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Central Finland, Kapeenkoski 30.3. 
JaniH

Trouts have been now active when water levels are falling down. We are waiting for first real stonefly hatches! Now you can see them every now and then, butt soon they will be stepping on snow everywhere. In wednesday 30.3. I saw in Kapeenkoski some hatching stoneflies and some tailing trouts, too. Mostly flyfishing was trying to reach the bottom with pupas and larvas. I caught two trouts (42 and 46 cm) with these flies. Spinnfishers in our group caught three legal size trouts (41-57 cm), two with  Rapala Cd-7 and one with Trout Quiver - spoon. 

The floods are falling down, so the water level will soon be optimal in all rivers of Central Finland. In Kapeenkoski the level was ten cm lower now as last sunday. I heard news from Konnevesi and Viitasaari areas, that the main hatches of stoneflies are not yet on even there. I presume, that next week will be THE TIME! Always we have to remember, that the nature, specially stoneflies, can be mysterious...

                                
                                A really nice Kapeenkoski springtime trout.

                
               The water level in Kapeenkoski is soon excellent. Photos SFM-toimitus

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Aland 23.-27.3.
Pingo

Bosse Jansson icefished in monday in Farjsundet a mighty zander: 5100 g and 80 cm .

Two finnish guys caught in friday in  Kungso  6 seatrouts and again in saturday 8 more. Most of the trouts were fine two kilos class fishes!

Kurre from Fiskarboden caught in sunday in Kungso two nice trouts. On western shores people have caught several fine seatrouts, but I am missing exact statistics.

Icefishing perches has been perfectly excellent in early mornings and late evenings, but daytimes have been more quiet.

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Sakyla 28.3.
TimoK

A new try in the afternoon from two to seven p.m. Cloudy weather perhaps made whitefishes less careful as yesterday, there were more fishes swimming in shallow water than earlier. I caught six fishes, lost two in the hole and saw several fishes swimming by my mormuska.

           
               These whitefishes have to go into my smoking oven! Photo SFM-toimitus

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Sakyla 27.3.
TimoK

Testing the evening hit of whitefishes in southeastern area of the Lake Pyhajarvi from 3 to seven p.m. Four hours gave only two fishes, but they were nice size, about 500 g, compared with normal catch in this lake. The ice was about 40 cm, and a bit soft in upper parts. No other fishers on the place, and very few old holes, too, on this old hot spot.

               
             Mikro-Mutu mormuska was the lure today. Photo SFM-toimitus

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Piikkio and Askainen 26.3.
SFM-toimitus, Jari, Timo and Rami

On Harvaluoto ices at 8 a.m.. First zanders were co-operative, and some legal size fishes were caught, and of course, too many smallies.

At noon SFM-toimitus went home to live as sofa poteto and others to Askainen to search evening hit. Jari caught 4, Rami 7 and Timo one legal fish there. We stopped fishing at six p.m. 

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Pargas 26.3.
JakeK

The Gate is open and some fishers were there, too. No signs of whitefishes to anyone. 

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Pargas 23.3.
TimoK

Icefishing perches from ten a.m. to seven p.m. The working tactics were fishing with balance jigs in front of rushes. Most fishes were found in one and half to two meters waters all day long. Two thirds of my catch I released, and those some occasional, kilo class pikes, too. When the temperature is over zero centigrades like today, even in icefishing C&R is possible. I had one plastic bag more than full of perches in size 150-350 g. Many of the fishes were full of roes, so the utility procent in fileting was poor. The files weighted only 1960 g. 

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Aland 18.-20.3.
Pingo

Friday was a fine icefishing day. Several nice +500 g perches were caught. Heavy wind and snowstorm made living on ice arctic. You could see only some meters forward in snowshowers.

In saturday and sunday the weather was better, and still perches hit like fools. Every fisher caught about 50 -80 fishes. The ice is off from the bay of Kungso and  Hammarrudda area! That means, that easter  will be time for seatrout fishing. Weather forecast promises warm  and mild western winds, perfect !!!!!!!!!

