop. I'll take it from the beginning.

Last week I had several guided trips. Most of them successful. Friday gave 23 pikes in a four hour trip with first time Swedish visitors. Saturday I was visited by Mattias and his son Isak for their third guided trip with me. During their previous guided trip with me we managed to catch a nice 109cm pike and I knew that we would need a little bit luck to beat that fish this time.

It didn't take long until the first fish was landed and only an hour later we had a very nice double strike. At first, I thought that Mattias was hooked into a stone but soon enough the "stone" started to move and we realized that this was a very good fish! First we landed Isaks fish in the net and maybe five minutes later, after a hard fight, Mattias great pike was also secured in the net.

This lady measured 105cm and was 8,8 kilos. A great fish in great condition! Happy times in the boat. We ended the day with 20 pikes in total but we also had a massive follower twice at our very last stop. First this fish followed Mattias lure and I immediately saw that this fish was at least +10kg. About five minutes later this fish followed my lure also and I noticed that this fish had a small wound in the top of its head. Amazing to see this big fish but we headed back happy with the stunning 105cm fish from the morning in our memories.

I was off work two days ago and this is where to continue the story. Since we had the big follower a couple of days earlier, I decided to go back with Philip to the same area and see if we could catch some nice fish at the same spot. Actually, I was joking with Philip and told him "Let's go out and catch that big motherf*cker!". It sounds a bit to good to be true, but that's exactly what we did. In the second cast, Philip caught a nice fish over 80cm. Just the next cast after that, he once again got a massive strike. This fish was big, for sure! I told him "Maybe it is the same fish?!?"

A scary minute later the fish was secured in the net and we enjoyed total happiness. This fish was HUGE! But how big could it be? Well, we measured the fish to be impressive 118cm long and weighed 12,51 kilos. A new personal best for Philip and also the biggest fish I have netted here in Karlskrona. The fish was caught on a Beastly tail 23 from Renz-Stein lures.

We continued fishing and within the first hour we landed several more fish around 80-90cm. Not really what we had expected with the conditions given but that's also what so great with fishing. Like the good man Forest Gump once said, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get".

// Daniel Wickman
   2016-06-01

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