Trout or pike fishing? That's the question!

Why do I say trout or pike fishing? I'll tell you how my record trout turned into a pike. Well, I was on a river in Sweden and my asshole broke. Great, the biggest native I saw live, in the rod, in the drill. A year later I went back for him, fixed on the same river, fixed on the same place, fixed with the same lure. Same hopes, another thread. Keep going?

Fishing adventures in Sweden

I was sorting through the older pictures from Sweden and I found the one above. Nothing special in the first phase, just a pike caught on a river of trout and grayling, a common occurrence on Scandinavian waters. But for me it was a mix of joy, adrenaline and disappointment. Well, let me tell you, shall I?

Back in 2018!

The little story I tell you started when we participated in Lapland Pike 2018. Even if the purpose of our expedition was a competition for pike fishing on the lake, from the boat, we could not resist taking a rod for trout fishing and on the river. There is no other way, if you start climbing to the north of Sweden, the dozens of rivers you see cannot leave you indifferent. Especially when you know that most of them hide from abundance trout and grayling that you have dreamed or targeted for years in Romania.

Lapland Pike

Arriving late at night at Doro Camp, we were to fish for two days on Lake Belvik, by boat, for pike. While we were preparing our fishing tools for the next day, to cut ourselves from fatigue, not sleeping for a night, we opened the windows of the cottage wide. Clean air and surprise, the source of a river could be heard. Of course I also mounted the trout rods. After two too short hours of rest, we woke up to meet our guide on Lake Belvik. Robert, already dressed, slammed her behind the hut, returning after 20 minutes, "I caught two graylings and a trout!".

Trout and grape

Due to an unexpectedly cold weather front, the pike were not active that day on the lake, so, as you guessed, we quickly returned to the campsite to catch a few more hours of fishing on the river. In 5 minutes we were all equipped with trout rods and a handful of lures in our pockets, asking at the campsite reception about the river's fishing regime. We receive the consent to fish, with the suggestion to go 4 km downstream or upstream, the camping area not being the best. And we received another suggestion, to keep a few fish for consumption.

The supreme native

We scattered wherever we went and the grayling and trout began to flow. The stormy river with many stones and obstacles quickly chopped our equipment. Before evening, I meet Albu and take them with insistence, then by force, the last rotary left free. The last presses, the last launches, the last fish comes to me. An indigenous square coming out from behind a stone, gives me a short, prick, takes it upstream, rises to the surface to make a candle enough to see it. It breaks a 0.16mm monofilament wire without the right to appeal. How big was it? Hard to say without fishing exaggerations, it is certain that it was the biggest indigenous trout I had in the rod.

We finished the game in 2018 with a combined taste, sweet with grapefruit and bitter trout. But I knew I would be back in a year, in the same campsite, on the same river, with the same rotary.

Back in 2019

The night before I left for Sweden, this year, I quickly planted a trout kit (Berti-only rotary) a short Pezon & Michel light rod and thread, hmmm, what thread should I take, that's the question. I clearly don't take 0.16mm anymore, I didn't have 0.18mm on hand on any reel or spare on rollers. I still find a 2500 reel with a fluorocoated wire from ASSO Ultra Low Strech, diameter 0.22mm, a thread I used in the spring for minnow suspending wobblers. Now, after almost a season of use, I warmly recommend it, I also leave a link for those who wish. The combo seemed a bit disproportionate, but that's what I managed to bury, for a few hours of fishing on the run I can do it for sure and I certainly won't break any trout, those were the last thoughts before finishing the luggage.

Trout or pike

Well, we arrived again at Doro Camp, in 2019, with the ultimate goal of the pike fishing competition from the Lapland Pike boat. Naturally, in the first free afternoon I attacked the river, together with Cristi Albu, Cristi Peev and Elvis Vigu. I went downhill, leaving for the end the place where I had lost the trout a year ago. The river had a lower flow, implicitly less fish, but we managed to catch some grayling. The combo worked perfectly, despite the reel being too big and the wire too thick, long and precise launches and I didn't lose any rotary, managing to untie the anchors by pulling from any obstacle. I was ready for revenge.

Elvis is in the building

Cristi & Cristi retire, Elvis and I go uphill, we catch a few more gulls on the road, I tell Elvis about last year's patania exactly when we approached the place with the trout. "Here it is!" I let myself go and launch fixedly on the route revisited so many times in memory. The trout comes out of a rock and misses the attack, remaining in streams. I won't tell you how much I had my pulse, I launch it again, I see it in streams as it follows, as if it is bigger than I saw it last year, it watches rotating and fixed before taking it, a small grapefruit steals it from its snout. Pffff. I release the grapefruit at high speed, after swearing at it, and start searching for the trout in streams again. After two, three or four launches and empty recoveries, he comes out of the stream again and gives me an attack to jump the rod out of my hand, but this time I stung him, he can't break. You're mine!

It's pike..ptiu!

The lack of waders doesn't matter anymore, the adrenaline rush makes me instantly enter the water when the trout picks it up, upstream, on the brakes, on the streams. Elvis attends all the tarasenia, malc, a few meters away. I start pumping slowly, he leaves again, and I pump, he starts to get closer, I get to my knees in ice cold water, I start to see his brown color, big uncle, big! Until Elvis, obviously upset, tells me, “A. It's pike! ” Ptiu! I see her in the end too, pike… I break the silence with a few swear words and I also assure Elvis: “You could shut up, I was still enjoying a few moments of the drill of life! You have no feelings! ”

I didn't catch the monster. That's all, it's actually simple. After all, it's no mess. That was about the story Fishing for trout or pike.

Read more here Fishing stories.