Midsummer weekend ahead - death toll prediction

[JMN2]

Crazy pagan rituals are not a big deal here in Blighty I know, I might do a quick midnight streak through the village but unfortunately there won't be any sauna, vodka or jumping into a lake (and potentially breaking one's bloody neck) this year. Just beer and barbecue.

Prediction: Over the weekend death toll, from drowning in Finland: 11 (2000: 25, 2010: 23, 2012: 10, 2016: 9, 2017: 6)

Stabbed to death: 2
firearm related: 2

I'll report back on Monday.

[PinkDalek]

The last time I jumped into the western end of the Gulf of Finland, after a sauna, it felt bloomin’ freezin’ but we avoided the slippery rocks on the way in. That was probably June/July time but I haven’t checked.

We were more worried about the Pike feeling peckish than the rocks, although heart attacks might be another worry nowadays.

[Slarti]

The last time I jumped into the western end of the Gulf of Finland, after a sauna, it felt bloomin’ freezin’ but we avoided the slippery rocks on the way in. That was probably June/July time but I haven’t checked.

We were more worried about the Pike feeling peckish than the rocks, although heart attacks might be another worry nowadays.

From childhood swimming in Windermere, the Pike wont bother you, especially as they are freshwater fish

We did bother the Pike by spinning for them. Very bony and not that tasty.


Slarti

[PinkDalek]

From childhood swimming in Windermere, the Pike wont bother you, especially as they are freshwater fish

We did bother the Pike by spinning for them. Very bony and not that tasty.

We used spinners as well and the Pike <<<<< were cooked in a variety of sauces. Still weren’t worth the effort of descaling etc but that was all there was fresh. Other than the wild strawberries on the island, if you could avoid the Terns dive bombing. Plus some snakes we never caught.

As for freshwater, well yes, but a quick search will inform you better:

http://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/t ... sea.79782/

See mention of Sweden, Herring shoals, the Baltic Sea and low salinity.

[bungeejumper]

From childhood swimming in Windermere, the Pike wont bother you, especially as they are freshwater fish

Hah, that's what you think. I used to do a fair bit of pike fishing when I was a lad, and one of the older members of our club got his picture into the papers by getting mauled. He was fishing for roach, I think, and he'd been mixing up a bit of groundbait and went to wash his hands in the lake.

Whoops. 200 (??) half-inch long needle-sharp teeth grabbed him and tried their best to make off to the lily patch with his arm. Which was, of course, still attached to his body. Which meant that he got a quick lesson in one-armed swimming. Quite a nasty injury, he was in bandages for a couple of months.

We did bother the Pike by spinning for them. Very bony and not that tasty.

Izaac Walton said you should bake pike in butter. Mind you, he said the same thing about carp, which really are inedible unless you're German. We were under orders to kill any pike that we caught, because there were too many of them in the lakes and they were eating everything, including apparently the anglers. The cat certainly appreciated them.

BJ

[JMN2]

Pike is OK when minced, mixed with an egg, bread crumbs, spices,onion, fried in butter as patties. Basically a fish "meatball". Pike tastes quite muddy.

One drowned already, I think tomorrow is a holiday and the roads are busy now as people are on their way to the lake houses so this one counts.

[tjh290633]

The Romanian word for carp is "c r a p", and I think they got it right.

TJH

[vrdiver]

I remember a SCUBA lesson in a lake, populated with some large pike. Four of us were kneeling in a square, and my buddy (opposite me) was due to remove his mask under the watchful eye of our instructors, when a large pike joined the group, hovering by his ear, just out of his sight. We continued the drill, the pike watching intently, occasionally flicking its jaws at an errant bubble, but otherwise holding station.

I was next and by the time I'd got my mask back on the pike was nowhere to be seen. My buddy never knew it was there at all.

Many years later and I was snorkeling in salt water when a large barracuda (sea pike) decided to shadow me. Not wishing to be bitten, I eventually chased it off, as they do tend to go for anything that glints, wriggles or otherwise might be a little fish (that includes fingers, ears, patches of skin and masks reflecting sunlight). Managed to get a few photos before we parted!



Met this chap a couple of days later whilst back on SCUBA kit - another bubble-eater...


VRD

(Yes, they're my own photos)