Fishing Trips on Lake Saimaa

Fishing Trips on Lake Saimaa
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Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Winter Fishing and Cottage Accommodation on Lake Saimaa, Finland

Welcome to have winter fun at Lake Saimaa, Finland! We are offering you a holiday in our well-equipped cottage in the best season of winter for recreation and ice fishing, as well as fishing with our professional fishing guide and company owner Jari Kayhko. The cottage is located right next to a lake and offers very easy access to do fishing, skiing or snowmobiling on the ice.




Ice cover usually forms in mid-December on Lake Saimaa, but the best ice fishing time starts from the beginning of January or so. The early ice is very good for ice fishing of pike. The ice fishing season of rainbow trout starts from the beginning of January and ends in April. We use both active ice fishing and tip-up ice fishing methods for both pike and rainbow trout. From mid-January to mid-February we do ice fishing for burbot. From mid-March to mid-April it is the best season for ice fishing of perch, roach and bream near our fishing cottage.

Ice Fishing Holiday on Lake Saimaa

Our cosy and comfortable Fishing Cottage Jokiniemi is best suited and especially equipped for groups of sports fishermen of 4 to 6 people. The pond just 30 metres from the cottage is good for independent ice fishing of pike, perch, bream and roach. The actual Lake Saimaa area starts from a distance of 100 metres from the cottage. This area is excellent for ice fishing of zander, pike, perch, burbot, roach and bream.





Ice fishing trip for learning best spots for catching pike and perch in Cottage Jokiniemi

 

Ice fishing trips to places where you can catch pikes and perches. Participants must have warm clothes of their own. The price includes rent of our fishing gear and guidance. Available: December - April.




Fun and easy rainbow trout fishing trip

We arrange rainbow trout fishing trips at a privately owned lake, which is located 35 km from the Fishing Cottage Jokiniemi. There is a small shelter, fireplace and toilet at the area for your use. The distance from the parking place to the shelter is 100 metres and to the ice is only 30 metres. Excellent place for fishing with children.

Available: December – April

 

The rainbow trout in the lake are between 1 and 3 kg in size. You can catch and keep 3 trout / day / one license.

Your fishing guide Jari Kayhko will teach you the best spots and tricks, and he will actively assist you with fishing rainbow trout. The price includes the necessary licenses and the use of fishing gear. Also available tasty picnic by campfire for extra charge..

You can use three fishing rods at same time in this place, so we will use one rod for active ice fishing and two sets of tip-ups. We will use small spoons, balanced jigs, leeches and ice fishing jigs for active ice fishing and for the tip-ups we'll use fish eggs as bait.



Read more about us and find prices of our accommodation!

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Fishing Trips and Cottage Accommodation on Lake Saimaa - October 2015


Latvian fishermen catching pikes on Lake Saimaa - October 2015


We started October with trolling and jigging for pikes on Lake Saimaa with our Latvian visitors of Fishing Cottage Jokiniemi.

Pike of 3 kg caught by softbait spinning. Picture was taken 4th October 2015.


 The day began windy but turned sunny and calm towards the evening, letting us enjoy the fall colors and quietness of the Lake Saimaa nature.





The season of fall colors on Lake Saimaa lasts yearly from mid-September to mid-October.


You can easily find both mushrooms and berries from the wild nature of Lake Saimaa during October also.



Despite the very cold weather, our Latvian guests were able to catch 10 to 30 pikes on a daily basis. They selected some of the pikes for food and released the most. They seemed to have really enjoyed their stay at our fishing cottage, because just one week after their visit they made a new reservation for us for June 2016.



Tip from our fishing guide and company owner Mr. Jari Kayhko:




I have been fishing for over 30 years on these waters and I have learned that the period from the beginning of June to Midsummer (which will be on June 25th in 2016) is very good for pike fishing near our fishing cottage. This is due to the coldness of the waters and the end of spawning period, which makes big pikes hungry and ready for catching. There are also plenty of smaller pikes hunting in shallow water, which makes fishing very active with lots of biting and actual catches.




Book Your Lake Saimaa Sport Fishing Holiday and Cottage Accommodation in Finland for Year 2016!


http://www.oldschooltrolling.fi/english/offer.htm

See memorable pictures from the past 5 years of our company Old School Trolling! 

