FishTwits Blog

11-10-09

Fishing report catch-up. Part 1: Flicking for Flathead and Whistling for Whiting on the Coffs Coast, Australia.

With all the excitement of launching FishTwits.com it has been a busy month or so for Eric and I and whilst we have both managed to get out a few times for a fish we have been a bit remise in writing up a blog post or two.  Time to catch-up.

I left Sweden toward the end summer and headed back home for the start of summer (furthering my pursuit of an endless summer for the rest of my life).  I have managed to get out a few times with my brother who is a mad keen fishermen for a fish since I have been back in the home country.  In fact not more than three days after I touched down in Sydney airport my brother and a mate whisked me off to Coffs Harbour on the Northern New South Wales coast for a few days of beach sunshine and fishing.

My dad had managed to acquire an inflatable kayak from a friend whilst I was overseas and my bro and I decided to explore and fish one of the many creeks that run into the Pacific Ocean just near Coffs.  These creeks are teaming with fish Flathead, Whiting, Bream and Mangrove Jack, Trevally and a bit further inland the much sought after Australian Bass.

We inflated the kayak and pushed off with the incoming tide up the creek only to find that it had a leak.  For one reason or another we had thrown the foot pump into the kayak before we left so we hooked it up and I pumped air back into the kayak at the same time as paddling whilst my bro trawled a soft plastic trying to attempt a Dusky Flathead or maybe a Bream.  It wasn’t long before my brother managed to land a small flathead and my inexperience in kayak paddling whilst simultaneously pumping and dealing with quite a strong current landed the kayak in a creek side tree poking another hole in it.  As the kayak deflated, we ended up in the drink and had to swim it across to a nearby sandbank just barely managing to keep the rods, reels and tackle dry.

We decided to leave the kayak and wade the sand flats casting soft plastics and prawns into dips and holes trying to tempt a big flathead.  I spotted a likely looking snag next to a deep hole and expertly flicked my lure straight into it.  The thought of losing my $2 soft plastic was too much for me so I swam over to the log to remove it.  No sooner than I had de-snagged it, I noticed my brother hooking up – I quickly swum back to the sand bank and reached into my pocket for my bro’s water-proof camera to take some footage… it was gone.  In the process of saving my $2 lure I had managed to drop my brothers $700 camera into deep water next to massive snag!

My brother and I put our extremely limited free-diving-without-a-mask skills to the test for half an hour only to come up with a lot of scratches and no camera.  I was determined though and as I again descended again, this time I glimpsed a small patch of red buried in the mud just under a tree branch… it was the tiny red label of the camera case, with my last ounce to breath and subjecting myself to more cuts from the vicious tree I managed to lay my hands on it coming to the service arms raised in victory!

After a semi disastrous start to the trip the fishing only got better from there.  My brother showed off his flathead expertise landing them on both soft plastics and prawn baits.  He managed to land two 60cm plus specimens on very light gear by working the very same deep gutter that we had punctured the kayak on.

Having been completely out classed by my bro on the flathead front I decided to wade further up the creek chasing the many schools of whiting that were cruising the shallows.  Fishing conditions were perfect, clear water and a seemingly endless supply of different habitats making every cast exciting.  Nevertheless the whiting proved to be behaving very circumspectly sometimes approaching my bait, even touching it but never striking.  It wasn’t until the next morning, when my bro and I headed out again, undeterred by the rain, that I was finally successful in landing a 40+ centimetre specimen.  For those of you that don’t know the Australian Whiting, it is a reasonably close relative of the Bonefish, and is incredible sport on light tackle as well as being delicious eating.

A great end to the trip until my bro left the camera on the top of the car as we were packing up, we didn’t notice until a while later but when we retraced our drive sure enough we found it.  That camera is damn tough and must have nine lives!

