a place of ruddy

Well, I didn’t have a chance to evaluate the first three, but I’ve got my mind right about the last of them now. I learned, for instance, that last April, when we were freezing our tails off here in England, it was 30° in Sweden – that’s about 86° in proper Fahrenheit weights and measures. The Swedish winter is cold and dry, but they get reliable decent summers. The Swedes are a pretty tanned looking-lot by the time May is out.And then I knew for sure that the Baltic Sea was just full of cod, and other such salty creatures: a place of ruddy-faced, bobble-hatted sea anglers. That was another fixed idea that was very soon dispelled. I found that in reality the Baltic ‘sea’ is only slightly brackish, and it’s full of stonking great coarse and game fish of most British species, and a few others for luck. Just imagine it, a sea that’s really a lake, nearly the size of England. It gets better. The place is practically uninhabited, by British standards, so wherever you fish in the Baltic, you have about a zillion acres, all to yourself. Overfished, it ain’t.So picture it, if you will. You have found a little nook between a few Baltic islands, and your swim is the size of Lake Windermere. Nature has pre-stocked this cosy spot with salmon, sea trout, bream, roach, ide, crucians …… and pike. Sound good to you?My flying visit to Sweden took me to the east coast town of Västervik, for the pike. Baltic pike have a life-style that can only be described as gluttonous. The secret of their happiness is the Baltic herring. Vast shoals of these fatty little chaps spawn in the brackish coastal waters, and the pike gorge themselves mightily on these conveniently pre-packaged HNV mouthfuls, until they are fit to burst. Lots of little Baltic herring are thus converted into ruddy-great slabs of pike flesh.In late spring, when the herring disappear from the shallows, and head off to sea, the pike have to satisfy their appetites with the vast shoals of the resident coarse fish. As I said, these pike enjoy a suitably high Swedish standard of living.My host and guide at Västervik was Anders Forsberg. Anders is not only a leading journalist with the top Swedish angling magazine Fiske För Alla (Fishing For All), he’s also Sweden’s leading pike specialist. Anders has set up a purpose-made fishing camp at Västervik: although ‘camp’ is hardly the word for these very comfortable wood-lined cabins with all mod-cons provided.On a crystal clear summer morning at 7 o’clock, Anders and I set off into the 4,000 island Gamelby Archipelago. The place was stunningly beautiful – utterly beautiful. With blue skies and a gentle breeze out of the south-east, we slipped past wooded islands, large and small. Neat wooden chalets appeared here and there, each proudly flying a Swedish pennant flag atop a white flag-pole.You would think that locating pike in so vast an area would be nigh-on impossible. But Anders has been plying and pike fishing these waters for thirty years, and he knows just where to look for the fish. He says it’s a matter of knowing the depth at which they will be lying. Anders is very happy to point his guest anglers in just the right direction, and to provide accurate charts of the area.For the newcomer, the surest way is to employ Anders’ trained guides for a day, or perhaps half a day, to help get the hang of it. An echo sounder is pretty well essential to find water of the correct depth, and Anders has a good stock of them available for hire.So there we were among the islands, with inviting reed-fringed bays that just shouted ‘pike’. To my surprise, Anders ignored these obvious spots, and dropped anchor out in the middle of open water, about a half-mile from shore. He explained that right under the boat was what he described as a sunken island, surrounded with deep water, and the really big pike would be found on the sloping sides of this island, at about 18’ depth.I rigged my new ABU spinning outfit – a Mörrum 9’6″ (casting weight 15 – 40 grams, which I’d prefer in real weight measurements, but we seem to be loosing that particular battle) and matching Ambassadeur Mörrum 5600 reel. This marvellous outfit is reviewed in the tackle review pages.Anders was keen for me to try the Swedish-made ‘Salt’ lure, which he finds to be particularly successful for Baltic pike. We cast together, and I had hardly started to wind before Anders shouted ‘pike’. I turned to see Anders’ rod arched around. ‘Yust a little one,’ said Anders, as a fourteen pounder was unhooked in the water.Then, I was into a fish, which again was ‘yust a little one’ of about ten pounds. And so it went on and on, with ‘yust little ones’ that threw themselves around like low-flying aircraft, and soaked us with their flailing rudders as we released them.At lunch-time, we cruised into a sparkling bay of crystal water, and with the sun warming our backs, we ate open sandwiches, and downed Swedish beer. Overhead, a mewing cry announced the passing of a white-tailed sea eagle, which was being mobbed by agitated gulls. It was another first for me. ‘Life can be damned good,’ I thought.By moving from sunken island to sunken island, and stopping off at rocky promontories known to produce fish, we filled the afternoon with sport, and captured visions of this extraordinary Baltic wonderland.The best fish was just over seventeen pounds, which came to a classic old ABU Hi-Lo plug. I’m really not too worried about the size of the fish I catch, so I was very pleased with that one. But as Anders said, by the standards of the area it really wasn’t much to shout about. Twenty pounders are very common here, thirties a regular occurrence, and forties are caught every year. Anders showed me a photograph of a recently-caught fish that looked like a small crocodile, which had banged down the scales to their 20 kg. maximum. So that’s 44 lbs. (at least) and Anders thought it might be nearly 50 lbs. Even though I’m happy with smaller fish, I’d quite like to find that wee chap the next time I visit Västervik. But as I said, I was completely happy with my day, and totally exhausted.Only a tiny part of the Baltic’s huge coastline has been fished or pike. The potential is simply staggering. That fifty pounder is likely to come soon, and who’s to say what the limit might be. At present there aren’t that many proven Baltic options. Anders’ is the only established operation at Västervik. More positively, for British anglers booking is very easy, through Angler’s World Holidays.Until someone discovers something better (and I’m betting that will also be in the Baltic) Västervik must be regarded as the pike fishing capital of the World.John Olliff-CooperUseful InformationThe easiest route to Swedish holidays is through British angling holiday specialists.Anglers World Holidays46 Knifesmithgate, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, S40 1RQTelephone 01246 221717www.anglers-world.co.ukFlightsYou’ll find that SAS have these routes so well covered, you really need no other airline. If you book through Anglers World Holidays the flights will all be taken care of, but you can visit the SAS website direct at www.scandinavian.netFurther information can be had from theSwedish Travel and Tourist Council11 Montague Place, London W1H 2ALwww.visit-sweden.comTackleStandard British tackle appropriate for each species is fine. If you’re coarse fishing then you should take groundbait, which is sometimes difficult to source in Sweden. Maggots and worms can usually be arranged at your venue if you book them in advance. If you elect to take your own car on one of the ferry routes, you can obviously carry everything you need in the car.BoatsIf you hope to go afloat you can usually find boats for hire, but it pays to book them ahead to be sure, and to save time. Boats give access to thousands of acres of water inaccessible from the banks. Most Swedes fish the huge lakes from boats, so bank access is less certain than in Britain.BugsScandinavia has a reputation for its bugs. To be sure, the north has em to spare, although deet spray will keep them at bay. In the south of Sweden there seemed to be far fewer mozzies. I wasn’t bitten at all.Communication with the nativesMost younger Swedes speak very good English, and the majority understand when Swedish place names, impossible to pronounce for a Brit, are converted into something more manageable. You’d never believe what the Swedes call the city of Gothenburg.

• www.fishing.co.uk recommends Deep Forest Holidays for its wide selection of top class fishing holidays to Sweden.