Summer fishing

Hi all fishing enthusiasts,

Summer is here and as usual, there is not that many anglers visiting us during this time of the year. A pity, since we have warm weather, long days and sometimes active fish! Still, we have at least 1000 guests staying at Dragsö everyday now, but mainly to enjoy their holidays and see Karlskrona. However, fishing is sometimes good in the summer to and personally, I fish many days in the summer to!

Monday was spent together with colleague Willy and his father Håkan, both members of Team Karlskronafiske. Only a few days earlier the daytime temperature was 30 degrees and in the night 18-20 degrees. Monday however, was for sure not as warm. Only about 17-18 degrees and the water temperature dropped to 16-17 degrees. Very strong winds from west made it a bit challenging.

Fishing started slow with no fish caught after almost two hours. But the slow morning was soon forgotten since the following hours resulted in more fish and the average size was really promising. At least two pikes exceeding +100cm was seen following our lures but several fish well over +90cm was caught in the same area. We mainly fished three different kind of areas this day and caught about 27 pikes.

Yesterday, I was once again out in the archipelago together with my friend Calle. This day the wind squalls was up to 20m/s so it was really rough waves out there. For sure many spots was impossible to fish but the good thing with having lots of islands and structure in this water, is that many areas are still possible to fish regardless of wind strength and direction.

During the day we managed to catch 14 pikes and again with some nice sized pikes of really good condition. The biggest ones this day was 95,95,93. I had best results with Renz-Stein Beastlyshad 17 but we also caught fish with Beastlytail23, McTail with Bigtail, Pig shad jr and Relax 6'.

A few guided trips are also booked during the summer and last week I spent 4 hours with German guest Roland. He had never caught himself a pike but soon enough he was hooked up. A 106cm pike (8,5kgs) was his first ever pike and guess if he was happy! We ended up with one more fish of 108cm plus a few more small fish. It's hard to complain when weather was enjoyable with +25 degrees and low winds that day.

I hope fishing can continue to be good upcoming weeks!

// Daniel Wickman
   2019-07-03

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Gäddsafari #1 2019

Sommaren är här och äntligen har nu våra populära gäddsafari event dragit igång. Som vanligt arrangeras dessa turer varje torsdag under sommaren och den första turen bjöd på minst sagt blandat resultat mellan båtarna.

12 fiskare fördelat på tre båtar var inbokade till den första fisketuren för sommaren. Med tanke på att vi var relativt få deltagare kom vi också iväg tämligen snabbt från Dragsö Camping. Vi satte kurs österut mot Verkö/Tvegölja som var kvällens första planerade stopp. Väl där kunde vi konstatera att vindarna var något starkare än vad vi på förhand trott. Istället för vindstilla hade vi nu 4-6m/s från sydväst. Med andra ord, det såg bra ut!

Undertecknad hade denna gång sällskap av familjen Glimstedt. Barnen var laddade till tusen då de varit med en gång tidigare för några år sedan och haft lyckan att då vara i den vinnande båten. Denna gång skulle det dock visa sig vara svårt att få ens den minsta gäddan att intressera sig för våra beten.

Under den timme vi spenderade på första platsen lyckades vi inte hitta någon aktiv fisk. Vi bytte plats flertalet gånger utan framgång. Detsamma gällande fiskedrag.

Som vanligt går tiden snabbt på sjön och vid halvtid var det dags att röra sig närmre centrum. Basareholmen, Kalsholmen och Mjölnareholmen var de utvalda platserna för sista stoppet. Molnen var ilsket mörkblå och det såg ut som att åskskurar inte var alltför långt borta. Temperaturen sjönk snabbt och vi med shorts och t-shirt kunde snart se gåshuden yttra sig. Enorm skillnad mot kvällen innan då kvicksilvret fortfarande visade 28 grader så sent som 22 på kvällen. Denna kväll var det svala 17 grader när vi nådde bryggan igen på Dragsö strax före nio på kvällen.

Nåväl, på den andra platsen för kvällen lyckades åtminstone en av båtarna lura upp lite fisk. Och det var inte vilken båt som helst. Denna kväll hade vi nämligen 20 års jubilarer med på sjön. Ingvar och hans dotter Marie-Louise har under så pass många år deltagit på våra gäddsafarin och just denna kväll hittade de verkligen rätt.

