So, during this last weekend the anual Nedre Glomma Gjeddefestival (Nedre Glomma Pike Festival) was held and Team Riverpigs participated for the second time. We had been looking forward to this event for weeks and this is maybe the highlight of the late summer for us.
This year 51 teams competed - which was a new record (by 15 teams no less) and 104 individuals. Really great. The event got quite a bit of local media coverage also, which is pretty cool. Hopefully this can shed some positive light on pike fishing (and C&R) and maybe also recruit some new anglers.
We packed the car and loaded the boat onto the boat trailer Friday afternoon and headed up to the base camp at Furuholmen (about a 10 minutes drive from where I live). We checked out the camp ground before putting the boat on the water. We got our tents set up and basically just hung around for a while before going to bed. We don't exactly sleep in tends very often, so the first night is usually pretty tough (as in we don't sleep very well). It was really windy Friday night - so that didn't help. But, it doesn't matter much. Waking up bright and early to the sound of exited pike fishers gets the old blood pump going.
We got dressed and started loading and organizing the boat before registration started. New of this year is that every team got a measure board (aluminum I believe) which helps a lot with measuring the fish. The board was to be given back to the organizers after the end of the festival, but it was possible to buy it for 150 kroner.
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| Our tents |
At 09:30 all boats headed out. Fishing started at 10:00.
Our plan for the weekend was to troll a lot and also spin fish known hot spots and other spots we would find interesting (we used the sonar to look for shallows etc.).
We mostly fished Mingevannet and Vestvannet as both are within decent distance from basecamp. The boat we have isn't exactly a speed demon (understatement of the year) so we didn't want to waste too much time driving without fishing. After all, the more the lures are in the water - the greater the chance of catching something.
To cut the story a bit shorter, we didn't have much luck! Fishing was tough. We ended up catching 8 pike during the weekend, but they were all really small. Our biggest fish was 72cm. The winning fish was 112cm. Quite a big difference!
Even though the fishing wasn't all that great for us, the whole thing was still a great experience and we had a lot of fun. Spending two days on the water fishing can't possibly be a bad thing right!?
So, even though we at times were a bit frustrated with the big pikes that didn't bite our lures - we had a great time! Can't wait for next year's NGGF! We'll be back - with bad intentions!
Here are pictures of the pikes we caught:
Here are some links to various information about the event:
