Friday fishing

Hi guys!

Another week has been passing by and we're already in the very end of October. During this week I've been out on several guided trips and this week we're visited by 9 fishing groups.

Unfortunately, fishing has been slow this week. No good amounts nor sizes. It has really been a battle to find pikes at all but maybe it starts to get better now as todays half day guided tour resulted in 15 pikes and many more strikes and followers. Most pikes today striked in shallow water of 0,5-1m and slow retrieving was the method of today with small tail baits.

Since activity is going down from now on we have started to pull up a few boats for service. Many of our boats will have new floors until next year so that's one of my tasks at the moment except from guided trips and the usual schedule.

I wish you all a nice weekend and to be back with new reports next week!

// Daniel Wickman
   2015-10-30

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Sportfish Masters final!

Sunday afternoon and Dragsö is at the moment very quiet. Today more than 35 fishing teams left us after a short weekend in Karlskrona. Yesterday the final of Sportfish Masters was arranged and 129 teams were competing to win the title of being Swedish master in pike fishing. Very glorious competition and nice to see the final in Karlskrona this year.

As always, weather gods didn't cooperate very well. The day before the final we measured water level to be approx -60cm. Less than 24 hours later when the final started water level had raised a lot up to -10cm. On top of this, half day of the final was dead calm with no winds to talk about. Some teams managed to find the right spots anyway and soon enough several teams were up to more than 400cm in their top 5 pikes.

Later on yesterday evening the final results were announced at Scandic Hotel. To me it wasn't that big surprise who the winner was. Team Mouse fishing managed to catch 5 big pikes and ended up with impressive 509cm! Their biggest fish was 110cm and by that they also won one of the side competitions as this fish was the biggest of all in the competition. Tony, the creator of Mouse, was also the winner of the individual competition of top 3 pikes in length. Grand slam and a big congratz!

Results in Sportfish Masters final 2015

Team - 5 longest pikes 
1. Team Mousefishing         509cm
2. CWC Fishing Team 1      449cm
3. Kalmarsundsportfiske 2  448cm
Individually - 3 longest pikes1. Tony Andersson Team Mousefishing   305cm
2. Jimmy Lindahl CWC Fishing Team 1 284cm
3. Steve McVey TPF/Esox Gear               268cm

Longest pike in competition: Andreas Andersson in Team Mousefishing 110cm


It was nice to see and chat to many of the most skilled pikes anglers in Sweden. Very nice arrangement and for sure a success!

Tomorrow I'm going out for a guided trip and during Tuesday I will be out with Philip, Stinger Productions. Time to hunt some mamas down!

// Daniel Wickman
   2015-10-25

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Autumn mamas and windy squalls

Hi!

So, finally some time over to give you guys a new update. As usual during fishing season we're quite busy with more or less fully booked camp during weekends and also some guests for week long or even longer visits.

Five years ago when I started my work at Dragsö we wasn't even open for fishing longer than to the second week of October each year. A lot has happend since my first season and it's hard to imagine now that we were normally closing down by now. Currently, we have 19 fishing groups here this weekend and even more here for other purposes than fishing. Next weekend we have no cabins nor boat pitches available since Sportfish Masters final is to be arranged on Saturday. Between 130-180 teams will be competing in the final and you can follow this competition live via www.sportfishmasters.se

When it comes to fishing at the moment I would say that several days during this week has been quite difficult. Strong north/east winds for several days and this doesn't really make the pikes go crazy. Especially not when winds are up to 17m/s....

Both me and Jakob were out on guided trips earlier this week and we had to fight hard to find active pikes. About 18 pikes was caught in total and top fish in my boat measured 102 and 92cm. The meter pike was a fat and nice fish caught in shallow waters of approx 1m.

Water temperature at the moment is about 8 degrees in most areas so most fish is found in shallow bays. As always you can still find fish further out in the archipelago but mainly we find the pikes in shallow water at this time. I would say that most successful lures lately for us has been slowly fished tailbaits but also smaller rubbers such as McRubber Jr.

Two more guided trips for me upcoming days so hopefully we can find some pike mothers willing to dance out there. Strong east winds with a bit of rain in the afternoon is what we have to deal with today. Let's find out if the pikes like it :)

// Daniel Wickman
   2015-10-16

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BGF & Monsters

Hi guys!

So another weekend has comed to its end and actually we're in the middle of a new week when this post is written. During the past weekend Blekinge Pike Festival was arranged and as usual we were more or less fully booked.

Every year weather gods seems to dislike the thought of pike festival and this year was no exception. Fortunately, water level raised from -35cm to +5cm over the night before the first competition day (Saturday). But in return the wind totally dropped to zero. As most of you guys know, fishing in an archipelago becomes very difficult when wind is low or missing. Sun was shining most of the first day and this didn't really help us out.

