Tournament day 1, The aftermath

We return to the docks and the sight is wonderful. Right in front of the little bay with the dock most teams are still floating. On all boats both team members are trying to get a last fish as hard as they can. As we are totally pumped by Big Mama’s place and it is already 10 minutes to 4, Hajee and I don’t fish anymore and Kari cruises the boat right up to the docks.


The Finnish team in front of the docks.

As we get on shore the other boats are also coming in. Everybody has experiences to share and of course everyone is anxious to hear about the results of the others. Our main interest is of course in the other Dutch team, we came here as four and we hope they had an even better day than we had.
Unfortunately that is not the truth. Erik and Harmen-Jan had a lot of fun, caught their fishes, but mostly jack-pikes. They caught more than we did, but not so big. So their score will come out a bit lower. On the other hand, they had more action and to Hajee and Sander, that is a sign H&S probably did not fish the good places as it was hard working for some fish and they only had that unique moment of time at Big Mama’s place.
Erik and Harmen-Jan had a different type of boat and they went on to the shallows. They have seen lots of spawning pike in the reedbeds, where on the other hand H&S (Netherlands 2) did not see pike spawning at all during the first tournament day. Erik and Harmen-Jan fished close to these spawning grounds, looking for aggressive fish or fish that were “spawned out” (=finished with spawning, not to be confused with Finnish spawning). In numbers that did produce a lot more compared to H&S’s experience.
Then the focus sets on to the other teams. We get news from Simon, the Russians most probably will not show up anymore. They were still at the border, the trailer of their boat was not allowed to enter Finland, according to the Finnish requirements (lights etcetera).


Mostly on the reedbeds where the action was.

The Finnish team did well, they caught more pike than the other teams and had some nice ones on the list. England 1 (Mike and Guy) also had good action and probably will have had more than either one of our teams. England 2 and the Canadians unfortunately both had a bad day and merely saw fish.
Back at the lodge the four of us sit down, we try to analyze all the new information we got. The result is that to get numbers fishing next to the spawning grounds resulted in the most productive way of getting them. That tactic was used by the Finnish, England 1 and Netherlands 1. On the other hand if Hajee and Sander would have had some luck and landed two or three more of the hook-ups/ strikes they had, it would have been totally different (well, at least the score would have been).
The options for the next day are many. And as we all mingle with the others the thoughts are moving away from the fishing and start focusing on whisky, rum and beers. Erik and Hajee take some rods out of a rack and make some casts in front of the lodge. Sander and Harmen-Jan relax on one of the decks, enjoying the good company of some of the other teams.
And as good sportsman we end up the night in Finnish tradition, butt naked in the steamy sauna. And to put our autograph on this sauna-thing we introduce Benoit (one of the Canadians) to skinny-dipping-in-a-river-of-melting-water-by-night. Because nothing beats a heart stopping cool off in an ice cold river.


nice thing, that sauna happening late at night...