 


 

Landlocked Salmon 4 kg, caught by trolling. Landlocked Salmon and Brown Trout are both endangered species on Lake Saimaa. This is why Jari quit catching salmon and trout with the adipose fins still intact in the year 2012 both in personal fishing and on our company events. We only keep the fish that have had their adipose fins cut out (they are planted for sports fishing purposes) and release all landlocked salmon and brown trout that still have the adipose fin (as they are wild fish).  From the beginning of the year 2016 it will be officially forbidden to take any landlocked salmon or browntrout with the adipose fin by Finnish fishing law. Minimum landing size is 60 cm for both species. Picture was taken 2nd November 2010.




Picnic breaks by campfire are favourite moments during  Jari`s fishing events. Picture was taken 3rd December 2011.


Jari helped his mother catch a pike of  +3 kg by softbait spinning near our fishing cottage. Picture was taken 7th October 2012.


In this picture Jari has marked a landlocked salmon of less than 50 cm in length and one of our clients is releasing it back to Lake Saimaa. Picture was taken 2nd November 2013.


In this picture we have perch +500 grams caught by softbait spinning. Picture was taken 12th October 2014.



Thursday, September 10, 2015

Fishing Trips and Cottage Accommodation on Lake Saimaa - September 2015

Zander fishing by trolling and spinning on Lake Saimaa


We started our autumn fishing season with trolling and jigging for zander with Russians. The day began rainy and windy but turned sunny towards the evening, letting us enjoy a nicely warm and semi-cloudy fishing weather. In addtion to zanders we also caught pikes and perches.

Our very first +50 cm zander for September 2015

Russian fishermen caught pikes, perches, breams and roaches at Fishing Cottage Jokiniemi, September 2015



The first days of September were days of a real “Indian summer”, hot and sunny, perfect for relaxing, picking mushrooms and berries and for fishing pikes at Cottage Jokiniemi, of course.
Our Russian guests started their fishing week by learning the very best fishing spots near our fishing cottage with the help of our fishing guide and company owner, Mr. Jari Kayhko.

Pike appr. 3 kg`s catched by fresbait angling in Cottage Jokiniemi, September 2015


All our fishing groups from St. Petersburg were very successful in pike fishing also on their own. They caught lots of pikes, released the most of them and prepared food of the ones they kept. For pike catching they used the methods of spinning, trolling and freshbait angling.

Catching breams in Cottage Jokiniemi, September 2015


For catching perches, roaches and breams they used bubble and hook angling with worms. This way it was very easy to catch smaller fish, our guests told us.

 Tip from our fishing guide and company owner Mr. Jari Kayhko:

 The weather is still warm in late August and early September, making it great for picking berries and mushrooms near our cottage as well as fishing for perch and pike. The beginning of the season of fall colours, from mid-September to the beginning of October, is excellent for catching big pikes close to our fishing cottage. The season of fall colours will last until mid-October. From the beginning of October bigger perches start forming flocks in the deeper water areas of Lake Saimaa. Bigger pikes are also moving to deeper water areas to hunt vendace, which have their spawning season from mid-October to mid-November.


Monday, September 7, 2015

Fishing Trips and Cottage Accommodation on Lake Saimaa - August 2015


Softbait spinning for zander on Lake Saimaa


The weather in August varied from beautiful sunny days to cloudy and rainy. First we had a family staying at our cottage for two weeks and they did independent fishing on the waters near our cottage, catching good size pikes, perches and zanders. During their stay they really got into jigging, using the boats of our cottage a lot. We also had guided fishing trips on beautiful and warm summer days, catching lots of pikes, perches of over half a kilo and evening-active zanders.

Picnic by campfire on Lake Saimaa

During one guided fishing day we stopped without hurry for a nice break on land. We took our time relaxing, cooking coffee and food on an open fire. The lady of the family took the opportunity to pick mushrooms and blueberries.

Fishing Guide Jari Kahko and released zander 47 cm ~ 1 kg.


In mid-August we had three sunny and hot fishing days with my fFinnish friend. The warm surface waters made zanders and pikes really eager to bite. 

Pike 3 kg`s catched by softbait spinning.

 
My friend really appreciated pike for food and we did catch pikes a lot on each of our fishing days. We did release most of our catches. We only chose to keep pikes of 60 cm or more, and picked 2  pikes of about 1,5-3 kg for daily food. Back on land the pikes were filleted and there was even enough to put into the freezer for my friend to take back home with him.



