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Photo: Juris Bārtulis from Talsi with an another caught and released pike of Kaņieris

The table of “Release the Mother!” competition this year already has 40 entries with 31.07 metres of caught and released fish. In August, altogether 14 caught and released valid pikes has been registered and for the first time in existence of “Release the Mother!” contest two impressive perch have been registered – 41 and 37 centimetres long, caught and released in Lielauce Lake during the Mammadaba Angling Championship's competition. Also the longest pike of the month – 92 centimetres, was registered both for Mammadaba competition and for “Release the Mother!” contest. Most of the carnivores were caught using classic spinning rods. Participants of “Release the Mother!” have evaluated hooking in the LVM lakes with an average mark of 5.85. In 85% of cases the carnivorous fish have been caught on lure on windy days; other fish were caught in calm weather, however, the activity on windy weather was evaluated with higher mark than in calm weather and in sunny weather.

“Gold” perches and “silver” pikes caught during Mammadaba competition

As Māris Olte said – a perch that is bigger than forty centimetres is like a wise viceregent of underwater world, who is not ready to hook at any time and to any angler; 11 months of contest were needed to finally greet the grand perch applications. Māris Smigla, who registered the 41 and 37 long perches, says that they came across a bunch of grand perches just by accident when searching for pikes, because in the competition it is important that fish are the longer the better, therefore, perch were caught as a by-catch. Two hunchbacks gave as much points as a decent pike. Few others hooked but the perch swam away. During the competition Smilga brothers work with different types of lures – Māris with spinners, Aivars with wobbler. Both of them are versatile anglers – fish both with spinning rods, angling floats, and also bottom fishing, both of them go fishing at least twice in a month. In autumn to fluke fishing, in spring to vimba fishing – follows the calendar of nature. The owner of the gold perch application is praising the campaign “Release the Mother!”, “The best thing is that anglers have a choice, and that makes angling even more interesting”. Pike is the No.1 carnivore for Māris, but in future he has set an aim to catch a proper cat fish. The perch of Lielauce, which was registered by Māris is not his record, last year in Rustēga lake he caught a perch that was ten grams heavier than this one, but he thinks that Lielauce Lake with time could offer even larger perches.

Photo: A 41 centimetre long perch weighs almost one kilogram – this specimen will have a chance to grow even bigger.

The longest pike of August – 92 centimetres, was caught by long-term participant of Mammadaba Angling Championship, Rinalds Bērziņš, who was angling together with his brother Zigmārs Bērziņš. The battle with the “mother” of Lielauce was intense and full of emotions, just like the day, but, at first they encountered a trouble – inattentively placed, their electromotor sank in the waves of Lake Lielauce. One of the fellow participants gave a helping hand and dove in after the lost equipment, but later also a boot was filled with water and the same electromotor reeled in the angling line on its propeller. “The day was “black”, but the result was good”, says Bērziņš brothers, because the 92 centimetres were the personal record of Rinalds, but that day they ranked in the fifth place. “After pike hooked, we did not see the fish for at least 15 minutes, it was wrapped around pretty big tussock of soft weeds, around which we circled with the boat until brother's hands grew tired” says Zigmārs. It seemed they it will get away, and the heavy wind gusts only worsened the situation, but at the end the human sharpness got the upper hand and pike was carefully scooped in the landing net.

Photo: 92 centimetres of adrenaline and joy

Photo: The “silver” pike caught for the second time, it is possible that it will hook for the third time as well

The little sensation No.2

On 27 August, already after dark, the record holder of total length of released pikes in “Release the Mother!”, Juris Bārtulis, was jerkbaiting in Lake Gulbju. During the day the activity of fish was poor – only few small pikes. But after dark, fish started moving – loud splashes could be heard, and following intuition and being familiar with the lake, Juris continued “session” not even seeing where the lure falls, until – a powerful tug! When the nearly 85 centimetres long pike was put in the measurement trough it was pitch black already. Later, when looking at the pictures taken, Juris compared his “midnight lady” with the pike that was caught and released by Inguss Goltiņš when filming “Release the Mother! – fly of jerkbaits” episode in 22 June for “Makšķerē ar Olti” TV series (episode can be found in our previous news) and sent in the observations to the judges of “Release the Mother!”. As can be seen in pictures, the authentic pattern matches for both fish, and also the scratch on its back is in its place. The measurement of Juris shows that pike in 2 months has grown for almost a centimetre and in comparison to the first catch it has also gained a lot of weight; the large stomach of fish tells that there is plenty of food in the Lake Gulbju. Juris Bārtulis in the second season of competition “Release the Mother!” has already registered 833 centimetres with 11 large pikes. We call it the little sensation because second catch of the same fish is quite frequent than the third and even fourth catch of the same fish. We remind contestants that photos of the trophies need to be as qualitative as possible to become an author of a sensation.  Place the fish in measuring trough with the snout to “0” mark and back of fish to the upper part of the trough. In September “Release the Mother!” has received 5 applications. We remind that the contest will continue until 30 November and we wait for you in the lakes of LVM. “Release the Mother!” is sponsored by: Salmo, Lucky John, Norfin, Eboat.lv, Rapala un Anglers Studio Ltd. All applications can be seen here:

list OF APPLICATIONS

Good luck!