"A Big Scandinavian Pike"
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"A Big Scandinavian Pike"
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The northern pike is the most common predatory freshwater fish in Scandinavia, a spar-singly populated part of northern Europe, consisting of the tree countries, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, here you will find Northern pike in almost any lake, river, channel or pond, and as mentioned later, in the sea.
Most anglers here (like me) start their carrier by casting for pike in their local water, for later moving on, to become trout or salmon anglers, targeting mostly sea run brown trout or the atlantic salmon.
The major part of my life as an angler, has equally been turning around fly fishing for trout and grayling, just to get back to where it all started, angling for the king of our freshwater fishes, Esox Lucious.
Traditionally pike fishing in Scandinavia has been practiced with artificial lures, and already in the 30´s Scandinavian manufactures began to produce fishing tackle, but also copied some American tackle, like products from Heddon and Pflueger. Some of these new Scandinavian products later managed to conquer the American market, like the ABU Ambassadeur baitcaster or the Rapala lures.
Pike fishing in Scandinavia, is not only practiced in freshwater, we have a large population of pikes living in the brackish waters of the Baltic sea, where they feed largely on herrings and grow much faster than their freshwater relatives. The season here normally starts when the ice brakes in March, and goes on until December, with April as one of the top month, after the pikes has are entering the spawning areas along the shallow bays of the Baltic coast. From April this year, the Swedish fisheries has enforces new regulations, that prohibit the killing of pikes smaller than 50 cm, and larger than 70 cm to protect the population, and to preserve this important sporting fish along the Swedish coast. Hopefully, Germany, Denmark, and Finland will soon follow the Swedish example.
On Labor day our freshwater season starts, and traditionally the pikes are hungry after the spawning, and daily catches of up to 40 pikes pr boat are not uncommon in some waters. Unluckily closer to the major cities in the southern Scandinavia we do not have many waters anymore that can produce such fishing, and today I was quite happy with an average catch from my local lake, of four fish in the boat, with the best being an 8 pounder.
Not that my local waters do not produce trophy's, because they do, and my largest was a 49.6 inch pike, and 40 inch fishes are not uncommon, but for me as a person this is of little importance, and I rarely weight of measure my catches, as my life is not a fishing competition. But I like to have a photo or two if I have company in the boat, but mostly I fish alone.
Even if lure fishing is the most popular way of targeting pikes in Scandinavia, live bait is also widely used, mainly a roach, that are being trolled after the boat, using up to four rods. I must admit that this kind of fishing(even trolling a crankbaits) is not appealing to me, as I prefer search and sight fishing, an approach I brought with me from fly fishing. Modern lure fishing for pikes, using large jerk baits and big colorado blades, are definitely producing larger specimens than those who are normally caught using traditional crankbaits and spoons, and todays experienced lure fishermen are boating more and bigger pikes, than their fellow bait fishermen.
In the last 15 years Jerkbaits, and swimbaits has been taking over from our traditional spoons, and spinners. A development, that you might have experienced in America as well.
Especially the use of short rods and jerkbaits, like gliders, has become one of the most popular methods of lure fishing for pike, a development that was triggered by Trumman Trumsteds movie, Pike Fever; where he catches a double figured number of pikes over 20 pounds in two days, exclusively using a 3 ounce glide bait, called Buster Jerk, developed by Trumman himself, and the CWC fishing team.
Gliders are the most popular jerkbait over here, with Buster jerk being the number one seller in Scandinavia, and not without reason, this bait has all a glider needs, a reasonable price, great durability, rattle sounds, 50 colors, tree different depth, and it catches a lot of pike, (and muskies as well).
Some time ago, I was completely out fished by my friend Thomsen, who used exclusively a Grey Shadow colored Buster Jerk, and while he was standing 10 feet away from me, answering all my pike questions at the same time while fishing, he managed to pull 6 fish out of the water in three hours, just in front of my nose. Thomsen is one of the best pike fishermen I have ever met, he has a great sense of pulling a great number pike out of water, mostly using the same minimalistic lure, you guessed it, Buster jerk gray shadow.
Buster jerks in some local colors, and at the top, the Grey Shadow
Lately Scandinavian pike fishing, in particular Swedish pike fishing, is picking a lot of inspiration out of the US Musky scene, and again some baits have been copied, as an example, the Alien Eel from Savage gear, look just like the Bull Dawg from Musky innovations!, not a coincidence.
But again, you will find many unique local baitmakers in both Sweden and Denmark, doing exclusive wooden baits, often very artistically decorated, and at a price of four Buster Jerks. Some experienced pike hunters prefer wooden baits from their local baitmaker, instead of trowing plastic.
Personally, I am a great fan of cheap plastic, and the pikes over here loves Bull Dawgs, and SuperD's as much as their American relatives, so I have reasons to believe, that after Buster jerk, the plastic baits will be the next lures go mainstream among the Scandinavian Pike fishermen.
Fly fishing
Flyrodding for pike is equally very popular in Scandinavia, and though I prefer fishing trout this way, many anglers are using flies for Pike. One of the most dedicated to this sport, is the Dane Henrik Leth, he has almost cult status here, and is floattubing around in the Jutland rivers catching big pike on his specially tied Flashabou flies. Leth ties his Flashabou flies, spinning on the strands like a hackle, to make the fly look bigger, and at the same time make it smoother to cast.
The flashabou fly is far the most popular, as it allows us to use lighter rods, and have more fun while catching the smaller specimens.
One spinning lure, that has actually developed out of fly fishing for pike, is the spin fly, basically a large weighted rabbit zonker, heavy enough to be fished using a spinning gear.
So after all, there is a growing interest in modern pike fishing here, with Scandinavian tackle companies like Savage gear and CWC, being not only among the leaders in developing new tackle for Pike and Musky fishing, but also being the frontrunner's in protecting our Pikes due to their promotion of Catch and Release.
Knæk og bræk, or skit fiske(means bad fishing) as we say over here.
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Last updated on ...May 8, 2010