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Sakyla 19.3. 
OlliT

                 
In the photo you can see the content of the stomach of one whitefish I caught last saturday. Fishes are eating really small plankton fauna, which we saw in the holes, too. It is really difficult to imitate these animals, so small, about one mm class they are. Photo SFM-toimitus

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Piikkio 19.3.
SFM-toimitus, Mikko and Mara

We were on ice at half past seven a.m. and worked hard to half past five p.m. Northern wind blew freezingly, but the sunshine was already nice and warm in the daytime. In the morning there was some hit on, daytime was quit quite, but zanders got again active in late afternoon. We caught a lot of small fishes, which we released. Funny how some neighbours took in their bag everything, that had fins! Mikko and SFM-toimitus walked a long roundtour on ice trying to find fishes. Mikko lost a mighty zander in four inches hole! He could not use hjis normal six inches drill, because of pain in shoulders. Mara stayed all day long in a small area and got fishes all the time. The results today: Mara with Savonia vertical 7 pcs, SFM-toimitus with Karismax balance jigs 4 pcsjnda Mikko with Koster vertical 2 pcs.  SFM-toimitus had the biggest of the day 840 g 46 cm, the fish had on sides teethmarks, eveidently a seal had bitten it. 
Mostly the ice was ok 25-40 cm, but in narrow passages the drill went through only with some turns.
BE CAREFUL ON WEAK SPRINGTIME ICES!

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Sakyla 19.3.
OlliT, Niksu, Lauri, Kalle and Mr. X

We icefished all ady whitefishes on windy  Pyhajarvi. Niksu, Lauri and I were on fishing places at half past seven a.m., Kalle had already then five nice fishes on ice. So we three were at least half an hour too late from the morning hittime. My own start was ok, but too thin lines and being too unexperienced in whitefish ice fishing, I lost first five fishes in the tube of holes. ( !! When I learned correct techniques, even I caught some fishes. Kalle caught some more fishes during the day. Our total catch was about 15 fishes. Light colors worked fine both in mormuskas and flies. Niksu told the aforism of the day. He was taking his daytime naps in the car, when I went to wake him up telling, that fishes are on hit now. Niksu:" What? Did you catch a whitefish? Where? From that drilled hole?".:)

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Kimito 16.3.
OlliT and Ari 

Icefishing zanders from eight a.m. Five first hole gave immediately  40 and 46 cm fishes with vertical jig Merisepe. Ari had one minor and two hits. Rest of the day was more dead with zanders. When we were leaving, Ari told to me to make one more hole and hopefully with a zander in it. I drilled, let Merisepe sink and immediately there was a fish on! It was the biggest of the day 47 cm. The fish took on Merisepe baited with apiece of smelt. Merisepe won today Uto 3-0, so my trustee zander lure is now changed. We had quite a few happenings, but we still caught fishes enough to make a nice meal. 

                
                 Merisepe won Uto 3-0. Photo SFM-toimitus

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Aland, Slemmern 12. and 16.3.
Pingo

Ålandssportfiske klubb had their icefishing championships in saturday on Slemmern. The fishing time was three hours. Bo Tholix won with  7,79 kg of perches,  Leif Andersson was second with  7,74 kg and third was Pingo with catch of 5,5 kilos. Pingo released a lot of  perches, which he thought were too small to be eaten. Tholix fished still four hours after the competition and caught  170 perches, of which the biggest was  920 g and he caught several fishes over half a kilo. 

In wednesday some guys were again out on Slemmern ice. Fishes hit immedistely, when the balance jig was near the bottom. Ola stayed on ice only one hour, then he had fishes even too much himself to eat. 

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Pargas, Vapparn 15.3.
MikkoT

I icefished all day long zanders. Working hard I got  7 legal size fishes, of which I took those four over 40 cm zanders with. The biggest was 45 sm. Balance jig gave nothing, but vertical  Hopeasiipi in color copper-silver worked fine an hour before sunset. I hope zanders to get active again, when the winds turn to southern or western. The nice size perches are still missing.

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Pargas 15.3.
TimoK and Jussi

We tried to find some evening hit time after four o'clock p.m. We thought zanders to be too difficult, so we began to seek perches. They were in front of rushes, but we found no larger schools.  150-300 g we took with about half a plastic bag. 

When perches eat? Almost all of opened fishes had sticlebacks and other small fishes in their stomaches, some had caddis larvas and other small things. Daytime is not the right time, and the evening is not either. I wonder, if we have to be on ice very early in the morning?

