2025 - March 9th - Trosa

The day before i fished my local canal in Södertälje for 52 Roach on a beautiful warm day . Today i visited Trosa the angling Mecca when the fish are 'in' . I arrived about 07:30am and already several anglers were there and catching fish , this is good news . When i took a walk you could see fish all over topping the surface so very good news indeed . The morning started quite warm and sunny but that changed by 11:00 am as foggy and cloudy weather approached and dropping the temperature drastically.

I quickly set up a feeder rod using my MATRIX ETHOS XR-F 11-10 with a small PRESTON 20gr feeder . I cast past the wooden posts and straight the way the tip was bouncing so clearly there was a depth of fish there in just 1.7m deep of water . Tip went round after 20 seconds and a Roach . Ummmm , i thought if i carry on with feeder fishing eventually i have all the drop-shot / Jigger boys casting in the same place so i decided on a pole approach and fished inline to the post in front of me thus limiting them casting into me - some of these people thinks its fair gain to cast where they want - thats Swedish fishing sometimes !

I set up two pole tops using 1.0gr and 1.5gr Garbolino SPT19 floats at about 1.5 and 1.75 depth to HAYBUSA 157 size 16 (later progressed to a 14) , also used the HAYBUSA 158 long shank hook size 12 . I fed SONU Baits DEEP WATER and CORN and BISCUIT mix , 50-50% . Started on dead maggot and Pinkie and caught from the off with 17 fish in 15 minutes ! I fished two line at 11m and close at 3m .

Earlier that morning before i started to drive to Trosa

So after 15-20 minutes the clicker registered 17 fish and they were quite small so i switched to corn - better , bigger.

83 fish recorded just on lunch time 

Progressed to 134 fish 

Then the first alternative to a string of Roach when this beauty Ide (5lb ish) gave me a scare. It came when the fishing went quiet possibly due to these in the peg

 

Followed by a second ide (2lb ish )

Followed by a Bjorkna 

About 14:00pm everywhere went quiet and no fish caught for about 30 plus minutes , really strange , maybe weather or air pressure off the increasing cold wind from the right (the sea).

I carried on for 2 hours more and decided that 200 was a nice target , and so it was !

200 fish

OMG - My hands were freezing and i was shaking rather badly as the temperature must have been below zero when we took these pictures 

Good friend Stefan Johansson turned up for a couple of hours on the opposite bank and caught 56 fish on feeder. He packed up and drove around to me to help with the photographic stuff .

2025 - March 8th - Södertälje Canal

 At the start of March the weather started to change as this remarkable winter has shown to be very mild compared to normal winters . However there is still weeks to go so the snow and cold can comeback with a vengeance ! 

Looking at social media its clear that some venues are responding to this milder weather and catches are recorded at Arboga , Lidan and Trosa as well as Nyköping.

So i decided to fish my local canal which took all of 2 minutes to drive too , it was an exhausting trip. Previous to it being iced over in the last couple of weeks in February then Stefan Johansson had a few good sessions at the same place securing 90-120 fish ........can i match this ?

From this picture you can see the clarity of the water

View to the right of the peg

Small boat coming through

Recorded 52 , some periods no bites for 20 minutes then you get a few . Not sure if Pike were putting them off ?

Many small fish that were a nuisance all day taking my pinkies off my 18s hook 

2025 - February 5th - Sodertalje canal - Stefan feeder fishing

Yet again Stefan fished the canal for essential feeder practice for the coming season. The normal place was just a little iced over so a new position was found.

It took him a good 15 minutes to find a small flat bottom as it appeared there was a few 'snags'. So it was essential to spend time to get it right. However he did lose a couple of feeders but did better on small window feeders .

 

Full concentration from Stefan and he had to have the rod high up due to the snags in front of him

To the left of where he was fishing you can see the marina with a few trees in the water (shame they cannot get them out as this would create a super little match length)

Stefan had 0.5oz tip with braid but the wind made it awkward for the bite indication.

Stefan's secret additive to his gb mix and maggot flavouring - 'Ruby Red Stefan blod mix'

He is in , again !

Very tempting to fish this area and test for the bottom contour to see if there are any flat snag free areas

This view from where the road cul-de-sac ends so easy to get kit to bank with 10 m walk !

After an hour i decided i must get back for my gym afternoon work out. Later Stefan confirmed he had 72 Roach in 4 hours 

2025 - January 28th - Sodertalje Canal - Stefan feeder fishing

Received a message from Stefan at about 10:00am that he was fishing the Sodertalje canal near me - a visit took place hearing that news......

When i arrived he was already in 1hr 15 mins and on 45 fish (on the clicker)

Out of the mist the dredging boat was depositing 

Ducks taking any loose offerings from Stefans bait table.

Stefans hands getting cold so he took a talking break with me for 30 minutes then back into bagging more fish and when i left he was on 61 fish (mostly roach with 2 small Bjorkna)

2025 - January 26th - Trosa

I decided to visit Trosa as the weather was clear and fishable in 3-4 degrees . When arrived at 08:30am the wind was on my back so comfortable. I had all my normal match and predator gear with me so i started on the drop-shot .

Started here and second cast i was stuck ! i freed up but i lost my drop shot weight 😞 Moved to the corner and persisted for at least 45 minutes .........but nothing !

While on the corner i found two lots of discarded braid - i then bagged it up ready for disposing properly when i got home . 

Advise to anglers who discard line and braid - PLEASE take it home and cut it into small pieces as animals and birds could accidentally get entangled - PLEASE !

Took a break and ate a few Pizza pieces with coffee and i never saw anyone catch a fish and i reckon i had seen 20 plus anglers today and not heard of any catches !

On the bright side , the sun attended to warm us up a little 

I met Daniel a Romanian guy and we talked endlessly about fishing , politics etc ..... We both decided to move upstream to the weir .

No takes for Daniel and i did not bother to fish .

We met Pasi earlier the AFK TROSA bailiff and he remarked that he had not seen any fish catches which was strange as the river looked in good condition . It was a really blank day which can happen at Trosa , some days this time of year the fish can be there and others days we are mystified where they are ? Thats fishing !

2025 - Getting prepared for the coming season - January 23rd

Soon the season will be upon us and preparations are starting in earnest. With more feeder matches available i decided to get myself geared up with a series of feeder rods , especially the MATRIX brand . So i have rods for strong rivers and deep canals and Lakes. Best purchases are through METMASK.

Additional tackle arrived ;

Thats all folks !