#Irvin’s fishing trip to Sweden!👌🎣 #peter #Pexfish.com

Irvin’s fishing trip to Sweden!

peter

September 26, 2024

Springtime in Southern Sweden is magical, especially when you’re fly fishing for pike on a serene lake. This April, I had the pleasure of hosting a special guest from the USA – Irvin, and the experience was nothing short of spectacular!

5 fishing days including one sea fishing tour!

Day one – in the sea bays

April 6th is usually quite late for catching pike in the shallow sea bays, as most of the fish are already focused on spawning. Luckily for my guest, we had a long winter this year, and the first day of his fishing trip in Sweden turned out to be, in my opinion, the last chance to catch pike along the coast before the spawning period.

We started with the fly rod, targeting sea trout—using my own rod and flies that I had tied myself! The bay I chose for pike had good edges for sea trout, so it was worth giving it a try.

The first spot provided some action right in the morning. Irvin used one of my fly rods armed with my own tied flies. The first two bites were missed during training with the lighter rod as usual. However, the third bite gave us the desired water geyser and a few jumps of a nice silver fish. After a short photo session, the fish swam away to its home

Plan #1 – checked

Directly after, Irvin changed the fly rod for his own class #9 and started fishing for pikes with larger flies. He had brought quite a big amount of his own tied, very good-looking flies

. I started fishing close, but after him in case he missed some sea trout on his fishing route. The first bite was on my rod, and it was a pike that decided to go for the smaller bait. Luckily, it didn’t felt the hook, so Irvin could test a few of his fly models on this particular spot. The pike reacted to one with an extra tail but didn’t bite again. Thanks to this, my guest decided to continue fishing with this specific fly. Some time later, another nice crocodile had no hesitation to taste this fly. Those sea pikes are so pretty, and their camouflage is just incredible

. A few more shots with my Nikon, and the green fish returned to its home again

Plan #2 – checked

Changing the spot!

Later, after a traditional barbecue, we fished at spot #2, which normally contains both species – sea trout and pikes. This time, Irvin had just one missed bite and spooked another pike. I was lucky to get 3 bites from the silver fishes. One small fish missed the hook, but the other two gave me a really good fight. We finished the day with my biggest sea trout of this year – 71.5cm (unfortunately not in super great condition). We were tired but really happy after this first day of fishing.

Day 2 – Go big or go home

The crisp spring air and the blooming scenery set the perfect stage for an unforgettable boatfishing trip.

I decided to go fishing on the big lake, where all pikes usually spawn in different periods. It was not our intention to disturb this important process in the fishes life.

The morning session began quite slowly. We couldn’t find the fish in the deep, so we decided to move our boat to some shallower areas along the lake to explore the deep edges. The hard wind from the North-West confirmed our suspicions, and we started our boat journey towards the North-East parts of the lake bays, covered by one of the local islands. Irvin’s main fishing interest were focused on fly fishing methods, but some vertical/cast sharpshooting tests were also on his schedule.

Before the boat reached our destination, we found some medium-sized active pikes. Two of these fierce creatures ended up in our landing net with the help of the vertical rod. “These are very good fishes to practice with the new fishing method” – I said to my American guest.

The water temperature in our destination bay edges reached 8 degrees, almost double that of the deep lake part where we started. Some pikes should gather here before the spawn period or maybe try to feed themselves after this “love process.” While we pondered the correct answer to the question about before/after spawners, I recognized some nice fish on my sonar. Irvin started his work with the fly rod. A few different flies landed in the water, but the pike followed just after one of them and done this two times. We both recognized in that particular fly the key to success. Very soon after that, the hand-tied marvel got her nickname “the green machine.”

After a few minutes, we found another, much bigger fish to deal with the fly rod. Irvin got just one reaction, and after two more casts, the fish started to swim to the other part of the lake. My guest decided to cast one more time in the direction the fish had moved to. After two first strips, he got stuck. Just after two seconds, “the stone” started to fight. It was quite a dramatic battle, with the fish changing directions a few times from the shore side, through the middle of the bay to under the motor propeller, but we won in the end. A beautiful, just after spawned crocodile, sized 114cm and weighing 10.65kg, became Irvin’s new PB in pike

. Happiness, happiness, and outstanding happiness on board.