Zander +50 cm catched by softbait spinning.


Our visitor had never fished zander before and the definite high point for us was catching a zander of over half a meter by softbait spinning.  We also landed in the boat a handsome and feisty ide, which we filleted and smoked.  Thanks for good company and having a great mini holiday with us on Lake Saimaa!

Ide +50 cm catched by trolling.

 
In the end of August the weather was still hot and zanders as well as pikes and perches were active to bite throughout the day. 

Perch appr. 300 grams catched by softbait spinning.


We had a visit by a very experienced spin fisherman and it was simply a pleasure to observe his work, jigging for zander from our boat.


Zander 44 cm, catched by softbait spinning, released.


Tip from our fishing guide and company owner Mr. Jari Kayhko:

 In Finland July and August are the best months for fishing on Lake Saimaa due to warm waters and often very warm or even hot weathers. There are plenty of fish about and you can fish around the clock if you wish, thanks to our light summer nights. Big perches normally move to the shallow waters in mid-July and they can be caught there in the daytime during a period of a couple of weeks. If you do late evening / early morning or night time fishing near our cottage, you will be able to catch zanders and pikes from the shallow waters as well. The best season for night-time fishing on Lake Saimaa continues from Midsummer until the end of August.

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Summer time fishing on Lake Saimaa - July 2014 - 2021


 

Third visit to Fishing Cottage Jokiniemi for our Romanian fisherman - July 2021

 

Our Romanian visitors caught good size pikes by spinning in the end of July 2022.

 

In 25 July–1 August 2021 Gheorghe, his sons and their friends stayed at our cottage for the third time, having previously visited us in 2018 and 2019. This time the weather was much hotter than the previous years, which had a positive effect on the bite of the fish.

 

Biggest perch weighted amost 1 kg.

 

 

They did most of their spinning in relatively shallow waters of max 4–5 meters deep by using soft baits and spoons. They told me that the best color for catching changed daily, but day after day the best lure was a thin Abu Garcia Toby. Natural colors such as perch and cisco worked the best in soft bait spinning.

 

 

This zander + 50 cm was released after fast photo shoot.

 

 

Their biggest perch weighed almost 1 kg, biggest pikes were 70–80 cm and biggest zanders 50–60 cm long. Most of the time the weather was sunny and hot, but there were also a couple of rainy days. Rainy weather is quite often good for catching both pikes and zanders. They did also some trolling and caught all our most common predator species such as pike, perch and zander. The end of July is a great period for catching all kinds of fish near our fishing cottage. 

 


 

 

Fishing on Lake Saimaa - July 2019

 

First week of July was very warm and sunny due wind from south to east. Many of our early spring visitors had been complaining how difficult it was to catch zander. Most common mistake was to try catch them  from shallow. Water temperature was varying all spring by effect of air temperature. When we had longer period of hot weather, zanders did come to shallow water of 4 - 6 meter deep, when weather turned colder we had to do catching in water depth area from 7 - 12 meter deep. Midsummer do start actual zander fishing season near our cottage.


First fishing day was great for our Estonian visitors.

In the beginning of second week of July 2019 we welcomed a fisherman group of 4 persons from Estonia in to our fishing cottage. Wind was changing to north, but it did not have influence for catching during first days of their visit.

Perch + 500 gr.
They caught good daily numbers of pikes as well as big perches and breams in shallow water. Couple last days of their visit were colder due north wind which made fishes got passive and move to deep water areas. They tried to do catching for zander as well, but unfortunately they choosed little bit too shallow depth area for catching. Zanders had moved in to water areas of  9 - 10 meter deep.


Hooking & cooking is very important part of daily routinues of our fishing visitors.


Raigo, who is excellent photographer visited Kolovesi National Park trekking trail and shooted some great pictures there. They enjoyed of fishing, sauna and tasty home made fish foods during their stay in our cottage.





Before arrival of our next fisherman group I did some fishing to located zanders, pikes and perches with my mother, who is keen fishing woman. It was great to relax and to do 3 - 4 hours fishing with her. Our next group made much more better with zander fishing when I was able to share some fresh fishing information.

My mother and zander 47 cm caught by trolling 13 June 2019.



Quite often our visitors want me to organize a tutorial fishing trip for the beginning of their holiday to quicken the process for getting  better fishing results by learning spots, biting times and best colors for area near our cottage.




