December is here and once again it's time to sum up a long season of fishing. We welcomed our first fishing guests in mid March, and said goodbye to the last ones only a few weeks ago, in the end of November. This year we were visited by guests from 15 different countries. Anglers came mainly from Sweden but also from Denmark, Germany, Poland, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, Latvia, France, Switzerland, Romania, Belgium, Hungary and Ukraine.
Personally, I went out for the first trip of the year in the end of February. I still remember that the first trip resulted in a nice 106cm pike, and was followed by a 103cm pike caught by my friend Philip in the next trip.
So far, so good. With that start our expectations went up to the sky. The beginning of March offered good fishing many days but the temperature was as always a bit tricky for us since new ice layers was created many of the days, especially in the mornings. I had friends visiting me in the second week of March and we enjoyed good fishing. One of the days resulted in 74 pikes caught, and the other days resulted in overall good numbers with a top fish of 103cm.
In the third week of March we opened our camp officially and all of our boats was in the water by that time. A little more than 30 anglers visited us during our opening weekend and a few of those groups did well, while others struggled to find active fish. A returning group caught more than 60 pikes on four anglers and five hours. Impressive! Another group that visited us for their first time caught a beautiful fish over 10 kilos in very shallow waters. Not a bad start to the season!
In the end of March fishing started to get a bit difficult. One day offered very good amounts and active fish, while the next day could be the complete opposite with almost no fish and barely any followers. A bit concerning to see that several of the surrounding bays was visually empty, no pikes to be seen.
However, big pikes continued to be caught for those who had patience enough to make a thousand of casts. Our colleague Willyboi caught a nice lady of 109cm (10,1 kgs) in the end of March, just before spawning process started for real. A couple more +10kgs pikes was caught in March by our guests.
The beginning of April resulted in a couple more fish above the magic +10kgs mark, with the biggest fish weighing more than +12kgs. However, many of our guests during this time of the year had very poor results. Not many areas delivered fish but those who found the magic spots was rewarded big time.
Normally, spring season offers good amounts of pike with the chance to catch a really big fish. This spring was for sure a bit different since not many boats caught good numbers, while more big fish than usual was reported. In average, at least one fish over 10kgs was caught every weekend by our guests.
Up until easter, weather and temperatures started to stabilize but after easter weekend, hell came back. Snowstorm, negative degrees in night time for almost a whole week and overall very unstable conditions. Water temperature dropped from being approx 14 degrees to about 3 - 4 degrees. Some pikes was already spawning by this time while many of them most probably got interupted and moved out of the bays before starting their process.
This fact, combined with several other factors, resulted in some very slow weeks in April. Not many anglers found the right spots, and several left us with dissappointing numbers. The start of May also resulted in slow fishing. Normally our guests can many days reach 20-30 pikes/day and boat during this time of the year but in the beginning of May this season, these numbers were down to 5-15 pikes per day.
As usual we were more or less fully booked every weekend in May. Many guided trips was on my schedule and these gave very variated results. Unfortunately, many of the bays close to Dragsö gave low numbers while the full day trips gave a bit better results when we were able to go further away from our camp.
Weather and temperature continued to be very unstable in the beginning of May. Some days we had hail and day temperatures between 0-5 degrees, while other days could offer us 10-13 degrees, which is more normal. Every weekend resulted in meter pikes caught by our guests, but since we had approx 40 anglers on site every weekend, results wasn't great. Even multiple time returning guests struggled to find size and numbers some of the weeks in May this year.
In the third week of May results started to get better for our guests. More meter pikes was reported and it felt like after spawn fishing was about to start for real. Air temperature was now up to 22 degrees several days and it seems like pikes liked it as much as we did. However, there were some days that still gave almost nothing while other days gave good results.
In general, spring season this year was strange. Numbers was overall lower in average, especially in areas close to Karlskrona City. On the other hand, there was definitely more big fish than usual caught by our guests this year in spring.
To be honest, most of the summer season offered rather slow fishing to, with a few exceptions. It was for sure a strange summer, with unusual low temperatures and quite unstable weather. It felt almost like the pikes got depressed. Some days the pikes wasn't to be found at all, while other days they were found in huge numbers in some areas. I remember a few days when we had two or three followers at the same time, multiple times in the same day. The problem is that these kind of days didn't come regularly.
