Perch pro has started with a real bang. Team Illex / Gunki fishing like there is no tomorrow, loosing their breath due to the effort. And today’s team: Team Sporting has now seen what it takes to participate and compete for the trophy in Perch Pro.
Team Sporting.se is this year’s newcomers and very welcome they are. To have an extra team means a little extra dynamic to the competition and the show. Just as it was when the Finnish team took place in Fly Vs. Jerk. That means there are now two store teams in the competition 2017, which can really give a “game of the match.”
Who is Team Sporting.se? Yes maybe we should start by explaining that you may already know them without knowing it. They go just like the Phantom by many names … First and foremost, we have the physical store, Sporting, in Örebro. Then they work with a number of different trademarks and webstores aiming at different categories of customers, for example,
- Attitude baits – predator fishing
- Bass Matrix – perch and bass fishing
- Pop-up tackle – specimen and carp fishing
- Sporting Flyshop – all about flyfishing
Sporting and their attitude to fishing is simply lovely. They love fishing and fish a lot. And they do not always choose the beaten path. They do their own thing following their own ideas instead of main-stream. Very that means often own imports, unique brands and a huge, a huuuge collection of handmade lures. Very fun simply 🙂
In addition to the store, Sporting arranges many different fishing-trips. They have excellent trips to Rügen every season, carp trips (Stephan himself has arranged more than 250 carp trips!), Muskyhunting and so on…
Today’s interview was conducted with Stephan and if you have had little contact with the humble Dane earlier, you know that it can easily develop into a very nice conversation. A beautiful, long fish-oriented talk with fish poetry that flows from Stephan’s mouth, spiced with both one and two words that honestly is not for printing. A nice conversation plain and simple 🙂
OK – so the team then. Sporting.se consists of Stephan “the Dane” Nielsen and Janne Kortelainen
Stephan most ofthe go by his nickname: “the Dane” or as we say in Sweden “Dansken” and everyone knows who you are talking about. If you’re wondering why he is the Dane… Well, take a wild guess… 😉 Stephan is the kindergarten teacher and handball coach that chose to go all-in on his big passion – fishing and started Sporting, and today He’s approximately half a century young.
Who is Stephan from Team Sporting?
Stephan is a true omnivore when it comes to fishing. There will be tours for Musky, bass, pike, perch every year. He has spent a lot of time behind feeder-rod trying to trick that carp or coarse fish. In addition to that he also a fan of sea fishing and fly fishing. In other words, he basicall fishes for everythihng possible with rod and reel. But when I push a little on Stephan favourite types of fishing I get two favorites. “Well if you really twist my arm I must admit that Musky and Perch are my two real favorites”. I think we have established that there is a genuine love for competition fish in question.
Janne works as a store manager in Örebro and is just as Stephan omnivorous in terms of fishing. 28 years old. The weeks before Perch pro he had been spent with a fly rod in hand up in Northern Sweden. No break no rest so when he landed from mountain adventures, rock’n’roll – re-pack and pull out and fish his favorite fish. Janne is a Perchfreak
Stephan, how is the relationship with the Perch as sport fish?
I love the perch. I grew up with perch-fishing. When I was a little kid running around in the Danish rivers and lakes it was the perch we liked the most. We had then and perhaps still have some of the best waters in the world for Perch. I love fishing and format of Perch Pro is amazing. It really shows how good Perch is as a sportfish. They are real fighters and beautiful as hell. With the right equipment it is the world’s funniest fishing.
I’ve had periods when I have not been fishing for Perch at all and then I had periods when I almost only been fishing for Perch. A few years ago I put a lot of time fishing for big Perch in Lödde at the south of Sweden, very very exciting fishing
But it is also something that can be so incredibly easy. A rod & full kit for a 300:- SEK and you can be down by the dock and catch perch an hour later. It is truly an everyman’s fish. But it is not always easy, at least not the big specimens. There is a reason why all those big wellknown fishermen, which traveled around the world hooking giant muskys and salmon fall back on the lovely Perch.
What were your thoughts about your participation in Perch pro?
I think it suits us as a cannonball in the cannon. When Johan was asking us the question we didn’t have to think twice. He wanted some hillbillys, true anti-hipsters that were not from Stockholm and we are a little different coming from the woods in Närke. So we thought – YES! We should be participating with style, but a Sporting-way. We are a bit underground: we like to do different things, we use different baits, make stuff our self et c… So we thought we should do Perch Pro OUR Sporting ways.
All other teams have the boats for half a million+ with all the latest gadgets,giant engines, logos and fully sponsored. We used old Betty, our 20-year-old Buster. OK, she got new stickers but that was all. We wanted to show that you can fish for Perch without being a millionaire.
Stefan – you do like Musky and very “over there”. Slightly from Bass-fishing you brought home to perch?
