Is Spinning Sinning?

As mentioned above most of the game fishing destinations described here can be fished with any artificial lure. Plugs, wooden minnows and metallic spoons are widely used for trout and salmon alike, the famous Finnish Rapala and Nils Master lures are naturally very popular. Rotating bar spoons (spinners) and devons are prohibited in some places, but where legal the former are fine in smaller sizes for trout and grayling. Trolling spoons with downrigger equipment for trout and salmon has lately become very popular in our bigger lakes and also in the Baltic sea.

Finland offers excellent opportunities also for anyone interested in coarse fishing. The great number of lakes we have support many different species, although our harsh climate limits most of them to the south. As the Baltic Sea has a very low saline content, most typical fresh water fish do well in our shallow, brackish coastal waters.

Pike (Esox lucius) can be found everywhere both in lakes and rivers. Specially good pike fishing can be had in the Baltic Sea in SW Finland, where there is an immense archipelago of small islands between Maarianhamina (or Mariehamn in Swedish) and Turku. Best time for fishing is in May and also in October. Most fish weigh less than 5 kilos (11 lbs), but pike over 10 kilos (22 lbs) are not too rare. The biggest plugs and artificial minnows manufactured for spinning and trolling are very popular here but flyfishing for pike is at times also excellent. Some specialized guides and outfitters operate this area and I highly recommend their services. Licenses can otherwise be very difficult to obtain in this Swedish-speaking area and good local knowledge is essential for success in this maze of islands.

There is also plenty of seatrout and salmon in this general area. Other good places to try with trolling equipment are Lake Oulujärvi south-east from Oulu and Lake Pielinen north from Joensuu. Both of these lakes are fairly big trout lakes, there is also good pike fishing in Oulujärvi and landlocked salmon in Pielinen. Don't forget Lake Inari in the north rich with trout, char and landlocked salmon.

Perch (Perca fluviatilis) is very common everywhere. The average size is almost always well below ½ kilo (1 lb), but the Baltic Sea yields big fish most consistently. The wintry sport of icefishing is mostly concentrated on catching perch. Big burbot (Lota lota) can be found in most watersheds and is also most often caught by icefishing in January-March. Pikeperch or zander (Stizostedion lucioperca) has less broad range being mostly limited to the south of the country. The same applies to eel (Anguilla anguilla).

Many species of coarse fish of the carp family are quite common in southern Finland, too. Large bream (Abramis brama) and ide (Leuciscus idus) are more highly appreciated than smaller roach (Rutilus rutilus) and rudd (Scardinius erythophtalmus). Angling with earthworms, groundbaiting and other match angling techniques can be used to catch these fish. Asp (Aspius aspius), carp (Cyprinus carpio), tench (Tinca tinca) and chub (Leuciscus cephalus) are present sporadically but they are usually rare.

Icefishing and angling with natural baits using a rod and fixed line is free for all. All designated sports fishing areas and waters under special management are excluded, as well as northernmost Finland. As mentioned earlier, worms and other such baits are forbidden on all running waters that have populations of trout, salmon and/or whitefish. In order to practice spinning, trolling or harling an additional permit is required as explained above.