Video from this catch you can see here:

https://youtu.be/aPNfBA1e34E?si=Ii-ePBELycPs_Ktw

After lunch, we visited two more places – one with a 7m hole stretched on 100m in the middle of some shallow bay. There, Irvin got lucky to catch some 3-4kg pre-spawned pike on the sinking line. The last place, with a 5m edge of some other bay, nearly brought us another big fish success, but the fish during striking just missed “the green machine.”

We didn’t find any other pikes in the deep during the way back to the harbor, but the incessant smile on my guest’s face convinced me that luck was on our side this day

Day 3 – evening fishing session

Weather forecast shows quite high temperature and very low wind from the southwest during the whole Sunday evening. Irvin has never caught the prized zander in his fishing career. It was the reason that I decided to invite my guest for a little different fishing session than we planned before. The schedule looks like this – fishing from 15:30 up to midnight, beginning with sharpshooting/casting + fly fishing, later on just the sharpshooting/casting.

The first hour starts quite slowly again, but when we reached some edge between the deep and shallow water, I recognized one nice pike standing close to the bottom. The vertical method did the trick, and a few minutes later, some nice madamme sized 90+ were posing for a few memorable images in my client’s hands. Irvin was quite impressed by the feeling from the fight on the vertical rod

Just 10 minutes later, we recognized another nice fish echo on the edge of some island shelf. Once more, the vertical rod gets busy. The southern wind breeze pushed the boat in the wrong direction two times, but the third attempt was lucky enough to correctly present the bait. The fish didn’t hesitate at all; the strike was brutal. The whole fight was really dramatic, with the fish going down deep to the bottom a few times. Luckily, we managed to place another monster in the landing net, a little smaller than the pike from the day before – 111cm and some grams under the 10kg weight. A strong fish in prespawn condition

The second day in a row with indescribable happiness in the Pexfish boat + the second personal best for Irvin

Whole video from this spectacular fight you can see on my youtube channel:

https://youtu.be/wQ4_kRwpeoQ?si=avp1pomWG7Cwp6T_

Later during the evening, we were very close to catching some nice pelagic pike on the fly rod, but we didn’t succeed in the end. Before the night covered the lake, we enjoyed some special meal “the cowboy soup” – thanks to my amazing wife.

Under the last day lights, we almost succeeded with two big zanders following the bait for quite a long time, but they decided not to bite our baits. This happens quite often during fishing sessions.

When the night comes, some surprises come also. Actually, thanks to the warmer temperatures in recent days and the lack of wind on this particular evening, the cold fog arrives over the lake

. It becomes very cold and spooky

. Navigation starts to be pretty difficult with no lights in sight on the coast. We survived just thanks to the Lowrance plotter. It looks like the fog affected the fishes mood because during the next three hours, we only found two unactive fish echoes on my sonar

We landed in the harbor some minutes before midnight, really cold, tired, but happy

Day 4 – new place – new possibilities

That particular day, I decided to choose a smaller lake because of the moderate wind from the east. We started on some deep/shallow edges. The first 2-3 fishes didn’t want to react properly to both vertical or fly methods. Then we found another fish swimming pelagic. Irvin made some casts towards her, but the fish just followed curiously two times after two different flies. While we were focusing on this particular fish, another one appeared on the sonar screen from a slightly different direction. Fast communication between us and Irvin made some nice fly casts a bit over the fish, and a few seconds later came the first strike of the day. A nice 80+ pike on account before the coffee break. The second pike visited our boat just 30 minutes later, a little thinner but a few centimeters longer. Later on, two other pikes barely missed the fly. The story of the third landed pike is actually quite cool. I will write about this in a simple way: the pike strikes and came off after 2-3 seconds, then went down under the boat – Irvin left the fly in the water and took some line from the reel – during this time, the fly was sinking slowly about 3 meters under the surface – I pulled the reverse gear on the motor to take some distance to the pike- the pike see the fly starts moving towards the surface after the boat, and decided to strike again!

