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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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Monday, December 1, 2014

Season summary 2014


Hi there all you fishing enthusiasts!

Christmas is less than a month away and we've been busy lately with pulling up our boats for winter storage. We've now closed down the fishing business for this year and boats are one by one coming up from the water for winter storage. By this post I want to sum up the season with some great pictures, thoughts and experiences. It's gonna be a long one, so go make yourself a cup of coffee or why not grab one of those excellent Belgium beers (Sorry Dutchies :).

Our season started early this year since ice disappeared in mid February already. Most boats were in the water in the beginning of March and our first guests of the season got here in mid March. With 4 new engines, Yamaha 40hp four stroke, all the old 25hp engines were replaced on our Master500 boats.

First couple of weeks this season in March started with average results. A few boats caught up to 40 pikes/day but mostly small sized pikes came up for our guests. Local anglers in town did better and several pikes above the magic +10kg barrier was caught in the middle to late part of March.



Since we had a warm early spring this year pikes started to spawn early. A few anglers actually reported about pikes that already were done in first week of April. Not normal, but not strange either since water temps were up to 9 degrees already by then. This fact gave us some struggle with finding pikes willing to bite. There was a few weeks when fishing didn't deliver to good results but in mid April even big and good numbers started to drop in by our guests.

In mid April the pikes started to move out from the bays to eat eelpouts and other yummy small preys. This period started a bonzana of activity and most boats reported about good numbers and a some nice samples just over the +1m margin. Returning guest Jacob managed to catch a 102cm buety just after spawning and his catch was in my opinion the start of a trend for our guests. After his catch the meter plus samples started to drop in frequently with most of them being caught in the bays or in the very near of the bays.



May didn't disappoint us this year either. Many guests on the camp and many nice pikes was caught in the mostly beutiful spring weather. A couple of +10kg pikes was caught by our guests and many meter pikes as well. Most weekends in May we hosted about 40 anglers at the same time on our camp and lots of new and returning guests made our work here so fun. Kislina and his friends from Latvia caught a beuty of 114cm in mid May and as always came up with really good numbers. These guys are coming here several times every year and knows our waters well by now. Even by using mostly classic lures like spoons, they still outfish many others who use modern soft plastics or expensive hand made jerkbaits.



In the end of May we also hosted French returning group in Krolik company. They're also skilled and do catch good numbers every year. This time the 9 lads ended up with 831 pikes caught in 6,5 fishing days. It should also be mentioned that they were a bit unlucky with weather conditions this year since the weather god gave us mostly sunny days with very low winds. Out of those 831 pikes, no fish measured above the meter+ margin, which really tells how hard it is to find those big ones some times.



In the beginning of June spring season was going to its end but still we had several groups here for fishing in the first weeks of the month. This was also the time when we got our brand new Jackson Cuda 14 fishing kayaks. Of course these didn't stay dry for long. Me and trainee Willy went out for a try and had some great fun out by all rocky islands. Since I've been working with kayak guiding previous winter in Costa Rica, I felt really good sitting in those kayaks again fishing for pike in our archipelago. Why not rent one of these combined with your boat next year? They are easy to transport out to areas where the boat is hard to use and actually more stable than you think. A guaranteed exciting experience!



In the summer time both mine and our guests activity of serious fishing went down as always but still we runned the very popular pike safaris. This year the interest was greater than ever and 231 guests went out with us during 7 pike safaris. For the first year ever the average winner pike measured above 80cm which of course also is great fun!

Mid August we begun autumn fishing season and several groups went here directly. Season started out good both for me personally and for our guests. With 20 degrees in the water pikes was widely spread out. Best results in the outer part of archipelago. Fishing continued on with great fishing in August even though we wasn't fully booked any weeks.



September is our most busy month for autumn fishing and what a month we had! Very good numbers for the majority of our guests. I wasn't surprised if some guests told me that they had over 50 pikes in the boat during only one day. Luc and his friends came to us again this autumn for some September action. During one week of fishing, the 3 lads set a new camp record when they ended up with a total of remarkable 483 pikes! No, I didn't slip with my fingers. 483 pikes on 3 guys!!



