The Day Of Records!

The midsummer celebrations were dropped and replaced with pike and zander hunting in top gear. 30 battle ready roaches in the tank, as we set out a little past noon in a heavy rainshower. In just a short while though wind and rain were forgotten, and the focus was on one of the rods which was already ringing fish. Better described as a little cute zander at 1.2 kg – We were started! The good tendencies appeared to continue and there was not long between bites. Pike, zander and perch all came to greet us within the 2 first hours. They were not record fish, but that would quickly change. First I caught a nice zander at 2.48 kg (New PR) and just after a good pike of 6.18 kg.

New PR zander at that time - 2,48 kg

Lovely spring pike - 6,18 kg

The bites continued and suddenly one of the rods bent completely in two like it had hooked Tom Kristensens Audi. Jens gave a quick counter after which started 10 – 12 minutes of intense fighting with several violent runs. The pike threw in the towel at last and slid over the net framw. Wow, what a fish! We were sure it was a 10+, but the weight stopped unfortunately at “only” 8.94 kg and 112 cm – and therewith new PR to Jens yet again. (Congratulations old boy!)

8,94 kg - 112 cm - New PR

By that time we already had 10 pike, 3 zander and a pair of nice perch in the boat, so we thought that we must have used all of our luck. Apparently not before we got a further 8 pike and 2 zander, as well as a load of perch of which the one was a new PR to myself at 3.82 kg.

New PR zander: 3,82 kg

All together it was 18 pike, 5 zander, about 10 nice perch and 3 new PRs – that must be an “all-right”! All fish were taken on roach and all fish were released again.

Fishing fever is at its highest, so I expect we will soon be out again :)

Wind speed 4 – 12 m/s
Water temperature: 19.5 – 20 degrees
Fishing time 10 hours

Pike bonanza and a new PR!

After a couple of weeks break from fishing yesterday it was pike and pike-perch on the agenda in the south of Zealand. The day before we had filled the aquarium with masses of bait fish, so we were 110% ready for a crazy day on the lake.

The boat was packed and in the water Sunday morning in a storm which was certainly neither fishing weather nor suitable to sail in. But we just had to! The first few hours went with rowing against the wind in half-meter high waves, winging about it and just a few small perch and pike in the boat. After more cursing and swearing about the wind we chose to set course to a calmer area of the lake. This decision would prove to be quite sensible.

We quickly hauled in a couple of good pike up to 4 kg and the bites never ceased. Suddenly one of the rods bent completely over and the line just flew off the reel. Jens quickly gave a solid counter strike and we can immediately see that this fish simply must be landed. After a great fight of 5 – 10 minutes the pike finally slid over the edge of the net and we saw right away that it was a new PR.

After quickly de-hooking we weighed the fish at 8.61 kg and 105 cm long and therefore a new personal record to Jens + a new number 1 on our top 10 list –WAY TO GO! (See more pictures of the pike at the bottom of this article). The pike was of course gently released.

Jens' new PB: 8,61 kg and 105 cm

 After the scene of excitement ended we continued the hunt and the good fishing continued. Over the next 4 – 5 hours we landed a further 12 pike with the largest being 5.7 kg.

95 cm - 5,72 kg

The year’s first zander turned up as well weighing in at 1.5kg.

 All the fish were caught using live roach fished over 5 – 8 meters of water. Now that the belief in the big pike has taken root it will not be long until we are out again.

All in all 16 pike (and just as many lost), 1 zander and a good handful of perch.

Tight lines everybody! :)

12 pike in the boat

On Monday we took a trip on of our favorite lakes on South Zealand. Despite a hard wind it was a great day with 12 pike in the boat – the two biggest at 6.36 kg (New in the top 10) and 5.31 kg.

The best bait was Alien Eel Firetiger, 20 cm shad in black/silver from Savage Gear and live baitfished at 3 – 4 meters over 5 -8 meters of water.

The next trip is the 20th of June on the same lake. We are crossing our fingers that the large pike will be playing then.

Tight lines everyone!

Esoxworld.com – Free pike magazine!

I will just give a little tip about Esoxworld.com again.

It’s a 100% free online pike magazine, where there are many good articles about pike fishing from all over the world.

You just need to create a user and you can download all the magazines you want.

Good reading :)

Big fat 0-trip!

Just returned home from my fishing-careers biggest disappointment: 4 days in Sweden, 30 – 35 hours of fishing and 0 fish! That’s bloody miserable and quite simply not good enough.

Expectations were otherwise high, as the trip last year – same place and time – produced several fine fish with a pike of 7.47 kg to top it all. In fact the water temperature measured 5 – 7 degrees lower than last year (3.5C) and the pike were therefore in anything but a biting mood. We tried everything in the tackle box, dead bait, different depths, cast- and trolling fishing, nothing worked. The only thing we didn’t try was live bait, so perhaps that would have been the key to success?

Although the fishing was somewhat lacking, the lake showed itself apart from the last day from its best side.

On Friday  the Danish pike season starts and we're ready to rumble!

New gear

As mentioned in the last contribution, we have before the start of the season upgraded the fishfinder, electric motor and tackle. The largest upgrade is without doubt the fishfinder, as we replaced our Garmin Echo 500 with the new Lowrance HDS12 Gen2 Touch.

It has not yet had its debut, but I reckon we will be pleased with it. It has at any rate all the features we were looking at; large screen, GPS/map plotter, Structure Scan and the possibility of making one’s own lake maps. We are looking forward to testing it like young kids, and we will certainly write a full report at a later date. As to the motor, we have during the two last seasons used a 14 year old electric-motor, and now - after loyal service – is being replaced with a top-tuned Minn Kota Endura MAX 50. It should be much easier on the battery so in future we don’t have to carry 15 to 20 kgs of batteries around.

On the tackle front there are 2 new reels and rods and a mixture of tackle. The reels are Shimano Technium 4000FC and 5000FC with a pair of Savage Gear rod, of which I cannot remember the specs. Additionally a few new rubber creatures in fresh colors and a couple of Ghost paravanes fell into the tackle bag.

One thing is sure, we are 100% ready and prepared for the start of the season in Sweden on Friday. Now we just have to cross our fingers that the pike want to play.