Summer was as always flying by and soon enough autumn season started. Many groups with returning guests and a good mix of first time visitors was booked. In the end of August/beginning of September we had about 60 anglers on site. To be honest, I was a bit worried about how fishing was going to be since most of this year so far wasn't to good when it comes to results.
The first weeks in September started out OK with some quite good days. As always this time of the year, there was a lot of spaghetti weeds around the islands and outer part of the archipelago, forcing us to fish with weedless rigs or go to alternative areas. Numbers were getting better with many days offering ~20 pikes/boat and day. Our multiple time returning guest Lemestre with friends managed to catch over 80 pikes during their first day this September.
As always Blekinge Pike Festival was arranged in the beginning of October and this is the only competition where I compete annualy. This year I fished with Philip (Bläcksquid Inc) and Martin from Länsstyrelsen. We were lucky to find several pikes above +90cm and I caught a nice competition fish of 105cm. This fish, combined with a 97cm during day two, gave a total 4th place out of 490 anglers in the individual competition, and 1st place in combined Day 1 + Day 2 longest fish together which was 201cm. My colleague Willy did well to and ended up on a 39th place.
October overall was a good month when both sizes and numbers went up even more compared with September. Many guests enjoyed good fishing with strong pikes. Every weekend we had about 25-40 anglers on site. Most guided trips during this time resulted in 20-30 pikes/day, with at least a +90cm on many of the trips. Some days resulted in up to 70 pikes in a few boats. The only downside was that most of the really good results was reported in areas with at least 30min of boat driving from us.
November continued to be good and many of our guests left us with good memories. As always with fishing, there are days better than others so of course there was also days when our guests barely had a handful of pikes caught in a day.
My colleague Willyboi competed in the annual competition Karlskrona Pike Tournament with his team Karlskronafiske. If you ask anglers in Karlskrona, there is no other competition with more prestige than this one. His team did very well and ended up with a total of 474cm which gave them 1st place out of 50 teams by good margin. Willy also caught the biggest fish of the competition with his impressive catch of a 111cm (11,3kgs) pike!
The end of November was a calm period for us and we only had a few groups each weekend that tried their luck for their last time (?) of the year on open waters. Some of them had low amounts of pikes but there were days with reports from local anglers and competitions when results for sure was great! A newly started competition "Blekinge Pike Masters" was arranged 2nd of December where 15 teams competed, with starting point at Scandic in Karlskrona City. The result was totally amazing. The winning team ended up with a total of 532cm on their top 5 longest of the day. Biggest fish measured impressive 116cm and 14,05kgs, which for sure is one of the biggest pikes caught around in the area this year.
Unfortunately, our season ended very sadly. During the night to 1st of December, two of our boats was stolen and a third boat was hot-wired but without success for the thieves. The two boats that were stolen was found in the afternoon, dumped in the reeds on a surrounding island, without engines. It's a shame that there still is skunks living on steeling engines to sell on the black market....
Almost all of our boats is now brought up for maintenance and winter storage. All to be ready when eventual ice lets go in the end of February/March.
So, what is going on at Camp Dragsö at the moment? Well, we have some major construction going on with the camping pitches to be able to hold campers/caravans during the cold months to. The exclusive cabins (closest to the water) has received a face lift during this autumn. The bed room has been renovated with new beds and wall painting etc. A well needed (and appreciated!) upgrade. Boats are also receiving well deserved love to be ready for next spring.
As a few of you might now, the on site restaurant has been closed since July. The company that runned the restaurant struggled with a lot of things so just like that, they left their business and restaurant/mini mart was closed. It's a slow process with paperwork, bankruptcy finalisation etc. However, the restaurant will be runned by ourselves next year, hopefully with even better opening hours during fishing season to but we'll see about that.
Personally, I'm going on my vacay in the beginning of January. A bit more than a month abroad will for sure recharge my batteries and I'll be back in time to hopefully enjoy some excellent pre spawn fishing.
If there still is someone reading, I thank you very much for your interest. I would also like to thank all of our guests for this year. Many memories has been created and shared with you. A big thanks to our cooperating agents and partners, fellow employees, Visit Blekinge for arranging the opportunity to participate in the Swedish Sportfishing fair, Renz-Stein lures for providing great lures and rods.
