Finnish summer: part 1

Summer’s been gooood in Finland, in fact hottest in 50 years daily temperatures topping +30C!! Also the waters in the lakes have warmed up to +24C so beaches have been really crowded with people enjoying the heatwave although there are many who think it’s been too warm for too long now and they wish for cooler weather! I am one of those who enjoy the heat and I have been making the most of it fishing on lakes. Like always this time of the year I am trying to catch only walleye and it worked out pretty well with my friend Jamppa on one of the deepest lakes near my home. We went fishing late and caught many walleyes around midnight but all of them smaller than usual. Not one decent fish.

With the weather like this I couldn't help myself but spend also some days fishing with my brother in law at his summer cottage!

The first two fishes we caught there were small walleyes and I thought now we will catch many but no way! The next one was a big pike.Then another one. Then another even bigger but it fought like a salmon breaching and jumping completely out of the water shaking it's huge head and setting itself free... My brother in law Veksi reckoned it was about 5-7kg one and it was a pity to lose it but after a fight it put up it truly deserved it's freedom!

Later we caught our record pike! It was exactly 100cm long and weighed 6,2kg. The funny thing is that we were not even trying for pikes and the lures we use should catch walleyes and they should be too small for a pike like this but what can I do if the bastard bites!

The day after we had a lunch with grilled walleye and some salmon to flush down with Spanish cava! The new Finnish potatoes are also a must with food like this and some fresh salad. We tried also a new recipe for pike. I filleted one of the pikes we caught and put it in the smoking oven but pike has a dry meat so it was buttered before cooking and salted well. It turned out to be everyone's favorite! Smoked pike, who would have thought that it could be so good?!

We continued trolling until dark and caught some small walleyes...

These are the biggest walleyes we caught. Nothing to be proud of but they are excellent fried in white wine with onions and some lemon juice! This hot summer seems to have scared the big walleyes away or made them passive because we caught something like 20 of them but if these were the biggest ones imagine the rest!

Catching too many pikes and some of them must be released, this one was so tired I had to give some swimming lessons to it!

The last day we tried another end of the lake and caught some fishes that are highly appreciated: Perches.

These perches bite our regular walleye lures on the spot around one little island. The water was full of small fish and bigger fish feasting on them, including perch.

The perch is best smoked and turned out to be everyone's favorite. Next time we should try and catch only perch. Who knows what we might end up catching?

In the evening after the dinner Veksi made some flamed pan cakes!

Some days spent like this on the lake fishing and having sauna and eating and drinking good was a getaway I needed! Now I am back home feeling totally reborn and motivated to get back on my training. Today was dedicated to Jetski riding and few hours of that fun made me totally exhausted... But it was incredible. No wetsuits needed with this weather and next week should be still over +30C daily!