Spawning pike

As I’ve mentioned before, Replot island is part of the Kvarken World natural heritage site and the reasoning behind the given award, was due to it being one of the few places on earth where the land mass is rising 7mm – 9mm per annum. With shallow waters in curtain areas less than a meter deep and a plethora of reed beds lining the shoreline It’s one of the most prolific pike spawning grounds in the world, especially around Panike, found on the North West of the island. Every year thousands upon thousands of pike literally flood into the area to spawn and hundreds of spectators line the shores to watch this truly amazing spectacle. The water literally becomes a mass of writhing male bodies all jostling for the attentions of the females…..sounds like any given Friday night down at the local boozer!Local papers have been running reports that the first pike have started to move in so will be going to have a look for myself this afternoon.

Click on the map to see a large version. Enlarge it then click & drag until you find the red rectangular area marked.Or go to my Google maps fishing report in the sidebar.Its the green marker with the dot in the middle.

Fishing Doldrums

Except for a few saltwater sorties at the beginning of the year in South Africa, this has to be the longest period I have spent without being able to chuck some fluff in ten yrs and to be truthful I’m starting to get a little ratty and jaded around the edges. Reading everyone else’s antics globally isn’t helping matters either. In fact its even got to a point where I’m hoping & wishing that there is some other bugger out there who is suffering withdraw symptoms similar to my own. Yes!, this blog has brought some respite to the fishing doldrums I am presently experiencing, but its just not the same.

In the past 4 yrs, I’ve been able to find at least one stretch of open water here I was able to chuck some fluff at come the end of February - but this is becoming ridicules. No man should have to endure a 6 month drought of fly-fishing……..should he!

I’ve tied over 120 flies this winter, Cleaned all my lines, sharpened old hooks, sorted out my collection of Spinners & Zalt lures for those none pike on the fly days, Yet I’m sure in 3 weeks time………..”ONCE THE FEKKIN ICE MELTS!” - With my currant mental state being as it is – I’m probably going to be like a rabid dog frothing at the mouth, champing at the bit and will probably fish like a man possessed once the spawning season ends…………..Well that’s what I’m visualizing anyway! I just hope with all this pent up angst being released, that it doesn’t have an adverse effect on my fishing!

I’ve also decided that I will start at the north end of Replot island in Svedjehamn Björköby and work my way down its west coast first, but as you can see by this image, I could be here around Svedjehamn Björköby for quite some time. Having to endure looking at images like this for the past 6 months you can understand what I must be feeling like at the mo.

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My new playground

So I’ve now moved to Vaasa….to the island of Replot which falls under Finland’s 1st Natural world Heritage site “Kvarken”. The reason for the award is that the area is one of the few places in the world where the land mass is actually rising by 7mm - 9mm per annum.

Over the last 150 yrs, hundreds of small islands have risen from the sea bed and this has produced some of the best pike habitats that can be found in the whole of the Baltic sea. In fact the islands of Replot, Bjorkoby & Maraskar are regarded by many Finns as the best pike fishing waters in the whole of Finland & many of Finland’s record pike have hailed from the area.
This is probably due to far less netting by locals and also a stricter catch and release policy practiced by many of the pike fishermen in the area.


There is also a larger quantity of drop of areas around islands which form channels for their prey to swim between. Coupled with that, far more reed beds are found scattered along all the islands shorelines than anywhere else in the Baltic giving them better spawning areas as well.

Looking at theses images, I’m sure you will agree with me that that I cant wait to for next spring to get stuck into these Baltic Pike.