Drevviken, 30th June 2007

Arrived with the intention of fishing for Rudd at 11.30am. With the moon at it's highest point at 12.54pm I thought the fish might be feeding and they did not dissapoint, with constant bites coming over the next three hours or so before the swim went absoloutly dead. The reason for this suddenly became crystal clear to me 30 minutes later. I finally got a bite at this point and struck into a good Rudd of about 3/4 pounds. After a good tussle on a light swingtip rod I was drawing the fish across the surface when it was engulfed by a very large Pike. The line immediatly parted and the Rudd was gone. I rigged up a fixed patternoster with float immediatly on the pike rod and then spent another 30 minutes trying to catch bait, which eventually came in the form of a small Bream. The bait was only in the water 2 minutes before it was taken and I met with solid resistance, the fish initially refusing to move, so I pulled it towards me. As the fish came into view I was gobsmacked at the sight of the fish, an easy 20lb, while at the same time the fish suddenly realized something was wrong and bolted for the middle of the lake, making three runs that took 50 yards of line from the reel. The fish then sulked around for 4 or 5 minutes as I gradually gained most of the line back. Just as I thought I had the upperhand it bolted along the bank to my right and fouled my line with several lengths of heavy weed and then, sickeningly, the line went slack and I realized I had lost the fish, I was completely gutted.

Despite the dissapointment about 40 Rudd were taken, the best 4 fish weighing .27kilo(9.5oz.), .28kilo(9.9oz.), .32kilo(11.3oz.), .35kilo(12.35oz.) These are the 4 fish photographed above. The largest, being over 3/4lb, earns 1 point on the league table.

Drevviken, 28th June 2007

Fishing brisk today for Linda and I, with a lot of Rudd to 80z. and several Bream also caught. One Roach of 7oz. and several Perch to 9.oz. also taken on the leger over groundbait close to the bank. Though no points were scored today it was not all dull and Linda lost a very powerful fish which bent her rod over double before snapping her off, not that easy on 12lb test line. There are some very good fish in this lake and I predict with time that Rudd in particular over 2lb and perhaps Perch over 3lb will fall to someones rod...

Drevviken;24th June 2007

A poor days fishing, Rafa and I were out all evening, with just one good fish taken by myself, a Perch weighing .53kilo(1lb 3oz.) The fish gives 2 points to the league table.

The only other highlight was a small jack Pike which attacked a small Roach I was reeling in. The fish released the fish at the bank and I baited the same Roach up under a float on wire trace. It was immediatly taken only for me to miss the fish again.

The perch failed to swim away and was gassed up so I took it home for the table. Most interestingly the stomach was crammed with crayfish, as was the last Perch I filleted. crayfish tail may prove to be a good bait for the species...

Updated Points Table

2007 Points table to date now looks as follows;

Al; 22pts.
Karl; 9pts.
Linda; 6pts.
Rafal; 6pts.
Kev; 1pt.
Ian; 0pts.
Baz; 0pts.
Jim; 0pts
James; 0pts

Drevviken;18th June 2007

Drevviken was the venue today in still, humid conditions. Arrived with Rafal at 16.45 and fishing was brisk for the first hour. Rafals first cast with a mepps spinner produced a Perch, which was soon followed by a small Pike which grabbed the lure as he was taking it from the water.

I groundbaited the swim and half an hour later came up trumps on the legered worm with a superb Rudd, a personal best which tipped the scales at .69kilos(1lb 9oz.) A really beautiful specimen which gave me 6 points. A Bream and some small Perch follwed this before Karl arrived and we moved swim after it went quiet. The new swim produced 2 more Rudd for me weighing .4kilo(130z.) and .28kilo(90z.) The larger of these two gained me another point on the table. Rafal had a point for his Pike and also had another Pike a few days ago for which he also gets a point.

Fished through the night for Zander, but without success as the fish were not feeding on this occasion...

