Big pikes, Stefan Trumstedt and Lapland Pike 2019 in a few words, videos, photos!

 

The Czech Republic, the current Fips World Champion, participated with several teams that are active in their national championship and international competitions, fishermen we have often met either in FIPS, Holbina or other competitions in Europe. 

 

 

As for the Romanian teams, eight in number, could not miss Andrei Sava and Robert Boanta, FIPS World Champions in Russia 2017 accompanied by Florin Voicu, George Floricel, Andrei Raduly, Razvan Dragan, Razvan Negreanu Andrei Tegusi, Cristian Peev, Elvis Vigu, Dorin Popa, Vitalie Sarbu, Liviu Romanescu, Ciprian Gurban, Robert Cristescu, Radu Vraciu. The Romanian delegation was completed with Cristi Albu and Mae the TV Fishing & Hunting team and the undersigned, Andy Arif. I made a Sweden / Romania mixed team with Stefan Trumstedt representing Rapitorimania.ro, CWC and Strike Pro. 

 

 

 

 

From kayaks, inflatable boats with 4-5 horsepower engines, to Larson, Nitro, Bass Cat boats equipped with hundreds of horsepower, the participating teams tried in the two days of official training to find the recipe for success in catching the biggest five pike over 70 cm on Lake Bellvik. And it was not easy at all, given that the first five teams in the standings managed to score with only 3 pikes in two days until the end of the competition. 

 

 

 

 

I was one of the few happy ones who benefited from the latest technology and boats, on the first day of training fishing together with Cristian Peev and Elvis Vigu from a Bass Cat equipped with Evinrude 200 hp engine, Minn Kota Ultrex electric motor, Garmin GSP Map 922 and 1222 Touch with Panoptix, Live Scope and Real View 3D functions. This is how we identified two hot areas with pike over 70 cm, seeing all the live fish, prey fish, perch and pike, 3D in front of the boat. Impressive. 

 

 

 

On the second day of training, I moved in Stefan's boat, a Larson that you practically didn't have anything else to install in terms of engines and electronics: Suzuki 200-horsepower engine, Minn Kota Ulterra, three Humminbird Solix 12 and 10, two Minn Kota Talon, all connected in network. Dream boat. I managed to scan with Autochart the areas found by me on the first day of training and tried new places for several hours. Stefan was for the first time on Lake Bellvik, so I had the opportunity to see how he approaches an unknown lake. Being in the middle of o cold front period and in bad weather, he looked for places where the water temperature was higher, prey fish followed by the raptors, wind direction and the calm bays, the ends of the sectors with the river inlets, places with vegetation and deep water near the banks.

 

 

 

 

From the information gathered at the end of the day and our conclusions, the big and "a lot" pikes were at the ends of the sector near the rivers, places that we decided not to fish because they were already "populated" by other competitors from Sweden and Romania, friends of both. We made our strategy aiming for three places with potential where we certainly do not intersect with other boats. Apart from these places we decided to try new ones, finding on the bathymetric map following Stefan's intuition and experience. The evening continued with a lecture by Andrei Sava about how he managed to become a 2017 World Champion and how he prepares for competitions, a lesson appreciated by both us and the other competitors. You will have the opportunity soon to see a video on this topic. At the socialization chapter Romania was in the first place in all 4 days of the competition, new friends were linked a glass drink and a story in the campsite in Dorotea, Doro Camp. Stefan has found many friends from Sweden that comed to this competition and won new ones from our delegation saying: "How cool is that, pike fishing reuniting us all here in this place!". 

 

 

Technical meeting at 10.00 am, we took the cards, the measuring rules and the participation prizes offered by CWC Strike Pro. 12.00 hours, start round 1, head compass to the first place, an island of several hundred meters with vegetation in banks and deep water brakes up to 6-7 meters. We decided to fish differently, each one with his better knowledge, I along the shore with small lures, soft plastics 10-15 cm jigged on the bottom and spinnerbait, spoons and wobblers as reactive lures, he with big lures, Pig Shad of 23- 27 cm, different colors and stamps, between waters. Different styles from all points of view. Shortly after, the first punctuated pike appeared at the spinnerbait, 72 cm, and some others followed at the limit of 70 cm. In the minus, of course. 

 

After catching the pike, we should measure it and photograph it on the ruler received from the organizers. The pictures were uploaded live on the competition site, so we could see at any time what the other teams had captured and the intermediate standings. After several hours in the first round only a few teams scored with one pike, only two pikes of 1 meter, it was clear that it will be quite difficult for everyone to reach the limit of 5 fish, at least on the first day.

 

 

We still hunt the pike on the sonar, looking for prey or bait fish, but without success. Small and rare. We decided by mutual agreement to move for the last two hours to the second place found in the training, a succession of shore breaking and sunken islands where we had caught good pikes the last two days. We position the boat so that we can catch as many thresholds between the deep water and the small water, exactly where we see the fish banks on the sonar. We do not insist too much on one spot, we try to fish to the limit of the perch attacks. Stefan insists with a Pig Shad, please, he insists ... he fishes 99% of the time with Pig Shad, until he has a violent attack, he tells me he has a pike, but he doesn't think it's a good one. He slowly brings her around the boat until she starts fighting and Stefan yells: "It’s a good one!". I jump with the net, pike in the boat, 84 cm. We have two fish. We continue scanning the area, looking for new places for the next day, catching a few perch and I have one last violent attack on a Pig Shad Junior, my favorite Ice Shad color. From here we start tomorrow, "We get them all!" 

 

 

 

Round two. Only a few teams managed to record two catches on the first day and our theories of the sector heads are confirmed by Andrei and Robert catching a good pike at the end of the lake where we lunched the boats and through some teams from Sweden who scored near the river. We followed the strategy from the first day and started with the number two spot where we caught the last pike, accompanied by two filming teams. After two and a half hours from the seven of the round 2, we have no good pikes, just two unfinished attacks and a few hits. We probably got them all from here. We continue fishing on other places, with our eyes on the sonar and on the bathymetric map, we catch some small pikes, we try to stay as long as we can will the lures in the water from one place to another. One hour before the end, we looked at the site and found that we dropped from position 4 won on the first day, several teams having three pikes, among which Andrei and Robert, leaders of the first day Norrlands Hugg (board leaders of the first day) plus still one of the strongest teams from Sweden, Wolfcreek Norr. 

 

 

After a quick calculation, we need a pike to keep our position in the first five places and two pike to win the contest. Time, we still have, but where to go? Fixed on the spot where last year Cristi Albu had caught his first pike over a meter of his life, a submerged island where the water was 5-6 meters, area that we had it scanned during training. We have only 20 minutes at our disposal, we start drifting in search of the prey fish bank, we find them, we start to launch in their direction. Stefan fishes with a 27 cm Pig Shad Giant, I at the opposite end with a 15 cm Pig Shad Jr., we have a few perch bites until I feel a short and strong attack. I hit the fish, start the drill, and tell Stefan that I have a good pike on the rod. But I lose it on the way, I swear and nervous throw the rod in the boat. Stefan says: "Don’t worry my friend, you will take another one, we still have 10 minutes!". I launch again in the same direction, the pike hit my lure again, infarct drill under the boat, landing net doesn’t miss, measure, photo, 71 cm, picture uploaded on the site! There were five minutes left in the contest, minutes when I really thought I'd catch another one too. But I didn't anymore. 

Top 5

	Team name	# of Pikes	Length
	Norrlands Hugg	3	280
	Wolfcreek Norr	3	277
	TSUNAMI Black Horse	3	248
	CWC/Rapitorimania	3	227
	Team WSB	3	225

 

At the final of the competition, first place, the leaders of the first day, Norrlands hugg - Olov Andersson, Kim Hägglund with three pikes, two of them over 1 meter in the river area. By chance or not, all the fish caught them with Pig Shad. 

 

2nd place and holders of the largest catch, 111 cm, Wolfcreek Norr - Micael Collen, Andreas Högberg, who have fished in the same area with Robert and Andrei. All three pikes were caught on second day, in shallow water, after trying in vain to trick the big pikes on the depths of 10-11 meters. They heard and saw a pike attack in an area of ​​the shore with vegetation, on a water of 30-40 cm. And catch them all. 

 

Third place, TSUNAMI Black Horse - Martin Barej, Milan Špráchal, connoisseurs of the lake and very good fishermen of pike, have revealed the mysteries of pike also in the last day. 

 

 

On the fourth place, me and Stefan, on the fifth place, just two centimeters away, Andrei and Robert, WSB team. You can see the rest of the ranking on:  https://laplandpike.se/

 

Let's not forget the kayak category, won by KAJAKAREL - Kaja Skalicky with two pikes.

 

 

 

 

 

Also, at the last moment, before the end of the competition, Cristi Albu, from the position of TV producer, not competitor, enters the sector where there were several Romanian teams, hoping to catch a big pike in the drill on the video camera to make a closing appearance in the upcoming movies on Fishing & Hunting Channel about Lapland Pike 2019. He meets on the water with the team Florin Voicu and George Floricel, who were in competition, which suggests him to try on a place where they had caught more than 30 small pikes. Albu complies, attacks the gulf mentioned, puts the spinnerbait who consecrated it and bang. Two pikes, 98 and 99 cm and less than half an hour. Is that luck or not? 

 

That's all folks, briefly, about Lapland Pike 2019, Sweden. Follow more videos and articles about this expedition at www.rapitorimania.ro, the YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/andyarif and F&H Channel. 

Andy Arif

 

 

 

 

 

Top 5

	Team name	# of Pikes	Length
	Norrlands Hugg	3	280
	Wolfcreek Norr	3	277
	TSUNAMI Black Horse	3	248
	CWC/Rapitorimania	3	227
	Team WSB	3	225