Gudenåen, 28+29/5-2011

Saturday drifting from Fladbro to Randers with Henrik and Allan. I forgot my camera, so no photos. I got four pikes and lost several. Among the lost ones a really big one, that went into some weed. My best pike was around 10 pounds and I got two in Nørreåen where I untill this day never have had any success.

Sunday we (six pontoon boats) started at Kongensbro to drift to Ans.

The weather was fantastic in the early morning – sunny and almost no wind. In the river part I did see several fish that took flies from the surface. This really made me long for some dry-fly fishing. This was more or less my sixth pike trip in a row, next time I will go for something different for the variation.

Untill lunch break I only got one 7 pounder and the action was very slow. Actually the action was slow all day and meny of the fish were small like the one Kaspar is presenting here. I ended up getting four and losing four, this weekend I have lost much more that normal but as everything is released it is not that important – I have to say 😉

 

Tange sø, 21/5-2011

A drift trip for pikes from Kongensbro to Tange sø with Thomas. The weather was very nice and this was Thomas´s first pike trip this year.

Thomas started with this very nicely coloured pike after just 10 minutes.

The pike had a nasty wound in the belly. How this happened I have no idea.

Later but still in the river I got this one. It seemed like the pikes in the river had a more green colour. During the fight with this pike the tip of my rod broke, so most of the time I fished without a top guide – this is not recommendable.

I mentioned to Thomas that I really like this trip as you feel you are in the middle of nowhere. two minutes later seven motor boats came cruising upstream – something I have never seen before

In the lake I got this 11 pounder the biggest fish of the day

Soon after this perch took the fly. I can still be surprised when a fish this size attacks an 8 inch pike fly.

Here Thomas has hooked one more pike,

and it is almost ready for landing,

and for presentation (his biggest fish of the day),

and finally for the release.

I ended up landing 7 pikes and one perch and Thomas got almost the same number so we were very satisfied with this day on the lake.

Bredningen, 17/5-2011

An pontoon boat trip for pikes starting late afternoon with Henrik. It was VERY windy so you needed to work hard just to hold your position with the boat. Furthermore the water was very muddy so no visibility – not the optimum conditions for pike fishing.

I had what I expected to be a very good-sized pike on the fly but it turned out to be a bream that was hooked in the dorsal fin. But a 6 pound bream hooked like that can put up a good fight. You may be able to see the spawning warts in the photo.

Later I got this pike and this one is missing the upper part of the tail and had some wounds on the side as well – it can be a hassle to reproduce.

We ended in the channels where the wind did not get to us as much where we both landed a pike, so we both got two pikes and got a lot of fresh air in a short while.

Tange sø, 14/5-2011

A trip to Tange sø in the small boat of Bjerringbro sportfishing club with Jeppe. Jeppe is the son of my colleague and has fished many times in Gudenåen but without luck so I promised to bring him on a pike trip to Tange sø as he had never caught a pike before. we started in the upper part of the lake where I last time saw a couple of fishermen catch a lot of pikes. It was much shallower than I had expected so it was a bit difficult to avoid getting stuck many times. Many fish showed at the surface but I think it was breams getting ready to spawn. I had one fish to hit my fly twice but I did not succeed in getting it to stick on the fly.

Later we went even further up the lake and here I got a nice fish around the 9 pound mark.

As the main purpose was that Jeppe got a pike and is the wind increased in power I grabbed the oars to put Jeppe in a good position as the wind pushed us to the bank all the time. After a while Jeppe had something and it turned out to be something that really could drag line from his reel.

He was quite cool and let the fish drag line when needed so we successfully landed the pike and it was a proud Jeppe that could present his first pike ever – congratulation to him. The pike was then released and we hope that he will catch it again when it has grown even bigger

Vrinners, 10/5-2011

I hoped for an evening trip in the pontoon boat fishing for sea-trout. The weather was beautiful – sunny and almost no wind. Maybe not the best conditions for fishing but I hoped that some fish might show when the sun set.

as you may se on the photo I did forget my waders. I found out after I had inflated and assembled the pontoon boat and the fly rod and as there was more than ½ an hour back home I decided to give it a shot without waders. As there were no waves it actually was possible to fish without waders, but I realized how much I normally use the fins to move and to position the boat. Furthermore it is not relaxing to hold the feet high constantly so I stopped early as the real fishing was about to start.

To top the start I had company of a curious seal in the beginning but it disappeared after a while.

The garfish has arrived and they showed at the surface in their typically way.

I had many hits on the fly from garfish but I only landed this one. In the coming time I will have to focus on the time after sunset as I am not very happy about these guys.

Gudenåen 1/5-2011

First day after the closing period for pikes, so I drifted with Caspar and Jan down Gudenåen in our pontoon boats. It was quite windy but also sunny and temperatures were good for this time of the year, so we could not complaint about the conditions,

In the river part  I fished with a copper flash streamer as you can see and I got 3 pikes here before lunch time. The biggest was around 8 lbs, but all were thin as the had spawned recently and several had wounds from the spawning as well.

Jan did not catch or see anything before lunch but soon after he got two in a row. Here he presents his first pike this season. You may be able to see that it had a wound in the back like many of the fish today.

I landed 10 pikes today but no big ones. I had at least just as many hitting the fly. In the lake they today seemed smaller than in the river.  I was once again reminded that fly-fishing for pike is the best way to get a big shock when fishing. Pikes they sometimes appear out of nowhere with incredible speed to grab the fly just in front of you – and that can really make your heart pump.