Suuri hauki (Going for gold).

3.00 AM, the alarm goes off. Damn that stupid phone…. But hey, hang in there dude, it is the last day and what a day it is. Instead of relaxing and packing bags. Waiting for the clock to tick away and our ride to the airport to get us on the road. Instead of all that crap, we got Simon crazy enough to go out for an early morning chance.
Nobody knows how it will be. Maybe it’ll be dead? No action at all. Or just the other way around? In the Netherlands I favor the early and late sessions. But in the Netherlands we favor cloudy rainy days above the sunny days we had the past three days. It seemed like in Finland you never have a clue, just think about home, and than do the opposite.

When we came downstairs Simon was up already. Time to throw the stuff in the car and get our asses going. We put the trailer behind the car and drove off. Just half a mile away we had to make a u-turn. It looked like Simon was just like us. He forgot his rod…. So we sniggered about it and drove back to get his rod. Yesterday evening we made up the master plan, we would pass turns and all three of us would fish. This way giving Simon a good chance to fish as well.
The boat went in quickly and I did not need to tear down the borrowed car of François this time for the battery (as I did with Simon earlier this week when the battery of the boat went down). We went onto the water and into the Delta, just 2 and half an hour before we needed to turn back, breakfast at 8. Where to go? I had just one place in mind…. Big Mama’s. Can you imagine that? Sunrise on Big mama’s with good company and on a total different time?

While we were cruising towards it we already saw swirls of bigger fish subsurface. Probably ide, but you never know. And when we got close to Big Mama’s I think we saw several pike predate before we even reached the exact place. We would be putting out an anchor as there was some wind and the boat to big to manage with a small paddle. When Simon slowed down to get to the spot I jumped up on the front deck and Hajee took his rod to the rear. We saw another pike just jump airborn, chasing some fish. This was insane! I took of line and made a cast, strip strip, twitch… we were joking. Instantly a good take. A very hard strike and I strip-striked in return. Fish on! Wow, and it was a strong one… it just went nuts in the water so I asked Hajee if he could assist me. He was about to make his first cast, he finished it somewhere half way and said: “oh yes dude, I get back my streamer and I am there…” “Wow!” I heard behind me and Hajee had a fish on too. A good one too, maybe even better! This just rocked, starting the day with two big pike.
I landed mine and Simon assisted Hajee, not much later both of us sat on the front deck, smiling happily with two nice fish, what a double… just makes you shut up your f%$#ng mouth and appreciate the moment.



Simon’s turn… He started fishing, I took a break and Hajee went up the front. One of them got into a fish, but lost it, then another one came to the boat. Swapped turns, Simon got another good hit and drilled it for some time. Lost it right in front of the boat. Hajee recorded it on video, but unfortunately he was smart enough to loose his camera on the trip back to the Netherlands. Simon ended the drill just a little bit to early and ended it with a nice comment about the barbless hooks we favor.
Then it was up to me again, but I don’t even remember it so well. It was just insane, every couple of minutes or so there would be a strike, a missing fish or just a fish boasting through the air (not on the streamer) obviously chasing something. A complete insanity and we enjoyed.



I remember Hajee getting a fish on the old backwards cap trick. And showing it to the sun who also came out to see us.







And then there was this huge charge on Simon’s fly. Really massive. He was groaning and moaning like Ali G’s great grandmother having a little reserved retirement orgasm… The moaning turned into howling and the guy just was tired of drilling a fish. A fish?, come on, this is not Tuna or Tarpon, just some pike we are talking about. And still I don’t think it was just all Simon’s condition that made it take so long to get that fish close to the boat. He did work hard for it and when we finally got it to hand, a very nice fish was to be observed in the hands of the organizer himself.


master of the Baltic?


just a marvelous fish!!

We took numerous shots of it, awesome fish dude!
After the release it was time… not yet to leave, but I brought a bottle of rum to give Simon as a mere token of appreciation at the end of this morning. But hey… this fish needed to be poured on. So we gave him the bottle right after the marvelous fish. And he opened it up and we celebrated.


fat pig(s)? ;-)



We continued and still had some good action, taking fish, missing fish, loosing fish and sipping rum. One good go on doing that for ages I guess. The end result of this morning was one jack-pike on the backwards-cap-trick and 7 or 8 good fish. Not just good fish, really good fish I mean.
These fish were Suuri Hauki!








as a finishing touch, god created the Dutch ;-)

CIAO!
ps... the next weeks I won't be around. Got some salmonides to chase, on behalf of the Dutch Four....

