Season 2010 summary part III

Still very cold outside but maybe I become in better mood when I write about trips from last summer and especially from autumn.
August was due to the HOT weather conditions a month when I tied more flies then fished with them,but at least one decent sized fish(90 cm around 6kg:s?).But the most memoriable moment of august was two trips in a row when i hooked myself,
first when my fishing pal get a fish on a Rapala wobbler and when I was to off hook the fish...actually I don´t now what happend but the pike went away And left me like this.


It was a hell to off hook myself because of the hook with barb,the hook was also thick enough so my pliers couldnt cut off the hook so I took a knife and made the hole bigger and ripped the hook off,it hurted.....A LOT!!!!!

On the next trip it was my own fly hook I got in my hand,off hooking a pike,not fast enough so the pike decided to "help" me little,this time I had a barbless hook so no dramatic here.


After August comes September and it started with a very bitter blank draw,I mean my friend Romo came to Lovisa and of course I hoped that he would had get a decent sized fish but after several hours fishing the result was crushing:not a single hit,not on flies,not on spoons,not on spinbaits,and someones says pikefishing is easy.
At this stage expectations were sky high.


But not anymore.



What else about september....Oh yes,I got my biggest pearch ever,about 35-40 cm and weight +500 grams.
One very strange thing in my opinion was that the august pikes were bigger then september pikes,Not sure but I think the biggest was 74cm.

One thing I also remember from september was when the nature slowly started to preper itself to winter after the hottest summer I can remember,I cant remember when I last fished in september with a T-shirt and shorts in sea conditions.





The rest of september was only tying new flies untill the last week I got the SMS to my phone from a shop called Spey Clave were it says that my new Hardy Zane rod and Hardy demon reel has arrived to finland.
It took a week before I could go to Lovisa and test it.

At the first trip testing the rod i get my new PB but enough about that.
The next step was to buy a new boat that i had dreamed of for several years.
God I was so happy to get a bigger boat so I was able to expand my fishing area.
Bought it on friday and next saturday morning it was in water at Lovisa archipelago.




With the new boat I was able to reach the places I usually only could dream of and it was really enjoyable to see the new places in reality,not only on a map,and almost immediately the size of my pikes become bigger,many 90-100cm fishes was caught in october,of course MOST of my fishes wasn´t that big.







So now I´m allready in november with my 2010 season and the only memoriable thing was the traditional Fly VS Jerk between me and my youngest brother,it was funny and exciting and I WON!!!We both get 3 pikes each but my 6.1kg secured a vin for flies.

With a photo of the biggest catch in our competition its time to end the summary of the season 2010.It has been a very memoriable season with lots of good wonderful moments,to fish with old friends and to meet new ones.
Now there will be a pause in fishing but there will be fly-tying and lure-building and other preperings for the next season so STAY TUNED :)

Complaints,complaints.

One thing I cant explain is how much I hate winter.There is fuckin -19 degrees outside and I work 8-18 hours out in the streets plowing snow,sanding the sidewalks,pickin papers and empty bottles from the yards and of course freezing my balls of me.

And....its going to take about 4-5 months before I can go fishing again,FOUR TO FIVE MONTHS!!!!!God damn it,I HATE WINTER !!!
Thank god I use to build jerkbaits and other lures not to forget tying flies in wintertime,I mean I would probably go insane if I had to sit on my couch with my flyrod in my hand and just wait for the spring to come.

I´m not in the right mood right now to write about my season summary part III because I´m so pissed off with these freezing weather conditions right now so I will just show you some flies that I tied this week.






I hope that tomorrow will be a better day :)

Season 2010 summary part II

Sorry that I havent wrote earlier but I have been very busy at work and also still feel it very shocking that my season ended all to soon.
Well at least I have good memories from the past season to remember like my 3 weeks at my cottage in Lovisa archipelago in the hottest summer I can remember.
My cottage is on a small islet and exept the weekends I was alone on the whole islet.
2-3 first days was just for relaxing and some small testing,also writted a little bit
Just to clear my head from everything that has to do with something called work.


Oh god,still remember the warm summer mornings,Walked with my camera and a cup of coffee on the shore,just enjoying the warm breeze,and the smell from the sea,listen to the common gulls,and things like that you know...