 Many groups want to do all the fishing independently from the beginning to the end of their holiday. They have told me it takes 3 - 4 days to learn spots, colors etc before they start feeling comfortable with fishing in Finland. Quite often their second visit to our cottage is much more succesful by fishing results due experience they have gathered during their previous visit.



Cooking and sharing a tasty meal of fish caught by themselves is a important part of fishing holiday for most of our visitors.

When our our next fisherman group of 6 persons from Latvia arrived I gave them advices for fishing area, best depth area and colors, so they did pretty well with zander fishing. They caught good size  zanders and pikes daily and their biggest zander caught was appr. 60 cm long and weighted 1.8 kg.




Pike + 60 cm


Beginning of their holiday was very hot, they used to have a siesta & sun bathing in the middle of day. They did most of fishing in time of early morning and late evening. Luckily some members of their group did catching in shallow water during daytime as well, and they were able to catch good size perches and ides as well.

Ide caught by soft bait spinning in July 2019.
Unfortunately no one rented our cottage for 4th week of July, because weather was perfectly hot and beautiful for vacation and for fishing. Couple last days of this week were the hottest of all summer, but dramatical change for unpredictable weather of summer 2019 was right behind the corner.



Our first ever Japanese fishin family arrived our cottage 27 July 2019. Day was extremely hot, closer to 30 degrees of celsius. Because their arrival was late, we had decited to organize a combined fishing & boating trip one day after their arrival.


We started our event by travelling 20 km sightseeing by boat for our camp site. Hole family helped me with cooking and did some fishing from shoreline. We started our actual boat fishing part near by 18.00 by softbait spinning and trolling. Trolling was completely new fishing method for our Japanese visitors and they were very interrested learning it. We caught both pikes, perches and zanders by softbait spinning and pikes when trolling with wobblers. We ended our fishing day for sunset and  I returned our Japanese visitors back to our cottage for hot sauna and evening snacks.

Beautiful pike caught by softbait spinning.

Next day after our fishing event we learned how to use outboard engines and electronics of our cottage boats and did some fish handling together. After that it was time to say good bye and allow our visitors to start their independent fishing week.


Weather turned very cold for the season of summer in time of couple of days. I was totally horrified when seeing dily temps go down to 10 - 14 degrees of celsius. Desbite of cold north wind, worst enemy of fishermen in our area, our brave Japanese visitors did great with fishing. Father of the  family did fishing alone early morning and with his daughters and wife after midday and evening time. They caught good size zanders up to 60 cm and pikes up to + 90 cm long. Daily numbers of fishes caught were very good. Many thanks for your visit, it was great to get such a lovely family visiting us.





July 2016 guidances


I had a guided fishing trip with a German fisherman group on the second weekend of July..... The weather was perfect for catching zanders....so, that's what we did.

Zander 50 cm

To be honest, beginning of our fishing day was quite challenging. It was easy to locate our target fishes, but much more difficult to reach crazy bite. Weather was calm and hot, fishes seemed to have siesta and we were catching individuals. In zander fishing finding correct color for catching is very important. When color puzzle is solved, we can do great for a while, until they find some other color more attractive and we must start again. In the other hand there are great fishing periods during July and August, in which we can do great fishing day after day for time of couple of weeks as we reached in the year 2014.


Beautiful perch + 700 gr

 Challenging days make me humble, but do not worry. Finally we did great. I was expecting to reach very good evening fishing and I did. All of our visitors did catch zanders, pikes and perches, time to time I needed both of my landing nets to be able to take measurements and release fishes we did not want to take or which were too short. We started our evening fishing by softbait spinning and finalized it by trolling in time of very beautiful sunset near 22.00. Actually our visitors would have wanted to continue even longer, but our 8 hour day was full.


It is very important to release fishes that do not exceed minimum landing lenght. We do lift the fish in to vessel poured with water, unhook and take measurements & memory pics and release the fish. It is highly recommended to be able to de all this in time of 2 - 3 minutes maximun.

In the end of July 2016 I had a guided fishing trip with old customer of mine. We had 6 hour guidance starting from early evenig and ending for sunset. I had been training & finding fish right before this event, which made it much more easier for me to make results. We did both trolling and softbait spinning, but mainly spinning. During this 6 hour session we had 3 tops on bite, which is quite normal in perch and zander fishing this part of the year.

Beautiful zander and perch caught in the end of July 2016.

