Happy new year.

So it´s seven hours and thirty minutes to go before it´s gonna be 2012.I haven´t done any summary of the last season simply because the season still going on. Just wondering my most memorable moments from 2011. Guess my biggest moment has nothing to do with fishing,I´m talking about my moving to a new place witch I finally call home after many years of travelling at my work. But because fishing is a big part of my life and I have been fishing a lot this year there have been some memorable moments in both good and bad also at sea. Starting with bad/sad things I have to say that the first thing that creeps in my mind is that I have grabbed my spincasting stuff all to easy when I have felt that my flycasting technique hasn´t been good enough in tough weather conditions,that´s one thing I´m gonna work hard with before springtime. The second thing is my loss in fly VS jerk to my brother,well not just the loss but he keeps reminding me about it every now and then :)(just kidding). My probably most memorable time at sea was in late August when I was able to land a gorgeous madam with a length of 116 cm:s and a weight of 8.2 kg:s. There has been a lot of other nice times studying new waters too but also big disappointments too by doing that in form of many blank draws. Well,that´s all for this year,I want to wish all you readers a Happy New Year with bended rods and tight lines for the next year. And remember that even if it´s partytime so don´t party TOO much :)

P.S BTW got me an late Xmas present :)

About Congo Hair

I have tied the Regret pattern for a while now and it has worked very well,also I have tied Transformer pattern witch also doing good in a bit warmer conditions or when the pike is a bit picky. Have been looking for some new inspiration and yesterday when I was visiting a local store called Spey Clave I saw a interesting pikefly tied by a Finnish guy Markus Männistö. It´s a tubefly tied in some kind of two sections,front and back and I decided to try to tie something like it. After I studied a picture of the fly it was time to decide the materials and after a while i remembered I bought some time ago a material called Congo hair from another of my favourite shops called Nordic Angler. I tried to tie some flies with it then but to be honest I did not felt it very comfortable tying it,but to this fly I had a feeling it would be just good and after this fly in witch I´m very pleased with I think I´m on right track.

The photo isn´t the best of quality but I hope you can see the empty part between the front and back.The aim with it is to make a good balance in stops and to immediately go under the surface after your cast but I think it also makes the fly very easy to cast. I will definitely tie a couple more of these as soon I find the rest colors of this material. I´m still suffering with a terrible internet connection witch can die out now and then and my operator always keep saying Oh yes,we will fix it soon and today I get an message that they promise the problems will be solved third January,hmmm... we will see :). Almost forgot,also tied two Regret pattern flies some days ago,I haven´t tied too many flies in black/yellow color so I decided to fix that thing too.

Fishing with lures the yellow/black combo has worked well in sunny conditions,next summer we will see if the fly version doing same :).

After Christmas feelings.

Who would have know a month ago that it wouldn´t be any snow or more precisely ice covered water here in southern Parts of Finland and the latest forecasts promising snow in February!!! Last year we had over 50 cm:s snow at this time and now nothing at all.Don´t get me wrong,I´m not complaining,I´m getting along very well without that white shit falling down. Instead we have had some rain,rain,rain and rain at some parts in southern Finland over 100 ml in a month,that´s more then in over 50 years Still I haven´t done too many trips as i would have wanted to cause of the very windy conditions,my removal and busy times at work. Now I have three days off duty but winds up to 23 m/s will keep me inside or somewere else but NOT on sea. So what is there to do? After some heavy eating yesterday I didn´t felt too well this morning so i decided to take a walk and at same time it would be great to examine my new village and the surrounding area and found a small river not too far from where I live,wonder if there´s any fishes in it.

At least the water level was high,wonder how it looks when it´s normal. Well,Santa brought me some stuff for my tying corner including a new "old school" lamp (love it)and a painting of Finlands oldest lighthouses and a box included some nice stuff like a string with a smell of tar,it gives a wonderful smell in my tying "corner".

felt very inspirated so I tied some flies but I havent take a photo of them all but here´s one tied with bucktail,added some Big Fly fibre and red and black flash. Then added some SF-Blend in Bleeding black color,ended up with Finn Raccoon in kingfisher blue color,now watching this fly I think red would have been better,anyway,it was nice to use some natural material after a long pause. Have to say about this fly that it´s looks better in natural then on photo :/

Christmas greetings from Finland.

24th December,time to calm down and relax with your beloved ones,so without more talking I I wan´t to wish all you readers a warm and peaceful christmas.

-Merry Xmas. -Hyvää Joulua. -God Jul. -Feliz Navidad. -Buon Natale. -Joyex Noel. -Frohe Weihnachten. -Vrolik Kerstfeest.

A bit of fishing and some Body Fibre ties.

Was out fishing with my floating tube on weekend and I have to say it felt heavenly,at least the first two hours,then my left knee said that I don´t want do this anymore Don´t know if it was the cold water or what but anyhow I had to stop my session cause my aching knee. Anyway I landed two pikes 84 cm and 67 cm:s on this short windy and rainy trip,both fishes eat a black/red colored Regret fly witch has been a good color in tough weather conditions.I´m hoping to do this soon again even if I should think about some workout before getting out again :). Have also tied some Transformer flies using Body Fibre and even tested some of them at weekend and I like their smooth movement added with side to side movement also. I have a feeling it was a little bit too cold water for these flies to do their job because my both fishes hit the fly when I had a looooooong stop in stripping the line and with these transformer fly you have to do pretty aggressive strippin if you want that side to side walk witch is the meaning with this fly. Here some latest ties.

Now I think I have some basics done with this pattern and it´s time to start customize this model with some crazy color combos. My local dealer Nordic Angler sent a package of SF-blend in Bleeded Black color witch I think will be a "killer color" in future. Other plans is to tie more Regret flies on tube but not too fast,the winter will be long :).