09-08-09

Bass Fishing South Korea: Drunken man can catch a lot of fish…

It’s been a while since we’ve updated this blog, largely because Eric and I have been spending a lot of time working and travelling and not enough time fishing.  Anyway, after a great year in Sweden I am finally heading back to Australia, leaving Eric to face the ferocious Swedish pike on his own.   Happily, I managed to get a ticket with Korean Air which has allowed me to spend two weeks in South Korea visiting my Mum who is teaching English in a tiny rural village up in the mountains.

It turns out that fishing is a very popular pastime here in South Korea and  a couple of Mum’s teacher friends are very keen Bass fishermen, who very kindly organised to take me out fishing with them for the weekend.

Mr. Min has what seems like an unlimited collection of lures dedicated to the sport.

On the Saturday afternoon after the teachers finished class (yes in Korea they have class on Saturdays!) they took Mum and I for a traditional Korean pork BBQ at a charming little spot in the mountains alongside a crystal clear stream.  Having stuffed ourselves full of delicious food we got down to the serious business at hand – fishing.  Mr  Park told me all about fishing for the small Korean Perch that lived in the small mountain stream (apparently they are great sport on ultralite tackle and micro-spoons) while Mr. Min laid a rock as an offering to the fishing gods to ensure our bounty of bass would be plentiful the next day.

In what turned out to be a cruel twist of fate, Australia was playing South Korea in Soccer (football) that night… As Australia made its first advance forward (about 20 minutes into the match) I shouted the traditional and incredibly creative chant of ‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie’ to which my Mum dutifully responded ‘Oi, Oi, Oi’ . A bemused Ms Kim explained to me that ‘Oi’ means cucumber in Korean and we all collapsed with laughter.   Unfortunately the Aussies played about as effectively as cucumbers and got demolished 3 – 1!

While the Koreans celebrated and I drowned my sorrows over a bottle of Back Se Joo (a Korean alcohol made from Ginseng which is described as bitter, sweet, salty, sour and spicy all at the same time), Mr. Min let me in on an ancient Korean fishing proverb.

“Drunken man can catch a lot of fish because of smooth action”

After a slightly restless night’s sleep, dreaming of the bass we would hopefully catch the next day, we arose well before dawn, piled in the cars and headed for Daecheong Dam.  An eerie mist unfolded around us as we unloaded and put together the fold-up boat.

Having done so we turned our attention to the inflatable raft, which by its very nature required inflation… unfortunately…we didn’t have a pump.  Mr Park and my Mum graciously volunteered to take an early morning drive around the dam in search of someone who might lend us a pump, whilst Mr Min, Ms Kim and I hit the water in the fold-up.  We started off with some surface lures which Mr Min was expertly able to make dance on top of the water whilst mine kind of wobbled and swayed without any real purpose.  However, it was at least an hour, having tried various combinations of deep diving jigs, soft baits and minnows, before Mr Min’s superior technique proved itself.  Ms Kim was assuring me that the Dam did in fact contain bass, when Mr Min spotted the characteristic surface break of a largemouth bass rising to take a small minnow, quick as lightning he flicked his lure with deadly accuracy into the path of the recently risen largemouth and within seconds he was hooked up.  As he bought it close to the boat, it leapt into the air and I got my very first glimpse of a wild Largemouth (we don’t have largemouth bass in Australia or in Sweden).

Finally, we got the call saying that Mum and Mr Park had managed to locate a pump and we motored back to the boat ramp to pick them up.  As we took turns to pump the raft, I relayed the details of Mr Min’s catch to Mr Park who I would be fishing with the rest of the day and he assured me that he was an expert in surface lure fishing and he would find us a good spot where I could land my first largemouth.

Having caught a tow with Mr Min further up the dam, we parted ways to pursue Mr Park’s favourite top water locations but just as the little fold-up was disappearing into the distance we heard a whoop from Ms Kim as she hooked up with a nice size bass on a soft bait jig head.  At this point bets were made and Mr Park and I resumed our quest with renewed vigour.