Det visade sig att Ingvar med sällskap lyckats fånga 4 gäddor, och dessutom tappat en större fisk som slet sig under båten. Den längsta gäddan för kvällen mätte 79cm och i sedvanlig ordning utdelades vinnarkepsar och denna gång även blombuketter till våra jubilarer. De andra två båtarna hade inte samma fiskelycka utan fick nöja sig med att komma ut i skärgården och bevittna himmelns skådespel där västra sidan av centrum bjöd på klarblå himmel medan östra delen var betungad med mörka moln i olika färger.

Nu laddar vi om för nästa vecka och hoppas gäddorna är huggvilliga för våra deltagare torsdagen den 4 juli. Platser finns kvar så säkra ditt deltagande genom att kontakta Dragsö Campings reception 0455-15354 eller via mail info@dragso.se

// Daniel Wickman
   2019-06-28

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Peak season is over.. Or is it??

Hi fellow readers!

Wow.. I think we have a different clock at Camp Dragsö Sportfishing. We're in June now but it feels like it's still middle of May. Days are running by so fast! Actually, the official opening dates for spring fishing season is already ended but still we had about 50 anglers on our camp this weekend. In addition, we had almost the whole campsite fully booked for campers and caravans last few days.

Last week results were some days very good, with up to 50 pikes/boat and day. As always, there are big varieties between our rental boats. Some catch 0-5 pikes per day, some catch 20 per day.. This was also the case during this weekend. The best boats had about 20-30 pikes per day while there were at the same time boats with 1-5 pikes per boat and day.

Some big fish was caught during the last week or so as well. 108, 107, 107 was the top pikes caught by our guests and a couple of them not far from the magical 10kgs mark.

During most of June there will be less fishing guests and more "regular" camping visitors. Still, for those who want, there is several weekends available in June as well. It feels like the typical "May fishing" is a bit delayed this year and maybe we can experience that great fishing in June instead!

Hopefully, I will have some days on the water upcoming week. Most of my days off work last few weeks has been full of other plans (Yes, obviously I can do something else than fishing!). To be back with more reports soon..

// Daniel Wickman
   2019-06-02

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Getting better

Hi fellow readers!

Most of May has been a disappointing month for anglers visiting Karlskrona. It's been unusually cold and most days has been North/North-East winds. Not the favorite conditions for sure and pikes has for sure not been happy or eager to feed on our baits. May is normally a month when numbers can be great since pikes are feeding after spawning. This year however, not many days has offered good numbers. Many boats has reported between 1-5 pikes/day while as always a few boats finds areas where the pikes are active and numbers of 30 pikes in a day is reached. Still, those kind of reports has been rare for the whole month.

Many guided trips has been on my schedule lately. Unfortunately, many of these trips resulted in low numbers as well. Only a few trips got up to "normal" levels with between 15-28 pikes per day.

However, last days has been warmer and water temperature is now around 14 degrees in average and warmer in the bays. This is for sure positive and maybe fishing starts to get better now. Yesterday I was out for just three hours during a special event with clothing brand Didriksons. Me, Willy and Didriksons representatives Per & Ulf had a really good morning with 20 pikes caught. A lot of missed strikes and followers as well, in areas where there was basically no activity 10 days ago.

A lot more boats have now started to report between 20-30 pikes per day, some with even more. I say, FINALLY!

We still have some busy weeks before summer season starts for real. Hopefully fishing can continue to be good or even better during the last "spring" weeks. Actually, today we've had 25 degrees! The warmest day this year for sure.

And hey! Don't miss the chance to catch some herring or why not horn pike/"garfish". They are here in huge numbers at the moment but soon enough they will all be gone again, for this time.

Thank you for reading and hope to see you at Camp Dragsö Sportfishing in a near future!

// Daniel Wickman
   2019-05-22

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May update!

May is finally here and as always this is a very busy month for us. Last weekend we were fully booked. We had 17 rental boats out on the water plus another 10-12 private boats. In addition to this, we also had some guided trips and you can understand that we had our schedule filled to its limits!

Weather has continued to be strange. During the last few days we've had several nights where air temperature dropped below zero again. Combined with this, we also had several days where day time offered all sorts of weather. Sparkling sun, wind squalls up to 18m/s, heavy rain, light rain, hail, small twisters... we had it all!

When it comes to results, I would say that you can for sure feel now that activity is slowly getting better. Pikes has now started to spread out from the bays and can now be found in most parts of the archipelago. Yesterday, I had a guided trip with two Swedish men. We managed to catch 18 pikes during the day and most of them was caught around islands. The biggest pike caught by our guests last weekend, at least of what I heard of, was 105cm.

