The first competition day (part 1)

We wake up at a less than Christian time. 7.15 a.m. is not that early, but still quite harsh when the evening before you admired the Finnish daylight (till about 1.30 a.m.), enjoyed a sauna and had some good company of other teams trying to distract you and intoxicate you. Well, we did our best ourselves to intoxicate the others and judging some faces at breakfast I think I did well on that one.

8 o’clock the cars head off to the boats. The tournament will start at nine. At the little marina most fishermen are eager to get a boat. Kari (our guide from yesterday) is already waiting for us. He grabs my back and takes it on to his boat. And as yesterday was not good for any of the teams, Hajee and I decide to get on board of Kari’s boat. At least we know the man a bit since yesterday and we don’t have a clue (yet) that the different types of boat could matter for the fishing.



When Simon gives the sign most teams rush out quite fanatic and everyone must have had some spot in mind he discovered the day before. A good place to start so to say. Hajee and me are into plans as well. We already have a spot in mind, the one where Hajee missed one of the few pike we saw yesterday. As for the tournament only pike bigger than 70cm will get you on the board, we hope that this pike will attempt to grab our streamer once more. Yesterday (practice day) she did not feel the hook or the streamer. She just missed it.

That first place shows us pike fishing in Finland is not like back home. We combed out the whole area where that fish missed yesterday and did not catch a thing. Not even a scale of a falsely hooked bream came out of the water. In the Netherlands missing a pike without the fish even getting hooked usually means you will hook up the next day. You know the exact spot where that fish ambushes and the next day he/she will be hitting your streamer again. But here in Finland…. Hell no, that pike does not react (maybe she isn’t there any more?).

So we think about what we did the previous day. With the practice day Hajee and I went out away from the river mouth. Hoping to hit the jackpot a bit more out on the Baltic. But that did not pay off yesterday, so now it was up to new imagination. As the other team did not get a real blast yesterday (yes, of course we spoke over each others locations yesterday evening, prior to the tournament) we still don’t know what will get fish to the boat. Yesterday most teams have seen a lot of spawning pike, and as Guy (one of the English) says, "maybe they are just not in the mood.”

We decide to check out some totally different spots and end up discussing whether the engine of the boat could spook the pike. As Kari is quite a heavy person who likes his cigarettes and his booze every now and then, he does practically everything on the motor. We make signs and tell him “nomoto (= no motor)”. We realize how bad your English turns when you try to communicate with someone who does not speak the language at all. But hey, Kari turns off the engine and we start trying to make wind drifts with his boat.

We go back to a spot where we saw the organizer hook up with a fish (more on that in another post) and let Kari just drift the boat over that area. We end up in the vicinity of a small island and put the boat against the reedlands. Time for lunch and coffee. We discuss how it’s been up until now. Not so good, but judging the results of practice day, the fish were just not in the mood. Still actively spawning it would be a matter of luck to find a pike that was willing to take one of our flies.

And even the area that would be more likely to have some action was still a point of discussion. We figured it would be worth a shot to go fishing right next to or maybe even on top of the spawning area’s and hope for some pike that were already finished with their sexual rituals.


Typical spawning grounds for pike

So after lunch we decide to drift along the small island and make as much casts as possible on a drift into the weedbeds and try to trigger something. As we reach the downwind point of the island, Hajee makes a cast just parallel to the downwind shore of the island. He strips in his fly and all of a sudden he takes a strike. He strip-strikes as a reply and not much later he can land the first pike of the day. And above 70 centimeters, so counting for the tournament… Finally, just a couple of minutes before 13.00 team Netherlands 2 is on the board! Our guide understands the joy and pulls out some kind of breathtaking Finnish hula. (well, with two arm movements he is already out of breath...).





We take some point and shoot shots and after releasing the fish we pull out some beers. Time to celebrate our first accomplishment. Who would have thought we'd be so happy with an average pike like that on our second day in Finland? Luckily, the day is not over yet....