In mid September we also received the third and last Master410 boat that we have invested in. We can now offer 12 Master500, 3 Master410 plus 2 Linder440. In total 17 rental boats and all of them high quality aluminium boats, all with four stroke engines of course.



With many guests coming for fishing holidays and guided trips, September was literally over as fast as it begun. I just know that this was the best September month that I've experienced so far in Karlskrona, and this is my fourth season here.

October was knocking on the door and we contiued to have good fishing. Blekinge Pike Festival was arranged once again in the first weekend of October. As usual we comepted and in my boat I had company of my boss Andreas, former Dragsö Sportfishing guide Patrick and lastly our friend Patrik. Our results wasn't to be written in the history books but we had some great fun out there. Winner pike of the festival measured impressive 126 centimeters, the biggest pike in the competition ever I believe. Since Roy won both the individual length, day 1+2 length and starting point length he ended up winning prices of a value of more than 3200 Euros. Well deserved!!



This year we decided to stay open until last weekend of November. Bookings continued to drop in for some late autumn fishing. Numbers continued to be very good and 30-50 pikes in one boat/day wasn't to unusual. Several meter+ pikes was caught in mid October by our guests even though water level by now had started to variate a lot. One day water level showed +45cm, just to decrease all the way down to -55cm below normal in a couple of days. In a shallow archipelago like ours, this affects fishing a lot. Pikes are moving and becoming hard to find. Even with bad conditions, pikes up to 115cm was reported.



November also tempted fishing enthusiasts to come to Karlskrona for some pike fishing. Both guided trips and fishing package holidays. The 8th of November I caught my first +10kg pike in Karlskrona area during a nice guided trip with some Swedish lads. Almost every weekend in late October to end of November at least one pike above that magic margin was reported. Overall fishing gave very variating results in November. Some days you really needed to fight for every bite out there, while other days could deliver both numbers spiced with one or a couple of well sized pikes.

During the last week of November the water temp was already down to just a couple degrees in the most shallow bays. Temperature is decreasing fast when air temperature stays around the zero margin. Personally I really like November fishing since you're more or less alone on the water. Great nature feeling!



Every year we are hosts to a good number of anglers from all the world. This year we had fishing companys at Dragsö from following countries: Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Finland, Poland, USA, Germany, Latvia, Hungary, Netherlands, France, Czech Republic, Belgium and Australia. In total 14 different nationalities!

Lastly, I want to thank all our guests, my fellow workmates and all other concerned readers for this season and for your support. From now on the activity on the blog, Facebook and Instagram will be low for a couple of months since I'm going on a 7 week long vacation to load my batteries for next season. I'm already looking forward to next year and to hopefully see many of you guys back at Camp Dragsö Sportfishing.

Thank you, tight lines and have a nice winter!

// Daniel Wickman
   2014-12-01

























Thursday, November 27, 2014

Rügen Nov 2014!

Hi guys,

Last week I went to Rügen in Germany together with two friends for some serious pike fishing. There is no other reason than the chance to catch really big pikes we go there. The amounts and surroundings here in Karlskrona is in a total other league than what Rügen can offer. But the chance to catch those really big pikes of +120cm is way much bigger than here back home in Karlskrona. Of course I don't complain about the German wiener schnitzels, weissbiers nor cheap liquids in the border shop!

Our trip began very early on Thuesday morning, 03:30 to be precise. A short detour to Helsingborg to pick up my friend Jakob and then down to Trelleborg where the ferry to Sassnitz in Germany waited for us. For me this was the third trip to Rügen area, the second time for Jakob and actually very first time for Jesper. We booked this trip in March already so the last couple of months we've been very excited about going.