Today we also welcomed Ivan to our crew. He spent a week at our camp some weeks ago but has now graduated from the Swedish Sportfishing Academy, ready to start work immediately! Make sure to say hi to him if you visit us!

Our on site restaurant has been facing some major renovation lately but will soon be ready to open up again. The original plan is to open for lunch at 20th of May while the restaurant will be fully renovated and done in mid June. I can assure you, it's going to be great!

Right now we have a little less than 20 anglers on site with many more to arrive in a few days. Still, a few weekends in May is still open for reservations. Normally, most weekends get fully booked early but this year we still have a few packages available during popular weeks and weekends. Don't miss out!

// Daniel Wickman
   2019-05-06

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A well visited Easter holiday

My frequent readers will probably understand why the activity here in the blog has been low lately. Simply, there has been no time to sit down and make an update.. However, now it's finally time again!

We're in the middle of easter holiday and at Dragsö we have more than 150 campers/caravans staying over the weekend. Today we also said goodbye to about 35 anglers that tried their luck over the last few days. Weather has been super strange lately. Last week we had 5 consecutive nights with negative degrees which once again created small layers of ice in a few shallow bays in the archipelago. However, this week has been the completely different since several days is reaching air temperatures of 20 degrees. This combined with nothing but sun, no winds at all and low water (-40cm) doesn't really invite to good pike fishing conditions.

Most guests that left us today reported about low numbers and not to many big fish either. At least two pikes over +100cm and the best boat had 25 pikes in one day, while many barely reached a handful per day.

I wild guess would be that approx 4/5 pikes are now done with spawning. However, still we get reports about pikes being caught which still carry their eggs. This is completely normal for this time of the year and most probably it will be a few more weeks until the last fish is done.

Next weekend we'll be visited by approx 30 new guests. But until Thursday, we only have one group at Camp Dragsö.

I will now have a few days off work. Let's see if there will be any time spent on the water... A bad guess is, of course it will be!

// Daniel Wickman
   2019-04-21

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No April jokes!

April is here and it feels like spring is just flying away now. Did we even have a month called March this year? Well, obviously we had! Last week we had about 25 anglers on Camp Dragsö Sportfishing and I must say that numbers was variating a lot between the boats. Still, a lot of big fish has been caught!

About a week ago, I was out on a guided trip with RAM MOUNTS and had a great day on the water, with Jörgen Lind as a guide in another boat. In my boat, we caught a fantastic number of 67 pikes with the biggest fish measuring 106cm and over +8kgs. The other boat had very good numbers as well and I think we ended up with more than 120 pikes in the two boats. This combined with a nice bbq for lunch really set the flag on top this day.

A few days later I had a half day trip with Randall from USA who brought his two sons Riley and Randy. We had very difficult conditions with no wind and almost clear blue sky. The trip was slow in the first hours but before lunch we started to feel a gentle breeze and pikes got active immediately. Within the last hour or so we managed to catch 11 pikes and the slow morning was forgotten.

Later in the week we were visited by approx 20 more anglers who skipped the Swedish Sportfishing fair which was arranged in Jönköping last weekend. Most of the groups had tough fishing the first day, which was Thursday, while the rest of the weekend offered mixed results. Several boats had about 20 pikes per day and very good average size with many between 80-95cm. A couple of pikes over +100cm was reported as well!

A nice bonus catch was also reported during one of the days. A stunning sea trout of 4,5 kilos decided to eat a jerkbait for lunch! Sea trouts are not easy to catch but if there is any time of the year that we hear about those bonus catches, it's for sure now during end March/April.

One of the guest groups told me that they found an area where pikes seemed to spawn, while the other groups didn't see any signs of it yet. It's normal for this time of the year and most probably some more pikes will start this week. We had a very cold night last night with negative degrees but upcoming days will be 6-9 degrees in day time according to the forecast.

Today we also welcome Ivan from the Sportfishing academy to Camp Dragsö Sportfishing. He will do his trainee period for a week now before he starts working on the camp in the beginning of May. Very welcome!

Oh, I forgot. It's been some time since my last post.. I forgot that since then, I have also catch myself a real beauty out there on a day off work. A stunning lady of 113cm and 11,7 kilos, caught in about 0,5m of depth. Guess if I'm happy :-)

//Daniel Wickman
  2019-04-01 

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