The last day.

It promised to be yet another warm day when we got up already. When I went to bed the other night the birds were twittering. Guess that predicted it all.


It was an awesome day, we (Hajee and I) finally made it to the lunch packets before last. And we shook hands with the Canadians who were leaving this morning. Pierre-Luc and Benoit, two awesome guys and we had a lot of fun with them. Hopefully we will meet them again.
As not all the English were going out either we were to go with only three boats. One of them not lying in the dock/bay we usually went to. That was the boat of Jaakko and Olli’s father. This time and old friend of the family would be the “guide” on that boat and Hajee and I hopped in to his car and we had a bit further drive. The same boat as yesterday, not perfect like the skiff with oars, but fair enough for a fine day of playing outside.



how do you mean playing outside?

As soon as we were on the water we noticed this old man really did know the area. The pace he had when cruising to the starting point and going through different area’s where we already knew big stones are lying… He definitely knew what he was doing.
First stop: Big Mama’s.... Yet no perfect day like that first competition day, but you never know when you never show. We had one or two fish striking… like I would remember that… Usually you do, but this day was so fantastic.
As Big Mama’s was nothing we drifted out through Crazy Woman’s. “She not there and no other crazy pikey-women either”. So we crossed Harmen-Jan’s Pool. Not much of a blast… In the meanwhile we knew our two buddies (Erik and Harmen-Jan) were back to the same spot they cashed in big time yesterday. How would they be doing and would they phone us up if there was such a thing?
Then we turned around the corner of an island and made a drift in the area that did produce some fish at the last tournament day. Upon arrival Hajee already sets the hook on a very nice fish. We let the boat drift into a reed-bed and jump out, I take Hajee’s waterproof camera and take some x-rated material of the fish and it’s release, beautiful circumstances for such a nice fish. We get back into the boat and continue the drift. Our guide loves it and enjoys the retrieves. I can hear how enthusiastic he is about it, ‘cause when a fish strikes or gets on he produces the same aaah’s and ooow’s most of us would do. He also knows his boating well. With a paddle he makes nice slow and quiet drifts, giving us enough opportunity to cast.




releasing a fish

But that first fish, it was merely the tip of the iceberg. Today it was our turn and we rocked!.
The drift continued with several hook-ups and we turned around the area for a second drift. Again they were striking like an insane tribe of woman on a deserted island that have not seen a man for decades. After a couple of hits (and fish) for both of us I knew today would be the day…
I tied on a foamdiver. Surface lures on the flyrod, it can not be more intense to my opinion. I had maybe 4 or 5 casts (Hajee had two fish missing in the meanwhile) when I heard Hajee missing yet another one. I turned around and saw the swirl. When I looked back I just saw everything happen there. I saw the face of a nice pike just when it came out of the water. Amazing!

catching such a beauty on a popper, makes you horny, aight!

The fish were on, obviously. So Hajee and I decided to make yet another drift on Big Mama’s. This time Hajee did hook a nice one. 96 centimeters of brute force charged his streamer and made him think he had his first meter on for a few minutes. These fish were quite strong, as the drag on the Vosseler had to be set quite hard. Not to prevent the line from breaking, but just to prevent the fish from it’s short but nasty runs. The guide enjoyed every fish as well. “ooowh, aah… Hauki!” – is what he let us know.


finally something at Big Mama's

We saw David of the English hook up some nice ones too at Big Mama’s. It later turned on he broke his PB as well.


oooh, Hauki yessss!

And in the afternoon, after our fourth drift over the best part (where we caught the first fish that morning) Hajee and Erik did arrive too. Not much yet, but this place was good for them too. It was incredible to see ourselves on a fifth or sixth drift, still hooking up pike in the same area. The English in the close neighborhood, catching fish as well and Hajee and Erik, drifting right behind us and catching quite a bit too. Today Hajee and I got stoked… So this is how it can be!


the deceiver worked well




Todays'hotspot

The day ended way too soon and back at the lodge we all relaxed on the decks and had some beers. Nice way to leave, with a day of more than 40 pike in the boat amongst 2 fisherman. Yeah man, the Baltic rules!
We took our dinner out onto the decks. And when we were finished eating I made a joke towards Simon who also was well into the beer already. “I wonder how the fishing would be at 4 o’clock in the morning” I stated to him. “I bet an early morning session would be a wonderful experience and maybe the pike are active when it is not yet as hot as midday.” Simon laughed at me. “If you are crazy enough to wake up at 3.00 AM, I will be guiding you guys” he said to me. Not a single vessel in my body hesitated, a once in a fishing trip opportunity to get some valuable extra time on the water.