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Taivassalo, Tippsund 11.-13.3.
JoniS

The weather was really good all weekend, sunshine, sometimes a bit cloudy and not too heavy winds. I tried once again to learn secrets of baitfishing. I caught about ten perches  100-250g. And finally I caught my first baitfished zander, pty too small. I fished at least in 7 meters water and with baitfish or big balance jigs, because I wanted to catch zanders. 

In saturday we walked out to a island, where we could see the large open water area Inionaukko, even the ships sailing there. There was a steep slope to 20 meters water. With an echoload we found in the middle waters in 15 meters a school of baltic herrings. My friend caught many of them with jigging, so the species was certified as baltic herring. Again we got new experiences! I had some zanders on, too, but lost all of them.

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Rimito and Naantali 13.3.
TimoK

KChasing zanders in sunshine from ten a.m. to five p.m., that is the most quiet time of the day. The old hot spot in Rimito was totally dead, not a bite to me or two other fishers there. I changed to perches and caught many of them, but pity they all were small. 

At three p-m. I drove to Naantali and fished with Mikko and Mara near seuraksi Kuparivuori. Two hours gave three zanders. One I had to meassure, but it was too small. Two others I saw immediately to be illegal size. Mikko and Mara  had caught as salary of  the long day sitting on ice  some fishes to take with, too. 

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Swiss Alps 12.3.
DanielL

I gave my first ice fishing course this weekend and we had splendid conditions. 2 meters of snow & ice (needed extension drill), around 0 Celsius and lots of sun. The lake is at an altitude of 2000 meters with trout, char, perch and Canadian lake trout aka Namaycush.
As you see in the pictures I fished with a finnish Playmobil rod and was quite successful with a namaycush of 66 cm and almost 4 kg. It tookcaught on a Storm Vertical Jigging Lure in Chartreuse. This fish is the new lake record, though I guess there must be some even larger ones. I lost a second fish of around 2 kg at the hole.

                             
                             Snow, ice and sunshine on 2000 meters.

                        
      The new record of the lake: a namaycush 66 cm and with a finnish Playmobile rod!

     
    We swiss icefish mostly with longer rods with reels. Photos SFM-toimitus

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Taivassalo 12.3.
Ktl and Timo

Icefishing zanders from eight a.m. to five p.m. We tired to find right depths, but fishing was difficult all day long. Small illegal fishes we caught over twenty, but legal size over 37 cm only three. The best hole gave 8 fishes of which only two were over minimum. I followed two fishermen to take up all that had fins. It is a wonder how greedy some can be. There were a lot of fishermen in this area, probably over 50 men. The lure of the day was Merisepe vertical jig with orange roehook baited with a small piece of smelt. 

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The Lake Pyhäjarvi of Sakyla  3.-6.3.
Niksu, Olli, Kalle, Osku, Iiro, Saku, Mika and Timo

We had a "icefishing" weekend in Kalle's holiday house. There was ice thick enough to drive with cars. Two first days we spent trying to find fishes, but in sunday we drove to the middle of the lake to  Emäkaria, where we found nice perches and whitefishes, too. The best hole was drilled by Mika, who got from that hole almost ten kilos of perches. Different mormuskas worked fine in shallow 1-2 meters water. Vertical jig with leader mormuska gave fishes, too. The weather was beautiful like a bridegroom, but not so wet. In saturday we had a very unofficial russian style icefishing competition won by our junior Saku. I wondered why I was not the champ, because I trained well evening before to get a nice mormuskatremolo in my rodhand... 

                               
                               Timo and his special techniques.

                              
              Our whitefish specialist choosing a new hot lure. Photos SFM-toimitus

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Aland, Mariehamn 6.3.
Pingo

I made my first icefishingtrip on sunday to  Slemmern. The ice was about  20 cm thick and the weather perfect sunny and calm. I caught in two hours 35 perches. I had a kilo class perch on about five minutes. It was hooked on sides, and I tried to turn it to the hole with another rod, but then it got loose... Mostly the fishes were in medium (= about 400 g).

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Taivassalo 4.3.
Ktl and Mikko

We decided to check up, if the stories about mighty hittime of zanders in the evening are true. We were on ice at one p.m. Immediately Mikko got a nice almost one kilo fish. The hit was on till four o'clock, then it was totally quiet. A new session was again on between six and seven in the evening.  Mikko caught with Koster coast spoon four legal size zanders and SFM-toimitus with balance jig one. We had too much smallies and lost fishes.