Drevviken: 14th June 2007

Very windy on the lake today and this made fishing rather tough. Linda and I arrived at 15.30 and immediatly settled on legering a worm on the bottom. Over the course of the day several Bream and small Perch were caught. Fishing improved at around 19.00hrs when I managed to land a suprise in the form of a Rudd, while normally a surface or midwater feeding fish it took a worm of the bottom... A really well conditioned and superbly coloured fish, it tipped the scales at .29kilo(10oz.), there are undoubtedly much bigger specimens in the lake.

Heartbreak followed when I struck into a rather delicate bite and was suprised by the severe resistance I was met with as the fished lurched away strongly taking line as it went . A tremendous scrap followed before a huge Perch came to the surface and plowed off again. The line then parted 8 inches above the hook leaving me gutted, the biggest Perch I have ever seen gone. Still it is a good indication of the potential of the lake for the species....

Linda picked up a Ruffe towards dusk, lovely little fish when viewed close up, though never grows to more than a few inches in length..

Kev's Mother in Law!

One caught by Kevin Moran while in Australia last winter. Still unidentified at the moment but was refered to as a "Mother in Law Fish" by the local anglers on the basis that they are not great to eat, so thats who you would give it to rather than eat it yourself! Doesn't count in the league here in Sweden, but still a great fish.

Will update points table soon, takes a bit of work and need to contact everyone to see if they have more points to log.

Kev's first of the year!

Well, Kevin Moran finally managed to get off the mark with this 2kg(4.4lb)Pike which fell to the plug above. This gives him his first point of the season. Not far off the 5lb mark and a nice start. fish was difficult to land due to reeds and a lot of other bankside vegetation, which accounts for its appearance, but was returned alive and well nevertheless.

Stockholm; 30th May 2007

Out in the evening with Karl and Ian. Tried at new site at Vårby Gard. After Karl caught a small jack pike and gained a point we caught little else and decided to move back into the city and try Stockholm Strom. Using worm for a couple of hours yielded a fine .59kilo(1lb 3oz.) Perch. Also managed a couple of Ruff, a small species and it seems a night feeder.

PointsKarl; 1pt. (Karl also had another Pike 2 days ago and gets a point for that also.)

Al; 2pts.

Vaxholm; 27th May 2007

Out on Vaxholm this evening for 4 hrs from 6pm onwards. Fishing brisk with tons of bites on the leger, too many in fact to use both rods. Suprisingly the main culprit was Silver Bream, with about 4o fish caught. One or two were close to half a pound or so in weight, which is respectable for this species. A single Perch of about 8oz. was caught at 7pm. The rest were all small roach.

Tyresta Slott; 19th May 2007

Went out after work, bit frustrating as I arrived at 04.55am only to waste 45 minutes struggling to catch bait at the bridge while another angler landed 3 Pike averaging around 5lb while I was there. Eventually got a small roach and moved to the tip where I found bait was easily caught! The first cast led to an immediate run which proved to be this small jack pike. The bait it took was half its owm length! Caught at 05.55. Saw a few large fish over the next 15 minutes swirling but got no mre pike in the session. Loads of Roach and Perch, though nothing big enough for points....

Tyresta Slott; 17th May 2007

Went out for dawn today and it turned out to be a really fantastic morning weatherwise. On arrival we were suprised to stumble on two young Moose in the grounds of the slott. Started fishing soon after and Karl hooked and landed a super Pike at 05.20hrs. The fish weighed in at 5.2kilo(11lbs.3oz.) Fishing was fairly quiet after that and we only managed a few Roach and a couple of Perch before we moved back to the inner area. Other people were fishing here and we were very suprised to see this Tench taken out by a swedish angler at 13.00, a scarce fish in the baltic sea. This fish weighed 3-4lb. Also saw 3 large Bream hooked, which were all lost by various anglers due to fishing with tackle that was to light to land the fish. Managed a lot of Roach and a smaller Bream during the early afternoon before we left...

Present; Al, Rafa, Karl and James.

Moon rise time was 03.22am, Karls pike caught at 05.20am.

This fish at 5.2kilos is worth 5pts. to Karl.

Points to date are;

Alan;12pts.

Karl;7pts.

Linda;6pts

Rafa;4pts.