Sealing the deal with Simon

So we continued our beers and again ended up in the sauna. It must have been 2 o’clock when I laid down on the bed and put the alarm. One small effort tomorrow early in the morning, would that be something? And I fell asleep within seconds for a small nap before it would be 3 o’clock.
If we did well? Stay tuned…..

Fishing for pleasure, the post-tournament-syndrome.

It was funny to see the end of the tournament did not mean all of us getting wasted and not thinking about the fishing anymore. Hell no, that very last day of the tournament the weather was nice and our learning curve kept growing. Even though some places would look similar, there were some differences. The pike were everywhere, that’s one thing we knew for sure. But you just had to get into an area where they were feeding.

And of course our new rigs gave us more confidence, just like discovering a huge difference in the boat between Hajee’s small unweighted EP-fiber streamer and my big zonker/bucktail double-deckers. It was amazing to see the difference in numbers of fish that took small streamers vs. big ones. We felt more comfortable hauling heavy weight rods by the day. The Echo SW turned out to be superb for some accurate presentations, where myself I fell in love with the action of the TFO TiCrX. That rod has a nice action, well spread over the entire blank and able to pull out streamers at 20-30 feet of the boat to just get them back to the edge of the reeds in one or two false casts.

So after the ceremony I asked Jaakko some materials and he took me into the shop to let me pick out whatever I thought I needed. Not much, simple yellow and white deceivers of about 10-15 centimeters were what I had in mind. So I tied two of those for the next day.




That next day was sweet. As I was a bit frustrated about not having the right streamer the day before we decided we’d go out and try to have as much fun as possible. Just practicing the casts, going to some new area’s we did not see yet and really enjoy the scenery. As we were right in the middle of a high pressure zone the wind was a bit shifty, and we got a new boat with a new guide. Our guide was the little brother of Jaakko and Olli. It was just pure enjoyment to get onto a boat with this young lad, who was interested in all our flies and stuff.


The young fellow liked to cruise around full trottle


with some handsignals we let him approach the hot area's a bit slower

So Hajee and me had a lot of fun, we saw so many pike just lying on the bottom, already finished with spawning, but yet not hungry or active enough to nail down our streamers. We practiced casts and pushpoled each other around through new bays. The casting was a good thing to do as well and Hajee tried to capture some nice shots of the TiCrX in full casting action.


TiCrX in fully loaded action


Hajee tried to make some pics from a different angle


What of course, to our rules ended up in a big mess!

We caught some fish, but in the meanwhile, a few miles away the other two Dutchmen had a blast.
Erik and Harmen-Jan found a spot where the spawning was definitely done. The fish were active as piranha’s and when they came back to the docks they were totally thrilled. Double hook-ups, nice sized fish, they saw it all.

Underneath an intermezzo that just got in from Eriks hand, explaining how they felt at that moment:
The jackpot

