Beginning of the end

I've had a few trips to seaside since my previous post. The worst possible conditions are making this soon ending season a nightmare for me.

Last winter was the coldest for 70 years and all the water was covered with a thick layer of ice. Winter was also very long and the spring very short, it turned in to a summer almost instantly. Summer was also one of the hottest summers ever and the water temperatures were way too high for fishing pike. Water vegetation became an issue ruining most of the best pike fishing period in the early autumn.

I'll have to admit that this year made me a much humbler fisherman, last year I thought I knew something about fishing for pike but now, back to the drawing board once again with empty thoughts.

Officially I will end my season on the next weekend as we're having our annual fishing trip to south-west coast. No need to make myself more embarrassed, it's time to start concentrating on the next season. New season, new tricks in my sleeve. Possibly a new, bigger boat, new fishing waters, new pikes. New flies, new tactics, that's my solution. Of course, if the winter gives me a chance, I'd still go fishing, but officially I'd say "that's it" at this point.

A few more fishing trip reports will appear on this blog this year and then I will mostly concentrate on fly patterns, hooks, tying materials, tackle, boats etc.

I have also some ideas for targeting other species than pike and seatrout. This season it seemed that the perch population has grown again as it had mysteriously disappeared a few years ago. We had a change to land a few good sized perches together with some zanders. Zander population has gone weak both in numbers and size. I remember from about ten years ago, we could easily catch a dozen 50+ cm zanders on one night. Now it's difficult to catch even one small bugger. Sad but true.