In general a lot of inspiration is coming from bass fishing when it comes to modern Perch fishing. Bass fishing is the gadgets very intensive and I’m crazy gadgetfreak. It is not a real surprise that I love it. I have fished quite long and hard with American baits and techniques.
I totally freak out on the gear so every time I’m in the US can I buy 30-50 bags of various jigs and other sweets that I take home and test on our Perch. I have the whole garage full at home.
People wondered what I fiddling around with when I brought home the St. Croix rods 15 years ago, but now it has increasingly become more mainstream. What is happening now is something I have been doing for a long time. Suddenly, people are prepared to spend time and money on Perch gear. Suddenly people can come into the shop and invest SEK 3000 on a reel without blinking.
What is your home waters?
It will be a lot of fishing in Vänern, Vättern and all the small lakes and waters around Hällefors. We do not have a boat that is in the water all the time so we have many bodies of water to choose from.
How to choose water for Perch Pro?
Yes it is a good question. This time it’s the first time we are participating and it went pretty quickly. It felt a bit too quick maybe. We had really landed the decision and did not get proper time to prepare since the decision was taken quite late. Honestly we did not practice as much as we might wanted and needed. But we tried two different waters where we caught fish: the archipelago and a lake. Apparently it was not just us who have had the same ideas since one of the days we ran into another team. Then it there was some pranking going on 🙂
This year was a bit of a gamble. Janne came home from a fly fishing trip the day before. So we had to go on what we thought was good. We just had to take it on volley – and it was good. We caught a lot of fish and it went well. It’s the first year and we are have to learn how it works. In the next year there will be probably a more focused effort.
So we will see you again?
You can count on it! To fish in the Perch Pro is among the most fun we’ve done. And next year will be even more exciting. Then it opens up new opportunities.
Regarding tactics- how did you think?
As always, you adapt the tactics for where fish are and the mood they are in. The first day we found them quite deep, at 4-8 meters deep on clean bottoms so then the choice was simple: drop shotting and jig-fishing with heavy jig-heads. We didn’t need to use Texas and Carolina-rigs. Texas and Carolina is outstanding you are fishing grassy and weedy areas, but they are more complicated rigs and with slightly worse hooking ability.
What was your tactic thoughts – numbers or size?
In the beginning, we had maybe thought that we would go for numbers. During the test fishings we had caught substantial number of Perch so then I thought we bet on numbers. And you will find large numbers and if they are willing to bite, you can usually get some bigger ones as well.
When we got the result on day 1 – you’ve already seen how good the other teams fished in numbers, so then we got a lesson taught. It’s always a bit of a gamble what tactics you will have of course, but we must also remember that this is TV and if the TV good TV contains show. It feels as if we really kicked off with that.
Do you have any favorite gadgets you used a lot?
We fished with prototypes of ourown rods that we have developed together with American bass fishermen. They will be called “Paragon” and come will be three variants. 2 for spinning reels and one for baitcaster. They will be 7ft 10 “and 7ft 6″. Really cool if I do say so myself. Red and white as the Danish flag Danebrogen or as ” the Dane”. Really nice rod-blanks, Bushido. They are modern, soft bass inspired rods. They are due early spring, hopefully before “Sportfiskemässan” in Jönköping.
We have a good cooperation with Wolfcreek. He has developed two rubberbaits for perch of 8 and 11 cm. We used handmade prototypes of them and had some awesome fishing.
As for dropshot we used Berkley and bass Matrix jigs. Then we fished a little cranks too. Then we used Glenns “vassviken”cranks.
It was great fun – probably one of the funniest I’ve done. Tough but fun. The concept is fantastic. We have to plan and prepare better before next year … We will continue to be with and we will continue to make films.
What experience do you bring for next year?
Yes hahaha I think we could do some work with the preparations. We’d probably have to spend more time on choosing water, test fishing and take care of the logistics. We had, for example a very exciting time with the accommodation – we booked just before take of and it was as it was. The cottage we booked turned out not to be where we thought it would be. We had to take a big detour to get there. It certainly took one hour extra. There were trips by cowpaddocks and everything 🙂
We did not have the experience …oh my, we had stuff everywhere … Jeez what stuff we had. You do not want to leave anything at home. Next year there will be more planning and structure in place a good time before. It´s clear that it is not just working to come in and go. It is competent teams we are competing against …
Great fun – shit, probably one of the funniest I’ve done. Tough but fun. The concept is fantastic. We have to ensure and prepare better before next year … We will continue to be participating in Perch Pro and we will continue to make films.
We at FiskeFürAlle thank you for a very nice chat. We wish you greatly “skitfiske” in the coming episodes and the upcoming season!
We will return with interviews with the other teams teams. Would you be excited to see what the teams said before Perch Pro 2016, you will find them here
https://www.fiskefuralle.se/category/abborre/fisketavlingar-abborre/perch-pro-2016/
/ Mange, Peter & Daniel
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