Training day for a softbait spinning course on Lake Saimaa – June 2014

A group of Finnish fishermen had asked me to organize a jigging course for them in early June in Savonranta. It is always important for me to train for these courses and fishing trips in advance, to really go out there to the actual fishing waters and make sure I know where the fish will be. Luckily, the spring weather prior to this particular course was very warm, so I could go and train fishing in perfect conditions for many days in a row. The warm weather also makes the fish more eager to bite.

The day before the course I went training again. The beginning of the session was difficult. I was in an area of deep water and despite of promising signals from the sonar and active trying, I spent two hours catching nothing..... at least weather was very beautiful and hot.....

Fishing Guide Jari Kayhko

My first fish of the day was a two-kilogram pike, which I released to grow bigger and fatter. Once I had pinpointed where the pikes are, I changed my strategy and depth of water to start looking for perches.

 I tried different places and looked for the right colours, swimming patterns and weights of the lures. Finding exactly the right colour proved a great success, enabling me to pull up a nice perch of 200 to 900 grams with almost every single cast. Now that I had the perches figured out, I sent my clients an SMS telling everything was ready for the course the next day.

 My training session continued with targeting zanders, with a speed of 6 to 10 km/h. Being early evening and still very sunny didn’t exactly make it easier to spot the fish, but with the help of the sonar and my prior experience I managed to pinpoint zanders. They were playing hard to get, but eventually I managed to catch one, although I released it after just taking a photo of it. At the end of the day I only kept about two kilos of perches for cooking.

After six hours of training I finally had the right fishing spots and equipment figured out for the next day. I headed back to the cottage to fillet the perches and to recharge my mental and physical batteries by having a relaxing sauna. Here’s a tip: when I fillet perches, I also keep the nice meaty bits of the back, and either fry or grill them. The meat can easily be separated from the backbone by simply sucking, or by using knife and fork. 

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Old School Trolling Softbait Spinning Courses on Lake Saimaa

 A fisherman needs knowledge of how weather affects the behaviour and the hot spots of the target fish in his fishing area. You have to work actively to locate the fish as well as to choose the right lure for the day and the correct way to swim your bait. The most common fish caught on Lake Saimaa are perch, zander (walleye) and pike.

 Step 1
- Use your areal knowledge and experience with the weather conditions when you select your fishing area.

 Step 2
- Use a sonar to find and locate the fish before you start fishing.

 Step 3
 - Start pinpointing the right color, model, weight and size of the soft bait lure by actively trying out different lures until you get contact with the fish.

 Step 4
- Try different swimming variations by reeling and using the rod to find out the right speed and swimming pattern the fish respond to.

 Step 5
- The more you fish the more you gain experience of which parts of the day and which lighting conditions are best for fishing.