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Karlskrona, Pike Kingdom

Camp Dragsö Sportfishing is specialized on pike fishing and is located in the pike kingdom of Karlskrona, Sweden.We offer a big variety of packages and fishing possibilities. We have a package for any budget.

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Friday, July 8, 2016

Gäddsafari #2 2016

Högsäsongen är här och campingen är mer eller mindre fullsatt. Det har redan gått en vecka sedan förra veckans fisketur och det innebär att det blivit dags att dela med mig av en ny summering från gårdagens gäddsafari.

Likt förra sommaren verkar vädergudarna bestämt sig för att ordna blåsiga dagar när det vankas gäddsafari på programmet. Igår var verkligen inget undantag. Starka vindar mellan 10-14m/s från väst gjorde inte planeringen lätt. Även för erfarna fiskare innebär så pass starka vindar en utmaning i att hitta platser lämpliga för fiske, och med tanke på att de flesta som följer med på våra gäddsafarin är nybörjare gör det inte saken lättare.

Under gårdagens fisketur var vi 30 personer fördelat på åtta båtar. Klockan sex var alla på plats vid vår fiskebod där alla informerades om upplägget och vilka båtar gästerna skulle utgå ifrån. I min båt fick jag sällskap av en familj från Schweiz som ville testa fiskelyckan i vår skärgård. Vi hade bestämt oss för att prova öster ut den här gången för att förhoppningsvis få lite vindskydd av centrum. Väl ute vid första platsen kunde man snabbt konstatera att vågorna var stora och vinden piskade ilsket upp vatten på oss när vi försökte komma åt de bästa fiskeplatserna.

En timme spenderades på första platsen utan framgång för de flesta. Området vi valt var fastlandssträckan på södra Verkö samt ön Tvegölja men det spelade inte så stor roll den här kvällen vart vi blötte våra drag, gäddorna verkade inte vara hemma. Endast två gäddor fångades fördelat på oss 30 fiskare vilket var ett magert resultat. I min båt hade vi två hugg men ingen av dessa fiskar behagade att hänga kvar i kroken utan valde istället att simma ner bland tångruskor och sten.

Som andra plats valde jag ett relativt stort område precis öst om Karlskrona centrum. Ögrupperna Kobebus, Basareholmen, Koholmen och Mjölnareholmen var området vi hade att röra oss inom. Efter en kortare genomgång av platserna spred båtarna snabbt ut sig. Här blåste det något mindre vilket var fördelaktigt för att hitta vettiga fiskeplatser. En del av gästerna har varit med både en och 111 gånger tidigare (jo, jag menar verkligen 111!) kände igen området och for snabbt iväg till sina favoritfiskeplatser i hopp om att hitta gammelgäddan.

När alla båtar spridit ut sig åkte jag tillsammans med gästerna från Schweiz till en vindpinad ögrupp där det såg riktigt fint ut. Vi la i ankaret och började kasta runt omkring stenar och tångruskor. Helt plötsligt gungar det i mitt spö och det är helt klart en gädda i andra ändan av linan. Det visar sig vara en lite bättre fisk och vi hjälps åt med att håva, mäta och fotografera fisken. Gäddan mätte 82cm och nu fick vi upp hoppet om att kanske kunna vinna kvällens fisketur.

Med gäddan återutsatt började vi kasta på nytt. Det tog inte lång tid innan nästa gädda högg men denna var något mindre. Nu var vi på rätt plats! Fisket fortsatte vara bra och på mindre än 20 minuter har vi landat fyra gäddor. Jag får även rapporter om att andra båtar lyckats bra och flera gäddor fångades på kort tid.

När en halvtimme återstod innan vi skulle återsamlas valde jag att byta plats på min båt för att ge gäddorna ett sista försök några hundra meter längre bort. Även här nappar gäddorna och ett par till landas innan vi möter upp de andra. I vår båt blev det väldigt tydligt vad stor skillnad det kan göra på att ligga på rätt och fel plats. Första området gav oss ingen fisk alls, medan kvällens andra plats resulterade i sex gäddor på mindre än en timme.

Väl tillbaka på Dragsö kunde vi konstatera att de flesta båtar lyckats få fisk under kvällen. Merparten av gäddorna fångades på andra platsen och det visade sig att min medhjälpare Willy's båt likt förra veckan lyckats fånga kvällens längsta gädda. Fisken mätte 86cm och vann med marginal över de näst längsta gäddorna som var två exemplar på 82cm. Totalt fick vi 21 gäddor till slut, trots att vi bara fått två under den första halvan av kvällen. I vanlig ordning fick vinnarna applåder och vinnarkepsar innan vi sa tack och hej för denna gång.

Kort och gott blev det en väldigt blåsig kväll där de flesta fick känna på små duschar från Östersjöns bräckvatten men många fick också en gädda eller två. Kort och gott en trevlig tur men nästa vecka hoppas vi på lite mindre vind så vi får större möjligheter i valbara fiskeplatser.