Within half an hour a combination of Mr Park’s excellent eye for good areas and my having paid careful attention to Mr Min’s technique had resulted in a Largemouth spectacularly rising to the surface to take my lure.  At this point all I can say is wow, on the ultralite tackle we were using even this small to medium sized bass put up a tremendous fight, leaping and diving putting all my limited skills to the test.  Perhaps more by good luck (thanks Mr Min for his offering to the fishing gods) than good management I landed it sending me a thrill that can only be experienced the first time you catch a new species!

As the day wore on the sun grew hotter in the sky and the action slowed a little.  I managed to catch a small Koori (native to Korea) and Mr Park was unlucky not to stay connected to a couple of bass that hit his spinner.   Having not seen any hint of action for about an hour, I had taken to practising my casting trying to land my lure as close to objects as possible when completely unexpectedly a much bigger largemouth rose and took my lure immediately stripping 5 or 10 metres of line from my reel.  It the leapt into the air causing me, still recovering from the surprise, to drop my game, lose line tension and allow it to throw the hook.  Time to call it a day.

Thanks to Mr Min, Ms Kim, Mr Park and my Mum for organising and absolutely incredible weekend.  I highly recommend Bass fishing in South Korea to you all!

07-16-09

That’s not a fish…this is a fish!

It’s 4.30am and I’m greeted by the all too familiar sound of my Swedish Sony Ericsson phone alarm, I open the curtains to see the all too familiar grey Swedish clouds dispensing the all too familiar Swedish rain.  However, none of this bothered me as I chugged down a quick coffee before jumping on my bike and cycling down to the station to catch the first train from Lund to Helsingborg where we will meet a Chinese friend to take her out on a boat into the Oresund for her first ever fishing experience, I had a feeling it was going to be a great day.

Stormy Oresund

A donut and a bus ride and we were at the dock staring at the boat were had booked and noticing a distinct lack of crew… luckily, the boat next door had a few extra places and we were welcomed aboard the Wittskar (white knife in English).  This particular Swedish fishing charter was a bit different to the ones I have been on in Australia.  It is a converted commercial fishing boats which can take up to 50 people, today there are about 25 of us all eager to pull in a trophy Torsk (Atlantic Cod), which have been reported up to 96kg!

As we set out into the Oresund, it becomes pretty clear to all of us (Eric, YanZhuo and I) that the coffees we’d downed in the morning would not see us through the mornings fishing and we are tempted by the food like smells emanating from below deck, minutes later we are biting down into what can only be described as the most horrible tasting hotdogs we have ever encountered and hoping that the Torsk are as easy to fool as we had been.

The sound of a fog horn (which we quickly discovered meant that we had reached a suitable fishing spot) lured us back up stairs into what had emerged to be a beautiful Swedish summer’s day (Sweden in the sunshine is one of the most beautiful countries in the world).  No sooner than our jigs had touched the water the Swedes next to us were hooking up Vitling (Whiting) sometimes up to four on the one line.  The more experienced Swedes were using a leader with a series of four or five squid hooks above their fish jig.

As Eric and I continued to work our jigs undaunted, the sea was rhythmically working the hot dog around in poor Yan Zhuo’s stomach managing to land her on the deck before any of us could land a fish.  Being the trooper that she is, she retired to a seat in the sunshine to contemplate tactics whilst Eric and I continued to try to copy the tactics of our thus far more successful Swedish counterparts.

It wasn’t until the third location that I finally hooked up with my first Vitling, landing a second on the very next cast.

Two Vitling

As I posed for a photo I was met by a jeer from a Swede who had spent the last 10 minutes struggling with what he initially thought was Eric’s line but turned out to be a 5kg Torsk.

‘That’s not a fish…this is a fish’

This is a fish!

