Lake Vänern

Testing the boat and gear after 10 months rest. Took a while to prepare the little warrior but after sunset on Friday evening it was done. Took off to Lake Vänern on Saturday morning and went out from Spiken harbour.
Decreasing wind made it comfortable rest of the day. Had a half day fishing and had 15 contacts, 10 of them in the boat and 2 with us back home.
Fish bit on bait heads with chrome, bluegreen and pink. Best was the gold green Vuoksiraksi with 30 g. lead. Only 4-4.5 degrees C in the water. According to the vhf people had good fishing at Hinden. With warmer water it's going to get better around the Kållandsö water.
Mate of the day was a collegue from work.

Per looking for strikes.

Lake Vänern. New rodholders on the downriggers.
Thanks, Sven:-)

Goodies for the grill!

I Love Hjo!

Friday, may 15. A windy day, but between the gusts some fisk decided to bit on whitefish equiped with baitheads. I almost had an Vättern triple x 2, but didn't catch the remaining trout. Also threw back the trout i caught. It was a 2,5kg, very good looking trout and with the hook coming loose out of his mouth the choise was easy,- back it went. I released four fish this day. Brought home a salmon weighing 7 kg, char 3 kg and one more char 55cm long.  Not to many out on the lake today, though, i and Bo Pedersen, team tortuga, caught several nice fishes. He and Ivan from Denmark caught a nio kg. heavy salmon among some other smaller salmon and mainly char. Looking forward to fishing lake Wettern again.

Lake Vättern and testing boat.

Tested the boat and equipment. Out of Husqvarna harbour. Everything worked fine. Even had a couple of bites on my baitfish. One of them went home with me: a trout 60 cm long, in good condition. Fine day. 5-5,7 c in the water.

Lake Wettern in February.

I had my friend, Sven Hille fishing with me on wednesday. We fished out of Hästholmen.
It was a little bit windy during midday, but we managed to get some fish bitting on our baits. Smaller fish kept us busy in the morning hours. At that time we fished close to land but a change in our plans made us leave the place for another spot and it was wortwhile since we started to catch several bigger salmon.
3.30 pm we had five salmon and one char in the boat. Salmons weighed between 5.5 and 3,3kg.
They bit on flies, minnows, natural baits with holders from Vuoksiraksi, Salsa, Anchovy special. Also flashers and action discs worked fine.
It was a good day to show Sven the fishing on Sweden's second biggest lake.
It was a good day to show how well the Warrior works on Lake Wettern.
The wind wasn't too bad, but waves got high in the gusts and as usual they were at the highest when the fish was on the move and we more or less fought fish for 45 minutes in a row, i think it was. Sven also owns a Warrior so we had some experiences to share.
I have also updated my Warrior with one more GPS-antenna. Now it has double security.
Next trip to Lake Wettern will be after Vasaloppet. I'm participating in that competition and need to practise a little more.

Sven battling salmon on Lake Wettern.

Really nice fish.

Whitefish and salsa bait holder worked fine.

We had five of these salmon...

...and one char.

Granvik

Late autumn, still not à sight of wintery conditions. Some char and salmon caught. Fished today with Timo from Team Laxsoppa.

Lapponia

Very good fishing in the smallest of lakes. Only possible way to get there is by foot and the effort is mostly worth while. Smallest fishes are let back and some of the biggest walks home with us to the smoker and fryingpan. Pick a lake on the map, get there with light tackle, have a go on the wildest of fish. Some old boats are left and forgotten. Some are still in good condition and floats well. Good use for exploring small forgotten waters.

Lake Wättern, june.

I have had fine fishing out of Hjo this month. The warrior was launched in the lake on the west side of the lake. Fishing was good! Had fish on dodger, flasher and flies. Some new people went with me on these trips and they had a good time. Maybe they'll join me in december. Conditions may be a little bit different but just as fun.
Time to take a brake now. Back in august. Little warrior goes to a rest.