No hurry,even took my time to get my flyrod and other stuff with me,I love to get out with my float tube when the sun is shining even if there is no big possibility to get many fishes particulraly last summer when the watertemp was about 20 degrees in sea conditions.


This trip really cleared my mind and I enjoyed every minute of it.This trip was also a turning point in my "fishermans life" when I started to practise flyfishing for pike more seriously and after a week testing several rods and lines my casting technique was good enough that I dared go fishing without my spinncasting equipments.
After a several lost fishes I could finally land my first flyfished pike for the season,guess if I was pleased?


I really had a time of my life those three weeks fishing and testing lines and rods,and of course I tied some flies at evenings,nothing special with this BUT...I did these things with no hurry,I mean when you got a weekend you can`t test lines and rods,tie flies and enjoying the weather without hurry,everything must be solved before the weekend,in three weeks you can take your time to find out wich line suites to wich rod and things like that,sure you know what I mean.




There`s the rest of the summer and of course the whole autumn still unwrited so I guess there will be a part III of my 2010 season.
Feels so strange how many good memories there is when I seriously start to memorise my past season.
Thanks for reading,see you soon.Cheers.

Season 2010 summary part I.

Well,I guess it´s time to admit that season 2010 is over.Annoying a litte bit that I don´t made stats like Simon,it would have been nice to read them now not to mention what help they would have give me to the next season searching for pike.
That´s something to remember next year.

When I think of the past season I found out that there is many good memories to remember this winter.
First of all my thougts floats to a day 2 october when I was testing my new rod and reel.Had thrown hundreds of testing casts trying with diffrent lines,diffrent size of flies and suddenly,BANG...my new PB changed to 114cm/10.3 kg,my first and probably the last over 10 kg:s.


And to get my two daughters with me and fish.My younger daughter Maria is very experienced fisher due to her age (14 years)and has get some decent sized fishes allready but my older Daughter Nina (20 years old)was on her FIRST trip and I was lucky to get some Photos of her catching her first fish,a pearch not so big but,anyway,she looks pretty happy anyway and that´s the point,to enjoy.



It was fun to get the fish but to unhook it,well....it didn´t look so funny but it´s necessary to know how to do it,practice x 1000 and she can do it.



Then of course to take a photo of her posing with the giant.



Hmmm,maybe she need some practice in posing with the fish too.

The season opener with Lastu and Romo at Nokisenkoski in march,standing in a enormous snowfall and freezing the balls of you without getting any fishes and still enjoying it,unbeliveble.


And a meeting with a gang from Heittokalastus.info (R.I.P)at Kuusaa in Central Finland.
Also a blank draw trip,too little sleep,hot weather but oh so funny,Always good to meet friends.




The first fish for the season 13 May,remember how the pikes cast after cast followed anything I tried to feed them with and after many casts at last one of them was nice and agreed to be a part of a photo.



I just found out that there are so many good memores from this season that I decided to split them in two stories.
Part II will be released when I have returned from this shock that the season is over.

Waiting for the weekend

So,there were no fishing last weekend and now I´m burning for the next weekend when I´m suppose to go to Särkisalo for some serious pikehunt,just start to get a little bit scary while watching the forecast,looks like there will not be trips in december anymore.
In Turku -5 degrees/6ms wind wich means it will be better to put enough with clothes on,hopefully there will not be snow.

Even if I didn´t fish last weekend I did something that has to do with fishing....
What could it be?Well it means I worked with my fly-tying corner.


I dont know why but when I have a hangover I work like a dog,I just cant sit still.
I just have to say that to assemble furnitures is NOT my favourite species,especially on a sunday morning,after some beers and long drinks I asked Jack Daniels to help me and after a couple of hours it started to look good.



At first my friend Jack really helped me but what further I came he tried to ruin my job,the parts suddenly didn´t fit,the parts disappeared but with my ruthless willpower I finished this part of the project and now it looks like this:



I have to admit that I´m proud of my accomplishment so far,also have to admit that after this my hangover had turned into drunkness and I decided to not work on this project for a while.
Now I´m looking forward for the weekend to fishing in good company.
Cheers.

Not many trips left

20.11 I will travel to Särkisalo to meet two friends of my,and pikehunt will be the name of the game,before that I might go to Lovisa next sunday IF my hangover not ruin my plan.