The Merikarviadelta is not as big as the Kvarken region where the tournament would have taken place if not for the ice. But still it’s a couple of square kilometres of water, islets, rocks and trees. So after we finished the tournament there were still some parts that we hadn’t visited yet, let alone fished in. It was in one of those remote corners that we (Harmen-Jan and Erik in this case) hit the jackpot.
We had a good boat that day, which didn’t need much depth, and an oarsman who knew his job rather well. The place we went was basically a straight “channel”, some two meters deep. We saw a couple a boats trolling with lures, but no action. We even saw two ospreys but they caught no fish either. So at first glance and apart from the beautiful nature it was not very special. On both sides of the channel however there were shallows. Our guide told us that during the summer the water level usually drops and the channel is all that remains until the cycle repeats itself in the fall. Very carefully we entered the shallows on one side of the channel and worked our way across, casting our streamers left and right in every nook and cranny. Not much happened. We spooked a few fish and caught a few small pike, probably males. After some time Harmen-Jan managed to catch a decent 90 cm fish. We felt relieved; at least we hadn’t come all this way for zilch.
We crossed the channel to start fishing the shallows on the other side. Immediately a big swirl showed the place where only seconds before a pike had dashed off. In its wake more pike started moving. “Stop the boat, stop the boat” we simultaneously whispered at our guide in this almost unfriendly tone of voice that leaves no room for discussion. Superfluous words these turned out to be as he had seen what happened also. Even before the boat had come to a full stop two streamers were airborne. They did little more than touch the water when all hell broke loose. Every single cast produced at least a take. It was incredible. And if the pike didn’t get hooked, so what? A few strips later another one would have a go. Under normal conditions we help each other by landing the other guy’s fish; but now there was hardly any room for this kind of friendly assistance. Double hookups can be a pain you know☺. Yeeehah! And when it slowed down, our guide took us just a little further into pike territory and we would brace ourselves for the next vicious slash at our streamers. When we reached the channel again, maybe one hour later, maybe even less, we had hooked, caught and lost god knows how many pike. We gazed at eachother in sheer disbelief. We shook hands and knew that we had just had our finest hour ever. The jackpot. This one will be hard to top!




complete mayheim


Finland in early may, t-shirts and nice releases
Harmen-Jan was trembling and stumbling over his own words… “I made a cast and saw a big bow-wave coming from behind…. There it comes Erik… It is there look! Look! Kaboom! And miss!” He made a cast right back into the zone and as soon as the fly hit the water he had yet another hard strike. The man was obviously stoked and finally they had discovered the pike-walhalla so to say. The last half an hour of their day was just insane.
It is nice to see people so enthusiastic and it really made us all desire even more for the next day of fishing, which would be the last one. The pike seemed to finally get over the procreating modus into a good feeding mode.

Harmen-Jan makes a recast at a miss, while Erik strikes into fish


even on foot they caught several fish

Back at the lodge we had a wonderful time sitting on one of the decks, exchanging the findings of this day, showing each other pictures and rigs and drinking a few good beers. When I walked back from the sauna to the room at about 1.30 I was already mindset for the next session. We’ll come back on that one.

Awards ceremony (last part of the tournament)

Back at the docks most boats were in or coming in. England 1 had the same experience as both of our teams. They did not have many hook-ups, but some sized fish and lost some sized ones too. All eyes were now on the Finnish team who were still right in front of the docks fishing the last minutes and once more demonstrating what a mean fishing machine they are. It just looked awesome to see them fish. One man up front, making casts to the left of the boat and one man on the back, making casts to the right of the boat. The man in the back (Saku) did not have a big casting platform, so he had a stripping basket on his leg and stripped into that basket. Their electromotor silently pulled the fishingboat through the water and they were fishing V shaped. The boat was in the middle of the V and this way they just combed out an entire area very effectively in one drift.
They stopped and came in at 2 minutes to four, so just right in time.
It resulted they did not have such a good day as some other teams, but still got enough pike aboard to not loose their lead. Although their lead was not as big anymore as it was after the first day, it was clear that they would have enough breathing space to stay in first position.
So the teams all got their gear together and we went back to the lodge. Simon had the exact scores and it was still a bit tensive how today’s totals would make up the final ranking. Could there still be a shift between the positions of England 1 and the two Dutch teams?


this pic sucks, but the cook Francois does deserve a place in the awards ceremony