First day we didn't fish, we took this day to get our gear ready and have a calm evening without stress and talking about all those fish we were about to catch! Early Wednesday morning we paid our fishing licenses and went down to meet our guide Rico from Bodden Angeln. I've been fishing with him before and really like his way of thinking and there are few anglers that are so determined of where to find the fish. We didn't have the best forecast supporting us but still very eager to get started. The first day of fishing was for sure a day to remember for all time...

During the first 6 hours we didn't catch a single fish. I had a really nice +10kg pike following all the way to the boat early in the morning, but not a single bite for any of us. Then we started to fish a bit deeper where the stream was a bit stronger and the depth reached all the way to 7-8m. Plenty of baitfish around this spot so Rico, our guide, decided to put in the anchor and really gnaw this place with our rubber lures. Out of nowhere, Jakob strikes a good fish. Not a to good fight but in the net we could see that this was our first meter pike of the trip, and also the very first fish. 109cm and our hope was back for sure! I didn't take more than 5 minutes after releasing that fish before I felt a good bite in my other line end. Set the hooks pretty good and at first I couldn't decide if it was a good fish or not. The fish took a pelagic retrieved McRubber Blue/Pearl and when she got closer to the boat, she started to pull the line out quite good and I understood that this is a really good pike!

She reached the surface some minutes later followed by screams in the boat. This fish was huge! Rico landed her safely in the net and the happiness was to its limits. In the boat we measured her to be 122cm and pulled down the scale to 12,8 kg excluding the weight net. I was so happy and still shaking for a long time after releasing her.



This was not the end of the day. It didn't take more than 5 minutes once again before Jesper striked a good size fish as well. Soon we realized that this could be one more pike above the 10kg margin. When we saw her in the surface we all screamed again, could this fish possibly be even bigger?! In the boat we measured her to be 123cm and this lady wasn't as fat as mine but still pulled the scale to 12,0kg! Insane, 3 huge pikes in less than 30 minutes! We couldn't believe it.

As all the other mornings, Jakob went up a bit earlier to make good breakfast. Big load of scrambled eggs, bacon and coffee gave us an optimal start every morning. Breakfast and a good load of candy and other stuff is of great importance to keep focus when you want to perform at your best in the hunt for great pikes.



Day two and following days we faced some very tough conditions. No wind at all, very strong stream some days and pikes got really hard to find. All in all we fought good and ended up with 31 pikes caught on us 3 guys. Jesper had a really tough time after his 123cm and didn't catch a single pike for more than 2 days. But we knew this in advance. Rügen is a really special water and if you are unlucky, there might be those times when you don't catch a single fish. It's all about to stand out and have a large portion of patience. At home we are able to choose between hundreds of variating fishing spots and always we have something to target our casts at. Sometimes we make casts to rocks, sometimes to weedbeds, reeds or other interesting areas. In Rügen, you either make loooong drifts in what might look to be nowhere, or you anchor up and make your casts in underwater canals. Hard fishing for us since we are used to have something to target our casts on.

In total we caught 6 meter pikes of 123, 122, 109, 105, 102, 100cm plus one meter pike that I lost by the net. Even if it sometimes feels almost impossible, Rügen is like a drug to you. We all were convinced to go next year as well. But before that, maaaany hours will be spend in our lovely city Karlskrona. This trip really opened my eyes for a new thinking when fishing for pike. Something that I will try to adept in Karlskrona next season....

// Daniel Wickman
   2014-11-27


 














Boats to be stored


Hi out there!

It's been a while now since last post here on the blog. This since I've been of work for a week. Last week I went to Rügen in Germany for some serious pike fishing together with Bodden Angeln guide service in north Germany. A successful trip with a new personal best for yours truly. There will be a report available shortly on the blog from the trip with pictures!

At the moment we are closing down for this season and in less than 2 weeks I'm gone for a long vacation in a much warmer country than ours. Every day now is spent to make all boats ready for the winter. For sure it takes some time to pull up, service and parcel 19 rental boats!

