A year of competitions

This year I have competed in 5 competitions in total. This season has been pretty good for me but I never managed to grab that first place in any of the competitions I took part in.

First of the year – Vilhelmina

My first competition of the year was not until the middle of august. It took place way up north in Sweden, in Vilhelmina. 3 pike and 3 perch was on the schedule. I came up a few days before the competition and had wonderful perch fishing in some of the other lakes in the area. On the day of the competition the anglers were ready to compete on lake Volgsjön. I came in on second place with 312 cm. And with my biggest pike of 85 cm. Unfortunately I was 2 cm short of Pär Norman who managed to win on 314 cm. This competition was part of the year long series Kayak angler of the year (Årets kajakfiskare) and since I came in top three, I managed to qualify for the final this fall.

Second of the year – Perch bonanza lake x

For me the second competition of the year was on the 8th of september. The competition was supposed to be a pike competition but due to very warm weather it was changed to perch instead. It was a so called lake x format. All anglers met up at a gas station south of Stockholm without knowing which lake we were going to fish. As it turned out the competition leader took us to lake Muskan with the mission to catch three perch. I once again ended up in second place with 84 cm to my three biggest. This was 4 cm behind the winner Tobbe Svensson on 88 cm. This competetion was also part of Kayak angler of the year but since i already qualified in Vilhelmina it felt quite bad to end up in second place again.

Third of the year – Swedish championship

The third competition of the year for me was the Swedish kayak fishing championship (SM). This was the one I really wanted to win. This competition took place on lake Tisnaren and was a two day competition in the end of september. The competition had a special approach where you were supposed to catch five perch on day one and three pike on day two. Unfortunately I managed to skunk on day one and did not catch a single legal perch. I was in last place with zero centimeters to bring in to day two which was pike day. On the pike day I stayed most of the day in the bay where we launched our kayaks. This meant I was fishing pretty much alone most of the day. I started the day with two quick pike and also caught three more right at the end when the rest of the anglers came in to pick up their kayaks. All in all the competition did not go to plan but I managed to redeem myself on day two and came in on 5th place with 214 cm worth of pike. Huge congratulations to Oscar Källbom who was crowned Swedish champion 2024.

Fourth of the year – The final of Kayak angler of the year

The final of Kayak angler of the year (Årets kajakfiskare) was held in the beginning of october and had a lake X format where the anglers all stayed at the same hostel and then drove togheter to the lake on the beginning of day one in this two day competition. As it turned out we where competing on lake Bottensjön close to the big lake Vättern. The goal for the weekend was to catch three pike and six perch. In the end I came in on 4th place with a full board. I managed to catch the biggest perch of the competition of 41 cm but really struggled to catch the bigger pike. In the end the winner was Lars Lundberg who really succeeded to catch some really nice fish and a 107 cm pike to crown the day. Huge congratulations to Lars.