In my boat I was accompanied by my boss Andreas, colleague Jakob and our friend Patrik. We fought hard to catch any fish and the biggest fish I managed to catch measured 88cm... In total we caught 14 pikes in our boat during Saturday and results wasn't going to be better on Sunday.

With Jakob missing due to fever, we left Dragsö at 7am on Sunday morning. We tried a few bays where I've seen some big fish lately but with no wind and cloudy skies pikes was for sure not active. A few hours later I had a nice follower which directly increased our self-confidence. I didn't take long until I hooked our first fish of the day and immediately I felt that it was a better sized pike. She fought well but soon enough Andreas secured her in the net. Great feeling! A moment later we could take some pictures and measured her to be 97cm.

After this fish the skies opened up and for being October the weather was far from normal. Warm, no wind at all and sunny. Pikes wasn't feeding, for sure. We continued on until 2.30pm but with poor results. Not more than 8 pikes in the boat but at least one fish of good size.

Back at Dragsö I talked to a lot of guests and most of them testified a slow, slow fishing and results. About 12-13 pikes over 100cm was caught by 600 competitors over 2 days so pikes were hard to fool in this years edition of Blekinge Pike Festival. The longest fish reported was 106cm and caught by a 13yr old kid! My fish of 97cm got me on the scoreboard on 16th place out of 600 competitors so not to bad after all :)

But, with this told, I must also give some nice reports as well! Some very big pikes has been caught in Karlskrona last couple of days. On Monday a 121cm fish was caught from land on a Buster Jerk... And yesterday another beauty of 119cm was caught by a local lure builder. Impressive!

Furthermore, one of our guests during BGF weekend also managed to catch a very nice fish of 110 cm the day before the competition started. Excellent fish!

Last couple of days I've been out with Philip from Stinger Productions. Results wasn't to good but yesterday we caught about 20 pikes and at one of our drifting spots there was plenty of activity in 1.0-1.5m of depth. Motoroil Mcrubber and Renz 'Beastlytail' delivered good results.

Upcoming weekend we are busy with a big wedding arrangement so no anglers will be visiting us until next week. A pike safari is planned for Saturday and full day guided tour on Monday so some reports will be shared after those events! :)

We still have availability for most weekends until the end of November so take the chance to experience exciting autumn fishing in the wonderful archipelago of Karlskrona!

Down below you can see some mixed pictures taken during BGF and earlier in the week.

// Daniel Wickman
   2015-10-07

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September to its end and BGF up next!

Hi guys!

Once again a bit delayed report from us since it's been some busy days for us. Several guided trips since last post and during last weekend we were almost fully booked. Both new and returning guests tried their luck for a week or weekend. Several different nations were represented this time since guests came from Sweden, Poland, Latvia, Germany and Hungary.

As always results variated a lot between the boats but several pikes over +100cm was caught. Returning Swedish guests in Larsson company caught a fat beauty of 101,5cm just to name one of the nice pikes that was caught. They also helped us out with participating during one of their days in a video that we currently are making with skilled lads Philip & Axel from Stinger Productions. Next year we will have ourselves a nice little video to present our camp in a more modern way than pictures and texts. So keep your eyes open but of course it will take some time to finalize this little piece of magic.

I also had some days of work and these were spent with Philip (and Axel one of the days) on the water. Unfortunately weather gods wasn't cooperating with us since we had no winds to talk about and sun was most of time very strong to our faces... Luckily, we managed to catch a few decent pikes in a shallow bay where the water was a bit murky. We caught about 20 pikes in an afternoon with two pikes over and around the 90cm margin on top.

Yesterday was also spent on water but conditions were even worse with glassy water due to no wind and no clouds to talk about. We tried our best but fishing was tough. In total we caught 17 pikes with a fish of 90cm on top. Many nice pikes around 80-83cm was caught in the outer part of archipelago though and they all fighted very well.

Currently, water temperature is about 11-15 degrees in most areas. Still most big fish seems to be caught in shallow bays but also around islands close to bays. Biggest fish during Sportfish Masters competition in Karlskrona a couple of days ago was caught just minutes west from us and measured 112cm.  

In just a few days our camp will be very busy once again since it's time for Blekinge Pikefestival on October 3-4th. Around 320 anglers will start from our camp and hopefully we can catch some nice pikes for this competition. This year I'll be fishing with my boss Andreas and our friend Patrik as usual, and also new colleague Jakob. We'll try to post some reports during this weekend on the blog and Facebook/Instagram :)

Don't forget that we're open until the end of November this year and many weekends in November is still open for reservations! Experience Blekinge and Karlskrona at its best!

// Daniel Wickman
   2015-09-30

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Big pikes and extreme weather

Hi guys!

