Springtime Fishing on Lake Saimaa, May 2014 - 2019: Spinning for Pike, Perch and Zander

In the year 2019 Lake Saimaa was free from ice on April 27th. Our cottage was booked full early in advance for the month of May. The weather was first hot and sunny but then turned cold and rainy, but all in all, May was a great month for the pike fishermen who came to visit our cottage again. Water temperature in the beginning of May was appr. 3 degrees of celsius and in the end of May 15 degrees of celsius.

 

During early years of our sport fishing company the best months (May, September & October) for catching big pikes in shallow water or close by bay areas were not so  popular among our visitors. Weather conditions both in early May late October can be unpredictable. If we reach warm air from south to west as well as high pressure, we reach very good fishing. North wind and low pressure do make it very challenging during cold water periods of less than 8 degrees of celsius. In the other hand reward can be fabulous. Biggest pikes caught inside distance of 3 km from our cottage have weighted  10 to 13 kg. It is very important to release these giants back to water unharmed and select smaller, less than 1 meter long species for cooking.

Weather in May 2019.

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

Water areas near our fishing cottage are free from ice usually around the 1st of May. The waters right in front of our cottage are only max. 2,5 metres deep. This means that the waters warm up quite fast in spring, which attracts small fish to do their eating and spawning there in May, which in its turn attracts bigger carnivorous fish to turn up and eat the small fish. The most effective methods for catching fish in the beginning of May are trolling, spinning, worm angling and fresh bait angling (by using a dead bait fish).

Fishing Holidays on Lake Saimaa – May 2019

Our first fisherman group of five persons arrived at our cottage on May Day for a 10-day fishing holiday. The beginning of their holiday was very warm, but a couple days after their arrival we got suddenly hit with 20 cm of snow! Luckily the snow melted in two days and the group was able to enjoy the rest of their fishing holiday in warm weather.

In the Beginning of May 2019 we had unexpected snowstorm, which gave us appr. 15 cm of snow on the ground. Snow melted in time of 24 hours and spring came back.

Our Russian visitors did very well in fishing for pike, perch, ide and rudd. Their biggest pike weighed over 9 kg.

Our second group, a family from St. Petersburg arrived at our cottage during the 3 rd week of May. Pike fishing was the best for their family as well, but they did also catch good size ides, rudds and perches.

Their biggest pike weighed over 4 kg.

Our third group of six guys from Latvia arrived at our cottage for the 4 th week of May. 

  They caught very good size pikes, perches and ides during their visit: their biggest pike weighed over 8 kg.

 Our Latvian visitors took also longer distance trips that included a picnic by campfire.

Ide over 1 kg.

 

Wish I was fishing.....What a weather to do pike fishing on Lake Saimaa!

 

Our fourth group of six fisherman from Romania arrived our at our cottage for the 5 th week of May. They did fishing both in shallow and deep water by spinning, trolling and coarse fishing. 

Beautiful perch caught by Gheorghe.

They caught nice perches, pikes, breams and ides during their visit. To be honest their group was able to catch biggest ides of the season so far. 

 

Ide 3 kg caught by Andrei in May 2019.

Weather conditions were varyuing from warm and sunny to hard rain during their holiday week.

Some one do need a hot sauna.

 

  Important part of their holiday experience was cooking the fish they caught. 

 As usual, our visitors mostly just kept the fish they were going to use for dinner during their fishing holiday, took some fish with them to their home countries, and released the rest back to water. Common sense and respect for nature are priceless in fishing. 

Here you can find 10 super simple & heathy pike recipes 

  Boating and Fishing on Lake Saimaa – May 2019 

 

Combined boat & fishing trip 23rd of May 2018

 

In the end of May 2019 we had combined boat & fishing trip including a picnic by campfire with group of 4 persons from Macao. We started our event by boat sightseeing of 20 km`s on Lake Saimaa to reach our camp. Weather was sunny and warm, after relatively cold beginning of May we were lucky to reach heat of +20 degrees for our event. 

Carmen cooking tasty dishes for her husband and friends.

 

When landed we started preparing fire for cooking and making coffee & tea. Some members of our group did spinning and coarse fishing from shore line, some helped me in cooking vendeaces and pancakes. Pure and quiet nature was unforgetable experinece for our visitors when wandering around our camp site.

Before sunset we did couple of hours spinning andt rolling for pike and perch from my guidance boat. Trolling was completely unfamiliar fishing method for our visitors and they were exited to learn basics for it. After relaxing and warm day I returned 2 happy couples in to their cottage for sauna, dinner and some more exiting fishing days in Finland.

  Pike Fishing on Lake Saimaa - May 2016

This year our area of Lake Saimaa freed itself from ice on the last weekend of April. After that a wave of very warm and sunny weather reached our country, having a very positive effect on the bite of the fish. At the time of writing this, we have two Fnnish families staying in our cottage for a one week long fishing holiday. They sent me a report of the fishing results of their first two days:

Pike fishing on Lake Saimaa, May 2016

"We started our fishing already on the evening of our arrival and were able to catch two pikes of 1 to 2 kg from the cottage pond by spinning. There is a lot of smaller fish in this shallow and warm water area for worm angling also. Next morning we drove to a shallow bay area near the cottage and did spinning for pikes. Our result was three pikes and the biggest of them was 3 kg - that's prettty good fishing considering the lake just got free of ice. This evening we are going to do more fishing to catch perches and zanders from deeper water areas. We will send pictures of our catches later..... Jari, thank you for the fishing tips you gave us!"

The Weather in May 2016

The first week of May was extra ordinary hot and sunny, perfect for fishing and recreation. Daily max. temperatures were between 18 and 23 degrees Celsius.

Fishing Guide Jari Kayhko - Softbait spinning trip for Zander -  End of May 2016.
Last two weeks of May were the best for catching zanders during spring season.The best season for catching zander is from mid-July to mid-September.

The second week of May started rainy, but ended sunny and warm, between 16 and 21 degrees. During this week we had a Finnish group at our cottage. They caught pikes, perches and breams by spinning, trolling as well as bubble and hook angling.

Fishing & Cooking, perfect way to have a fishing holiday on Lake Saimaa

During the third week of May we welcomed a Russian fisherman group from Moscow. The temperatures were pretty similar with the previous week, and the week started dry and sunny but ended with rain. Our visitors caught pikes, perches, roaches, rudds, breams and zanders by spinning, trolling and angling. Their most unusual catch was a carp caught from Lake Saimaa. Their daily number of pike`s caught were varying from 10 to 20 pcs.Unfortunately we do not have any pictures of their holiday available.

Evening time fishing on Lake Saimaa - May 2016

The fourth week of May started rainy and cold, but on Friday the weather changed to sunny for our Latvian fisherman group of four. This sunny, beautiful and exceptionally hot weather lasted until the beginning of June. The max. temperatures reached 27 degrees. Unforunately we do not have any pictures of their adventures available neither.

Zander spinning on Lake Saimaa, 29 May 2016

During the last weekend of May we had a Russian fisherman group from St. Petersburg fishing with us for two days. We went fishing from morning to evening in sunny and warm weather. Mornings and afternoons were best for catching pikes and perhes, evening time for catching zanders.

Perch spinning on Lake Saimaa, 28 May 2016

Our capacity of accommodation for May 2016 was sold out appr. 2 months before May day. We had 5 great groups of fishermen from Finland, Russia and Latvia visiting our cottage. All our groups were very successful in fishing during May 2016, which makes´s me very happy and proud of them. Many thanks for all of you. 

                                                                                Jari

Fishing Multible Species on Lake Saimaa - May 2015

In the beginning of May 2015 we started our open water season by soft bait spinning for pikes and perches. Because at that time the water is still cold (less than 6 degrees Celsius), fishing can be challenging. The fish are interested in baits that imitate natural bait fish such as vendace (European cisco), perch, bream or roach. Shock colours will also work well in the beginning of the season.

Softbait Spinning for pike`s on Lake Saimaa, 1st May 2015. Pike + 3 kg`s.

Our rental cottage is located by a shallow pond (max 2,5 meters deep), which is connected with a narrow 50-meter waterway to Lake Saimaa. This area of shallow water gets warmer earlier than the deeper areas of Lake Saimaa. Thanks to this we can catch roach-related fishes, perches and pikes from the shoreline of our cottage already from the very beginning of May. The best season for springtime angling for pike  is from beginning of May to mid-June.

Sunny weather and high pressure have a positive effect on fishing. In the end of May, early mornings and late evenings are very good times for catching fish. Nights are still chilly, which makes fishes more active evening time.

Rudd caught from Cottage Jokiniemi in the end of May 2015. We were also able to catch Ides up to 2 kg`s.

Jari and ide +55 cm caught by coarse fishing in 8th May 2015

You can also meet ou funny duck friends betting bread.

We also use natural baits for bubble and hook angling. First we catch small fish for bait and then we use them for angling of pikes and big perches. Naturally we kill the bait fish before using them as bait. This way we can catch pikes up to 5 kg and perches up to 500 grams near our cottage.

Perch caught by softbait spinning from deep water area of Lake Saimaa in May 2015

Cottage Jokiniemi is a very good place for fishing and it is easy to catch fish for dinner daily. This is why we release the fish we are not going to use for food. In our cottage we have all you need for smoking, frying and cooking delicious fish dinners. If you want, we can also teach you how to bone the fish you catch.

Zander +50 cm caught by softbait spinning in the end of May 2015.

Coarse Fishing on Lake Saimaa - May 2014

In 2014, the month of May was extremely hot in Finland. In the end of the month the water surface temperature was already over 20 degrees of Celsius, which is good for coarse fishing for roach-related fishes. So, in the end of May we did coarse fishing for roach, bream and rudd. The catch was good especially in the evenings, right before dusk. We released the fish we were not going to eat, but still kept plenty of rudd and bream, which we smoked and in addition to this we cooked up a tasty fish soup.

The Saimaa Ringed Seal

The only existing population of these seals is found in Lake Saimaa, Finland (hence the name). They have lived in complete isolation from other ringed seal species for around 9,500 years and have diverged into a morphologically and ecologically different subspecies of ringed seal. The population is descended from ringed seals that were separated from the rest when the land rose after the last ice age. This seal, along with the Ladoga seal and the Baikal seal, is one of the few living freshwater seals.

 

 

Welcome to our Cosy Fishing Cottage Jokiniemi on Lake Saimaa!

The Fishing Cottage of Old School Trolling is best suited and especially equipped for sports fishermen groups of max 6 people, families or couples. The pond and river waters right next to the cottage are good for independent angling and spinning and the actual Lake Saimaa areas near the cottage are great for spinning and trolling.

 Our peaceful cottage is located close to all services fishermen need. Guests can use small motorboats of our cottage and fishing equipment that can be found in our fishing storage for free. For the use of cottage renters we have 4,2 meter boats that are equipped with 4 hp outboard engines, sonars, GPS plotters, oars, anchor and rope, life vests, landing net, 6 sets of rods and reels for trolling and 6 sets of reels and rods for spinning.In the storage you can also find a freezer and equipment for handling fish. In the storage you can also find angling rods, worms, mash, hooks etc you need for angling in Cottage Jokiniemi.

 We don’t allow our customers to use fishing nets or traps. Cottage Jokiniemi is for angling, spinning and trolling only.


Contact:

jari@oldschooltrolling.fi

Read more about us:

www.oldschooltrolling.fi