Asp – the Scandinavian Tarpon!
Nikolai Holttinen is one of our local area sales managers in Finland. Besides doing a great job, he is also a skilled angler. This is a report from his latest trip:
“Asp (Aspius aspius) is quite a rare fish in Finland. This roach-like carnivore holds a reputation of being a mysterious fish and is to be known to be a great fighter – maybe the closest we get to a Scandinavian mini tarpon. Unlike other roach species Asp is a pure «fish eater» and when the waters start to warm up, their favorite food is bleak. It’s magnificent to watch how the asps strike in to those bleak schools just below the surface!!
Last week I had the opportunity to try to catch this beautiful fish together with one of my good customers, Jukka Halonen from Sportia Pekka. He lives close to a water system that probably holds the biggest asp populations in all of Finland! Average size in about 3 kilos and last year they caught two fish close to 7 kilos!
The fish were there attacking the big schools of bleak from below, but we couldn’t catch them. We tried everything in small spoons and wobblers trying to imitate those bleaks but nothing seemed to work. The breakthrough came as we chanced tactics and started to cast bigger and heavier Great Herons. Immediately we started to get results!
In my case, I think a bit of beginners luck was involved, but soon after I had caught my two first asps. Jukka also caught one as he changed for a Great Heron. All fish were estimated at a weight between 3.5 and 4 kilos. Both of mine took a 22g Great Heron (Veri Good color) and Jukka caught his fish on a Pattegrisen colored Great Heron!”