Brändö – The Eastern Pearl of Åland
Part 1: What, How and When

Text and pictures: K.T. Loisa
Map: Mika Collan
Translation: Unto Reunanen

Last autmn we were spending the evening in the restaurant Gullivan on Brändö after an exhausting day of fishing. The party included a couple of influential guys in the field of tourist trde from Åland. The chat turned quite forcibly into fishing and the fishing sites of Åland. In asked the natives which they thought was the best yielding and the most versatile fishing area of Åland.

The tourist official from marienhamn did not hesitate a moment before answering:every time I have the spare time, I take a fishing trip, preferably to Brändö. The marketing executive of a big cruise ship company thought it over and hesitated for about a half a pint. Finally he said: The interest of my employer would require a differentanswer, but to be quite honest, Brändö is the place number one for any sportsfisherman in the Åland region.

Geography

Brändö is the easternmost municipality of Åland. Of its area 103 square kilometres is land and another 978 square kilometres is water. You can imagine how scattered the scenery iswhen you hear that the municipality consists of 1,180 islands. Only ten of them arre inhabited round the year. The population of Brändö is 530. The provincial statutes decree that a cottage site on Brändöcan only be acquired by a person resident in the province for at least three years. The cottages are rare which fact partly accounts for the large amount of fish in the waters.

The native language of the inhabitants is Swedish, so if you go there it’s good to brush up your knowledge. Most of the archipelago people speak only Swedish. Nevertheless, if you don’t speak the language, don’t cancel your fishing trip: the people in the tourist trade are well familiar with other languages.

The Fish

The prime species of a sportsfisherman in the Brändö waters are pike, perch and trout. The pike are large but you seldom get a tenner. Longnoses from five to eight kilogrammes come in at a moderate pace when the time of the year is right. The trout stock is good and the average size of the catch is a bit larger than in the Turku Archipelago. As you can deduce from the Finnish name of the province (Ahvenanmaa/Perchland) the waters of Brändö are populated by sheer armadas of stripe-shirted perch. Their size is at aclass different from the inland water midgets. The normal weight is froma quarter to a half a kilo. The limit of a giant perch is normally considered to be an even kilogramme, which is rather easy to achieve in Brändö for a skilled perch angler.

In Brändö there are many commercial hatcheries of rainbow trout. The bags break at regular intervals because the hatcheries are situated in stormy waters. An angler is bound to be slightly disappointed when a presumed sea trout turns into a finned sausage when in the landing net. A rainbow caught in the glass clear water by fly fishing gear is a fierce fighter. Baltic herring is caught here through the whole of the open water season. From just caught fresh Baltic herring one can make mouth watering field meals. For those aspiring a mark in the spotrs fishing register the project fish might well be the ide, because their presentation in Brändö is numerous and large in growth. It is good to remember, thogh, that the best result during a short trip is achieved when you concentrate on one, or at the most, two species.

Fishing during the Open water season

Spring

When the ice-coating has disappeared in the spring and the remaining crystals still tinkle on the shores and by the rocks begins the line fishing season. The severeness of the winters has varied a lot in the past few years. Sometimes you can launch your boat in the end of March but at the latest generally clearly before the beginning of may. The early spring can even be the best period of the year for a sports angler. This is the time both the big boneheads and the spotted trouts come to the shores. The time you find pike over five kilogrammes is before the spawning period. By midsummer the sides of the boneheads are curved in and in the shallows there are millions of new members of the pike family developing.

Trout fishing is also "at its easiest" in the early spring. The spring sun creates warm pockets into the shore shallows; the silver torpedoes gather there to sunbathe. It is best to search for perch in the spawning areas, where they gather to wait for the time of the wedding. For flyfishermen the early spring is definately the time of making a personal record of sea trout or pike.

Fishing on the shore is forbidden between April 15^th and June !%th. This closed season is applied in the whole Province of Åland. Its purpose is to secure the nesting peace for the water birds on the islands and islets. It is strictly watched over so at this time of the year a boat is a necessary piece of accessory for all fishermen.

Summer

As regarding sports anglers the season remains hectic all the way up to midsummer. From there on begins the family angling period. Families spending their holidays and foreign tourists from far away are occupying almost all accomodation sites. Still, midsummer is the time you can try to improve the markings of perch in your fishing diary. Around sunrise and sunset the perch create a frenzy on surface feeding. At that time an angler can experience real ecstacy of stalking his prey. Here it is appropriate to remind that no one has forbidden fly fishing of surface perch even though it’s so fun it’s almost illegal.

