Suffering with all this fine Swedish food drink and Fishing - going home to UK to recuperate !
Sunday 31 July 2022
30th July - Sodertalje Canal once again beckons
Last fishing day for Mick on his Swedish holiday so we took the horrendous journey of driving 700 metres (3rd gear engaged once) to 'the pegs' . We had the day before fed the fish so as to make sure they were there , will they be ? Any Carp ?
Mick was now very used to this peg so he was direct on same length / depth / rig / feed . It started a little slow but he was first to take a Bream of about 3lb (1.25 kilo) then a further Bream of similar size with Skimmer , Roach and Perch.
Meanwhile on my peg i struggled with only a skimmer and two roach and few Perch . I tried worm corn and dead reds but nothing substantial . Then for a middle two hours we both struggled as the sluss gate allowed ships / boats / yachts / pleasure craft of all descriptions to pass through.
Then the fish returned and Mick again started to take some sizeable samples as his net started to get more populated but mine was still very slow however like someone had thrown a switch then my peg came alive and Mick's went quiet-ish ! So now my turn but unfortunately my fish were small with nothing over a kilo , probably best was a 2lb (900gr) however i took many roach of dumpy 4-12oz size (190-360gr) .
What a venue ........it has it all ; Deep water pole fishing (T5-T6) , Bolo and Slider . Feeder not really an option as too many ledges that could snag you . Pegs could be up to 40 as Kommune clear them quite often but an easy 'Strimmer' to clear . .........i would like to have a slider match in early November ????
Hej Då Sodertalje canal from Mika Carrson
MICK's favourite Swedish words he has picked up :
'JA JA MEN SAN'
Sunday 24 July 2022
23rd July - Sodertalje Canal - Is there Carp in this area ?????
After an intense few very hot days with a Swedish record temperature of 36 degrees the Saturday became dull , cloudy , cooler , damp . moist with quite a cool breeze so it was wear your fleece time .
Mick and i sat in previous pegs that we had the first great catches from a couple of weeks back , we expected good fishing this time due to the change of weather , did we ?
Well ! ........what a start for me after throwing in three small balls laced with dead maggots and some corn i had a fish on first placement of my 5gr Sensas Jan Francois rig 0.16/0.12 EXNER 04 series size 14 ........about 1.75k Bream on the corn .........wow , that was unexpected as normally the Bream come in later however it was noticeable that as we set up there was Bream rolling in front of us . In fact when i first set the box in the water there was a huge splash/swirl only about 5-6m our directly in front of me ? Was it a Pike however they normally attack aggressively and there was no fish topping so slightly weird to know what caused it ?
Then for the next hour i had one further fish a skimmer that came off and Mick had several Perch . About after 2 hours i had a bite and struck but the line was solid so thought i was stuck but then to my amazement it started to move to me left and i shouted to Mick ' Its a fish and i have no control' ! For sure it was Big and heavy and my JRange 6-8 elastic started to stretch to optimum capability and the lump went out towards middle of canal where i held it and for the next 5 minutes i just held on to it however briefly i did get it to the top where i glimpsed it was very long and golden colour so i thought it was not Tench as it did not fight like one . It was just a really heavy lump . Possibly at about 7-10 minutes later i started to guide it in and started to push my pole back behind me on a Top 7 and i knew the elastic was 'bottomed out ' almost . I started to adjust the position of the landing net in readiness , then it came almost to the surface and it was huge and long and looked like a CARP !! (It was very light golden coloured and at about 30-60 cm below the surface could see that the line direction was to its mouth so there was no foul-hook situation but in that few seconds of viewing it , it suddenly turned and threw the hook !!!!!!!!!!!
What a fish!!!! ....... i sat there shocked and shaking actually as have i witnessed the first Carp in the Sodertalje canal ? In fact i remember when i first arrived in Sweden in 99/2000 a Swede had told me that he thought there was Carp but next to ASTRA ZENICA on the other side (there may have been some warm water influence next to the vast array of production buildings , i speculate ?)
What else could it have been ? Bream ? ......no as it would have come in quicker and this was no dustbin lid but a long golden fish of at least 75cm long ?
