Updates
Images and updates from the tournament will appear here...
Day one of the tournament and its been a tough couple of days fishing, yet has produced a few good sized fish.Conditions haven't been easy in that there is not a hell of visibility due to murky waters and the pike are either spawning or just finished.
Today saw the Dutch take an early lead with a few 80 cm fish and some smaller jacks.
While the day goes to the Fins with Tuomas Rutknonen bagging the 1st of 2 fish over 100 cm with this one at 102cm.
And this one at 112 cm 10 minutes before the clock rang for the end of the 1st days fishing
Finland lead with England second and the Dutch 3rd. I'll write a more extensive report tomorrow as I'll have more time to spend on the internet.
During yesterdays practice day I managed to chuck some fluff for a few hours from the support boat I'm using. And bagged my 1st fish of the season which weighed 6.2kg.
Not an easy pike to fish for in a small rubber inflatable I can tell you.
This is what the tournament is about........Catch,photo, release!
As I mentioned there will be a more in depth report tomorrow.
Tournament Round Up
With the coldest winter here in Finland for 70 yrs, conditions just weren't ideal to say the least.Pike were three weeks late into spawning due to colder water conditions which made the fishing extremely hard and more to the point frustrating at times. The fishing grounds were teaming with pike but were reluctant to take fly and any fish caught were nearly all post spawn. Never the less there was a real buzz within the teams.
Everyone left from a small boat harbor each morning and were allocated a different guide and boat each day.
David Smith with Kari one of the guides.
Henk-Jan with a 98cm
Pierre-Luc with a 78cm
Henk-Jan with a 96cm & Sander Van der Wal with an 88cm
David Smith with the 1st or 2 pike over 100 cm. This one was 106cm
Benoit Brumiller with a 90 cm
David Smith with his 2nd at 103cm
Erik Hakkert with an 80cm
Me with a small Jack of around 70cm
Due to a problem with the Internet wireless at the lodge we were unable to update the daily standings and catch progress. Anyway Finland had sent a strong team which left the others playing catch up the remaining two days. With pike either spawning or in post spawn blues getting pike to take flies became increasingly frustrating for the teams. With weather conditions changing daily.....so did the tactics. The Dutch four changed their approach from using their long bunny streamers to shorter 100mm schlapen baitfish patterns while the English team kept plodding on with their typically British bulldog never say die approach.After 3 grueling days 1st place went to Team Vision (Tuomas Rytkonen & Saku Pylvainen) from Finland with a total length of 1149 cm
2nd place went to Team England (Mike Smith & Guy Eldridge) with a total length of 1162 cm
And 3rd place went to the Dutch four (Harmen-Jan Platvoet & Erik Hakkert) with a total length of 1062 cm
A total of 127 pike were caught during the tournament and over 476 were caught for the whole week. 7 PB's were broken as well.
More to follow once images start arriving from the teams
My good friend Joseph Bognanno from Sport fishing Americas blog out in Argentina made this the other day.....your the man Joe!
Day one of the tournament and its been a tough couple of days fishing, yet has produced a few good sized fish.Conditions haven't been easy in that there is not a hell of visibility due to murky waters and the pike are either spawning or just finished.
Today saw the Dutch take an early lead with a few 80 cm fish and some smaller jacks.
While the day goes to the Fins with Tuomas Rutknonen bagging the 1st of 2 fish over 100 cm with this one at 102cm.
And this one at 112 cm 10 minutes before the clock rang for the end of the 1st days fishing
Finland lead with England second and the Dutch 3rd. I'll write a more extensive report tomorrow as I'll have more time to spend on the internet.
During yesterdays practice day I managed to chuck some fluff for a few hours from the support boat I'm using. And bagged my 1st fish of the season which weighed 6.2kg.
Not an easy pike to fish for in a small rubber inflatable I can tell you.
This is what the tournament is about........Catch,photo, release!As I mentioned there will be a more in depth report tomorrow.
Tournament Round Up
With the coldest winter here in Finland for 70 yrs, conditions just weren't ideal to say the least.Pike were three weeks late into spawning due to colder water conditions which made the fishing extremely hard and more to the point frustrating at times. The fishing grounds were teaming with pike but were reluctant to take fly and any fish caught were nearly all post spawn. Never the less there was a real buzz within the teams.
Everyone left from a small boat harbor each morning and were allocated a different guide and boat each day.
David Smith with Kari one of the guides.
Henk-Jan with a 98cm
Pierre-Luc with a 78cm
Henk-Jan with a 96cm & Sander Van der Wal with an 88cm
David Smith with the 1st or 2 pike over 100 cm. This one was 106cm
Benoit Brumiller with a 90 cm
David Smith with his 2nd at 103cm
Erik Hakkert with an 80cm
Me with a small Jack of around 70cmDue to a problem with the Internet wireless at the lodge we were unable to update the daily standings and catch progress. Anyway Finland had sent a strong team which left the others playing catch up the remaining two days. With pike either spawning or in post spawn blues getting pike to take flies became increasingly frustrating for the teams. With weather conditions changing daily.....so did the tactics. The Dutch four changed their approach from using their long bunny streamers to shorter 100mm schlapen baitfish patterns while the English team kept plodding on with their typically British bulldog never say die approach.After 3 grueling days 1st place went to Team Vision (Tuomas Rytkonen & Saku Pylvainen) from Finland with a total length of 1149 cm
2nd place went to Team England (Mike Smith & Guy Eldridge) with a total length of 1162 cm
And 3rd place went to the Dutch four (Harmen-Jan Platvoet & Erik Hakkert) with a total length of 1062 cm
A total of 127 pike were caught during the tournament and over 476 were caught for the whole week. 7 PB's were broken as well.More to follow once images start arriving from the teams
My good friend Joseph Bognanno from Sport fishing Americas blog out in Argentina made this the other day.....your the man Joe!