I’m not sure how he knew I was an Aussie (maybe my bushman’s beard which I have been proudly growing since graduation having not fancied trying my skills at a Crocodile Dundee style knife shave) but there was nothing for me to do but shake his hand and take a photo (wondering how easy it would be to photoshop myself in later).

As I pulled my fourth Vitling in and began gloatingly to explain the finer points of jig technique to Eric, the tables turned as Eric’s line pull tight bending his rod to a far greater extent than any of the Vitling had pulled mine.  Eric pulled in a pretty decent sized Torsk, not quite as big as our Swedish friends but respectable nonetheless.  The very next cast and he was pulling in another Torsk and explaining to me the finer points of his Torsk targeting Jig technique.

As the day wore on the hook-ups became more frequent and the now recovered Yan Zhuo even pulled in a couple of Vitling.

After four great hours fishing we set sail for home and Yan Zhuo set about ensuring that none of the fish heads went to waste as we cleaned the fish we had kept (she even managed to bag the head of the Big Torsk), promising to cook us a delicious Chinese fish head soup – which will definitely be the subject of another blog post.

To cap off a great mornings fishing we met a few friends in Helsingborg to celebrate Ernst’s Birthday with a BBQ of fresh fish by the beach and a few beers.  Perfect.

05-06-09

The Truth about Great expectations…

Canola plants blooming on our way to Lomma Beach from Lund

I am not sure if I am like you but every time before I go fishing, I have great expectations and high excitations. I can barely sleep the night before and when I do sleep, I dream of all the fish I am going to catch.  Last night was no different, I was at an elevated state because Steve and I had managed to fit some fishing in on our busy week by opening up Wednesday for the occasion and I was very excited to catch some Garfish so that I could get Steve off his high horse about his weekend catch.

The week’s weather had been great for Sweden with sunny blue skies and temperature up to the 20s, but the weather proved to do a 180 come Wednesday morning. Although faced with horrible conditions we were too excited by our previous nights anticipation to give up so we carried our trip out. Steve and I met our friend Dan (@DanMancera) and we cycled a 10 Km trek to Lomma harbour. Which proved to be more difficult than we thought as going directly against the wind gave our deteriorating bikes a real challenge. The biggest challenge however presented itself when we got to the harbour. The wind had kept increasing and now it looked like the sea was being blown onto land. We did manage to find a part of the harbour that had some wind protections so we set up there and started fishing.  The wind was so intense that if you tried to cast against it your tackle would end up behind you. That being the case we used the wind to our advantage and casted with the wind. It was so strong, I think I actually got the longest cast of my life. This was fun for a little but we knew there were no fish here and with the wind blowing through our clothes we could barely bare the exposed harbour much longer. Instead of packing it in and going home we remembered we passed what looked like a lake on our way to the harbour which looked less windy on our way in.

A windy day at Lomma beach

We headed to that destination and discovered a little gem. The lake turned out not to be a lake but actually a Dam called Östra dammen. We found an informational sign that showed the dam was filled with pike.

Map of Östra dammen

 We continued to explore the area and found an area with complete wind protection. It was by complete luck that we found the place. I was riding the horrific bike down the path along the dam and started down a decline only to realize my brake don’t work, which inevitably led to me running into some bushes and into a clearing that had great potential as a casting spot. On top of that with my entrance to the spot I saw a big fish jump out of the water. Taking this as a sign we set up and started fishing here. It was an amazing place when the sun actually would peer out for a second you could have mistaken the scene for a summer day instead of a windy (gale force) rainy day. We didn’t catch any fish but did see a couple big pike swim nearby. 

Eric at Östra dammen

Some say if you set your expectations too high you will only have a bigger chance of disappointment.  I feel that if you use these expectations and persevere you may not always get what you want but you get what you need in our case we didn’t catch any fish but due to our perseverance we found a great new fishing location.

05-04-09

The perfect day: 5 Reasons I love Fishing

1. Arriving at what you thought was the right location, only to discover you are in the middle of an Industrial Park and being blown away by the sheer magnitude of human endeavour.