Back at the lodge we had yet another good meal. Francois (Teddy) proved to be a good cook once more. And as the weather had turned very pleasurable over the past days we decided to take the plates outside and have dinner on the deck. Most competitors had been talking and exchanging theories by now and although the awards Ceremony still had to come, most of us were busy planning on how to fish the next days already. And of course, enjoying the location and the beers together with good company.
Simon himself had a terrible time in the meanwhile. Some miscommunication between him and the “guides” resulted in huge stress. The guides did not get the message some teams would still be staying for a few days and that Simon promised fishing for a week to us. So now he had no guides, nor boats for the next day… He did an amazing job and I am glad to tell you all there’s no need to worry about this being our last part of the fishing-trip report. He found a way to get other boats and men and we were ensured we could fish the other days as well. Thanks once more for that Si.
Okay, so we sat outside and it was time for the official part of the tournament. The prizes.
There were two winners on this tournament. The major game everyday was to catch as much sized fish per team and try to get the most length together. But the other part was for the largest fish of the tournament.
On the centimeters the Dutch did not manage to get gold.
The final result was:
1. Finland
2. England 1 (Mike and Guy)
3. Netherlands 1 (Erik and Harmen-Jan)
Netherlands 2 (Hajee and I ended in 4th place). In this final result it has to be said that the Finnish dominated, they had a serious lead. Nr’s 2 till 4 (so England1 and both Dutch teams) had a close match and I think we all enjoyed that a lot. Every pike missed or lost was one “that could have counted” and maybe just an excuse for being in another place than first. Although I personally think all teams have missed/lost their fair share, so in the end that will even out. The bottom-line would be that a close field adds a lot of fun for all competitors.
Then there was this other part of the competition, where it all was about the size of a single fish.
Saku won the prize for smallest pike captured…. Although Harmen-Jan and Erik still claim that the pike eggs that stuck into the fibres of their streamers should have been a smaller entry then Saku’s fish.
And then there was the grand prize of course… 4 days of fishing and lodging with Baltic Pike Tours at Kvarken…. Erik took that victory home for the Dutch and we were proud about “our” teammate.
But hey…. Have a look at the pics and they’ll speak for themselves.


Team Vision (Finnish), Saku and Tuomas won the first prize


England1, Mike (right) and Guy, receiving two rods for second price


Erik and Harmen-Jan, Netherlands1, both received a rod and got third


Hajee and Sander, receiving fourth prize from Simon Graham


cameras for coverage


Our man Erik, receiving the Grand Prize for biggest pike during the tournament


groupshot: Pierre-Luc, Eric, Benoit, Harmen-Jan, Simon Tuomas, Sander, Saku,Mike, Steve, Hajee, Guy and David

So far, so good. So now you guys know about the prizes. The upcoming days we'll post some more pics and reports about the fishing after the tournament. The Pike-fishing improved seriously and the last days were awesome. But I have to carefully warn the followers of this blog. On Thursday I will be heading down to Norway for trout and grayling a longer period of time. So after next weekend updates won't be part of it for a while.

As we would like to hear how you as a reader/follower experienced our first competition and blog attempts we would appreciate some comments. Around september we will be starting it all up again and if you let us know where to find you we'll let you know when we're getting back more actively.

I do have to give some sort of serious warning, as this week there is still some serious reports to come about fishing for pleasure.....

The biggest pike

Okay, so we met up with Erik and Harmen-Jan right before the ending of the final day.
And I asked Erik to write down a bit of that experience. But before you start reading underneath I would recommend to just cranck up the speakers of your personal computers entertainment system. Because I think this song was on Erik’s mind for the rest of the week (at least I heard him whistling it several times after that moment of the day where he absolutely rocked!)


this song rocks, just like our erik did...

The tournament was supposed to be a friendly but nevertheless serious clash between four man teams from different countries. But as time progressed and the tournament came ever nearer, it became clear that not all teams would be at full strength: the Finnish as well as the Canadian team consisted of only two. So, flyfishermen as we all are, we bent the rules a little so that everybody was going to have a fair shot at piking glory. We simply reduced the size of all teams to two persons.
But apart from the competition between the teams there was a nice prize to be won by whoever would catch the biggest pike; Baltic Pike Flies threw in a free 4 day Kvarken pike fly trip for the contestant who was going to bag the biggest pike of the tournament. No small prize by any standard.
When during the third day of the tournament Erik hooked up with a big pike, he knew this might be it. He had put his streamer very close to a beautiful reed bed at a considerable distance from the boat, in order to not spook any fish, and it was brutally attacked as soon as he started retrieving it. The Dutch Four had practiced stripstriking thoroughly enough to make it second nature. So Erik, who was already pointing his rod at the fish the moment it took the streamer, instinctively knew what to do: step back and strip hard at the same time. The next moment the Baltic Sea exploded! Fish on! A fierce battle went on for at least a minute and then it was over as suddenly as it had begun: the fish had somehow managed to get rid of the barbless hook. PERKELE! If you do not know what this means, look it up in a Finnish dictionary. Then again, it may not be in it.
It took some time to recover from this disappointment, but in the end we're all flyfishermen and we all lose fish every now and then. Shit happens. It does. Don't be a pussy about it, get over it and start fishing again. And for some reason it took only 15 minutes for Erik to get a second chance. Another vicious attack right after the streamer hit the water. And as they say, everything is well that ends well. The beautiful pike, 105 centimeters long, didn't stand a chance against the strong yet very smooth drag of the Vosseler S3. The Dutch Four secured the biggest pike of the tournament.


