Our second week here (right between Tampere and Lahti) is coming to an end, and I have finally got a chance to fish. I envisaged this trip to be more of a holiday, but had to work through most of it, and am hoping to catch up over the last 2-3 days here (leaving early Saturday afternoon).
So far I have fished yesterday and today.
Caught quite a few nice size perches yesterday. Here you can see two of them (the lake is in the background, but it was too dark when I returned for the camera flash to reach it):
Lena (my wife) fried has 'em up in flower with spices today. MMMMMMMMMM.... Yummy stuff!! :approval:
Today went pike perch fishing, and actually caught one! Excited as I could be (as it is a very good fish with tender and delicious meat). It the first time in life that I've caught one.
Two days ago Cheesehead asked me if I got to fish any pike yet. Yes, I did and I caught a few pikes already, but am waiting until the end of my trip to see which one will be my largest one, and only then will post a picture of it here at ABW.
Stay tuned for more reports from the sunny Finland (it has actually been extremely warm here over the past 10 days; the girls have swam in the lake and got a nice tan added to their Greek tan too) ;)
Yours,
Geno
Eric Ewe
August 16th, 2007, 07:07 PM
that is a good size meal :)
must be a good outing!
Cheesehead
August 16th, 2007, 07:42 PM
Nice fish for the table - you couldn't do better than these.
We call the Pike Perch a "Sauger". It is similar to a walleye but has a spotted dorsal fin and lacks the white spot on the bottom of the tail.
See http://www.tnfish.org/FishIdentificationID_TWRA/FullWebImages/PikePerchKeyNegus.jpg
Thanks for posting your catch!
BizDev@DirectLeads
August 17th, 2007, 08:41 AM
I don't know anything about fish, but those look great. They certainly look better than than the toxic catfish my father and I used to catch out of the rivers here in Pittsburgh!
Alan Hamilton
August 17th, 2007, 09:18 AM
Our second week here (right between Tampere and Lahti) is coming to an end, and I have finally got a chance to fish. I envisaged this trip to be more of a holiday, but had to work through most of it, and am hoping to catch up over the last 2-3 days here (leaving early Saturday afternoon).
So far I have fished yesterday and today.
Caught quite a few nice size perches yesterday. Here you can see two of them (the lake is in the background, but it was too dark when I returned for the camera flash to reach it):
Lena (my wife) fried has 'em up in flower with spices today. MMMMMMMMMM.... Yummy stuff!! :approval:
Today went pike perch fishing, and actually caught one! Excited as I could be (as it is a very good fish with tender and delicious meat). It the first time in life that I've caught one.
Two days ago Cheesehead asked me if I got to fish any pike yet. Yes, I did and I caught a few pikes already, but am waiting until the end of my trip to see which one will be my largest one, and only then will post a picture of it here at ABW.
Stay tuned for more reports from the sunny Finland (it has actually been extremely warm here over the past 10 days; the girls have swam in the lake and got a nice tan added to their Greek tan too) ;)
Yours, Geno
Great pics Geno,
Happy to hear that you are getting to do some fishing and relaxing with the family.
Actually though, the fish you are holding up that you refer to a pike is a walleye. http://www.walleyehunter.com/
In some parts of the world they are referred to as Walleyed Pike. They are in the Pike family, but they are much tastier than Northern Pike. Out of curiosity, do they call Walleyes "Walleye Pike" in Finland?
Geno Prussakov
August 17th, 2007, 03:53 PM
Thanks for your comments, guys. Perch was for dinner again today, and it tastes simply marvelous when fried by my wife.
...They are in the Pike family, but they are much tastier than Northern Pike. Out of curiosity, do they call Walleyes "Walleye Pike" in Finland?
The three fishing manuals that I have brought along with me all say that this particular specie belongs to the Percidae (or the Perch) family, and its Latin name reflects it too (Lucioperca lucioperca L.). In Finland they call it pike-perch, and serve it at many local restaurants in the same selection with dishes made of salmon and trout (pike-perch is absolutely delicious). Wikipedia has an article on Sander Lucioperca (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sander_lucioperca) -- which they also call zanders -- which seems to be the pike-perch that lives in this part of the world (Scandinavia and the Baltic states). The last paragraph in that article is interesting:
In 2004, it was revealed that some restaurants in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota in the United States were serving imported zander instead of the closely related North American walleye (the state fish, and a popular food in the region). While zander and walleye are almost indistinguishable by taste, the restaurants were selling the European fish under the name "walleye", which is considered an illegal practice. An investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration followed.
Sounds like they are "different animals", Alan.
Off to continue packing... Leaving for St. Pete tomorrow. It's an interesting *speaks sarcastically* 5-6 hour drive, half of which you just sit in a huge car queue on the Finnish-Russian boarder.
I did catch a fairly good sized pike today, but need to shut my laptop down before my wife kills me for doing all of the packing herself... So, will post a picture of my pike catch as soon as I get to a better Internet (been connecting here through a GPRS all this time).
Geno
Joe Lilly
August 17th, 2007, 04:07 PM
Mmmmmm Walleye...."the steak of the lake."
UncleScooter
August 17th, 2007, 11:25 PM
Nice pics Geno. I am glad to see you catching some fish. I am reserving a morning, maybe two, next week to get out and find some bass.
In the first pic, those fish are apparently preparing to spawn. Look at their tails, all battered and bloody. That is how they get when they are near the bank preparing the bed for the spawn. In the world of bass, it is the males that do this. Those fish look an awful lot like the bass we catch here but they are a little more colorful and have different patterns.
Geno Prussakov
August 19th, 2007, 06:19 AM
Thanks, Scott; and hope you're having a great time fishing. Post your pictures too. I dream about fishing for bass one day.
In the first pic, those fish are apparently preparing to spawn...
Not sure if these are. This "Fishing Finland" brochure (http://www.visitfinland.com/ima/brochures/finland_fishing_eng.pdf) says:
Perch spawn in May, when the water has warmed to a temperature of 6-8 °C.
Their tails are red like that all the time. Not sure about the tails being "all battered". They may look so because they were killed 1-2 hours before this picture was shot.
Those fish look an awful lot like the bass we catch here but they are a little more colorful and have different patterns.
They do look similar; thought they don't grow as large the bass (unfortunately). The Kotka Maretarium's website (http://www.maretarium.fi/mare/4_2_uk.php) says the following about them:
Perch are the most common fish in Finland: one can find them in almost all lake and coastal areas. Perch live to a maximum age of 30 years and may grow up to 50 centimetres long, at a weight of about three kilograms. Their diet consists of worms, insect larvae and small fish. Occasionally, they prey on fish almost as large as themselves...
Not sure where they got the 3 kg from when the above-mentioned brochure (http://www.visitfinland.com/ima/brochures/finland_fishing_eng.pdf) says that "most perch caught weigh under 0.5 kg, but fish of over 1 kg can be found. The largest perch caught in Finnish waters is 2.5 kg". 1 kg is 2.2 lbs.
Geno
CowgirlUp
August 19th, 2007, 07:40 AM
Niceeeee! :approval:
Geno Prussakov
August 19th, 2007, 08:45 AM
Thank you, Amy. :cheerful:
More pics to come soon....
Geno
Geno Prussakov
August 21st, 2007, 10:16 AM
Here's the promised picture of the pike that ended up being the largest one (some 24 inches long) on that trip:
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