2. Taking a moment to look closer and marvel at the wonders of nature.

3. Finally making it to the spectacular fishing location that was recommended to you.

Limhamn in Malmo is a really beautiful location overlooking the Oresund bridge which connects Sweden to Denmark.

4. Watching in frustration as the people next to you catch fish after fish while you catch none. Finally asking for some tips and having them pay off on the first cast.

I caught this Garfish (Horngädda) using a silver surface lure as shown in the previous picture.  The tip from Johan, the guy fishing next to me, was that I dip the rod down hard as I wind, at a medium fast pace, which makes the lure rise as if its a bait fish trying to escape a predator.

5. Sharing the perfect dinner with your flatmates

Cleaned and scaled, scored the flesh, rubbed in some sea salt, left in the fridge for an hour.  Lightly battered – egg, flour, salt, pepper, lemon zest.  Shallow fried, served with lemon, chips and salad.  Conclusion – Garfish is delicious.

05-01-09

A cheeky fishing trip…

After a shameful performance during Eric and I’s first Swedish fishing trip, where the American went  ahead catching two Pike to my two trees, I have decided to take advantage of the fact that Eric is out of town this weekend to try to redeem myself.  We got a tip we got from Fiskesnack (a great Swedish fishing forum, it’s in Swedish but we posted in English and got quick responses from some very helpful Swedes) saying that at this time of year Garfish (or Näbbgädda / Horngädda in Swedish) are pretty plentiful in the southern coastal region of Sweden.  Apparently there is also really good Sea Trout fishing in this area so maybe I’ll get lucky.

So, on Sunday morning I will head off to Malmo in pursuit of the Swedish Garfish, looking to put my first points on the scorecard.  If anyone would like to join me or has any tips for outwitting these fish, please get in touch with me on Twitter (@fishtwits), send me an email (fishtwits@fishtwits.com) or leave a comment below. If you can help me get my fish-count above the American’s I’ll even buy you a beer!

04-21-09

Welcome: Fishing Fail

Fishing FAIL

Welcome to the FishTwits blog.  This will follow the adventures of an Aussie (@Sspelde) and a Californian (@zirgzirgulis) trying to outwit fish here in Sweden.

Let’s start from the beginning, both Eric and I are keen fishermen and we hit the water whenever we can back home but a combination of a freezing cold winter here in Sweden and trying to live on a student budget have meant that we haven’t been able to go fishing since we’ve been over here. All that changed a couple of weekends ago, I was camping near Lake Vomb, when I caught my first glimpse of the Swedish Pike… perhaps it was a primal instinct to hunt food and prove my manliness to the girls I was camping with or maybe it was because it was the first time we had seen sunshine since October 2008 but I ripped off my t-shirt and proceeded to dive into the lake after the Pike… needless to say this was what you might call a FISHING FAIL and gave us our first lesson:

If you dive into a Swedish lake in the middle of April in the hope of catching a Pike, the only thing you are likely to end up with is a shrunken worm.

Anyway, having finally seen the Pike in the flesh, the first thing I did when I got home was ring my little bro (@DJSpeldie) back home in Australia to tell him the story – as a mad keen fishermen himself, he decided that he would give me an early birthday present in the form of a fishing rod.  No sooner had I put out the message on Facebook and Twitter and I was in possession of a second hand (but basically brand new) spinning rod, reel and and a couple of lures (thanks Rob).

The very next weekend, Eric and I were on our way out to Lake Häckerberga, where the beautiful Häckerberga Castle is situated about 45 minutes from Lund.  We took the camera, so stay tuned for the first episode of FishTwits TV, coming early next week.

If you want to follow our fishing adventures, go fishing with us, or give us some much needed advice on how to outwit Swedish fish please get in touch with us @FishTwits.  If we can’t outwit them, hopefully we will atleast be able to out twit them :-)