Last weekend we had our last weekend stay fishing groups here. They had really hard conditions with everything from dead calm sea, to frosty mornings and low water level. Still the Swedes managed to catch a couple of meter+ pikes with a fat fish a bit over 9kg on top.

On Monday 1st of December I will post a season summary with plenty of nice pictures and a long text summary of our whole fishing season in Karlskrona 2014.

// Daniel Wickman
   2014-11-27



Tuesday, November 11, 2014

November fun!


Another weekend is approaching and with 7 boats going out this means we will host about 20 anglers. To be honest fishing hasn't been great last 3 days but still big fish is coming up. 3 weekends in a row at least one 10kg+ pike has been caught in Karlskrona archipelago. Weather forecast looks good for fishing the rest of this week so hopefully the trend with big size fish will hold on even this week.

Water temperature still holds up to 10 degrees and most fish is in my opinion caught in 0,5-1,0m of water in the bays. McRubbers and BigRubbers is the most effective soft plastics and many nice pikes has been caught this autumn season on these Svartzonker lures. We sell McRubber and McRubber Jr in 6 colours at our reception.

I had a day off work yesterday so of course I spent time on water. Fishing was tough but one nice pike had to see my face in the boat. A quick hold up in front the GoPro while running a video gave me the opportunity to print screen this fat beauty. Condition of a autumn pike at its best!

// Daniel Wickman
   2014-11-11


Sunday, November 9, 2014

Rewarded!


Finally, and I really mean finally. After 4 seasons in Karlskrona it was my turn yesterday. For many of you guys out there from other countries a pike above the 3-digit mark of 100cm is the pike to hunt for. Most Swedish anglers still sticks to weight when size starts to reach the magic two digit mark in kilos, 10 kilos. A pike above 100cm is way much easier to catch than a pike above 10 kilos, even though a meter plus pike is still a very good fish. Yesterday I caught my 27th pike above 100cm in Karlskrona area and finally I was rewarded with a fish that measured above that magic mark of 10.

Even though it wasn't my own record over all, this fish felt so good to catch. I can't even imagine how many times I've been fishing in Karlskrona to reach this two digit fish. I don't lie if I estimate it to be around 300 fishing days. And all of a sudden, when I least expected it, she was right there.

This pike was caught during a guided trip with some Swedish lads when we tried our luck in a shallow bay. All of us was fishing with McRubbers in variating colours when a triple strike gave some +80cm. Nothing more happened so we made a new drift and no strikes at all. When we almost drifted into the reeds I was about to give orders about bringing our gear up to move. In the final cast I felt that my lure touched the bottom early so I started to retrieve it very fast in the murky water. For some reason I stopped my retrieving when my lure broke the surface just 4-5 meters from the boat. When I stopped, a big head showed up from behind and took my Red Tiger McRubber. A short but tough fight later I managed to grip her with my hand and then I quickly realized that she could be above 10kgs.

Some quick photos and measurments later she swam back directly. Length of this beuty was 108cm and she pulled down the scale to 10,8 kilos. A bit unfortunate that the pike decided to go for my lure during the guided trip. I can honestly say that it would have been even more fun if my guests caught this beuty instead since none of them had a pike of that size earlier in their records. Fortunately we managed to catch some more descent pikes during our half day trip and overall had plenty of fun out there! Hopefully they do good today during their last day of this fishing holiday.

As I mentioned earlier this week, Karlskrona Pike Tournament was runned yesterday as well. Individual longest pike measured 105cm and in the team competition winner team reached impressive 478cm on their top 5 pikes.

There is still 3 weeks left of fishing season. 7 boats will be out from Thursday! Good sized pikes are being caught here in November for sure.

// Daniel Wickman
   2014-11-09


   

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

1 month to go!

Hi guys,

Winter is coming closer but so far autumn is hanging in since we still have day temperatures around 9-13 degrees and water temps almost the same with an average of 11 degrees.

