Fishermen Group from Belarus on Lake Saimaa, July 2015

  
We spent a one-week fishing holiday at Cottage Jokiniemi in the village of Savonranta.

We planned to have a fishing week at Lake Saimaa area and saw the proposal of Old School Trolling. I wrote an email to the company owner Mr. Jari Kayhko and received a reply with a detailed description of the cottage, boats and other equipment. All very clear and quick!

Location of Fishing Cottage Jokiniemi on Lake Saimaa

We travelled 1200 km from Belarus to Finland by using route Minsk–Vilnius–Riga–Tallinn–Helsinki–Savonranta. The roads are excellent. On the way to Helsinki, we stopped for a night in Tallinn. On our way back home, two drivers did it without any stops.

When we arrived at Cottage Jokiniemi, our host Jari Kayhko was waiting for us and showed the cottage and house equipments for us. This fishing cottage is located only 30 meters from Lake Saimaa. 

Fishing Cottage Jokiniemi on Lake Saimaa

It had more than everything needed for a one-week stay for fishing: a spacious living room, kitchen with everything you need, including a dishwasher, two separate bed rooms, a sauna. The house is clean, comfortable and it can accommodate six people easily.

Fishing Cottage Jokiniemi on Lake Saimaa

On the shore there were two boats filled with petrol and equipped with sonars, all ready for us! There was also other gear ready for us, including excellent casting and spinning rods for trolling, lots of spinners and Softbait lures. Very cool!

Our sturdy fishing boats in Cottage Jokiniemi are equipped with a 8 hp Mercury and 5 hp Yamaha outboard engines

 

Cottage Jokiniemi in July–June is a great place for catching pike, walleye and perch. We managed to catch a couple of trophy-size pikes up to 7 - 8 kg as well as perches up to 500 grammes and walleyes up to 2 kg`s.

Pike fishing on Lake Saimaa July 2015

Our host Jari showed us how to carve the fish into fillets. We cooked some of our catch and put the rest into a freezer. The cottage has a separate 100-liter freezer especially for fish, which we greatly appreciated. We brought some of the fish to cook at home .

We also enjoyed the sauna. How nice it is after a day of fishing to have a good steam, and then run out to the beach and a dip in the cool water of a northern lake.

Enjoy the atmosphere and sensitive heat of our sauna in Cottage Jokiniemi

Our host Jari helped us with everything. He bought us the necessary fishing licenses, helped us with rainwear and told us how to smoke fish. He even prepared a map for us with the target depth of the lake and the most promising fishing spots!

Fishing Guide and Company Owner Jari Käyhkö

After the week of fishing, we were tired but happy. We had a lot of fun, thanks to our host Jari for the excellent organization and warm hospitality.

Best of luck to you, Jari Käyhkö and Old School Trolling!