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Saturday, 21 June 2025

2025 - METMASK bait - has to be to a standard for the very best anglers in Sweden.

Since Sweden does not have a recognised Bait farm (Maggots , Casters, Pinkies and Worms) then its down to the importers of the bait to look after it and care for it through its life expectancy ready fo sale. 

Keeping bait is always a challenge and when you have experience of bait care then you have the best quality that could be sold in the country , in this case its Sweden. However sometimes the supplier can possibly let you down and errors with bait care can be incurred. 

One particular company even 'makes' its own casters which takes care and inspects all the time. Of course you can buy ready pre-packed but fresh is always better.  When it comes to Bloodworm and Joker then you are reliant on a company that has looked after Bloodworm and Joker for the last 30 years as its an extensive job continuously filtering and cleaning to have the best quality available .

Experience of bait of all types comes from communication so a certain tackle shop is able to gain influence and expertise from recognised icons in fishing within the UK ,  like Kevin Ashurst , Lanes Bait and Brierley Baits of England over the last 25 years.

As the match world in Sweden becomes smaller ( except for Feeder matching) then the competition for bait supply becomes aggressive with pricing to attract the customer to purchase. Its known that some pricing would appear not to be affective to good trading and profits look almost zero !? , so its hoped that other tackle outlets are selling within the taxation and VAT law of Sweden , we hope so . Even other sources of bait supply on odd occasions from individuals need to know that importing in bait without proper paperwork is an offence and is counter active to all the other tackle shops in the country, just saying .

It is important that all the tackle trade in Sweden is helped by you the anglers whether it is Matches , pleasure angling in the warmers months and ice fishing in the colder months. We realise that products are purchased outside Sweden and that is the new wave of shopping as many other products are purchased also and companies like AMAZON for example benefit .  This is the way of the world thus the town centres suffer with closure as they are unable to compete .......sadly the fishing tackle trade will also suffer and if it diminishes then what have you left to continue with ?

SWEDISH TACKLE TRADE NEEDS ..............................YOU !!!!!
















  





2025 - June - Hjalmere Canal keeps on giving

Prior to the Match weekend on 14th/15th June the boys decided on some method feeder tactics and came up with some good results 


Russ with a glorious Rudd









Jamie Chelsea getting into some nice Bream











Tench of 2 and 3 kilos on the day for the Russanator











Huge bar of Gold for Jamie




Absolute solid unit


Monday, 16 June 2025

2025 - Hjalmere canal - June 14th+15th - METMASK 2 day event

Finally , one of the best METMASK match weekends was upon us . The Hjalmere canal has such a great history of fishing in recent years and again we run two weekends of matches this year . A recent DM match returned reasonable weights but not too spectacular however KING of ARBOGA, Mr.Thomas Larsson again projected himself to another win thus he also became KING of HJALMERE CANAL........can he do it again or will there be another KING crowned this weekend ?


The beautiful Hjalmere canal full of skimmer , Bjorkna , Rudd , Roach , Perch ,Tench , Bream and a few Crucians ...........its got it all .



The day started well for me with a few early skimmers however i failed to get any substantial size fish and ended up with 97 .

Benga Peg 1 with 8475 




Janne peg 2 with 17975



Per with 15900 on peg 3



Palle peg 4 with 8075




Nils peg 5 with 4725



HÃ¥kan peg 6 with 5875




Jesper peg 7 with 10950



Stefan peg 8 with 1825









Tomas Uuuuuuuu on peg 9 and showed his class with 10800




The day started well for me with a few early skimmers however i failed to get any substantial size fish and ended up with 97 but still enjoyed a days fishing and plenty of bites. Peg 10 6100




Marcus on peg 11 with 9500




Borlange Porn star Russ North with 7575 from peg 12




Mr . Jamie Chelsea with 4825 from peg 13



From peg 14 Esa had 6100




The recent Kung of this years fishing Thomas with 10375 from peg 15




Kjell on end peg 16 with 4300 




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Travelled on the Thursday to Jamie's Den of debauchery to meet up with the Bait Master Mr. Russell 'North' Hopkinsson. A chicken dinner with potatoes , vegetables and gravy , madly consumed and washed down with copious amounts of wine. 




On the Thursday it was pack the car time .





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SUNDAY June 15th , Day 2 of the competition . 

Yesterday we were on Section B and swapped to A section today. Some parts of the track road are very narrow so it was important for both sections to drive in numerical peg order.



The Legend that is Palle



My Peg for the day 



Peter North



The match started and immediately many were targeting Bolo for Rudd on the far side . I decided for just 3 T4's and a 7m whip. I had 18 fish immediately after 20 minutes but there was periods where the fish switched off a little , it could have been to the flow on the canal. 5 hours went by and i accumulated 114 fish composed mostly of small skimmers and Bjorkna with a splattering of Roach and Rudd . I had just 4 decent netter skimmers and lost a Large Bream (approx. 1.5k ) it came up to the surface trailing another line from its mouth or head, shame . 


Weigh time so we started at Peg 1 of our A section

Kjell enjoyed some good fishing with 10400 from Peg 1



King of Arboga / Hjalmere DM Thomas with 21400 from peg 2




That Chelsea nutter Jamie on peg 3 with 11150





Esa on peg 4 with 15275



Me on peg 6 with 10925 in my Leicester City FC shirt - but now its Straight back down 😔👎






Tomas Uuuuuuuuuu ! peg 7 with 17425 



Marcus on peg 8 with 13325




Section B and this was close battle as Janne and Jesper were next to each other . This was a battle as the weights proved to be .

Janne Peg 9 19800





Peg 10 with a good smile was Jesper with the days best weight of 24375 !!



Patrik had 17825 on peg 11 (had to leave fast for work) 

On peg 12 Nils amassed 9375




Stefan took a creditable all feeder catch of 7825 from peg 13




Per on peg 14 took 9950



HÃ¥kan on peg 15 with 5850




Last to weigh in was Benga with 6475 on peg 16 






Incredible weekend of fishing with staggering weights on the second day . After a battle between Janne and Jesper with Thomas , Tomas and Marcus running them close , it was Janne that conquered the weekend and was duly crowned the KUNGEN AV HJALMERE CANAL


RESULTS :




The money winners 




Accumulated weights




Special mention for Janne , not only winning the weekend but also his help and creation of the tabulations . Excellent job mate , thanks so much 






My conclusion from this weekend :


This is what fishing is all about with friendship , laughs and great competition. We have another match in August (9th and 10th) at Hjalmere canal and we expect even better weights . I shall keep faith with the 16 who attended this weekend but it might be possible to include 4 more pegs !? 

Also with the possibility of the road track being improved next year then maybe we can all come together for a work party to improve space for casting and take down a few large branches and trees and try and create better parking spaces behind . This also could lend itself to have more work party's for Arboga when we have Jespers great 4 day event and the METMASK 2 dayer. 

If we could talk with the controlling body and see if we are allowed to place notice boards to list all the matches down at the canal thus keeping away others who wish to camp there on certain dates. 


Ok , well done to Janne the KUNGEN and everyone else who made it such a great weekend . See you all soon.

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Previously on the Friday in the car park ( not on match length)

Russ and Jamie both fishing Method feeder for 3.5 , 2.5 kilos Tench , Big Bream and 1.5 kilo Rudd 








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