Pike Paradise

The Kvarken archipelago is being marketed as a pike paradise. Sometimes that name seems to be a little exagerrated, but every now and then everything goes as planned and the term is more than suitable. Wednesday 8th August 2012 was one of those days.

My day at the office went by slowly but finally I got off from work and headed over to Foppa's place to pick him up. Foppa had been rather impatient all day, for he had sent me numerous messages telling me to come and pick him up already. I understood him well because my expectations for the coming trip were at least as high than his. The venue of the day would be a rather unknown bay in Köklot. Foppa had been there a week earlier and the fishing had been really good, lots of pikes and perch all around.

Our route to the bay went through numerous rocky narrows, so we had to go really slowly through them. Once again Foppa was the skipper and I was in the bow looking for rocks. We finally arrived to our destination at around 6 pm. Just in time for the fish to start the evening feed! We lowered the anchor and started to fish with large spinners.

The first anchor spot in pike paradise.

 The first cast and Foppa caught a pike. Not a huge fish but still a nice one around two kilos. The fish had a lot of strength and didn't give up easily, but finally Foppa grabbed the fish by the neck and pulled it into the boat. While Foppa was releasing the fish, I caught my first one. It was my third cast I think. The fish was around the same size as Foppa's and in the same condition, very lively and powerful. I grabbed the fish and quickly released it. At the same time Foppa was already pulling his second and at that point we realized our biceps would get a good workout tonight.

We caught around twenty pikes at a rather fast pace from our first anchor spot. All of them were in very good condition and the average weight was very good. We caught several around three kilos and a few bigger ones weighing four to five kilos. Foppa even had a 5+ fish on for awhile but the fish pulled itself loose and got away.

Foppa with a 750g perch.

We continued to fish around the bay, moving fifty meters and anchoring, then moving again and anchoring. Every anchor spot provided us some good fishing and we truly got a nice workout during the evening. Towards later evening pikes started to passivate, but at the same time perch started feeding. We caught a decent amount of them and they were very nice, most of them around 500g, the biggest one being a respectable 750g.


Eventually the sun started to fall behind the horizon and the fish stopped feeding, thus it was time to sum up the day. We caught more than fifty pikes and around twenty perch and our arms were aching due to the extensive workout. The average weight of the pikes was around 2,5kg, so the secret bay in Köklot showed us it's best. Two pikes with Siek M jerk, two with Laxman spinner and the rest of the fish came with Mepps 7 spinner, which has been the ultimate superlure of the season. Not bad for four hours of fishing!

We started to find our way back through the shallows and rocks. The nature was all quiet, not a single sound. The evening sky was absolutely beautiful with shades of orange and purple reflecting to the water surface. I was already thinking of our next trip to that gorgeous and bright-watered bay. Without a doubt, that bay in a secret location is truly a pike paradise. Thanks again for Foppa for being the skipper, next time were going to catch that dream pike!

A hypnotic evening sky.