Vättern # 1
Two hours after our arrival we were already sitting in the boat heading for a big bay covered with dense reeds. Expactations on that day in early May were high. Finally we finished with a few small pike mostly taken on Salmo Slider.
On Sunday we did not discover a single fishing boat whereas on high season there can be seen twenty to thirty, as I was told later. The warm and unsteady winter caused the majority of pike to spawn four to five weeks before our arrival. We were definitely too late and there were 10 more fishing days to come!
A change of strategy, trolling instead of casting, brought at least some bigger ones. The breakthrough was Christophs 100 + that he took on a dead roach mounted to a SG Lipscull. Windy conditions with occasional rain proved to be best for trolling inside the skerries.
Although our boat was ideal for rough weather the waves on the open lake were often too high to allow safe fishing. Lots of fish seemed to migrate out of the skerries to Vätterns deep water where we could take at least a few of them.
The best fishing day was Tuesday, 15 May. After a standard size pike for Christoph I hooked something on my 19 cm Hybrida that behaved complety different from any other fish before. Shortly after striking it broke the surface and stood in the air for a while. In front of the boat lots of pressure was needed to bring it up for netting. Through the crystal clear water I spotted the characteristic white stripe on the edge of the pectoral fins and it was obvious what I hooked. A char! Not a giant but a wonderful fish.
At 11.30 a.m. Christoph hooked a pike on his sideplaner rod. While playing it another fish took one of his lures. As Nisse stayed at home this morning Christoph and I were now both playing a fish while still having to steer the boat. I put lots of pressure on the fish and had it in the net quickly. Then the unexpected happened: A third fish, now on my rod, striked. I don’t now how but finally we had all three of them gathered on our unhooking mat: 89 cm, 92 cm and102 cm!
A few more fish followed throughout the coming days. A further highlight was the discovery of a huge bay packed with lots of bream and pike close by. The Parrot Slider guaranteed me a clear 5:0 victory that afternoon. Without my Slider I lost 2:0 in the evening.
Looking back and taking into account the miserable fishing conditions we are now happy with what we achieved.
A few more pictures are coming pretty soon!