// Daniel Wickman
   2016-07-08










Friday, July 1, 2016

Gäddsafari #1 2016


Igår var det äntligen dags för sommarens första gäddsafari. Ett återkommande evenemang som vi kör varje sommar och har så gjort i cirka femton års tid. Vid sju tillfällen, varje torsdag framöver, ger vi oss ut i jakten på de gröna predatorerna. Här följer en liten summering av gårdagens tur!

Inför kvällen hade vi 19 gäster bokade, samtliga från Sverige den här gången. En härlig blandning av återkommande gäster och nya visade det sig bli. Jag hade stakat ut en plan över vart vi skulle åka baserat på rådande väder, som för en gångs skull visade sig stämma ganska bra mot prognosen. Första platsen blev därmed ett område en bit väster om Dragsö, närmare bestämt Skillingenäs/Haglö/Varö.

När vi instruerat gästerna över vilket område som gällde så spred vi snabbt ut oss bland stenar, kobbar och skär. Vinden och därmed vågorna var relativt lugna denna kväll vilket gjorde det lätt att ankra upp för att fiska mot de hetaste platserna. Molnen låg tätt på himlen den här kvällen och något regnstänk då och då gjorde att vädret kändes riktigt "gäddigt" men tyvärr verkade inte gäddorna tycka likadant då det började ganska segt för de flesta båtarna.

Efter en timmes fiskande möttes vi upp igen på samma plats som vi skiljdes åt på. Det visade sig att några av båtarna lyckats fånga ett par gäddor var men för spänningens skull så avslöjades inga längder på fiskarna, som återutsattes i sitt rätta element. Det är ju trots allt tävling mellan båtarna där den längsta fångade fisken vinner pris som avslutning på kvällen.

Vi åkte vidare mot nästa anhalt som denna kväll var området mellan Ramsö och Svinö, även det beläget väst om Dragsö. Vinden hade nu lagt sig och sjön var lugn under vår sista timme. I vår båt lyckades vi ganska snabbt landa vår första gädda för kvällen som mätte in på 66cm. Tyvärr blev det också den enda gäddan i vår båt, även om vi tappade ett par också som slet sig innan de nått båten.

När klockan närmade sig nio återträffades vi igen för att åka tillbaka i samlad grupp till bryggan på Dragsö. Humöret verkade vara på topp hos alla som varit med på kvällens fisketur, även om flera vittnade om svårtflirtade gäddor. Lyckligtvis hade dock alla sex båtar landat fisk och ett par behölls för att senare hamna på middagsbordet.

I vanlig ordning fick varje båt tillkännage vad de fångat och hur lång deras längsta fisk varit. Just denna kväll visade det sig bli ovanligt jämnt då två gäddor uppgavs vara 72cm. Vid närmare koll på bilder på fiskarna kunde vi med minsta möjliga marginal utse en vinnarbåt då den ena gäddan var 73cm lång. Min medhjälpare Willy och hans sällskap i båten fick applåder och vinnarkepsar som sig bör när man vinner gäddsafarit.

Överlag ett mycket lyckat första gäddsafari för sommaren där det totalt landades tretton gäddor på 21 deltagare. Nu laddar vi om för nästa vecka då vi kommer vara betydligt fler deltagare. Än finns platser kvar så tveka inte att haka på en spännande fisketur. Anmälan till Dragsö campings reception.

// Daniel Wickman
   2016-07-01




Wednesday, June 29, 2016

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




Tuesday, June 14, 2016

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












Tuesday, June 7, 2016

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

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

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















Thursday, May 26, 2016

Hot

Hi guys!

Time for another update. Thursday is here and time for new anglers to come. This week we're having fishing guests from Sweden, Poland, Slovakia, France, Germany, Netherlands and Denmark. Some of them are multiple time returning guests while other are here for their very first time.

To be honest, fishing has not been great during the past ten days or so. I think the main reason is because of weather circumstances. Lately, weather has been more like how it normally is in the end of June, rather than mid May weather. Warm nights and approx 20-25 degrees in the air, combined with more or less only sunny days and low winds, is not really preferable for pike fishing. Water temperature in the bays is now already up to 18-19 degrees which is a lot higher than last year at the same week.

Some decent pikes has been caught anyway by our guests. I would actually say that more big fish has been caught by our guests this spring than last year, but maybe numbers is a little lower overall. Below the text you can see several pictures of pikes caught last week or this week. Nice ones!!

Oh, and by the way. I have totally forgot to mention that we bought ourselves one more new Master500 boat with 40hp engine a little less than two weeks ago. This to be able to have one more reserve boat in case of any of our other booked boats breaks down for some reason. Good service huh?!

My upcoming days will be spent on the water since Friday, Saturday and Sunday is guided trip days. Hopefully we can manage to find some nice and wild pikes. A good thing with the fishing now is that most pikes are extremely strong fighters, so even the smaller pikes offer nice action.

Karlskrona was announced to be the sunniest city in Sweden last year. It wouldn't surprise me if that would be the case this year to because it feels like every day now is nothing else but sun sun sun. Nice for sunbathing, but I wouldn't complain if there would be a few days with some strong winds and clouds :)

Until next time, take care and have a fishy weekend!

// Daniel Wickman
   2016-05-26