06-01-03

Tuesday

First fishing trip this year

And of course the first diary entry for the world. This is just a test. I don't know where this will lead. Or if it will be weighed upon a scale and will be found too light. This is the form I write in for my Swedish audience and four of the five guys like it enough to come back for more. Now I will see how you like it.
Is this a blogg?
No, I wouldn't say that. More like a plogg. It stands for, of course pike web logg. Or should it be flogg? Fishing web logg. In order to make this site more popular maybe this jingle, put to music will make it: "Get flogged by Soeren's plogg!" or something like that. I'm sure my ratings would rise just like a pike to the fly.
Didn't you know that you can fish a pike just like you can a brown or rainbow trout? Course you can. At least in almost the same way you do it with a small nymph. A No 6 rod, floating line, a pike fly just below the surface, retrieve the line slowly and BANG! There you go!
If you're lucky the pike would even jump. My pikes do that if I'll tell them to. And I've got plenty of photos to prove it. But not today.
Today my big aim was just to get a bite. 

And I don't mean a frost bite. This photo I took on the island of Tjurkö as far out as you can get in the archipelago of Karlskrona.  I know for sure that many of you foreigners think that here in Sweden the latest ice age never really left and polar bears walk the streets of our towns. But we here in the county of Blekinge enjoy the same climate as say, Great Britain.  For most part of the winter I can fish and wade. But of course the weather changes both from year to year as well as from week to week.

This winter seems to be unusually cold and severe though. When I got out of my car my hands felt very cold. Ice covered the inner bays and coves and as far out as here was my only chance to fish. The building is a fortress built to defend the Crown of king Charles (Karlskrona). Nowadays it's more like a museum. I think they train military watch dogs out there now. Oh, I hope that wasn't a military secret!
When I had changed costume to neopren waders I stood there hesitating for a while and looked at the damned swans. I hate swans! Stupid hissing digging shitting stuck-up birds who think themselves so beloved and solemn! But I've seen through them a long time ago. Always getting in my way they do. That's because we like the same type of shores and water in winter. Shallow water up to my knees on sand bottom. And on the leeward side. There they swim around and scare the fish away. And digging great holes in the sand bed. For me to stumble in and they want me to trip, of course. 
-But, I thought, can they swim around in the water today so can I . At least wade in it. 
But before I entered the water on the picture I had made a long walk. Just to get the warm up both in the waders and in my blood. After a quarter of an hour the warmth even returned to my fingers. Then I can fish, cast, splash in the water, grip fish, release hooks and even wash my hands in the water afterwards without feeling cold, the rest of the day. Instead the water hiss just like putting hot iron in it. It's a very valuable gift fishing here in Sweden in the wintertime, I can tell you.

My simple aim today didn't seem to be fulfilled for many hours. I fished and fished but nothing.  But as you can see to the right I finally succeeded, right? Yes, a fine, a little over three kilo, fat pike suddenly... Oho...  Now, what do you want, Mr. Internet Ombudsman? OK, this is it! I had hoped that you wouldn't bother me here on my new site. Why don't you just go away from me and my new international readers? -The more reason for me to show up and warn them about certain things about you! -Now what would that be?  -That you can't be relied upon for starters. -Oh that! But surly even the international world out there is aware of that this is the Internet, right? And here on the net everything isn't exactly what it seems, right?

-Yeah, I just would make sure that your (eventually) new visitors will be aware of this fact. That they can't swallow everything you say. And above all that a picture can lie more than a thousand words. That you're even just as bad as any swan digging a hole for others to fall in!
-Oh, you mean that the pike wasn't taken on the place in the first picture! Well...
-Yes for instance. Let it be known to the world that you often cheat when mentioning places and where you actually catch your puny little fish.
-Oh, but I don't have to to that here on this plogg, have I? This is only for foreigners or what they call themselves living outside of Sweden's boundaries.  
-So you mean they never would come visiting to your country... No, I see your point...
-What point?
-Not when they've read some more of your diaries I'm sure they would stay away from Sweden. Definitely!
-Exactly. That's why I frankly can say to you and the rest of the world that I caught this pike on a stretch of coast that is called Djupasund on Sturkö. 
-But don't you forget your Swedish visitors? Don't you think they will get this tip, which I'm not in a position to judge how valuable it might be.
-Naah... Not them! That's not a specially bright lot, are they!? After all they visit my Swedish site now and then and that proves I'm right. I won't tell them about this international edition and so they won't know of it. I'm pretty sure they can't read English. Not even my light version of it...
It's just between you and me!
-OK, you all out there! Now you're warned and don't trust all you read here! Now I have some other Internet business to attend to elsewhere and have to leave. Goodbye and hopefully I don't have to return.
-Is he gone...? Yes... Good riddance, I say! Coming here saying I cheat... How 'bout that!
OK, back to the fishing. 
Finally I caught a pike and thus saved the day. One bite, one fish. Tried a few more hours without a contact. I'm not blaming it on the weather but it's a fact that this kind is among the worst you can fish in. It's very seldom so much snow here on the islands of Karlskrona as now. That's why you can't drive and park where you want but is restricted only to a few places. 
Today's pictures wasn't much to hang in the Christmas tree as we say here in Sweden. But that's what real life is all about! You can't always get what you want, can you Mick...? Maybe all will be better next time? Maybe it will be a next time? 
We'll see.

Hm... Here, under this line I usually put the day's fishing statistics. In order to to do that I just copy a section from an Access database permitted to me from the kind Mr. Gates. But that table is all in Swedish, of course... I'm not sure I want to bother to make a whole new table just for you all foreigners out there... Let me think about that for a while...