I do not favour pictures in which there are piles of fish to show how many fishes we have caught. I do select one or two fishes that were biggest or gave us great fight for picture taken. Biggest fish is not allwasy published, if there is a better pictures of smaller species available. By my opinion a picture of fish caught must respect the catch and indicate joy and success of fishing.

If we are hanging the fish vertically, it has been killed for cooking, other wise we do hold fish horizontally. Unfortunately there is still a lot to learn in taking beautiful pictures, but I do hope I am improving year by year.


July 2015 fishing stories

Early evening on Lake Saimaa, July 2015


The beginning of July 2015 gave us rain but also a couple of hot summer days. It was also time for big pikes: on our nearby waters one fisherman caught a pike over the magic weight of 10 kilos, and our cottage customers were able to pull in pikes up to 7 or 8 kilos. We had a group of Belarusian visitors staying at our cottage, and they told that in their country the waters were more shallow and the pikes smaller. In addition to pikes they also caught big perches and smallish but full-grown zanders.

Zander 46 cm, catched by Softbait Spinning in early July 2015. Zander was released.


In the middle of July we started to do evening-time trolling for zander and day-time jigging on the big open waters of Lake Saimaa. The rapidly changing weather conditions have been a bit tricky this summer, but luckily true fishermen and fisherwomen aren’t made of sugar!


Pike fishing in the beginning of July 2015



Also the eagerness of the fish to bite has varied a lot. When the time and the conditions are right, you can pull in perches with every cast. When the fish are lazier to bite, catching fish becomes more challenging and requires good fishing techniques. You have to know how to use vibrating movements and other tricks to force the fish to bite.

Softbait spinning for perch 12 July 2012



When the fish are lazier to bite, it’s also more important to cast more accurately and use baits of the right size, shape and colour. Baits can be painted with marker pens to give them the desired colour and a tempting scent. A group of our customers recently learned the importance of colour. They used two identical softbaits for jigging, one was painted with marker and the other wasn’t. The result was surprising: they caught fish only with the painted one. Another group tried different colours and to their surprise the most successful colour was the one that they never could imagine working. When fish are lazy to bite, you are forced to experiment and at the same time learn a lot.


Evening time fishing 22 July 2014



 Pikes, perches and zanders have been moving on more or less the same areas this summer, which means shorter boat rides to catch fish. The size of the fish is normal but catching them has required more work than last summer. And when you work hard, it’s also more important to have proper breaks and eat well during your fishing trip. The ideal way to unwind is to seat yourself around an open fire, empty your mind of fishing thoughts for a while, have a nice chat with a good meal, and after a good break like this you are refreshed, filled with energy and 100 % ready for fishing again.


Late evening fishing in July 2015


Tip from our fishing guide and company owner Mr. Jari Kayhko:

 The last week of June and the first two weeks of July are good for catching zander near our fishing cottage. After mid-July zanders will start to move towards the streaming water areas in the distance of 5 - 6 km from our cottage and also to the big lakes of the Great Saimaa lake system, such as Paasselka, Orivesi, Savonselka and so on. Big pikes do the same and both zanders and pikes will be more often caught from the deeper areas or bank slopes of the big lakes of Saimaa in the daytime.


 

 

July 2014 


In the beginning 0f July 2014 we welcomed a group of four fishermen from Lithuania to our cottage in Savonranta. We started with a one-day guided fishing trip during which I introduced them to the best lures and fishing spots of the area. The week was quite cold and rainy, but the guys managed to catch fish every day, by trolling as well as casting. Our guests were pleased with the pikes, perches and zanders they caught, and prepared tasty dishes out of them at our cottage. They also caught a nice fat ide.


Zander fishing 5 July 2014



 In the middle of July we welcomed Gennady, Sergey and Aleksey from Moscow. The weather was brilliant and very warm almost every day. We fished together for five days, catching big pikes, zanders and perches, which we naturally cooked and ate with delight. The guys went fishing also on their own by using the two motorboats we have for our customers to use, free of charge. In addition to sunbathing and having sauna they also went for a bit of sight-seeing in Kerimäki and Savonlinna.


22.7.2014


During the last weeks in July we also headed for the bigger open waters of Lake Saimaa to cast for larger perches. The sunny spring days made them pleasantly active and hungry. I had daily guidances for over 2 week period with differrent groups enjoying of Finnish summer and great fishing with me.


Perch fishing 14 July 2014