Winter in Mellerud

After our usually long journey, we arrived in Mellerud on Sunday evening only to find out that we had been disconnected from the world one more time, means our telephone was not working.
On Tuesday is has been repaired, the cable had been cut by a plowing farmer.
With us came the winter as well with snow and frost and we decided not to bring the boat to Mellerud to keep the option of fishing in Simrishamn in the coming winter.
So there will be no Jullaxen from Vänern this time and no Silverlaxen in 2009!
But the new year is coming soon!

"Jul-Laxen" we're coming!

We'll be going to Mellerud in week 51 and 52 to get some fish for Christmas. There is still a 10+ waiting and may be a "Silverlaxen"to be caught.

Season over and some sad news

The 2009 spring salmon season is over for me. Although we had less days for fishing due to the boat activities and the windy weather one the Baltic Sea, it has been one of the best years since I'm fishing over there, means 1994. In total I caught 21 fish. The most of the fish were caught with natural bait, baitfish (Bleak, Ukelei) in Swedish: Löja. It was the first time that I'm concentrated even in the Baltic Sea on this fishing style, which has been perfected by the finish Fisherman. While on Vaenern the "Anchovy Special" Baitholder was best, in the Baltic the "VK" from Finland lured the most of the fish!

There have been sad news as well, especially about the salmon stocking on Vaenern, our "home lake". It decresses significantly due to the missmanagement of the people in charge and it looks that they are still underestimating the value of the salmon fishery by "Trollers" from all over Europe coming to that lake. I can say only that one caught salmon pay's back it's cost by a 100 fold when it has been caught by Anglers, considered the spendings of the Anglers in Sweden to catch them.
One can only hope that a change in mind and handling is coming soon before this valuable resource has been wasted!

The best for last

Today was my last fishing day for this years salmon season and it was a great one too! Almost perfect weather and an almost perfect result. I caught 5 fish "Full Hand", 3 Salmon , 11.9, 9.5, 8.3kg and 2 Seatrout , 6.6 and 3.8 kg. This was my second best result ever and a super ending of the Sweden trip. Tomorrow is boat cleaning on the schedule, it looks a bit like a slaughter house.

Nice fishing day

Today was the first nice fishing day since we're in Simrishamn. I caught a salmon of 7.6 kg and came 17th in the fishing competition.

Still a lot of wind

Today's fishing started with nice weather in the morning and was spoiled with to much wind around noon. Result was one nice Seatrout of 5.5 kg.

A few hours fishing

The wind permitted a few hours fishing in the morning only and I caught a Rainbow trout of 2.8 kg. There were no salmons today after the recent bad weather.

Shit weather

Since 3 days we've strong wind now, today up to 20 m/s. No chance for fishing and the forecast is also not very much impressive.

Tuff weather

The second fishing day had some strong wind in the afternoon and I caught one salmon of 7 kg and lost a few tackle in the high waves.

First Day fishing in Simris

The first day gave 2 salmon of the smaller size, 3.5 and 4 kg.

Hard wind in Simrishamn

Today no fishing due to hard eastern wind!

Full Pott again

I left the harbor at 5.15 AM and came back at 8.15 AM already and with another limit catch of salmon. They weighted 6.2, 5 and 4.7 kg. The fishing was remarkable good this morning as I caught 2 more fish, 2 cm to short each. The new boat is living up to its name, Crescent Salmon!
Today was the last day on Vänern for this Spring, tomorrow we're moving to Simrishamn.

Full Pott with pit stop!

A limit catch of 3 Salmon, 5, 3.5, 2.7 kg (Full Pott) was the result of today's fishing, although I had to go for a pit stop for refueling in the harbor after having caught 1 fish and fished 3 hours, as I was afraid to run out of petrol.

2 Trout today

Today's fishing gave 2 Trout from 3.5 and 4.5 kg. I started early at 5.00 AM out of the harbor due to some heavy tournament traffic later on.

Nothing countable

Today's fishing gave 5 undersized salmon plus 1 pike, nothing for the freezer. Tomorrow the new motor has to go for it's first service, so no fishing only maintenance works on our house.

First real fishing day

Today was the first real fishing day. I caught a Trout of 6.4 kg and a Salmon from 5 kg. The new boat has been baptist with fish blood and is now a real fishing boat.

The boat is in the water

Today at 10.00 AM we launched the boat and the first test has been done successfully. I fished 5 hours only, more to get used to the new rig and caught 1 wild salmon from 4 kg.

Ready to launch

After 3 days work and some unexpected difficulties the boat is finally ready to launch and to be tested in combat conditions. More about later.

The new boat and a broken trailer winch

Yesterday morning at 6.00 AM and after 2 days of preparation we started the last trip with our old boat. We drove to Motala on the north eastern shore of the Lake "Vättern" to the boat dealer to exchange it against a new one. The trip went well also the handing over. As we were going to start our journey back to Mossen, we had to note that on our new Brenderup trailer, "Made in Denmark" a broken trailer winch, "Made in GB" had been installed. So the boat had to be fixed with some tie straps and we had to drive to Jonköping on the south tip of Vättern to the Thule factory to pay 1000 SEK to get a new one. The warranty has to be claimed with the dealer in Germany. So much about an united "European Market".
From Jonköping we went to Tibro, which we had passed already in the morning to do some shopping for fishing tackle and to complete the unplanned rounding of lake Vättern with a boat in the tie!
At 8.30 PM we arrived in Mossen having driven another 740 km and still no fish caught.
The next 2 days will be busy with fixing all the electronic and fishing stuff to the boat.

In Sweden an reconnected to the world

After the usually long journey, this time even longer due to a boat trailer transport, we arrived in Mossen, Sweden, on Tuesday afternoon only to realize that our telephone had been cut off for the third year in a row by some digging power company workers. The damage had been reported by our neighbor to "Telia", the telephone operator, already by last week Thursday. Yesterday, after only 8 days, they were finally able to repair it somehow, although it looks very temporary, as the pictures show. That's what one calls a very poor service, especially in the "Homeland of Telecommunication".

New Boat, Crescent Salmon V23

The Ryds 600c is sold and a new boat is coming into service in week 16. It is a Crescent Salmon V23, which will be fully equipped with a Yamaha 150 hp Outboard, Scotty El-Downrigger, Raymarine Autopilot, Lowrance Plotter, Sonar, Radar and NASA AIS-Radar. I hope that the fishing will be as good with the new rigg as it was with the old one!