Svenska Pirken

[BradB]

I've never posted an image before, but here's a shot at it:

It's a photo of some of the many ice fishing lures I picked up in my travels through Sweden, Finland, and Norway this past spring. These happen to be all Swedish.

The jig spoons on the bottom are the most beautiful I've ever seen anywhere. They have this engraved scale pattern with gold or green which is very impressive. they are 40 mm Bergmanspirkens if you want to look them up.

The most impressive ones (photo doesn't do justice) are the yellow and red ones to the right. These are small marmooska type jigs that are made of wolfram. They are incredibly heavy for their size and I can't wait to use them. I only saw them in Ostersund, Sweden which is in the north and a very outdoorsy town.

The small colored trebble hooks on top are made by old men who sell them to the fishing stores. I have used ones like these for several years that were gifts from relatives in Sweden. I change them out from the ones that come with the jig spoons and I think they really make a difference. You use these little metal links that snap fit to the spoon and the hook.

Thought some of you might be interested.

[caseymcq]

Do you know what kind of fish they target with these lures? And if so what would be a comparagle North American Fish?

[BradB]

They are exactly the same fish we target here. I had the opportunity to do some ice fishing there and we fished for "aborre" = yellow perch, "Gös" = walleye, and "Gedde" = Northerns. One of the really cool things was that we fished northerns with tip-ups, like we do here, but they had models that used corks with gunpowder inside. When the fish pulled the line it activated a piece of metal that struck the cork and it made a large "Bang!" just like a firecracker. It was pretty cool.

The lures I showed were perch and walleye (aborre and Gös) lures. It's what I fish for here, and what I fished for there.

[Northlander]

I sure wish I could find the contact info for those spoons and trebles. That tip up sounds like a blast. Pun intended. In a hot bite it would sound like a shootout.

[BradB]

You can find those spoons and trebles at just about any local fishing shop in Sweden depending on the season. As the Trebles are made by local people there is a wide variety in sizes and colors depending where you go. They take ice fishing very seriously over there.

The best fishing store I saw was in Ostersund. I'm pretty sure you'd pay a lot of money to have something shipped here. Your best bet is relatives who can send them as Christmas (Jul) gifts, if you have any over there.

BTW, here is a shot of the banging tip-up:

That little wood piece by the red spool has the spring loaded hammer. The cork is in there, but you can't tell from this picture.

[slick814]

Brad -

So you're saying that the patterns on the spoons is engravied into them? Color and all, or is it like an engraved pattern that gets paint added? (I guess what I'm asking is if the paint chips off like it would on a Daredevle or other spoon).

THose are some nice looking lures. ANything unique from Finland?

[BradB]

Not sure if they are engraved or stamped. The texture on the metal doesn't feel that deep so perhaps they would tend to flake off. I had a jig spoon like the one shown that had no color and one of those trebbles in red on it that I used for years and caught tons of walleyes with it. A stupd northern bit it off a few years ago and I was sad.

Finland was, well, a challenge as far as ice fishing went. I visited the shops in Helsinki and they had the normal stuff. They told me to go up north in Kuopio to ice fish so I caught a train and did. With great difficulty I found one fishing shop in Kuopio and waited for the son of the owner (who spoke English-sort of) to come in. He wasn't very helpful but did sell me a cheap jig rod, a marmooska, and a spoon for trout. He told me to walk out on the lake and look for holes to fish in. So I did and caught a few of these fish that looked like bait to me. Here's what the Fins do with them:

http://www.slowfoodfoundation.com/eng/arca/dettaglio.lasso?cod=524&prs=0 It's called Kalakukko, click the link to read about it. And, yes, I did eat one. And, no, I didn't like it.

Finland was very perplexing as the language (to me) was impossible. I had a hard time getting help as the Fins were very quiet and don't seem to really want to help strangers. I met a Swedish engineer in a bar who was as perplexed by them as I was and, over several Estonian beers, he convinced me to go to Sweden. Glad I did, as it was fantastic there.

[irvingdog]

Great posts, great thread!

[upnorth]

So...how was the ice fishing up there? Same, better, worse? Kinda interesting to hear how things are done elsewhere.

[BradB]

How was the ice fishing up there? Well, it was good but different than here. I didn't see a single fish house or power auger anywhere. It was not uncommon, however, to see a man walking down the street or on a train with a folding hand-auger and a bag of his fishing gear. When you saw people fishing they were sitting on folding chairs or buckets with their backs into the wind. Not too much different than here.

My best day of fishing I fished late ice with these two fellows, Jens and Petyr. We jigged for a while "yigged", they said, and caught a bunch of perch. Then we set the tip-ups and went to shore to cook. We made bacon-wrapped sausages over a wood fire and ran out on the ice when the tip-ups went bang. We drank fruit juice that was mixed in reusable plastic bottles. That afternoon we switched lakes and fished for greyling in about 18 inches of water. We used tiny crappie sized jigs (or yigs) and the greyling would just rocket at your bait and slam them.

Here's Peter setting a northern rod:

All the ice fishermen I met chewed snus, as well. In Sweden they tend to use the portion type (like Skoal bandits) and put it in their upper lip. As Jens said "The nicotine is quicker to the brain that way".

My final fishing trip was in Norway in the arctic Lofoton islands. My brother and I rented a boat with this guy who we found out was a mental patient (later) and jigged for cod (torsk) in the ocean. Our huge spoons were too light (500g) for the wind that day and we needed the 1 kg spoons. We caught one, but fought the wind the rest of the day.

Here's me and the crazy guy headed out to sea:

[image too big - please size it to under 640 pixels wide.]

Hard to tell which one is the crazy guy, eh? I'll give you a hint. Once we found out he was crazy we didn't let him steer the boat.

[buzbunni]

Thanks for the great report! I'm thinking I'm in need of some travel soon; I may have to head over there.

For anyone who's interested. They do sell a small variety of the Fiskas wolfram jigs at Cabela's. I purchased a couple last night as a matter of fact. Spendy ($2.50ish/jig), but beautiful. Also, because they are made of Tungsten (which is heavier than lead), you can fish them faster with smaller sizes. Nice when the finicky fish are deeper.

[slick814]

Brad -

sounds like you had a pretty good trip all in all.

Also sounds like you met the stereotypical Finns. Quiet, reserved, and not all that trusting of strangers. Lots of people are put off by it, and think of them as unfriendly. not necessarily the case, just not the most outgoing folks you'll ever meet.

One thing that helps is to know the language some. At least an effort to speak it helps... kind of a different language, and hard to learn at times, too, but sometimes just knowing a small amount can go a long way.