Could it have been an old Ide however again i speculate that would be landed after an initial fight but this was not a fight more guiding a lump that was mostly controlling me !
I thought initially Tench , Ide , Big Bream or even a Burbot but none of these show the same fighting characteristics as the fish i had on .
So i can only assume it was Carp due to its colour of light and Golden , longish fish that looked the shape of a Grass Carp , Big Head , scaling like a Common Carp all that i recognised in the two very brief viewings of this fish in the duration of being towed by this .........thing !?!?!
Also i think that if Carp it would be darker because of the deep water in the canal however the water is clear ........ i wish i had landed it , massive regret , what the bloody hell was it !?!?!?
Mick in his favourite peg that supplied him with some very good bream two weeks prior .
The rest of the session was awful as i had no further fish or bites ! , Yet , Bream continued to roll on the surface in front of me and Mick . We thought due to the extreme warmth in the water that they maybe up in the 4 metres depth of water we were fishing but we tried with no success . Eventually Mick snared a Bream and a good Roach with a splattering of Perch ..........but a poor day was experienced which must have been down to this hot weather we had a few days previous .........the water was literally a warm bath and Mick was dangling his feet of the box in it .
Thursday 21 July 2022
18th July - Karlstad trip for 3 days fishing
Monday 18th we travelled at 03:30 AM in the morning as need for a full days fishing at the Stonebridge is required . We arrived at the SCANDIC KLARALVEN HOTEL early morning just to inform them of our arrival and we placed our travel cases in the baggage room to lessen the load in the car which was max'd out with fishing gear.
We arrived at the Stonebridge and i placed Mick on the peg i had last year and i worked a peg through the tall grasses about 20 metres downstream . It was not long before we were both set up ready and both of us had stick float rods and pole with stick float rigs and EXNER ELIASZ Pole float rigs on Top 5's to 3gr .
The river was the lowest i had seen and also very clear so it was expected to be a little tougher fishing ????? ..... ummmm .......not ! . We both started catching good size Roach , Bjorkna , Dace , small Ide on mostly corn as maggot only gave you nuisance bleak.
We fished till late afternoon and lifted the nets to show a great days moving water fishing and sheer exhaustion from early morning travelling and that great Swedish fresh air . Mick caught his first river Ide weighed at 2.3 kilos (5lb) and he had others which amassed with his catch realised at least 13-15 kilos ( (28-33lb) of fish . I had similar also with several decent small Ide .
Tell me ! .........how good is this !
Fish coaching ..........neahhhhh .......he didn't need it
1.8 kilos Ide with a few a few smaller samples and a bag of silvers
Great day for Mick with a first ever River Ide
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Tuesday 19th and a change of venue and we were advised to fish FORSHAGA and we duly did ! . (This venue was advisory for the Feeder competition we are running in September however read on and we will fish DEJE instead)
Breakfasts was first class - Suffering continuously
How good is this ? ...........bagging on Dog Roach all day , with Bjorkna , Dace and small Ide
Enjoying every moment as Mick caught many on the short feeder
Mikael decided for a dip - he is half way across the river only up to his waist !!!
Mikael 'Phelps' Nyman
Mick caught a river Ide weighed at 2.3 kilos (5lb) and he had others which amassed with his catch realised at least 13-15 kilos ( (28-33lb) of fish . I had similar also with several decent small Ide .
One Happy Chappy !
Quality Ide
Master of weigh ins is Mikael Nyman - Top fella
I think he is luvin' it !
Not bad for 3 hours fishing
DAY 3 on Wednesday the 20th and we decided back to the Stonebridge . We were greeted with more pace in the river due to control further upstream . Very hot day and much disturbance on the river by swimmers and boat craft which reflected in the weight returns but we both had a good 9 kilos each
Back at our base and two glasses of your finest draft MARIESTAD lager please !
Incredible ! - The river very low and people out in the middle sitting in chairs !
Last night at Karlstad and of to the town we went - First stop was the BISHOPS ARMS pub and Restaurant where Mick is propositioned by a statue
Inside the 'Arms' and photo opportunity's everywhere.
Still more fishing to come
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