Pike fishing adventures in the middle of Copenhagen
I’m from Brazil and I’ve been living in Copenhagen for 2 years. In Brazil we have more than 2000 freshwater fish species, but Pike isn’t one of them and I’ve always wanted to catch big Pike, after watching on TV how violent this fish is.
Looking for Pike in a lake in the middle of the city (Valby, Copenhagen)
I live 3 km away from an urban lake, so it was the first lake I wanted to try fishing in Denmark. Last year, in 2019, I went there 2 times in the summer and didn’t catch anything, and I considered the lake just dead water.
I wanted to give the lake another try in the summer this year, one year after my last trip to it. It was a Saturday in August and I was immediately greeted by a small pike, caught in a small weightless spinner (known in Brazil as “varejeira”) rigged with a bombarda (a kind of float with weight). My first pike ever! I finally crossed this specie off of my list. But still, far away from the big pikes that I saw on TV. Anyway, on this same day, I ended up catching more than 50 small pikes. It was basically one pike per cast!
The next day, Sunday, I got there after lunch and ended up catching dozens of small pikes and even small perches. I decided to move around the lake, until at 18:00, my friend Ricardo cast a small spinner and hooked a big one, which immediately got off the hook, due to how small the lure was. He agreed on me throwing my big wobbler right where he lost the pike and finally, I hooked the big one!
In my mind, it was huge, because I was used to hooking only tiny pikes! Five minutes afterwards, I cast close to where I caught the big one and I hooked one which appeared to be twice bigger than the previous one! Spot on! I finally found the one I was looking for! Even the previous pike could now be considered “small” compared to this one!
Going Bigger
Afterwards, I went there almost on a daily basis after work and hooked medium to big pikes constantly. I even got a reasonably sized one in an ultralight set with 0.08mm braided line (thin as a hair).
One day I decided to try a “pen toy rod” that I bought from China for only US$ 3 and I hooked a lot of small pikes.
Suddenly, I saw a wave nearby, and it was the biggest pike I’ve ever seem. It was just taking a look at the small pikes that I was releasing, in a place where it’s probably 15 to 20cm deep. I switched to my bait casting set and a bigger lure. Unfortunately it ignored all my casts. I switched more than 10 different lures, until I got it… but my fluorocarbon leader was only 0.35mm and it cut the line. I was hectic. I quickly tied another leader (still 0.35mm) and put a 16cm lure, and then I cast in parallel to the shallow area where the pike was. Unfortunately it was gone, it was a sad 5 minutes for me. Anyway, I decided to keep casting the 16cm lure parallel to the shallow surface, until suddenly, I hooked it! After fighting it, I managed to bring it out of the water!
A very long but thin pike. The head itself was bigger than 25cm. My record pike so far! And to think that it all started with the toy rod that day.
Halloween Night Pike Fishing (Going even Bigger)
As a Halloween challenge, I made my own Halloween pike lure and I went night pike fishing at the same lake! The night delivered 3 big pikes, all above 100 cm, where one of them was a BIG FAT MAMA (big curved belly when you hold it), my biggest and heaviest pike, and I wonder if this one is the biggest in that lake? I ended up getting one with my custom lure and 2 with a Danish lure made especially for pikes.
I can now identify the pikes from my local lake from their patterns and from their scars, and I even started calling them by name, because I caught some of the pikes more than once the past 3 months, that’s also the magic and emotion of catch and release! For me, it’s a very happy moment to release the fish and see it swimming back!
Never underestimate your backyard lake!
Urban Fishing in Denmark on YouTube
You can follow my fishing adventures in Denmark, including all my pike fishing trips on YouTube: