My first 10+ pike!!!

I went out this morning to fish some pike. I started off with some shallow trolling and did that for a while. Didn't catch anything - as expected really.

The water level in the river has went down drastically the last couple of days - especially during last night. It's almost down to the lowest level actually.

I went to a well known spot - it's known to hold big pike, but I have never had any luck there... until today! I put on a Savage Gear rubber shad (brown trout pattern). A couple of casts and something hit the lure. I was concentrated and sat the hook. At first I thought that this must be an OK fish. I was thinking maybe a 4-6 kg fish. But all of a sudden it took off on a hard run. Wow, this is something really big! After a couple of minutes I manged to pull it in far enough to see it. Holy shit! It was massive! I instantly knew that this is a PB for me! The fish did 4-5 long and hard runs and it took me about 10 minutes to net the old lady!

The problem with catching fish like this when you're alone in the boat, is taking pictures. It's friggin' hard! And the display on iPhones really suck out in bright light. I couldn't see the display and hence I couldn't see if I was getting good pictures... and I didn't. Not super bad, but they could have been a lot better.

I got the fish measured and weighed and by golly, new PB - with good margin. My biggest fish was up to this point 9060 grams and 106 cm.
This sucker was 10780 grams and 123 cm long! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!

I got the fish back in the water and it took a while to get her swimming again. Man, what a wonderful feeling to see such a big fish swim back into the deep!
But, it doesn't end here! I turned the boat back to fish the same spot some more and I noticed something on the surface. It was my fish - floating up-side-down! Nooooo! I got a hold to try to save her from dying. It took me about 10-15 minutes, but finally she swam down to the bottom (it was really shallow there). She sat on the bottom for a while - which was a good sign - she wasn't turning up-side-down again. Finally, she took off and made the water murky from the sand/mud bottom! Happy times!

Still not finished...

I started fishing the same spot again. First cast and another huge fish attacked my lure again! It was about the same size as the first one and hit real close to the boat. A couple of headshakes and she was gone! I got a good look at her though - she looked more like a muskie than a pike. Real dark gray and the markings on her were pretty 'weak'. Anyways, I couldn't believe it. Two pikes around the same size on the same spot! And I lost one of them!!!! Argh!

A couple of more casts and WHAM! Again!!!! Different fish again, and again around the same size!!! What??!!?? She came off also I'm afraid! God damn motherf****!!!!

But you know what - I'm not allowed to be mad. I got my 10+ kg fish today and I couldn't be happier!

Go Team Riverpigs!

PS. We should have caught this fish last weekend! It would have been the winner fish - by far!

PSS. I wish I had gotten better pictures, but there's nothing I can do about that now.

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Report from C&R pike competition

Ok, so we participated in Aremark Gjeddeklubb's C&R Pike Competition in Aspern and Ara near Halden this last weekend. Me and Ali headed out on Friday night and spent the night there (the competition started on Saturday morning). Why? Because the registration started fairly early Saturday morning and we wanted to avoid having to get up super early on Saturday to make the fairly long drive.

Our tents are up and ready

We got the boat on the water when we arrived and got the tent set up. We hung out for a while, talking to some of the other contestants (a majority of them had also showed up on Friday) before we decided to hit the sack.

Good night!

We didn't get much sleep that night. Hard and uneven ground plus some party-happy fishermen in the big tent right next to us contributed to that. Didn't matter though, we were up and running by 08:00 on Saturday.

Parking lot

Ali getting his rod ready ;)

We loaded the boat with all the fishing gear, food and other stuff and got registered. We got our catch form along with number tags for the fish and a measure board. Good to go!

We went out on the water about 09:30 and just hung around out there until 10:00 when the fishing could start.

Hanging around on the water waiting for the start time

We didn't really have a solid plan for how we would do our fishing, other than to do trolling for the most part - and stop for some spinfishing/jerkbaitfishing once in a while.
We had never been to this lake before - and other than studying a map of the lake and getting some tips from friends here and there, we didn't really know much about it. So, we tried staying close to shore as much as possible and just keep an eye on the sonar for edges.

The first part of the day Saturday was pretty decent for us. We caught 5 fish (I think) - where on of them was decent size. 85cm isn't really that bad. The rest though, were really small. 4 of the 5 were caught on trolling, while the last one was caught in a shallow bay while spinfishing.
Ali's new Swim Whizz Helin Frog was the hottest bait Saturday. It caught 3 fish I believe.

We fished the full day - until 21:00 when everybody had to quit fishing. Talking to some of the other guys it sounded like we had done fairly well with out 85cm fish. However, when we later talked to some more people, it turned out that we would need 3-4 more fish that size or bigger to have any chance what so ever. Oh well, it's not about winning...

We went to bed around 23:30 that night - after grilling (and eating) some hot dogs. We both slept really well actually.

The fishing could start at 06:00 on Sunday and sure enough - Team Riverpigs were up at 05:20 to get ready.

Ali digging in his tent at 05:30 in the morning

Sunday turned out to be really slow for us (and most of the others too). We caught 2 fish and they were really small. We needed some more and in bigger sizes! We saw lots of fish on the sonar (both Saturday and Sunday) but they weren't especially interested in our baits. We did the same thing as on the day before. Mostly trolling, but stopped for some spinning once in a while.

The fishing ended at 14:00 and we went in to give our report. 345cm for our 5 biggest fish. It obviously didn't give us any prizes, but in the end we ended up on a OK 14th place (shared that spot with another team). Not too bad I guess. 14th out of 37.

All in all the weekend was near perfect. Even though we didn't do super well fishing, a weekend of pure fishing, nice weather, nice company, nice camp ground, super nature and being part of such an event (it's fun when so many people with the same burning passion for pike fishing gather like this) - is so much fun!

Now we're looking forward to the next competition, which is Nedre Glomma Gjeddefestival in August. We attended this last year also, and since that event takes place on my "home river" Glomma, we hope to do even better this time. We now know the area better and we have equipped the boat so we can fish 5 rods at the same time, rather than 2 last year. It obviously gives us a better change of catching more fish.

The view from our tents

Saturday night dinner

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Team Riverpigs are on YouTube!

For my birthday this year (which is on the 6th of May) I wanted a GoPro camera. And since my wife is the bestest wife in the world and my parents agreed to give me money, I got what I wanted. I got myself a GoPro Hero 3. I know, not the newest one, but it fit the "budget" fairly well and I think it'll serve my purposes just fine. So, the sole purpose of this camera is to make fishing videos. I have always immensely enjoyed watching fishing videos on YouTube or whatever. I love watching other people fish, talk about fishing, seeing them catch fish and so on. So of course, Team Riverpigs need to make their own. Maybe somebody will enjoy our videos too and heck, maybe even be inspired by them. The world is a strange place and bigger miracles have happened I guess. Anyways, as we speak, we have only produced one video. It's on our YouTube channel which can be found here: We'll be filming when we attend a local pike fishing competition next weekend, so watch out for a new video!

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Team Riverpigs go international

So, this blog has been, from day one, in Norwegian. It was the most natural choice since both me and Ali are both Norwegian (though, Ali was born and lived the first years of his life in Somalia). However, since I have American family (my wife is American) and the thought that maybe others than Scandinavians might find this blog, I decided to change the language to English. Future posts will be in English and if I feel like it, I might translate, at least some, old posts to English as well. So, enjoy and don't get hooked up (pun intended) on bad grammar ok? PS. In Norway (and maybe Sweden and Denmark) we always say "Skitt fiske" to someone who are going out fishing. It's considered bad luck to say "Good luck" to a fisherman, so instead - "Skitt fiske". It might sound strange, and it truly is weird, but it translates to "shit fishing". Therefore I hereby introduce and will be using shit fish as a phrase here on this blog! Shit fish!

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Team Riverpigs will compete in Nedre Glomma Gjeddefestival

Team Riverpigs aim high this year and will compete in two competitions. The first one is Aremark Gjeddeklubb Gjeddekonkurranse in June and the other is Nedre Glomma Gjeddefestival in August.

We competed in NGGF last year also (for the first time), then under the name Team DCZ. The team is still the same, but with a new name.

We obviously are very exited and hope for a little better luck this year. Helge will be hunting for the big lady that he lost last year :).

Shit fish!

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Report from our first pass this season

This season's first pike pass on Glomma is done. The weather forecast was spot on, lots of rain. It was pretty cold and it rained on us pretty much the whole time. Luckily it didn't poor down and most importantly - there was hardly any wind. We can live with that!

We were on the water about 10:30 and the plan was to fish until about 17:00 (Helge was going to a party that night). It never got that late since our fingers got too cold. But, we did get a few hours in.

We started with some trolling along an edge where the depth varied between 4 and 10 meters. We saw lots of fish on the sonar, but they just didn't want to take our baits.

After a while we decided to visit a very familiar spot and do some spin fishing with tail baits and jerkbaits. It didn't take long before we got a small one (about 2 kilos). It took on Svartzonker McMio. I had contact with another small one, but it didn't hit the bait right.

We drifted out into the current and along the rocky shore I had a good contact with a better fish. It scared the living shitters our of me, as it attacked my lure right by the boat. Didn't see that coming (I never do). I wasn't fast enough and didn't get to set the hook and it got away.

We trolled quite a bit more up the river without success. Again, we saw lots of fish on the sonar, but that doesn't really help does it, when they don't want to eat. We went down stream again and back to the spot where I lost the better fish. First cast and BANG! This time I was ready and hooked the lady. I got a nice jump and a few cool headshakes before Ali netted her and we got her in the boat. I struggled a bit with the unhooking so I didn't want to measure and weigh her. I'm pretty confident that she was about 6 kilos. A nice release followed and she was back in the water.

That was it, no more fish that day. We saw lots of fish on the sonar on the way home too, but no hits.

Absolutely great to have done our fish pass for the season and happy that we caught a decent fish. The weather could have been a bit more comfortable, but hey - we're not complaining!

Cheers!

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Boat on the water and first fishing trip booked!

When I was working on getting our ship ready, my goal was to get it on the water by last weekend. Somehow I managed to reach that goal actually. On Sunday, with the help of Ali, the boat ended up on the beautiful water of Glomma. Amazing!

We couldn't get the motor started (we'll get back to that) so we had to row. Luckily it wasn't far, so we won't complain too much about that!

The funny thing was:
While the boat was still on the trailer - I mentioned at least twice to Ali (and my self) that we had to remember to attach the transducer (it was hanging loose) to the boat before we put it on the water. I bet you know where this is going. Yup, we forgot!
Luckily the boat is really light, so I took the motor off and lifted the rear end of the boat up on the dock and got the thing attached. No sweat!

Ok, the motor has it's own story. I was quite eager to start it for the first time after a long winter. It's an old motor, so you never know - you know.
Anyways, I could not get it to start. I soon realized why - no gas was going through the fuel line. When I tried pumping gas, it sounded like one of the connectors was leading air or something. I concluded that I need to replace the line. I went to the store the day after and got a new one. They are cheap so no big deal. I got it attached the same day and tried again. Same friggin' thing! Whaaaaaaaat!? Now what do I do? Sure, you take one step back and think through what it is you're doing.

Not very many moments went by and I started thinking. There is more fuel line on the one side of the pump than on the other. Is the pump really supposed to be closer to the motor or.... Let's try the other way around... Test....

BINGO - followed by a big wet *FACEPALM*!!

The motor started immediately and we had victory! It was a bitter-sweet victory though - because how stupid can one be?!? Whatever, it's all forgotten now. 

The boat looks to be sealed up, not taking in any water and the motor is working. What is left? Wait, yes, lets go fishing! By the help of some lucky circumstances (my son was going on a football trip to Sweden and my parents taking my daughter) we books a few hours for fishing! 

Were Helge and Ali exited? You betcha!

We're crossing our fingers for OK weather on Saturday. Our expectations are fairly low, but you never know. At this time last year we had good luck, but we had a warmer spring last year so....
But you know, it doesn't really matter. It'll be great just to get out there!

Shit fish! Go Team Riverpigs!

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The boat is almost ready!

Spring time last year I did a rather failed attempt at repairing and sealing some damage on my boat. It was a crack that went from one side of the keel to the other, and it took in more water than acceptable. I used glass fiber trowel as an attempt to seal it. It worked for a while, but not permanently. Especially towards the end of the season it was getting pretty bad. When we attended the Nedre Glomma Gjeddefestival competition, we had to empty out water every half hour. No fun! So, I decided that next spring I'll have to do some more serious work on this crack to get it sealed.

It's next spring now and I'm almost finished - in other words, the boat is almost ready to be put on the water and help Team Riverpigs haul in the big mamas and give us some exceptional experiences out there.

I bought a sanding tool and a bunch of extra sanding pads and started sanding around the crack. I sanded down a big area around the crack, all the way down to the glass fiber through the gel coat. Then I washed well with alcohol and put on 2-component polyester goo and lay a blanket of glass fiber on top of it. I repeated this about 3 or 4 times and made sure all bubbles were gone.

It turned out great! The next day the patch had dried and hardened and I started to sand it a little to get it smooth.

I also sanded the rest of the boat (on the outside) so it could be repainted. In the end it turned out OK. Not the most beautiful finish, but I don't care. As long as the boat is sealed, I'm happy.

The next thing to do is to get the boat on the water and book time for a fishing trip!

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Change of name

So, Helge likes to make changes every now and then. So, let's change! We have now changed our name to Team Riverpigs! The name Team DCZ is "dead". The actual team hasn't changed. We're the same two weirdos still, but the name is different and obviously we have a new logo to go with it.

Pretty happy about the result.

Short explanation to the new name:
When I was a kid there was a show on TV called "Brødrene Dahl og professor Drøvels hemmelighet" - which was a kids show full of lame humor. These three brothers sent off on a quest to find a professor that had disappeared in the jungle. This quest was done in a canoe called "Elvegris" - or "Riverpig" in English. That is the first point that makes the name a bit funny and/or cool.
Secondly, big pikes are often called pigs. Thirdly, we fish in a river...
Get it?

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Team Riverpigs will compete in Aremark Gjeddeklubb Gjeddekonkurranse!

Aremark Gjeddeklubb will be arranging Gjeddekonkurranse 2016 (pike fishing competition) on the 11th and 12th of June. Team Riverpigs will be competing!

The competition will be held in Aspern (lake) and Ara (river/lake) and is totally unknown territory for us, so it'll be exiting. We'll have to study some maps and maybe get some tips from friends.

We are so exited!!!

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