Thank you all and I hope to see all of you guests back at Camp Dragsö during 2018. Let's make it the best year so far!! Enjoy some of the great photos shared from season 2017. Bookings are open :-)
// Daniel Wickman
2017-12-07
Personally, I went out for the first trip of the year in the end of February. I still remember that the first trip resulted in a nice 106cm pike, and was followed by a 103cm pike caught by my friend Philip in the next trip.
So far, so good. With that start our expectations went up to the sky. The beginning of March offered good fishing many days but the temperature was as always a bit tricky for us since new ice layers was created many of the days, especially in the mornings. I had friends visiting me in the second week of March and we enjoyed good fishing. One of the days resulted in 74 pikes caught, and the other days resulted in overall good numbers with a top fish of 103cm.
In the third week of March we opened our camp officially and all of our boats was in the water by that time. A little more than 30 anglers visited us during our opening weekend and a few of those groups did well, while others struggled to find active fish. A returning group caught more than 60 pikes on four anglers and five hours. Impressive! Another group that visited us for their first time caught a beautiful fish over 10 kilos in very shallow waters. Not a bad start to the season!
In the end of March fishing started to get a bit difficult. One day offered very good amounts and active fish, while the next day could be the complete opposite with almost no fish and barely any followers. A bit concerning to see that several of the surrounding bays was visually empty, no pikes to be seen.
However, big pikes continued to be caught for those who had patience enough to make a thousand of casts. Our colleague Willyboi caught a nice lady of 109cm (10,1 kgs) in the end of March, just before spawning process started for real. A couple more +10kgs pikes was caught in March by our guests.
The beginning of April resulted in a couple more fish above the magic +10kgs mark, with the biggest fish weighing more than +12kgs. However, many of our guests during this time of the year had very poor results. Not many areas delivered fish but those who found the magic spots was rewarded big time.
Normally, spring season offers good amounts of pike with the chance to catch a really big fish. This spring was for sure a bit different since not many boats caught good numbers, while more big fish than usual was reported. In average, at least one fish over 10kgs was caught every weekend by our guests.
Up until easter, weather and temperatures started to stabilize but after easter weekend, hell came back. Snowstorm, negative degrees in night time for almost a whole week and overall very unstable conditions. Water temperature dropped from being approx 14 degrees to about 3 - 4 degrees. Some pikes was already spawning by this time while many of them most probably got interupted and moved out of the bays before starting their process.
This fact, combined with several other factors, resulted in some very slow weeks in April. Not many anglers found the right spots, and several left us with dissappointing numbers. The start of May also resulted in slow fishing. Normally our guests can many days reach 20-30 pikes/day and boat during this time of the year but in the beginning of May this season, these numbers were down to 5-15 pikes per day.
As usual we were more or less fully booked every weekend in May. Many guided trips was on my schedule and these gave very variated results. Unfortunately, many of the bays close to Dragsö gave low numbers while the full day trips gave a bit better results when we were able to go further away from our camp.
Weather and temperature continued to be very unstable in the beginning of May. Some days we had hail and day temperatures between 0-5 degrees, while other days could offer us 10-13 degrees, which is more normal. Every weekend resulted in meter pikes caught by our guests, but since we had approx 40 anglers on site every weekend, results wasn't great. Even multiple time returning guests struggled to find size and numbers some of the weeks in May this year.
In the third week of May results started to get better for our guests. More meter pikes was reported and it felt like after spawn fishing was about to start for real. Air temperature was now up to 22 degrees several days and it seems like pikes liked it as much as we did. However, there were some days that still gave almost nothing while other days gave good results.
In general, spring season this year was strange. Numbers was overall lower in average, especially in areas close to Karlskrona City. On the other hand, there was definitely more big fish than usual caught by our guests this year in spring.
To be honest, most of the summer season offered rather slow fishing to, with a few exceptions. It was for sure a strange summer, with unusual low temperatures and quite unstable weather. It felt almost like the pikes got depressed. Some days the pikes wasn't to be found at all, while other days they were found in huge numbers in some areas. I remember a few days when we had two or three followers at the same time, multiple times in the same day. The problem is that these kind of days didn't come regularly.
Summer was as always flying by and soon enough autumn season started. Many groups with returning guests and a good mix of first time visitors was booked. In the end of August/beginning of September we had about 60 anglers on site. To be honest, I was a bit worried about how fishing was going to be since most of this year so far wasn't to good when it comes to results.
The first weeks in September started out OK with some quite good days. As always this time of the year, there was a lot of spaghetti weeds around the islands and outer part of the archipelago, forcing us to fish with weedless rigs or go to alternative areas. Numbers were getting better with many days offering ~20 pikes/boat and day. Our multiple time returning guest Lemestre with friends managed to catch over 80 pikes during their first day this September.
As always Blekinge Pike Festival was arranged in the beginning of October and this is the only competition where I compete annualy. This year I fished with Philip (Bläcksquid Inc) and Martin from Länsstyrelsen. We were lucky to find several pikes above +90cm and I caught a nice competition fish of 105cm. This fish, combined with a 97cm during day two, gave a total 4th place out of 490 anglers in the individual competition, and 1st place in combined Day 1 + Day 2 longest fish together which was 201cm. My colleague Willy did well to and ended up on a 39th place.
October overall was a good month when both sizes and numbers went up even more compared with September. Many guests enjoyed good fishing with strong pikes. Every weekend we had about 25-40 anglers on site. Most guided trips during this time resulted in 20-30 pikes/day, with at least a +90cm on many of the trips. Some days resulted in up to 70 pikes in a few boats. The only downside was that most of the really good results was reported in areas with at least 30min of boat driving from us.
November continued to be good and many of our guests left us with good memories. As always with fishing, there are days better than others so of course there was also days when our guests barely had a handful of pikes caught in a day.
My colleague Willyboi competed in the annual competition Karlskrona Pike Tournament with his team Karlskronafiske. If you ask anglers in Karlskrona, there is no other competition with more prestige than this one. His team did very well and ended up with a total of 474cm which gave them 1st place out of 50 teams by good margin. Willy also caught the biggest fish of the competition with his impressive catch of a 111cm (11,3kgs) pike!
The end of November was a calm period for us and we only had a few groups each weekend that tried their luck for their last time (?) of the year on open waters. Some of them had low amounts of pikes but there were days with reports from local anglers and competitions when results for sure was great! A newly started competition "Blekinge Pike Masters" was arranged 2nd of December where 15 teams competed, with starting point at Scandic in Karlskrona City. The result was totally amazing. The winning team ended up with a total of 532cm on their top 5 longest of the day. Biggest fish measured impressive 116cm and 14,05kgs, which for sure is one of the biggest pikes caught around in the area this year.
Unfortunately, our season ended very sadly. During the night to 1st of December, two of our boats was stolen and a third boat was hot-wired but without success for the thieves. The two boats that were stolen was found in the afternoon, dumped in the reeds on a surrounding island, without engines. It's a shame that there still is skunks living on steeling engines to sell on the black market....
Almost all of our boats is now brought up for maintenance and winter storage. All to be ready when eventual ice lets go in the end of February/March.
So, what is going on at Camp Dragsö at the moment? Well, we have some major construction going on with the camping pitches to be able to hold campers/caravans during the cold months to. The exclusive cabins (closest to the water) has received a face lift during this autumn. The bed room has been renovated with new beds and wall painting etc. A well needed (and appreciated!) upgrade. Boats are also receiving well deserved love to be ready for next spring.
As a few of you might now, the on site restaurant has been closed since July. The company that runned the restaurant struggled with a lot of things so just like that, they left their business and restaurant/mini mart was closed. It's a slow process with paperwork, bankruptcy finalisation etc. However, the restaurant will be runned by ourselves next year, hopefully with even better opening hours during fishing season to but we'll see about that.
Personally, I'm going on my vacay in the beginning of January. A bit more than a month abroad will for sure recharge my batteries and I'll be back in time to hopefully enjoy some excellent pre spawn fishing.
If there still is someone reading, I thank you very much for your interest. I would also like to thank all of our guests for this year. Many memories has been created and shared with you. A big thanks to our cooperating agents and partners, fellow employees, Visit Blekinge for arranging the opportunity to participate in the Swedish Sportfishing fair, Renz-Stein lures for providing great lures and rods.
Thank you all and I hope to see all of you guests back at Camp Dragsö during 2018. Let's make it the best year so far!! Enjoy some of the great photos shared from season 2017. Bookings are open :-)
// Daniel Wickman
2017-12-07
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