Wettern

Summertime and lake Vättern. Caught three char and one salmon there yesterday. The salmon and one char was released. Incredibly hot on the lake, but still one char bit on a shallowly fished fly! Rest took baitfish behind flashers and dodgers. Fished out of Hjo.

It's fun almost always...

…but this day wasn't one of the most memorable for being particularly fun.

Conditions for fishing seemed to be ok for saturday. We took ourselves together and gathered our gear for a salmontrip to northern Lake Wättern. On the location in Karslborg harbour we saw none of the fine conditions we had hoped to see there. Instead we had rain, wind and not one single fisher in the harbor. NOT good!

Didn't we check weather forecast for this day? 

Hard wind and the rain were far from best possible weather for salmon fishing, but we made it out to our spots just outside of Karlsborg. We didn't one single bite on our baitfishes there so we followed the wind to Granvik. Went over a number of fine spots for salmon but nothing happened before being just outside of Granvik, where we had four fishes landed in a short period of time.
Two chars took baitfish fished with control in Vuoksiraksi baitheads. Both took shallow. Another char took on downrigger and flasher and finally a really fine salmon bit on a baitfish witch had aid from an actiondisc to get the proper swim. Also on the down rigger. Two hours later a fat, small trout took a shallow fished baitfish. Two cm. too small to visit the frying pan, it was released.

A fine fishing day, but the price we paid for it was considerable: more or less everything was wet after the day. Clothes are still drying! We have our Ursuite MPS and that is some really good gear to use always on open water. 

Everything worked really well on the boat, she didn't miss a beat. 

Bert got his salmon for the x-mastable and was of course pleased with that. But, this day we could have fished it from from the shore, casting tubeflies from the rocks is more popular then ever and very effective when targeting for salmon feeding close to land. 

But we are addicted to open water, the feeling of open landscape and horizon is fantastic regardless of the time of the year. So, even though the boat could have been sold for a small amount of money on that saturday afternoon, I might keep her and continue doing this for a while longer.

This is our catch brought home. A 75 cm. long salmon and a 

55cm. long char. Both in excellent condition.

This is classic waters for salmon fishing. Outside of the Axstål 

bunker in north Lake Wättern.

Look from the warriors captains seat.

New fishmobile.

Vättern, november 1-2

Long time, no see. Blog had to be updated, though I had to go fishing getting material for it.
Easy choose for fishing this time of the year; Lake Vättern, northern part is the place where to go at this time of the year.
I made a trip up there and brought with me mothers cousin. He wanted some boost to his X-mastable and that was a good reason to bring him with me.
Fishing was good out of Granvik. On friday we caught two salmon between 70-65cm. Not he biggest of salmons. On saturday we got 3 salmons, 2 trouts and one char.
There were a lot of fish in the area so fishing was easy. Little bit to easy, though i tested some new colors on the Vuoksiraksi bait heads and some new flies. They worked well, so to say.
I'm waiting a couple of weeks, then I'm going up there again. Engine needs to be maintained.
Keep the gear in good shape, folks. Fishing in these conditions is dangerous and demand good seamanship. Better with no salmon at christmas than no fisherman for the rest of the family to celebrate it with. Think twice, and take care.

Vuoksiraksi baitheads rocks.
I'm having a go with them on Lake Vättern and Sven Hille, Rostock, Germany uses them on Baltics with good result. The picture shows his latest catch, a nice salmon from south Baltic sea.

Markku with salmons.

Sven with his salmon from south baltic sea. 

                   

Vättern May 18.

Visited lake Vättern yesterday.
Had good help from Tommy "abris" who assisted me during the day. We got a handful of fish, trouts and char. They were in fine condition, but a couple of months of more feeding won't hurt. Fish bit on baitfish behind flashers and actiondisc, at 30 and 40 foot.

The char on the photo was released after the photosession. The trout on the photo was a good one, weighing in at 3.1kg. Not a giant, but in good shape and it gave Tommy a battle.
We spent 12 hours on the lake looking around for fishy spots to fish at later this spring and summer.
The two photos below are from a later session; one of my old students came fishing with me. We had good fishing north of Hjo. How about three char and three trouts!
The pic below is from a fishing close to midsummer. Got some nice fish then too.

Char going to get wet again. Nice one!

Tommy with a nice trout. 

Anton holding his catch.

Vättern May 9.

Tried the little warrior in bay of Huskvarna on thursday. Took with me some collegues from school since
They wanted to se how this type of fishing is done and perhaps they also wanted to catch one fish or two. During the day the they sas ut all. All weather that is availebla except snow and a nice
trout that bit on a baitfish behind a flasher. The Boat worked really good and i think i gave my collegues an fine experience,

Hasslö week 18.

We had our doubts werever we were to early to Hasslö this year and as it looks right now, with most of the boats current fishing are reporting nice catches. Week 19 would have been a better choice for a larger number of landed fish on our boat. We still had a good week. Even though we didn't catch any bigger than 11,5 kg we had a chance on the big ones. One 21kg was caught out of Ronneby so the big ones were around. We got 5 days of fishing during the week so we had our chances to get wh at we looked for. Meanwhile searching the bigger salmon we had 7 fish taken up. They weighed between 7 and 11,5kg. We also had a number of undersized salmons added to our catch. None garfish, due to the cold water. 3,5 degrees is not garfishes favorite temperature.
Maybe we'll give Hasslö a go the coming weekend. We'll see.
Now it's going to be interesting to see what Havs & Vatten Myndigheten will decide concerning the salmons in the Baltic sea. There is most likely new regulations coming. Hopefully rules restricting number of fish landed, ie baglimits and amount of rods on the boat. 15-20 rods on a sportsfisherboat just doesn't look good!

It would be nice to catch fish as shown bellow by fellow fisherman and us, also in the future.

Bert with 11.kg salmon.

Salmon on the dinnertable isn't to bad. Windy days can
be spent on Wäggahamnens fishrestaurant in Karlshamn.

Kari Mansukoski & Co. took some nice fish on their stay on Hasslö.

This is what it is about: Two 16kg. fish from waters around Hasslö. Congratulations:-)

Jonte "Grosshnadlarn" with a nice 16.5kg salmon caught at the downrigger
10 fot down. That must have been a strike to remember!! Struggling just
pays back. A fair fish for Jonte. Cons.

10 months of rest...

Finally i got out for some fishing from the warrior. On saturday i took off 4.30 in the morning and headed for Lake Vänern. Out on the water 8.00 trying to get some kind of rusty plan to work, trying to find fish in the water between Klas and Pålgrund, west of Kållandsö. Had some points given to me by Finnish friends, but thought i give some "old hot spots" a chance before getting.
The water was cold,  very cold. None fish thought of biting my lures before i entered warmer water north of Pålgrund. This spot wasn't far away from the point i was by my friends. Still, the area was quite big, so i went thru there five or six times and had fish biting every time.
I had a good day Fishing and everything went well.
Weather was great and i had two fishes with me back home. One salmon and one trout. Not sure of the weight but length was 67 and just under 80cm on the salmon. Two more undersized trouts and some strikes was what i managed to get that day. Fish took on baitfish with Vuoksiraksi and Salsa baitheads. Also flasher was useful today and in one occasion also actiondisc worked well. Fish took mainly in the surface, 15-40g. weights.
When boating in Kållandsö area: Look out for the poles that mark the routes. Ice have moved several of them or they are simply missing. It's not a good time to take the boat and engine to the doctor when the fishing is better then ever. Have a shitty fishing :-)

Vuoksiraksi where it belong...in the mouth on a fine salmon!
Fox rage nets save a lot of scales on the fish. 

Kinnekulle in the backgound.
No bananas in the boat, eh!?

Trout and salmon.