TMB winner Tomi Kolsi shares his best fishing tips

NICE DOUBLE: 
Pauli Kolsi and Ilkka Suihko 
with two salmons of approx. 12 kgs
from the competition.
All photos: Satunnaiset Saaliit 1

The Finnish bait fishing team Satunnaiset Saaliit 1 with Tomi Kolsi (41), his dad Pauli Kolsi and a friend of Tomi, Ilkka Suihko managed to win Trolling Master Bornholm this spring (click on category «best boat»).  This is the second time Tomi and Pauli has climbed all the way to the top in «best boat» category. The first time was in 2014. Prior to that they had only participated in 2013. Impressing!

That's why I contacted Tomi and asked him to share some of his fishing secrets. He was not unwilling.

- I've been trolling for salmon a little over 20 years. Have been fishing with bait since early 2000. My first time fishing in Simrishamn was in 2004, Tomi tells me.

- How many days before the competition where you fishing?

- We had 4 days prefishing this year.

- What kind of bait fish did you use? Did you use several different sizes of bait fish?

- We fish only with bait fish, and use mainly bleak and sometimes herring if good quality can be found. Typically normal size of the bait fish is 12-15 cm.

BIG BALTIC SALMON:
Tomi Kolsi and his father Pauli with a salmon
 of approx. 16 kgs during test fishing. 

- Did you fish the same area during the whole competition?

- Yes, because of the distance this only left us 3 hours to fish on the last competition day which was shortened.

- Do you have any kind of strategy that you use before and during a big competition such as TMB? 

- Not really, stick to basics and try to stay on the fish.

- What kind of speed do you drive the boat?

- 2-2,1 knots.

- What kind of bait heads and flashers did you use? 

- We used Jackpot baitholders and Oki Big Shooter flashers. We use VK3 flashers, VK2 small and VK1 small. Which combination depends on the weather and conditions. Typically in rough conditions I take out VK1's and replace them with VK2's, Tomi says.




Above you can see a big sea trout hunting a bait fish in a Jackpot bait head.

- Can you tell me how you think regarding using many or few flashers?

- Ask it the other way around, how many rods I have without flashers? I sometimes have 2-4 rods without, Tomi says.

- What was the key factors to you winning the competition?

- Being on the right spot and staying on the fish. You could write a novel about these things. But in the end it doesn't matter how you fish, which lures, how many flashers, how to rig them, what speed and how to drive the currents. If you're not fishing where the fish are, none of that matters.

- Do you use Fish Hawk, and do you consider it important to your fishing?

- Yes, couldn't fish without it anymore.


- Is it important for you to cooperate with other teams?

- We only had a short time to prefish before the competition. So yes, cooperation is a must when you're searching for the fish.

- What kind of information do you seek prior to competitions and before every competition day?

- Depends on the time of the year, during TMB it's mostly looking for warmer water areas.

WINNERS: The Team got 
a check of 40.000 DKK winning the best boat
category. They fish from a Proline 23 run by
twin Suzukis 140s. The boat is equipped
 with electronics from Simrad.  


- How important would you say the quality of the chart plotter, map and the sounder is during fishing? Do you use side scan a lot?

- In those heavy traffic areas you need to have AIS, a good radar and a good auto pilot to handle the steering. Sidescan is something that I do not use in deep water, I'm running medium and high chirp and nowadays the new LiveSight I use to track downrigger spread.


Tomi tells me that the typical set up in his boat fishing the Baltic Sea using 10 rods is 2 on each downrigger, and 3 on each side using Ghost side paravans. Mostly all running flashers and spread out to different depths.

- Would you like to share where you fished in TMB?


- This year we fished pretty close, only 40 kilometers from Tejn, outside of Simrishamn near the deep water edge.


Tomi also says that Svartgrund, south east of Ystad, is one of his favorite places. This year it was not enough fish there.


I also asked Tomi Kolsi to share his 5 best tips on succeeding in trolling fishing for salmon in the Baltic Sea. His answer was crystal clear, and I think you as a reader will have learned that by now:

1. Find the fish.
2-5. Stay on the fish.

Here you can see the complete results in Trolling Master 2019 
Read more blog posts in English version

Team Propell/Flaks ended up in 8th place in the best boat category in 2019. If you like you can see a short video from our week on Bornholm:

A short action video from february fishing with the guide Johan Abelsson: