Viking Lars | Saturday, 27 July 2024
It’s that time of year when new species enter our Scandinavian waters. Not new as in never seen before, but seasonal species. I’m talking about mackerel and sea bass. Both have actually been here for a while, but especially mackerel are really present in numbers now. Both happily take flies in the middle of the day, so if one’s not partial to messing around in a river or on a stony shore, these two species are worth paying attention to.
Both are perfectly reachable from the shore (from jetties, in harbours etc), but I much prefer fishing from my float tube or my pontoon boat. Especially mackerel are unpredictable and suddenly they’re there and then they’re not. They are easier to chase around when you’re afloat and it’s much easier to cover lots of water. You can obviously also cover water that is impossible to reach from land.
Mackerel I fish on a light rod (5-wt) and with extremely fast sinking lines. I think fishing for mackerel has taught me more about fishing sinking lines than any other fishing I engage in. That and reading Steve Parton’s books. If you haven’t yet, do it. It’s excellent reading and there’s so much knowledge compressed that it’s almost tiring to read.
Afloat sometimes 300 yards or more from the shore, it’s important to take the correct safety measures. I wear an inflatable life vest and I just replaced the CO2 canister. I fired the old one and it worked fine, but better safe than sorry. Firing is one thing, but it’s equally important to make sure the bladder is air tight as well. All’s good. I always have an old fashioned compass as well. Fog can come out of no where and it’s easy to lose sense of direction and if I drop my phone, I have the compass.
But of course the craft itself needs looking after. I took the bladder out of my float tube earlier this summer. That was a fxcking pain in a certain body part to get back in. It took forever! I haven’t used the pontoon boat for a while, so I decided to give that a look over as well. I put the frame together and had a look - all good. I pumped both pontoons to check for leaks - all good. And then I decided to clean and condition the pontoons now that they were out anyway. As far as longevity goes the conditioner is important as it gives some protection against UV light that otherwise can compromise the PVC the pontoon are made from.
Keep it worlking!”
Have a great weekend!
Lars
PoD: An electric pump that hooks onto the car battery and stops at the correct pressure is fantastic to have.