New member

[jusii]

Haloo everyone!
I am introducing myself here with this post. My name is Jukka and have done fishing all my life. I live in Finland on the other side of the globe. We have winter season at its best right now. Temperature is -10 deg C, which really is not that bad. I have been following this forum over a year now and finally took the step #to register myself.

In Finland we fish Wallyeye, Perch, Whitefish, Seatrout (also other trouts), Baltic Salmon (at Baltic Sea) and Atlantic Salmon (in Lappland). I use only active methods in catching fish. Rod is 8 - 9 feet long for lure weights 20 - 40g. Lighter gear is available if needed. Greatest enjoyment I get from seatrout fishing by casting late in the autumn before the sea freezees. Trolling of baltic salmon in may, june and july is just to spend time before seatrout season. Our boats are 5 - 6 m long and of all types; CC, WA, Walk Through Cabin boats (like mine).

So far I have found interesting subjects (at least) such as:
- Powered Catamarans, this is a boat type that is not represented in Finland. Elderly people will find this boat really tempting with their sore backs.
- Environmental issues; restrictions to come to recreational fishing?
- Your game fish species; I am trying to learn what are you catching there!
- Engine threads

I will try to attach some pictures in here with following posts.

Merry Christmas and Prosperous New Year!
Jukka

[jusii]

This I took an hour ago from my yard.

[jusii]

I am the one far right. This is thte outfit with wich we go out at sea late in the autumn, when water temperature is very low ( + 8 deg C and less). The suit is called "survival suit" but in everyday language we call it "carcass" (especially so, when it hangs empty!)

[jusii]

Example of the catch.

[jusii]

This is my boat. Its 5,8 m long and 2,18 wide and weighs 800 kg without engine. You can walk through the cabin, which is a nice feature. In subzero temperatures this boat is useless and we use aluminum CC boat.

[jusii]

This is a typical scenery at the Gulf Of Finland and is taken where I fish.

[dasher]

Welcome aboard Jukka and thanks for the intro mate, very interesting. Keep those photos coming, it's good to see what fishos are doing in other parts of the world. [smiley=2thumbsup.gif]

By the way what the hell have you got on your head. :o :-?

[jusii]

They are goggles and very helpful when its cold and you go at a speed of 20 kts or more, or if its rough weather. Keeping them on makes you believe that you are indoors!

Jukka

[Panda]

Nice looking boat.
Is that a 70hp motor? Does it push it along OK?

And just wondering why its no good in sub-zero temperatures?

Welcome aboard.

[jusii]

Panda,
Sprays of water will freeze on the cabin structure, which will increase weight and also makes it impossible to see out and do the pin point navigation necessary with seatrout fishing. When casting (spinning) seatrout you are close to underwater rocks and stones, stern against wind reverse ingaged and you are relying on engine power not to get into the breaking water with the stones.

Surely many may think the boat is underpowered. Anyhow with this engine the stern has enough boyoancy, when kept against the wind with engine power. For me the boat is fast enough it makes 25 kts WOT and cruising 18 - 20 kts. We do also have that famous chop and I often have to slow down if I am to spare my back. By the way my previous engine was 50 hp 4-stroke Big-Foot Yamaha. With this engine the boat achieved 22 kts WOT and always managed to plane never the less the load (18-19 kts).

[Dodge41]

Gday Jukka and welcome to ausfish.

By comparison to your temperatures; we spent yesterday under a tree, eating prawns with cold beer, swimming and a temperature of 34C, wearing shirt and shorts, a big differance to Finland at the moment. ;D

[rando]

Hi Jukka
Merry Christmas!!!
Thanks for the photos, and welcome to the forum.
I am amazed at the amount of gear(survival suit) you need to fish your local waters.
In the winter here when we fish the beaches for tailor( blufish,in americanspeak) we wear rubber waders I usually wear tracksuit pants under the waders, and a spray jacket to stop the wind. A really cold night is maybe 5C.
Right now I am in a pair of shorts its 33C and rising.. @ 10.30am the humidity is 70%+,, soon I will have any icy cold beer to cool down,, then I will have another one for my new friend Jukka in Finland ;D ;D ;D.
Have a wonderful New Year... all the best to you and your family
cheers
rando

[szopen]

Welcome Jukka,

A while ago we had anothe member from Finland active here for a couple of months.

Rando,

This survival gear is essential not only for sea fishing but also freshwater in the cold season. If you fall in the water at around 0C without such gear you die in a few minutes from hypothermia.

[bidkev]

Welcome Jukka and may you have a happy new year.

I used to fish for sea trout in the sea lochs of western scotland. They sure are a beautiful and hard fighting fish.

Your clothing reminded me of the winter months in the NW of England which is where I lived before I came to Australia. I too wore a survival suit when fishing. I had a friend who worked on the oil rigs who gave me a couple otherwise I wouldn't have been able to afford them. a2 yrs ago they would have cost 400 sterling which is about 1000dollars Australian. I'm grateful that I don't have the need for one anymore ;D

Hyvää joulua ja onnellista uutta vuotta

kev

[saphire]

Hello Jukka,
Nice to meet you. It is great to see how things are going on the other side of the equator. Look forward to reading your post and seeing pictures of your part of the world.
saphire.

[skippa]

welcome aboard Jukka,

keep the pictures coming, its great to see pic's from other places around the world. [smiley=2thumbsup.gif]

Damn must be cold alright over there, even the birds on your front 'lawn' are frozen, nice touch with the esky in pic three too ;D

Seriously tho keep them coming Jukka good to hear from you. As you've already heard its 34 deg cel here and its prawns and beer for Xmas lunch....


Cheers,
Tony [smiley=beer.gif]

[jusii]

I thank you very much for such a warm welcome to this forum. I will try to behave myself when ever I participate to a thread and to give some positive contribution to the subject matter.

To be honest summers in Finland are just great. You can read 24 hrs a day with natural light (in june) and enjoy temperatures up to 28 deg C. Sea water warms up towards the end of the summer so that in august surface temperature is around 21 deg C.

Jukka

[roz]

Hello Jukka and welcome to our part of the world.

Really hard to comprehend what it must be like living and fishing in your part of the world. You are catching fish I've only ever read about so please tell me more. Is fishing as popular in Finland as it is here?

Your boat doesn't look much different to anything you may see at a boat ramp here, but why is aluminum required in those very cold temperatures?

Very much looking forward to reading your contributions Jukka.

Regards Roz

[jusii]

Roz,
Aluminum is not required in itself, but open boat is a must. The boat can be of glasfiber or aluminum. With my boat I can do seatrout fishing until the end of october depending of the progress of the winter. The latest fishing trips of the season I am doing in my brothers aluminum CC boat.

Jukka

[Darryl]

Welcome to the forum Jukka.

Quick question mate . When you are fishing late in the season does this mean there is ice floating about hence why you use the alley boat then?

[roz]

How far off shore do you travel Jukka, and what sort of depth are you fishing.

Also, do you get any pelagics up there? Maybe Bluefin Tuna..

cheers roz

[maztez]

Welcome Jukka have just had a visit from my daughters brother in law and his wife TITTA SEITSONEN.They make their home in IMATRA Finland and are in Australia for the christmas holidays .
I know you will enjoy the site and its mix of characters
cheers Terry

[longtail]

welcome aboard Jukka , i too am amazed by your pics and words of fishing in your part of the world :o
don't think my boys ;) would like your temps tho ;D

seriously mate welcome to ausfish and i look forward to reading more about fishing in finland.

cheers
jason

ps- silly question i know , but why would you need a esky?? :-X ;D
also is that survivial suit waterproof??

[szopen]

As I come from the Baltic Sea area as well. ;D ;D ;D

Crestcutter, It is very rare to encounter floating ice in bigger pieces. When on some years the sea freezes it is close to shore and not too many "icebergs".
The main problem in winter is the water spray freezing on the boat.

Jukka,

I have a question.
The sea trout photo is titled taimen.
I thought that taimen is the much bigger cousin of the trout/salmon living in Mongolia/Siberia part of the world.

One of the few finish words I know is Lohi ;)

Your description of summer is almost spot on.
Almost as you have forgotten about the little fly/moskito things.


One of the things I am missing is ice fishing.
It should be going well now.

Here in winter the temperature drops, water gets cold and fishing is bordering on hopeless.

[jusii]

Crestcutter,
The Gulf of Finland freezees in january or early february. Shallow bays are frozen at the moment. You don't need aluminum boat for the ice. With small boats its practically impossible to go through the ice. Of course you can push your way through the ice for a couple hundreds of meters if urged to do so. Doing so your prop will be in great danger to be spoiled. Glasfiber boats have proved to withstand the cutting effects of ice. Wooden boats will be cut the bottom off at a really short distance especially if you keep speed.

The air temp can be easily - 5 deg C, when we are out fishing, but the sea is open and has no ice floating. As a matter of fact the sea is relativelly warm (in comparison to air), which can be seen from cumulus clouds above the sea in high pressure situation.

Roz,
Fishing and boating is very popular here. Finland has very long coastline with Baltic Sea, it has a very beautiful archipelago at the south west corner of the country. In land is dotted with tens of thousands of fresh water lakes with eskers between formed by the ice period(s). Boat manufacturing industtry is very strong. Brands like Swan (Yacht), Yamarin, Silver, Buster, Bella, Faster, Flipper and many others are Finnish. Unfortunatelly none of them makes Powered Catamarans (at least commercially).

Guys, tell me if this thread is getting too long as an introduction of myself!

Jukka

[Darryl]

Thanks Jukka for answering my question, and too answer your question about the thread getting too long , it is in no way too long mate. We are just as interested in your part of the world and fishing culture as you are of ours.

Again welcome to the forum and i look forward to viewing your part of the world.


Darryl.

[jusii]

Roz,
When trolling Baltic Salmon, we go out for about 20 - 25 kms from the coastline. In my case its to the south. In may and june we troll at depths of 6 to 14 m. In july and there on we go deeper 16 - 30 m.

Pelagics no, if we don't count a smaller cousin to delphin, which we can see once in ten years (its not a fish).

Longtail,
You got me, I cannot figure it out what you mean by the "esky"-thing! It wil not open to me! Please clarify! Every now and then I may be in a situation, where I am forced to ask you describe more what you mean. Your everyday phrases and ways of putting sentences together are sometimes puzzles to me. Well, I will learn quickly if you have patience!

Survival suit keeps you warm and dry inside. You should survive several hours in it while floating in cold water.

Szopen,
Taimen is plain finnish and means "trout". Summer is the mosquito season, but more so only in the countryside. Lappland in the north is famous for its mosquitos. The high season of mosquitos is called "raekkae", which occurs in middsummer. Coastal seaside areas are not affected disturbingly.

Terry thanks for your nice post.

Jukka

[Darryl]

Jukka longtail means the esky in your boat as in the blue thing you throw the fish you are keeping into.

Aussie slang at it's finest. You would call it an ice box maybe?

[szopen]

Jukka,

Esky is the insulated box them Australians use for storage of food and fish while fishing with a few blocks of ice to keep it from going bad.
Warm country.

Did not know taimen was finnish. When you think that a related fish is called the same name thousands of km's away mind boggles.

This is what I have known as taimen:

http://www.fishmongolia.co.uk/mongolia/fishing-photos/photos-fishing-mongolia.htm

[jusii]

To all,
Okay, Longtail was referring to my picture, where its seen a blue box. This box is for the catched fish. During the seatrout season the box needed to keep the boat tidy not for the temperature reasons.

Szopen, interesting thing this taimen -word.

Thanks for help Crestcutter and Szopen!

I think I'll fetch my crosscountry skiis and go out for a little excercise!

Goodby to all of you for today!

Jukka