Erik does know how to admire Finnish beauty


It ain't much if it ain't Dutch... is what this lady must have thought

Outside the tournament Tuomas, a real good flyfisherman fishing for the Finnish team and a great guy, even managed to bag a 112 cm fish. Congratulations Tuomas!


Voodoo child

Last tournament day part 2

Harmen-Jan and Erik made a drift into a pool where they had some action the day before, Hajee and I also knew the place already and we referred to it as Harmen-Jan’s pool. On our drift we came close to a nice reed-bed close to an island, but as we got closer the guide told us to stop fishing. He pointed out to a small house on the island and explained: “crazy woman!” so from then on that corner of the Delta was called “crazy woman’s place”
We decided to make one drift over at big mama’s, as we still believed strongly that would be the ultimate place when talking big pike. Unfortunately I only had one sized fish missing my streamer, so it was time to go on. We circled around the island to another nice looking area with lots of dead reed protruding from the water. In between there were small canals and we tried them all. Hajee got a sized one and two jacks, so it paid off.


was it the spot or the old backwards cap trick*?

(* the old backwards cap trick makes fish think you are going home and they feel save to predate on baitfish again as they think your leaving)

Then it was lunch time. We lost sight of Netherlands 1 and there was no other boat to be seen. As Simon was guiding the British there was no one passing by with updates and we could only hope for the others to have a nice day as well. We stranded the boat into some reeds and ate our sandwiches, this time Francois had made sandwiches with cucumber, cream cheese and ham. Which was the same as all days before and still tasted good. Together with a good lukewarm beer it was nice sitting. The sun was out and believe it or not, it was May in Finland and we were sitting there in t-shirts.
After this pleasant break we drifted out the area, but we did not see anything and after 20 minutes of nothing we decided to move. That was another part of the tactics. If we would not get any sign of fish in half an hour it could be wise to move to somewhere totally different. As we believe that fish have to be active to be able to catch them. Or like guy says: “they have to be in the mood”
Our next spot was amazing. I started out a bit frustrated, hooking lots and lots of reed, but also Hajee obviously got more strikes. Maybe it was the rig? So we made a rig similar to Hajee’s for me (in another topic I’ll explain about the rigs). When we got into the new area I had a jack-pike on at the first cast. That gave some confidence about the rig. We drifted it out, resulting in a sized fish for Hajee in the corner most downwind at the end of the drift. We measured it with the guide and it was 78 centimeters. We recorded the score and Hajee made another cast on almost the same spot. Two strips and another pike rushed out of the reed to get his streamer. He had it on and the guide showed to be a man with a good sense of humor. “ah no, 78 centimeters”-he said. The three of us had a laugh, it ended up to be 73 and yet another fish on the scoreboard for us.
We decided to drift a bit more in that area and it turned out to be an afternoon with two faces. Hajee did manage to get more fish, even another one for the scoring board. Myself I missed 2 and had two jacks in the boat. It was obvious there was a huge difference. At a certain point I took the front position in the boat and made some casts into a corner in the reed. It was obviously a hotspot and I would have sworn there should be at least one hungry pike down there. After 4 good casts and stripping back in through that zone I took it for granted there was no fish in there. But as Hajee was on the back of the boat he then had a chance to make a cast to that same hotspot. As we have been fishing together so long we both approach such a spot with the same kind of cast, same spot, same retrieve. To my big surprise and frustration within three strips of the streamer Hajee had a nice pike on…. WTF! Was my first reaction. But at least good for both of us, this pike measured 80 centimeters and was yet again good for the score.