I'm sorry that it's been some time since last post here. We have simply been busy and I've been out on the water on guided tours a lot lately. Results has been good overall with several nice pikes caught by our guests during last 7-10 days. So here's a review about results, conditions and more from this week!

In the beginning of this week I went out together with Peter & Anders from Sweden. It was their very first visit to us and they felt a guided tour could give them some ideas of how, where and when to fish in our waters. Our tour of 4 hours started out a bit slow but soon enough pikes started to bite in shallow bays. McRubber and McRubber Jr in motoroil or burbot colour ended up being our best lures. Big fish was caught with 97, 96, 87 and 86cm as our longest, results isn't to complain about for sure! About 13 pikes or so in total gave these lads a good start of their stay.

The next day I went out with returning guests from Slovakia when Poulik family came back for a week of fishing. Their numbers previous trip was good but size wasn't, so this time they (of course) wanted to catch a big fish. How hard can it be when the first fish their dad caught this time measured impressive 108cm?!? McRubber did the trick again and of course they were happy already when I met them again on Tuesday morning for our guided tour. And our tour was also successful since we ended up with approx 40 pikes caught and biggest ones of 97, 95, 92cm and several more around 85cm. Nice tour with nice lads and so happy that we managed to catch some big fish together!

On Thursday we had many anglers coming to us. About 40 guests entered our camp to hopefully catch some nice fish. Unfortunately, weather gods wasn't peaceful to them. Very hard winds of 13m/s in average and up to 19m/s in squalls made it hard for most guests. It didn't really help that water level dropped all the way down to -52cm until Friday....

A guided tour with returning Swedish guests in Asplund company on Friday resulted in poor fishing. Conditions was very tough and places that was working well just days earlier was more or less impossible to fish at with low water level and very strong winds. Unfortunately we didn't find any big fish and only 5 pikes was caught in 4 hours.

Yesterday invited to a bit better conditions since water level raised to be -20cm and wind was a bit lower as well. This day I had a full day tour on the water with returning guest Mattias with his son Isak. Fishing started out slow and by lunch time we was up to 5 or 6 pikes. One fish of 85cm but still no monsters... I changed my plans a bit and decided to go to the middle part of the archipelago instead and leave the bays. This was a good decision for the moment since we caught many pikes in just one hour. Just before the end I told "It would be so nice to end up this trip with a nice sized fish!". It didn't take longer than 5 minutes before Mattias hooked a monster in shallow water on a McRubber Jr. The fish fought well but soon enough I secured her in the net.

The fish showed up to be 109 lovely centimeters long and gave Mattias a new personal best! Great moment and it all ended like a fairytale. In total we caught about 25 pikes with the beast on top of that!

Overall results this weekend has variated a lot between the boats where some managed to catch 20-40 pikes per day while other boats ended up with just around 10-15 pikes in total. Some big fish was reported as well since pikes of 112, 103 and 102cm was reported as well.

Great interest in fishing at the moment and we are currently having 8 boats out on the water for a week of fishing. These guests are from Sweden, Poland, Latvia and Hungary. Many more to come on Thursday as we are fully booked next weekend.

Water temperature is still around 15 degrees in most areas and water level is soon back to normal again. Bays seems to deliver the biggest pikes at the moment but when it comes to amounts there are still a few places in the middle and outer part of archipelago that produces even better.

Tomorrow I'm heading out on the water again with returning guest Emil with company for a full day. Hopefully to be back with even more nice reports after that! :)

// Daniel Wickman
   2015-09-20

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September biggie

Hi guys!

So another weekend is here and about 20 anglers are visiting us at the moment. A few more groups to arrive during this weekend.

Earlier this week our many time returning guests in Luc's company managed to catch a monster! He eagerly told me that he caught a "Big fish" when he came back to the camp. I asked how big it was and immediately understood that yes, this was for sure a B I G fish!

He showed me pictures and his lady measured 116 centimeters! He also managed to catch a beauty of 103cm. These pikes was caught on small rubbers like cannibal shad and similar ones.

Other groups reports about variating results. A few boats reports about nice numbers while others struggle to catch more than maximum a handful per person and day. Fishing is fishing, as usual.

Regarding weather situation temperature has dropped quickly in both air and water lately. Most areas shows 14-15 degrees or lower in the water while air is around 17 degrees in daytime and 10-12 in night time. Water level is back to normal after a long period of low water level.

Many guided trips upcoming weeks and today I went out with a Swedish returning group. Fishing was for sure not at its best but still we managed to catch about 8-10 pikes in 4 hours with a pike of 99,5cm as biggest.

I have also been out for some private fishing with good results. A few pikes around the meter margin, even though a few of them less than a centimeter away from being on the right side of three digits... If autumn season continues like this I'm satisfied!

// Daniel Wickman
   2015-09-11

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