In the summertime also the Flying Dutchmen of the famous Finnish writer Juhani Aho, the ide, arrive at Brändö inner archipelago. You can also find edible pike during the height of the summer. The average weight of the fish is around one and a half to two kilogrammes i.e. the catch is just the right size for the dining table. In the summer a fly angler can well test condition of his heart: The slow movement of a dry fly through the weeds is abruptly stopped when a pike strikes and the surface of the water breaks as if in an explosion.

Autumn

From the middle of August on the herring pike return to the inner archipelago from their forays. When the local professional starts to lower his nets for the Baltic herring it is time for us sportsmen to check the condition of hooks on the wobblers and the spoons. From the end of September all the way to November the average weight of pike is almost doubled compared to the weight in the summer. From the middle of August to the end of October is the high season of jigging perch. During that time those most eagerly fishing perch count the amount of their catch in the weight of the fillets instead of whole fish.

The cooling down of the water to under +12 degrees Celsius brings the sea trout to the shore waters. Trout fishing is worth while as long as the waters stay open. In some years the season extends all the way to January. The greatest worries about fishing in the autumn are the fierce storms, when the angler may be grounded for weeks at a time. After the sea is coated with ice, there is the suspense whether there will be an ice coating bearing the ice angler or will one be able to fish next in the spring after the time of isolation.

Lures

The hunt for pike in the spring is usually started with large wobblers around 15 cm (6 inches). You also get a good result with spoons you can reel in slowly (Utö, Professor). The cold water keeps the pike stiff and the lure has to swim slowly. During the early spring a pike is most easily aggravated to strike at the irritation colours. Green has done the trick on sunny days during the spring circulation of water. The same applies to the autumn time when the circulation is turning the water tubid. At the times when the big lamp is shining on a cloudless sky and the water is clear, you add blue or naturally coloured lures (Baltic herring, smelt) at the end of your swivel.

When the water gets warmer, you choose high frequency wobblers and spoons as your lures. The shades of the lures approach the natural colours. During the heat periods of the height of the summer the boneheads are obviously lazy from the heat just as we humans, so they need extensive stimulating before they gather enough fervour to strike any lure. During the summer your pike attractions can be almost the same as your tools for perch. Catching lures for July have been for instance Calico Cat, Mörrum spinnare, the spinnerbaits and similar high frequency spinners. Digging banks and deeps is done with large caterpillar and fish imitation jigs.

The early autmn is fished with spoons, fish imitation jigs, hangers and smallish wobblers. The giant beast lure of the autumn has traditionally been the wooden fish of Kuusamo in perch or clear blue colours. When the water gets colder you once again increase the size of´your wobblersand choose the slow-moving spoons. The top lure has been the black-silver pike spoon of Kuusamo. During the autumn there is no such clearcut period for irritation colours as in the spring.

Giant perch may at times strike even at large bonehead wobblers. When you concentrate on catching perch your best tools are spinners and especially jigs. There are three separate periods as to the eagerness of the perch to strike. In the spring before spawning you need irritation colours. As an added flavour it’s good to have both smell and taste. This can be either a ready-scented caterpillar jig or a baited ordinary jig (a worm, a piece of fish). In the summer fishing when the schools of sticklebacks form glittering balls of silver, transparent, limpid, jigs and silvery spinners are number one lures. From the middle of August on the perch are increasingly interested in darker lures. The catching lure of September has been a caterpillar jig in the colour of Motor Oil.

The best period of fishing trout during the whole of the open water season, is when the water starts to warm up in the lagoons and the shore shallows. When the water in larger open sea areas is +4 degrees Celsius the spring weather warms up the water in the shallow, rocky bays. Trout gather in these heat pockets to sunbathe. A thermometer or a sonar measuring the temperature of the water helps the angler to find these hotspots. The trout may sprawl in water less than a half metre deep. Then you long accurate casts. Functioning lures are lightened lures rocking slowly when sinking. EV-Trutta has the most marks in the statistics, but there are others on the lists too: for instance the Professor, Aave (the ghost) and Toby. The season is started in April using irritation colours: Noutaja (the Retriever). The suitable catching method for fish stiff from the cold is a slowly swimming streamer fly (tinsel in the colours gold, silver or orange-yellow).

When the spring progresses in May you shift into lure colours imitating natural food (three-spiked stickle back, Baltic herring). In the height of the summer you usually get to the trout only by trolling with deep-tackled rigs. At midsummer the trout move to Kihti and the other open sea areas after the schools of the Baltic herring. The pike also chase the same objects of nourishment.

In the autumn the trout come first to the the breaker rocks of the outer islets. In October the trout have had time to get into the waters in the inner areas of the Brändö islands. In the narrow straits and under the bridges there arealmost rapidlike flows. Trout (and perch) like these current spots. The lures of the autumn are both spoons and wobblers. In the "rapid fishing" flies do the trick.

The licence system