After the trip to Särkisalo I think there will not be too many trips left for this year.
Just watched Simons blog and read about his 2010 stats,very impressive in my opinion.I just realized that I should also have wrote some stats but it´s too late for that now,well....next year a new try.

Feels a little bit wistful just to think that the season is soon over,also feels stupid to think the season is over when you still can fish.
Särkisalo trip will propably be some jerk or spincasting because we will be three persons in the boat and at least my casting technic is not good enough to that I can trust that the fly is not in someones ear or neck,anyway,these trips are more to meet friends then to take the fishing too seriously even if these guys are good fishers,they know the places and have catched big pikes this year so I woudn´t mind to catch a big one too.It would be a nice way to end this season...

Almost forgot,go and check Simon Grahams blog,there´s a competition going on where you can vin a Pikesaber flyrod.

Fly VS Jerk

Today was the perfect day for the final fight for this year because I was with my brother Janne in Lovisa archipelago.
Janne is not a usual lure maniac,he love to fish jerkbaits,and especially with Hellhound baits,and I can guarantee he knows how to use them.

Both of us had a small hangover this morning so we wasn´t so early out on the sea but we had a couple of hours to sort it out who is the master of the fishers :)

The weather,sunny,-2 degrees,wind 6ms,watertemp 4.8 degrees,not the optimal conditions for fishing but at least the same for both of us.

First spot:This was planned for jerkfishing,almost 3 m deep,tricky wind blowing from my right side.Janne started with a yellow/red combo Hellhound.I had faith in black/silver combo.After a while Janne screamed:FISH ON,and it felt big.
After a minute he landed a small pike 1.8kg,it felt big because the hook was locked in the back of the pike,unbeliveable.



So,1-0 to jerkbaits.I had to make my move and the first thing was to change the colour....Looked at my brothers lure,ok it has to be orange/black Replot Stinger.
Not too long before it was my turn to scream FISH ON,My fly was in the mouth so I knew it was a small one:1.8kg too,well....1-1.

Coffeebreak.

After the break we fished for a while by just enjoying the sunshine but suddenly when i was stripping the line I felt the familiar tug,and this time I felt it was a bigger one,and the mam was angry at me but this was a competition so I wasn´t to give up and after a couple of minutes I managed to land a pretty madam on 6.1kg and I took the lead in both size and number.God it felt goooooooood!!!!!



Usually I rather then take the weight use to just check the length but in these competitions we use the weight,and nothing else matter.

The second spot:This was ment to be the place were I was suppose to nail him and it started wery well,FISH ON for me with my second cast and it was 3-1 to flies,AND the biggest catch too,worth one point that too so far.
Then it happend again,I lost my concentration totally,When my brother had two pikes in a short time I started to change colour and pattern instead of fishing and a minute before time out Janne had a fish but he lost it.

The third and fourth spots didn´t work out for either of us so the final situation was 3-3 but my 6.1 kg was the biggest catch for today so flies were the better by 4-3 today.This was fun,hopefully there will be more competitions like these.

Those were the days.

My plan to go for a pikehunt this weekend went a little bit wrong,I´ll have to work on saturday so I guess I have to take a shrunk trip on sunday,Early on sunday morning with the boat to Loviisa and if the weather is okay I might be able to fish at least for some hours.
I dont know how I will be able to survive the whole fucking winter,I´m almost start to panic allready even if I got some projects to do.

Even if I categorize me to a flyfisher(PIKE !!!)I´m looking forward to start making jerkbaits after a long pause,guess i´ts some kind of variation to fly tying,who knows.
Here`s some older jerkbaits that I have made.


And some more.





And if someone don´t know I also making spoons for pike.
Length 13cm
Weight 40g




And to the last some kind of lures that I don´t do so many anymore.
These are made for seatrouts and suppose to be used from the shore.In my opinion these are the most difficult lures to make,very small marginals from success to a total disaster.
I recommend to make very precise notes with photos if you plan to make this sort of lures.



Sorry,I´ll just have to show you all something made just by whimsy.



I finding it very nice to sit here and watching my old photos and at same time share them with you,hope you enjoy it as much as I.

For the very last photo for today I´ll show you a photo of my very first lures ever.
Completely handmade from a piece of wood with a knife and file.....
Those were the days.