Monday 11 October 2010

Fly Candy

As Lefty Krey says "If its not chartreuse it's no use!" Its a favourite of mine as well. I was particularly lazy this weekend with regards to flies and only used these 2 from Thursday onwards. Thurday saw me do well with them as I interchanged between either one as the tally clocked up. Friday and Saturday though, saw the water level around the island here at its lowest in 3 years. A culmination of strong north Easterly winds and moon phases has pushed much of the water out of the Gilf of Botnia and water levels dropped around a meter which played havoc with the fishing. I've noticed that such extreme drops like this truly do affect the feeding habits of pike on the Baltic. Why?..... Is a good question. I think a culmination of faster currents flowing around the island and the drop in pressure they feel through their swim bladders might have something to do with it.

In fact I've noticed the flow of the current here plays a very big part in a pike feeding habits. If currents are flowing from East to West as water gets drawn out of the gulf of Bothnia, the fishing is pritty dismal but once that changes around and water starts to flow back up and the currents flow from west to East the fishing improves drastically. Its impressive to stand on bridges and watch large shoals of baitfish use these currents to move between areas here on replot, as water levels rise again. Higher water levels means safer feeding grounds for these shoals but you can guarantee that where the shoals of fish are the pike aren't to far behind. Hense why the fishing will improve in the next day or so.

3 comments:

Jabala said...

Hi Simon,

Last time we were fly fishing for pike in the shallow coastal area, we ended up with an interesting situation. The wind had been from the North since the previous day. When we started fishing in the morning, the fishing was good and we got a lot of strikes in a very short time. All of a sudden the pikes shut their mouths and we didn't get a single bite anymore. After an hour, the water started to flow towards the open seas and as we moved further in to the shallow bay, we could see a stream of water flowing by the rocks. It seems that the effect is very powerful in these vast shallow areas of the western coast.

I think it has much more effect on the pikes when they are in shallow water compared to those pikes that use to live in 3-5m deep areas. Here the shoreline can move 100-200 meters further out when the water level drops.

Piketeaser said...

Hi Simon
These last flys look absolutly fantastic.
The 73 Pikes you caught two weeks ago should be much easier now :)

Djuza.

All about the grab said...

the water level is still down but today myself and Jani both got into the fish.I lost a nice fish of around 8kilos 95cm and Jani the same. Fishing is a funny game.