We discussed things and it looked like we finally got a little clue. This day Hajee had put on a small EP streamer (well, small to our standards) of about 6 inch long. Reassembling a baitfish pattern. I fished with the standard streamers I would fish everyday in the Netherlands and these are about 10-15 inches long. Could the difference in size and shape make such a big difference?
As Hajee now had 4 sized pike on the scoreboard we decided he should try to get his fifth. After that we would switch streamers, as his streamer was the only small baitfish thing we had aboard (yeah, I know, we tied hundreds of streamers and still don’t have it….). We drifted out the same area again and to my frustration Hajee hooked some jacks again where I did not see any action at all.
It was half past three and we needed to get back to the docks. At least we had four fish and it would all depend on how the others did if it was a good score or not. For the day total it was obvious, Hajee had about 15 pike on that single EP-streamer. Myself I had only landed 3 jacks.
When we exited the area we saw the others. Erik and Harmen-Jan. They were stoked. Erik had missed a big fish and got a second chance in the same area, getting a pike of over a meter to hand. That was fantastic news, perhaps this could help us get closer to victory. They had some other sized fish too, so it would be a good score for both Dutch teams today.

Tournament, the last day. (part 1)

The day started out nice. Hajee and I made a serious attempt to not be the last guys to pick up the lunch packets and we managed to get into another car than the last one to leave the lodge. We stopped at the supermarket on the way up to the boats, yesterday evening was very good, but the entire beer-stock was emptied again. By now there was one lesson the both of us learned. We are better when we are relaxed and take a break every once in a while on a hard day of fishing. Just sitting down, making some jokes with the guide and having a beer. Some cracks would say it is a waste of time cause you only have eight hours to fish, but the other side is you are much better focused if you take your breaks the way you are used to instead of trying too hard to keep up a steady pace.

And yes, going for Gold (or at least lots of pike) means hard working. Our regular weapon would be a 9 or 10 weight rod. Try to make as much casts as you can with one of these rods and a heavy streamer and you know what hard working is.


Erik and Harmen-Jan in full action

The tactics for today were easy. Cast your fly almost into the reeds (the closer the better) and then strip in like a madman, just to stay free of the plants underneath. During the entire week none of the four of us had a fish strike very close to the boat. Most strikes were at about 10-15 meter or more. So after stripping in a few meters it was time for a serious rod-bending pick-up and recasting the streamer a meter or two away from the last cast. Unless you had the bad luck of hooking up some dirt. Then you would have to strip the entire thing to the boat and pick the dirt of your hook before you could fish again.
Efficiency, combing out the potential area’s and recognizing the good spots. Although the Finnish still had a good lead, England 1 and both Dutch teams were close enough to each other to have one or two good fish making good differences and still changing rankings. Even two or three good fish more than the Finnish team would give all the other three teams a fair shot at victory. So we had to do it today and the effort had to be 110%.
As said before, this day we were going to try another boat and our Team captain Harmen-Jan showed his value. He was at the boats first and claimed the boat he and Erik had yesterday for Hajee and me. And what a good boat it was… A skiff type boat, with a small motor you could lift up out of the water and the guide proved to be a master of the oars. Almost no reed-bed turned out to be too shallow and he could drift almost every drift we demanded. We started by going through the shortcut passage, the one we could not make with Kari’s boat. Netherlands 1 followed us and we decided to try to start quite close to each other so we could exchange all valuable information.


Hajee in front of the skiff, ready for battle as we cruise to the delta

Netherlands 1 took the reed-beds on the left-side of a bay, we went upwind and started on the right-side. The water in this bay was not the clearest, but yesterday Erik and Harmen-Jan had seen a lot of pike spawning in this area and that means they must be there. Our first three drifts were not so successful, but the guide was a big pleasure. He could really let the boat drift perfectly around the reeds and we felt that we were doing the best thing possible.
We tried to exchange some words with the guide, he did understand our English combined with hand and foot signals a bit. Pike is Hauki in Finnish, so we were educated that morning. So we started to make up silly songs and melodies… “Oh Hauki, where are you?”-Hajee sang and at the moment it came out of his mouth he had a strike. It turned out to be a little hauki, but at least there was a sign of fish. The song worked out a little bit as we had three little hauki’s more aboard the boat. None of them big enough to score for the tournament.



When we finished (no, we are not Finnish, we are Dutch) the area we cruised to Harmen-Jan and Erik. They still had no pike in the boat, but lost 4 bigger ones and that was a drag. Imagine getting 4 sized fish on the score in the first hour…. That would have been a serious attempt to get that gold medal. Harmen-Jan told us it was a madhouse, they started and had them on within that first hour, but unfortunately could not get any of them in the boat. At least one thing was for sure, the tactics were good and all four of us had good faith for the rest of the day.

typical view of the surroundings early in the morning