Midnight sun festival weekend

Juhannus (midnight sun festival) was spent on the lake with nice weather and fish biting our lures! We arrived on Thursday to my brother-in-law Veksi and his wife Leena's summer cottage by the lake and the weather was perfect. Sunny skies and something like +25C and no wind! Unreal! I wasted no time to undress and jump in my speedos. Then we celebrated Finnish summer at it's best with champagne and had a lunch by the jetty. After lunch it was time to prepare for fishing. The engine of the boat needed service so I changed the oils and spark plug before we loaded the boat and started fishing. We are always trying to catch only pike-perch (walleye) but somehow end up catching damn big pikes! Our first catch was a pike-perch though but it was too small and I released it. Later we caught another pike-perch, this time big enough to eat. Later in the evening one of the rods bent much more than usually and I felt it was big and hoped for a pike-perch. We had 5 lines out for trolling so we had to keep moving forward and it took a while to get it in the boat but it turned out to be a regular 95cm long pike! After fishing we heated up the sauna and the hot tub. First we started with a heat of +90C sauna and when it started to be unbeareable we took a swim in +18C lake. When feeling cold in the lake got out and emerged in the hot tub to enjoy one ice cold beer. Few repeats of this circuit made my body and soul feel purified from all the dirt&dust of the last weeks races! On Friday we were trolling for the pike-perch again when one of the rods bent deep. I thought the lure was hooked to some log in the bottom of the lake but then I felt the fish kicking and fighting! I felt the weight of it and I knew it was The Monster of Piikkilänjärvi again! This bastard has stolen some of my best lures through the years but has never been seen. I couldn't do anything when this creature swam away and had to use all my skills to reel it in little by little when it stopped. It lasted about two minutes and then suddenly the line was broken! Damned it to hell! The Monster won again! It surely had swallowed the lure and finally reached the line after the wire trace with it’s sharp teeth. Another piercing for the monster. By now it must be quite a sight with several fancy lure-piercings in it's lips! Eventually we caught also two more pike-perches but too small. Then there was bigger one again! When this bigger fish turned out to be pike again we were a little disappointed. This time it was a 3kg one... At Friday night the village society had organised a little party by the lake and the traditional kokko (bonfire) was lit up before midnight. This centuries old pagan ritual is supposed to scare the evil spirits as well as making much noise. No doubt about the evil spirits on this lake. The fire was sure high enough and there was a lot of noise that people gathered at their summer cottages around the lake made partying all night long. At the festival area there was also a troubadour playing harmonica and singing and people dancing. By this time relaxing atmosphere had taken it’s toll and I hit the bed. On Saturday I was ever more determined to catch some pike-perch. During the afternoon we caught one which ended up to be our lunch today. Then one of the rods bent again but more deep than usually and by the feel of fish's passive behaviour at the other end of the line I suspected a big pike-perch. All excited I slowly reeled it in but then it suddenly got loose! Damned! Would have been could have been should have been... The rest of the day’s fishing produced only a small pike but I didn’t give up. The old fishermen tell tall tales about pike-perch fishing and there is a legend that they bite only at night. Well, I was out there for some hours at night but caught nothing at all. I’ll keep this in mind for the future. Why bother fishing at night if the pike-perch bites daytime on sunny days? I have, after all, caught my biggest pike-perch daytime on a sunny day some 20 years ago and it seems the fish haven't changed it's unpredictable behaviour!