Heaviest taken While Guiding 2007
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Heaviest taken While Guiding 2007 |
It took long time for me to believe that pike can survive very well in saltwater. In the early eighties the first articles about saltwater-pike were published in “BLINKER”, Europes biggest fishing-magazine and I was impressed by the great catches and wonderful coloured pike in Sweden.
For long time I was dreaming about big pike catches and those articles seemed to bring me closer to them. Despite my desire it still took a while for me to make my first trip to Sweden. A friend took me to “Öland” – a big island in the east of South Sweden. At this time, the catches there were wonderful and I thought I was in pike paradise. Prior to coming, catching dozens of pike over 10 pounds was unimaginable to me. Now I can't imagine that better pike fishing could be found anywhere. The Swedish skerries are famous for fantastic pike-fishing.
Europes best pike-fishing place was unknown for a long time. After 1990 and the German “Wende” (eastern and western-Germany switched together), there came slowly some interesting stories about big-pike-catches from Rügen– (the big German island in the Baltic sea) into the fishing-press. I don´t know why, but also here I was not very fast and it took nearly 10 years to take the decision to make a try in northern Germany. Too many stories about net-fishing, pike-killers and decreasing pike-populations hold me back for too long time and today I regret it.
My first trip was organized in 2000 by Mathias Fuhrmann, today the leader of the most popular and very experienced guiding-team in this area (www.bodden-angeln.de). It was a hard first trip and under rough weather-conditions in early February we blanked all together the first day. Within the following days we caught some very nice pike and in the last day I caught my 2nd biggest pike ever. It weighted 16 kilogramms and was an enormous catch I was sure. This is a new fishing territory to visit as often as possible.
Today I don´t hesitate to say that we have maybe the best pike-fishing water worldwide. Where can you catch 93 pike over 40 inch in only one year? I did it in 2001! In the last 4 years I frequently work as guide in the “Bodden” and our team catches hundreds of pike over 40 inch. The “team-record” is actually a fish of 54.7 inches.
The heaviest fish was caught this spring and had 20,5 kilogramms (see photo at top of this screen). The waters are big and very productive because of the mouth of river Oder, which brings a lot of freshwater and nutritional value into this part of the sea, which we call “Bodden”. Here grow herring and cod beside of huge salmon, seatrout, zander, perch and enormous pike! Some research has proved that many pike grow to over 20 pounds within 6 years and that´s the secret for our success.
Location Is The Biggest Task To Solve
If you come to Rügen don´t expect easy catches everywhere! It took long time to get rather stable catch-results in these wide waters. Many pike anglers who heard about the big pike potential there, went home without a catch. Very good knowledge of pike behaviour is needed to find the fish. Pike in these waters move fast and dozens of kilometres/miles within short time and the big question for every angler is not only temperature, turbidity, good forage, and depth, but it is also very important to know where the pike feel comfortable in salt water. We have two different types of waters there, which are separated by many islands. We have the brackish water, which is located behind islands and holds mostly water with low saltiness. Outside of these islands we have the open sea which is much more salty. We found that big pike only moved out to the open sea only when the water warmed. Also net-fishermen told us that during the winter that pike never stay “outside”, but concentrated in the “Bodden-area”. These waters are still very big – about 100 miles from west to east and 1 to 10 miles from south to north. Into these waters you have channels and small gaps, which connect the open sea with the inner “Bodden”. As wind changes direction, you have frequent flows through these connections in both directions – in and out. This condition keep the pike moving and often to waters I don't know. Location of pike is the biggest task for the interested angler there. Sometime you find the fish close together in small areas and you can make great catches in a short time. In summer, rather often, you find that the biggest pike are far out in the open sea and it is very difficult to locate fish by casting. I think pike love the open sea during the summer and they tolerate the higher saltiness. Under these conditions we troll mostly for trophy pike in the open sea! Even though our results became better and better over the last few years as we have found more pike holding places, but still they can disappear.
Casting Season For Pike
If you like to cast for pike, summer is maybe not the best time to go. May and June are very good months after the seasonal start (no pike –fishing allowed March through April) and the “big – mamas” are still close to spawning areas and weed-beds in the western and eastern part of Rügen. In my opinion, the largest quantity of pike can be caught in October, but the very big fish move in later in from the open sea. The change at a really huge pike are best from the second half of November until end of February. Only ice and severe storms can stop us and that makes planning a trip rather difficult during this period. If, however, you have open waters and low winds, you will have your very best chance at a true trophy pike. Most fish over 15 kilogramms are caught in this winter season!
Fishing Methods
If you ask old, local anglers, they will tell you that the very best pike lure is a big spoon, we call “Eff-Zett-Blinker”. That´s why 90% of these old guys fish only with these spoons. They are good lures, but in my opinion the very best method is presenting softbaits as I described in my first article “soft baits for sharp teeth” (See the archived articles on this website to read it if you haven't done so already). Most good fish holding places have depth from 8 – 20 feet and very often the pike will hold close to the bottom. Of course you can be successful with other lures like big bucktail-spinners, wobblers/crankbaits and spinnerbaits. These choices are best when the pike are suspended in the open water. Suspend fish are difficult to fish for the softbait anglers and it is a good idea to keep an eye on your depth finder to determine if the fish are suspending.
Regulations / Tourist Requirements
Fishing in many parts of Germany is rather difficult, because normally, you need two licenses. A department-license, we call “staatlicher Fischereischein” and a local permission for the water, where you want to fish. Fortunately, the government of “Mecklenburg-Vorpommern”(the department where the “Bodden” is located) has recognized the importance of fishing tourism and accepts foreign licenses. So you normally need only a weekly or yearly license, which is available in many tackle shops and harbours in the area. The costs are very moderate with 10 Euros per week and 20 Euros per year. If you are a tourist without license from your home country, you need a second license called “Fischereischein”, which costs 20 Euros for 4 weeks.
I absolutely recommend that you go with an experienced guide as he can locate the fish easier than someone that doesn't know the area; however, even with an experienced guide it is possible not to catch a truly large trophy. A guide does absolutely increases your chances to get that trophy fish.
The costs per boat including guide are actually about 250 Euros (300 USD) for 8 hours fishing. “Team Bodden-Angeln” offers also trips for single persons for about 80-90 Euros/day, if you agree to go out with other fishermen in the same boat. Unfortunately, most of the guides do not speak English, so communication could be a little bit difficult. While it can be difficult, several Swedish guests came over and the “fishing-language” functioned very well. Frequently, we offer trips for groups of 12 people; 4 Guides with 4 boats take the guests on board and they share the costs. Four days would cost about 320 – 350 Euros per person (guide + boat).
If you decide to fish alone (no guide) in the area, you should know about closed areas on the water. Inside of the coastline, trolling is prohibited and also anchoring in the shipping lanes. It is also very important that you know and understand all of the German/European rules regarding the operation of a boat. There are many protected areas and many fishery-inspectors, not knowing the rules can quickly make your trip expensive!
If you need any support for a trip to this great pike-fishing water, don´t hesitate to contact me: beyer.uli@t-online.de. Maybe, we can do a trip together one day for some of these great and toothy fish…
Click the mailbox to e-mail. Last updated on ...December 8, 2007