This is the short story of the vertically caught pike on the fly rod

After the traditional barbecue, we started from the lake bay which contains depths between 5 to 9 meters. The first sighted fish was at 7.5 meters deep, about 1 meter above the bottom. Irvin started to cast over the fish from a 12-meter distance. We struggled a little with the wind and the right positioning of the boat in comparison to the slowly sinking fly. I think it was the third cast that we got lucky to present the fly just above the fish. Two fast strips and a brutal strike came like a shot! It was the biggest fish of the day, just under 1 meter in length.

Later on, we got lucky to bring two more fishes to the landing net on the fly rod and just one on the vertical rod.

We finished this cool fishing session just some minutes before the rain came. It was another amazing day on the lake with lots of action and good mood on the boat

Day 5 – last cast, last fish –

what a beautiful monster

Heavy wind from the west gives us just one option – ramping to the north-west side of the lake

The first hours were quite slow again, but we witnessed a few big pikes chasing the bait fish balls in the deep, moving together like a wolf pack. Irvin got a reaction from one of these predators, but without a successful strike. Just a few minutes later, all those fish disappeared from my sonar. We decided to go shallower and find some cover on place with depths of 3 to 5 meters near a big island peninsula. Once we reached this spot, my guest started casting with his fly rod towards the land edge. The first small pike struck almost from under the boat – he got a really nice picture

Some time later, a better one came along – a beautiful prespawned female, sized 90+. We were really happy with our luck in catching these two fishes in such ambitious weather conditions

After some hours without more bites, I decided to move to another part of the lake, which was more sheltered from the wind, but unfortunately lacked any productive shallow shelves and edges.

With just about 1.5 hours of fishing left, I expected to mainly use the vertical rod method. However, half an hour later, the situation changed. Thanks to my livescope unit, in a 16-meter-deep part of the lake, we found some nice pike just 5-6 meters below the surface. Irvin chose the fly rod with a sinking line and on the third cast, the pike couldn’t resist the temptation of “the green machine”. A really nice pelagic crocodile, sized 80+, became our third photo model of the day. The whole action with the strike shown on the sonar screen was unforgettable! Our happiness exploded in the boat in the form of wild shouts after another successful release.

A few minutes of celebration with a cup of coffee, and it was time to head back to the harbor. I remember telling my guest, “we have about half an hour with slow boat speed to the car, we can just check the fish status on the route back.” Twenty minutes later, I found a nice echo between the bait fish balls on the 10-meter shelf edge. I remember saying, “it’s our last chance fish”! The pike was very active and alternately followed and attacked the bait fishes. It was a good sign, we just needed to find some opportunity to present the vertical bait correctly. Three times we missed with this quest, but the fourth time was like hitting the bullseye. The pike struck like a shot, and Irvin experienced a really nice take. Some 5 minutes later, we brought an amazing-looking pike to the boat – its camouflage was just extraordinary. What a stunning predator in beautiful colors, what an end to our fishing days together. The third 100+ fish from the trip and the third personal best for Irvin.

Ps. Counting together – Irvin caught about 20 fishes during his Swedish fishing journey (including 1 sea trout)

. All fishes are still swimming in the water, meaning we followed the catch and release routine

Thank you, Irvin, for this entire fishing adventure. I hope you enjoyed this trip as much as I did, and I can’t wait to see you again

5 months later – just a little update!

When Irvin left Sweden, he decided to give me a little gift—6 pike flies, including the green machine!

I promised to use this fly as soon as I could: once I prepared my new boat with a casting deck, completed my #9 fly rod with the correct sinking line, and found some free time between my guiding tours.

It’s been a while since I made that promise, almost 5 months actually. But now, I can prove that the promise I gave wasn’t just empty words.

On my last three fishing trips, I decided to partly use my fly rod.

The first short evening trip resulted in just some following zanders, but the second and third trips each gave me a really nice pike!

The biggest achievement is that I caught these fishes (my first lake pikes on a fly rod) in the middle of the night while they were hunting in the pelagic zones of a big lake!