3 years of dry spell about to be broken..

[Pekka]

I have not been on these forums since I moved from UK to arctic north and started to study Dentistry... now is time to get my lazy body back to water.. we are off to Estonia for a sailing/spearing trip.. I hope my gear is still in good enough shape to last for a week of diving. Thanks Stephan Whelan for facebooking me back to DB forums... perhaps I will try to keep diving more in the coming years.. who knows.
Looks like the forums are rocking as always, will post a short trip report when we come back to let you guys know if I still float/sink or catch anything else than old fishing lures from the bottom of the baltic..

 

[foxfish]

Hi Pekka, welcome back after 3.5 years - we will look forward to your report.

 

[fcallagy]

welcome back pekka enjoy your trip and look forward to the report

 

[podge]

Pekka, welcome back to the fold, now get on out there and get the water flowing back over your gills.

 

[Stephan Whelan]

Welcome back Pekka!

 

[Pekka]

Well report.. I wish it had been little better diving week...
Our first plan was to cross the baltic sea to Estonia for better fishing waters.. Our old trusty war horse of a boat took little too much water in the rough seas so we decided not to cross the Baltic, but to stay little closer to the shore.. in Finland.. (bad idea for fishing)..
First day was all sailing against the wind 45 nautical miles and 13hours straight work.. We were all exhausted and beaten.
The next day we sailed only for a short while and did our first dive.. Which resulted in 0 fish... Judging by the look of the place we should have had our stringers full, but the state of Baltic sea is horrible. water was 20C warm at the surface, my 20T Omer 110 got no action as wiz was about 100cm.. max.
The very next day we dove again further west some miles and my brother nailed two perches.. but comparing to UK bass or Norway cod we have had a privilege to enjoy these were bait fish.. My score for the day two of diving was a wreck at 18m upon which I landed by accident and spent most of my hunting time admiring. And a sunken duck egg from 14m.. So instead of fish I got unborn bird..
After two "failed" fishing dives we decided to try finding the fish during the night. With lights in hand we headed for our 3rd day/night of fishing around a small island out in the middle of the Baltic sea. And found 2, 15cm fishes which we left at the bottom of the sea sleeping as they were..
That was mostly our diving during our holiday this summer.. And we are decided never to make an other diving holiday to the polluted Baltic sea again..
During the Baltic spearfishing championships the winners catch was made up of several pikes. It is like shooting dogfish in the UK south west.. not good for eating or anything else than ground fish patties or something.
Sailing on the other hand was very nice, weather was spectacular, I used 35 spf lotion all the time and got my face burned including my lower lip, but cant really complain as it was so very nice to be out on the boat as the sun was shining and beautiful scenery slid by slowly.

In the future we are determined to either sail all the way out of the Baltic sea for better fishing grounds or just take the plane and make our way to UK, Norway, some Mediterranean country or US for some U/W hunting..
In the mean time I will be enjoying you guys telling me how great the diving is at your local spot of water... and try not to throw all my diving gear into autoclave with drill bits and those sharp tools dentists stick into peoples mouths to torture them...

Pekka:crutch

 

[sross]

Hi Pekka,

Why is the fishing is so poor around Finland? Just wondering.

 

[hyeparis]

Interesting. Folks from Russia often go to Finland for fishing and so do people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, I hear. The best spots they say, however, are in Norway - lots of big cod there.

 

[frozen duck]

I think the hardest thing is to find both fish and viz, in the sea at least. In finland we dont have seawaters as salty, clear and deep as in Norway.

The fish dont always hang around the same places, they move a lot trying to find the right water temperature.So in summer like we have had,unbeliavably warm, the fish just arent where they usually are. And since there has been storms, the viz hasnt been too good either. But some people still catch fish...not me, but those who know their spots.

What is really good here,Ithink,is that you can freshwater spearfish legally here. Only rivers with salmon, trout and whitefish are forbidden. And some areas in some lakes, but theres still tens of thousands of lakes here...

 

[sross]

What is really good here, I think,is that you can freshwater spearfish legally here. Only rivers with salmon, trout and whitefish are forbidden. And some areas in some lakes, but theres still tens of thousands of lakes here...

That sounds nice! Last week we were at a beautiful lake here, Lake on the Mountain, with crystal clear water & saw some beautiful biggies that would have made a great dinner, but there's no spearfishing allowed in Ontario here in Canada.

Have to remember that if I end up travelling to Finland.