Upcoming weekend we will have 5 fishing groups here where some of them will bring their own boats. On Saturday many boats will be seen in Karlskrona archipelago since the annually arranged fishing competition KPT (Karlskrona Pike Tournament) will be on with 80 anglers competing.

In a month from now all boats will be up for winter storage. Until then we'll have our camp busy by guests staying for fishing holidays and other purposes. This weekend we have no cabins available but there is still a chance for those of you who still are thinking about going fishing this autumn in Blekinge.

Here is an updated list of available weekend packages in November

06-09 Nov - 0 Packages available
13-16 Nov - 0 Packages available
20-23 Nov - 1 Exclusive, 1 Luxury
27-30 Nov - 4 Exclusive, 1 Luxury

There is also available boats for daily rentals. As usual these Master410 boats needs to be reserved at least one day before arrival.

Until next time,

Tight lines!

// Daniel Wickman
   2014-11-05


 

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

November hunger?


For many swedes November is a dark month where nothing happens. It's dark when you raise up in morning, and it's dark when you get home after a day with working duties. It starts to get cold outside, leaves are falling of all the trees, leaving us with nothing but lazy evenings in our homes to avoid the cold winds outside. This is the truth for many these days. But this is not completely the reality for pike anglers.

November invites to great nature experiences. Our archipelago could be rough in autumn with lots of wind and cold ones as well. But the feeling of being almost by yourself out on the waters, surrounded by thousands of birds, colourful trees and empty bays is something else. If lucky, the pikes are willing to dance in very shallow waters and sometimes the really big samples show themselves on the best side as well.

As always time is running away just to fast and October is almost over by now. We are open one more month and interest is still high! As mentioned some months ago this is the first year we're open in November. We are so far having 11 more groups to come here upcoming weeks plus a few more requests.

Yesterday we received a good load of Svartzonker Mcrubbers! Finally we can offer what in my opinion is the best soft lures for pike fishing. 6 colours of McRubber and 6 of McRubber Jr is now available in the reception!

At the moment we are having just a few packages left in November. Are you in thoughts about going for some autumn fishing it's about time to make up your mind asap. The same when it comes to fishing in May 2015. Many requests and bookings done already!

// Daniel Wickman
   2014-10-29




Friday, October 24, 2014

Yet another fishy weekend


November is approaching fast with barely a week left of October. Interest for pike fishing is still great and we are having 7 boats out this weekend plus a couple of guided trips. The groups that are here for the moment experience some hard weather conditions since wind squalls reaches up to 17m/s S/SE.

Last weekend a great fish of 115cm was caught during a fishing competition in town and I've heard reports about a few more pikes up to 110cm. The big mamas are out there but numbers starts to go down a bit from now. Hopefully our guests can find some of those mamas during their stay!

Next weekend we will be closed for fishing packages but after that we will host a dozen more fishing groups before closing down at November 30th. Autumn is a fantastic time to get close to the nature and experience pike fishing. I find it hard to beat when a pike is attacking your lure in really shallow waters. For sure some interesting weeks coming up with good chance to catch biggies.

We still have availability most weekends during the end of fishing season. It's also to be mentioned that interest for fishing in May 2015 is high and several weekend starts to be booked already. To avoid disappointment I therefore highly recommend to consider making a reservation as soon as possible if you want to experience post-spawn fishing in Karlskrona 2015.

And for those of you who are active on Instagram, we are to be found there as well! Just search for Dragsosportfishing and follow our activity!
 
Until next time, tight lines and cheers!


// Daniel Wickman
   2014-10-24







Saturday, October 18, 2014

Big pikes caught by our guests!


Just received a nice report with pictures from a Swedish group that visited us last weekend. They had good fishing and managed to catch several nice meter pikes. Kristoffer's biggest measured 108cm and pulled down the scale to 9,6kgs.

We're having 6 fishing groups here this weekend and upcoming weekend 8 more groups will visit us. Really fun with such interest in October fishing!

// Daniel Wickman
   2014-10-18