Kev; 0pts

Ian; 0 pts.

Baz; 0pts.

Jim; 0pts.

James; opts.

Möya, May 5th 2007

Be warned, this may happen to you if you bring your girlfriend fishing. She fished me under the table. A perch weighing 0.73kilo and 2 Pike under 5lb. Amazingly she caught both pike on worms!! The gloves are because she saw the teeth on the pike...

I got nothing lads...

Toms Lake;8th April 2007

Out today and conpletely fishless, dead! No runs on float fished deadbaits or takes on legered worm, no fish activity at all seen....

Nice day for all that!

Tyresö;5th April 2007

A fantastic few hours fishing had today with 4 Pike in a 1 hour 25 minute spell, with the first thre all falling to my own rods in just 15 minutes! The first fish, caught at 11.05am, was the largest, a really long fish, though rather thin and most probably just finished spawning, and weighed in at 5.69Kilos(12.51lbs). This fish was also badly marked up on the rear flanks, perhaps also most likely due to spawning, no doubt though that in good condition this fish would have been at least 15lb or more.
The second fish was taken at 11.15am and weighed in at 2.77 Kilo(6.09lbs), before the third almost immediatly took another float drifted stromming bait at 11.20am and was duly weighed in at 3.08Kilos(6.77lbs).
Karl arived in time to see the two smaller pike landed before duly hooking one himself at 12.30pm, this was a cracking fish too and tipped the scales at 4.04Kilos(8.88lbs) and gave Karl a new personal best. Things then remained quite before we had to leave at 1500hrs. Unfortunately Rafa had to leave early for work but still managed to get his childs pram into the picture of the bigger fish for posterity!

Weather;Wind Nw, f4. Bright at fist before clouding over at 12.30pm.
Moon at highest point today at 13.35pm, Full moon two days ago on April 3rd.

Points; Alan--9pts. for 3 fish, (Total 12pts.)
Karl--2pts. for 1 fish, (Total 2pts)

Moon Phases with regard to Fishing; April 5th 2007

Have recently been researching the science behind Moon Phases with regard to fishing and identifying feeding patterns in fish, optimizing fishing dates and giving ourselves the best possible chance of catching more and bigger specimens. Click on the link below for an in depth summary..

http://www.moonstrike.co.uk/home.html

http://www.moonstrike.co.uk/lunarcycles.html


From now on I will post the relevant Moon Phases on the days fished and then catch results can be compared directly to see if marked results come in the expected periods. Going to Tyresö Slott today for pike, leaving shortly. Full moon was just two days ago, this combined with a moon at its highest point at 1335hrs today should mean feeding Pike close to this time...

Should be an interesting experiment....

This link has also been added for easy access at later dates in the links section...

Tyresta Slott;1st April 2007

Rafa and I went out for the day, exciting fishing with Pike very active, swirling at the surface and spawning in the reeds near the point. Two fish caught by myself, largest a 2.08 kilo fish, a shade under 5lbs. Raga unluckily had a dropped run and judging by the depth of the lacerations on his bait had a good fish on.

Aspudden/Sickla Udde;30th March 2007

First fish of the season were taken out today on a lovely sunny spring day. Aspudden was the first location tried but yielded just a small roach on ledgered worm, the first fish taken out of the water this year, a whopping tiddler! After nice views of a White Tailed Sea Eagle being harrased by gulls Karl and myself soon decided the fishing was poor and the time had come to move on...
The move to Sickla proved worth it in the end. Deadbaits had not taken any pike so we switched to spinners five minutes before packing up. Two minutes later a 1.73 Kilo Pike(just under 4lb.) was landed by myself right at the death. Nice end to a nice day.
Hope to see you guys out there soon enjoying the spring! Trip on Sunday, April 1st is going ahead.
Points Today; Al...1pt.

2007 Season kicks off....

Out at Henriksdalen today in an attempt for Seatrout. Spun lures for an hour, but were so cold had to knock it on the head after 90 minutes and no fish! At least we tried. So cold the line was freezing, rod rings freezing solid too. No points so....