After my arrival in the Vestervik Fishing
Camp I first got to know the rest of guys including Kai, who was to be my
boat partner for the following days. Uli had arrived a day earlier and really
made us hot with stories and pictures of countless pike he and Jörg had caught
on Zalt, Zam und
shad in the Old Bay. Of course the next day we
all went to this enormous bay, which is almost completely separated from the
Baltic Sea that is probably what makes it so special. Amongst other things,
there is supposed to be an endemic species of small Herring which never leaves
the bay. Kai and me are having a hard time, he start out good with a 99cm pike
but then we hardly catch anything, just a small pike every now and then. In the
surprisingly quite turbid water shiny glittering lures an neon colours seem to
work best. At least I get my first pike on
bulldawg. In the evening we analyse the day and find that we really
searched too slow, we promise to do better
the next day. The others also didn't catch way as much as yesterday.
In the Labyrinth of the Islands
The
next day we go to the northern archipelago, a real chaos of islands and I am
very glad I brought my GPS along. We meet the other boat and a little while
later turn into a small bay. In the shallow water I start with a blue-silver
Husky Jerk, twitching it
delicately through the water. Not long and i get the first bite, and the second,
the third! That's the action I had hoped for, when I booked this trip. Two bays
farther along Kay really gets them going on the Zalt and I get a 91cm on the
Slider. The Zalt turns out to be an
exceptional lure: if you
jerk it, it has a very irregular action,
always flashing its sides and probably rattling with its sound chamber as well.
The pike seem to go totally crazy over it. I'd estimate that we would have
caught only about half the fish without Zalt. Anyway we're working along bay
after bay, some really nice looking places are completely empty, then we find a
group of pike again. After a while we seem to develop an eye for the piky
places, but it's never really sure. Then
in the evening we go back to the first bay and, believe it or not, we both catch
a meter pike! Kai gets a 103cm on the Zalt (what else), I get a
101cm on a 10cm Slider! It's my first meter pike, although just 2 centimetres
larger then. So that was a much better day...
The next day we wanted to go to the southern archipelago to finish the full
program. Now we definitely really needed the GPS just to get there. But hte
fishing was very slow, just a lazy follow every now and then, hardy any more. A
glance to the thermometer of the fish finders tells us the reason: 1°C! We
drive to a bay leading further inland and almost instantly register warmer
water. But in the end, it is really just one secondary bay in there which brings
some fish to the boat, most of them fall for the Zalt, no surprise. Towards the
evening on the second tour through the bay I successfully try a never before
fished lure, the Rapala X-Rap.
To bad its so small, but it does a very nice "walk the dog" and catches some
pike. In the following days I mainly use it in the morning hours, when a small
breakfast seems to be just what the pike are after and they also seem to prefer
the brighter colours as long as the sun is low. In general I found it
surprising, how well bright and shiny colours did, even in very clear water, as
soon as the was a bit lower. in turbid water they where also good of course.
Action on the Hotspot
Now that we got to know the three basic areas we went back to the northern part,
were we liked it best so far. First we visited the places we knew from the day
before yesterday. Although I could convince a 91 to take a pink X-Rap for
breakfast, we didn't find the real action.
Then we went to the general area, where a boat had caught quite good yesterday
and found a bay, the wind was blowing into. Wind had been an important factor
the last days in finding the really good action (well, we've known that
for a longer time now, haven't we?). And really we tie into some superb action
there. No really big fish, but sometimes there is activity on every cast. It's
just unbelievable how many pike must be stacked there in a relatively small
space! In the next small bay the action is even more extreme, but definitely
only the Kindergarten topping off at 70cm. I get my best quantity on this day
with 24 fish, Kai even manages 40. That was the best "numbers" day of the trip
for us. A curiosity was the catch of piker which had obviously swallowed a
softbait including the jig head some time ago. The rusty hook was protruding
from the belly and on the opposite side you could definitely feel the lump of
the lead head. We couldn't withstand another trial to catch the legendary giant
pike of the Old Bay, but all we got was a very feisty follower on a big pink
(there's got to be something about that colour) shad. I tested titanium leaders
on this trip for the first time and comparing with the other angler there that
saved me at least one lure and I never had to change a single leader the whole
week!! Only the leader on the jerk rod had lost a strand on the second to last
day, but I kept on fishing and catching with it without any problem.
The
next day we go to the northern archipelago, a real chaos of islands and I am
very glad I brought my GPS along. We meet the other boat and a little while
later turn into a small bay. In the shallow water I start with a blue-silver
Then
in the evening we go back to the first bay and, believe it or not, we both catch
a meter pike! Kai gets a 103cm on the Zalt (what else), I get a
101cm on a 10cm Slider! It's my first meter pike, although just 2 centimetres
larger then. So that was a much better day...
We
drive to a bay leading further inland and almost instantly register warmer
water. But in the end, it is really just one secondary bay in there which brings
some fish to the boat, most of them fall for the Zalt, no surprise. Towards the
evening on the second tour through the bay I successfully try a never before
fished lure, the