About Body Fibre.

Have taken a bit easier with getting all my stuff on right places here at home now so there has been also some fly tying while I have checked out what material I have in stock and what materials should be ordered. Watched a tying movie from Youtube here the other day and even if I´m suffering with a VERY !!!! Slow internet connection at the moment I got some inspiration from it (again) It was Niklaus Bauer who tied a fly called transformer fly on tube. On the first one I tried to follow the recipe using SF-blend,on the second one I added some Body Fibre on it´s belly and two latest is tied with only Body fibre and I have to say that I´m very pleased with the result. Not too long ago I was a natural maniac but after I bought this fantastic material I have start tying also syntethics witch give me more options in tying. Body fibre is a material.....don´t know how to describe it but it´s near Slinky Fibre but softer,and it has a natural glow so I have often tied them without any flash. It also have a very nice movement in water if you compare with Slinky. I can really recommend this product to all of you tying Pike flies.I use to buy mine from a shop called Nordic Angler were you can find many more products that you´re not able to get from other stores in Finland,like Bug Bond for example. Here is two latest ties.First one is some kind of traditional color combo. For the second fly I used a color combo from Finlandia lures Nils Master wobbler color 03 and I have some big expectations on this one.

Football and cooking.

As some of you already know my second passion behind fishing is football and even if I admit that I have been a Liverpool fan from the early 70´s I use to watch some of other teams "big games" like Sundays game El Classico between Real Madrid and Barcelona. As the difference from the other games I had my brother visiting me with his wife and daughter so I decided that there must be serving something else than the traditional beer and chips :). After a long thought I decided to make some sandwiches with smoked Salmon and onion and some sandwiches with mushrooms,Wanted to share the recipe of these tasty snacks with you. 1.Chop some smoked Salmon and onion to small pieces.Add some dill.

2.Mix in some sour cream.

3.I´m not sure if you can get this kind of bread in other countries than Finland called Maalahden limppu,if not then any kind will do :).

4.This step is not necessary but it looks better in my opinion.Use a glass or something round to form the bread.

5.Just add the Salmon mix on the bread and put them in your refrigerator for two or three hours before serving.Yammy.....

The mushroom sandwiches are as easy to made like the Salmon breads. Mix some mushrooms and onions and add some chives instead of dill otherwise follow the rest of the recipe.

Something to drink....White wine,red wine or beer...anything goes.It´s all up to you :) P.S Barca won the match 1-3 at Santiago Bernabeu.(no offence to anyone)

Home building and fly tying

There has been no fishing and very little tying lately but still I have been very busy by building my new place to place that I could call my home. It has been late evenings to came from this:

To this:

Still I have a lot to do but at least you can cook and wash your laundry and things like that,one more important thing for me is that finally the word HOME mean something for me. I talked a time ago with my friend who said it feels wonderful to go home after work and I remember that I thought that I new what it means but now I realize that I din`t,NOW I do,already on my way home from that dirty,noisy,busy city I start feel more and more relaxed when there is less and less cars and finally I´m almost on my own in the traffic,don´t have to worry about finding a parking place or is there much people in the local store,just step in buy what you need,no queuing drive home to your OWN parking place and that´s it. Have also met my neighbour,she seems to be a nice person. I also think that I´ll have to admit that the season is over for me.Even if the sea is not covered with ice yet I don´t think that there will be time for fishing until springtime because I really want to get my home ready first. Finally I want to tell you that there has been some fly tying too,not much but at least something to let the greedy buggers put their teeth in next spring,and there will be a lot more to come.

Both flies is basically tied by Niklaus Bauers recipe transformer fly.The first one is tied with SF Blend and the second also includes SF Blend but added some Body Fibre to give some extra movement in the water

My new home.

So,what can I say? Was a little bit sissy and wasn´t fishing last weekend,he forecasts promised this and that,everything from 4-22 m/s wind so I decided not to take any risks and continued with packing instead. While I´m writing this post It will also be my first night here at my new home.Just came from sauna and drinking some coffee AND a glass of cognac,I think i have deserved it. Would have a LOT of things to do but I am simply too tired right now to any physical effort. There hasn´t been any fishing or tying for some days now so why should I not introduce you my new home until I´ll have something sensible to write about. This is my sauna:

And after spending some time in sauna it´s time to take a massagebath,this is my favorite place.

Two toilets....don´t know why but I´m not complaining as the second includes to the price :)

And while I remember,I wonder why the person who has built this place has also built two showers side by side ???

And another place were I think I might spend some times at..A fireplace.

Is there anything else worth to show ??? Well,the kitchen maybe...

That´s were I live for now,wish I could show you a cozy tying corner already but there´s one thing I have sort out first...A big load of boxes and bags waiting for someone to empty them.

Season just going on....

A phone call to my friend this morning secured that tomorrow I´m travelling to Lovisa to fish for the last time this season,at least with boat. There has been very tough conditions for the last two days with winds over 20 m/s but our always reliable forecasts have promised winds around 2-5 m/s so fishing should be possible. Have also heard of some big catches so my expectations is high and I have a good feeling even if the wind is from between north and west and some snowfalls or heavy rain showers is also on forecast makers wishlist..water temp should be somewhere near 6´c and air temp between 3-8´c. Hopefully I will be able to show you something else than just wiews from the waters were i´m fishing.... here is some new flies tied the last days and they will go to swimming school tomorrow,I´ll have to wait and see what the pikes will do to them.

Some tying.

As I wrote some posts ago I just could not wait until December before tying flies.I feel it made good to have a break in fly tying,now ideas just flowing through my head and the only thing that limit my tying is that most of my materials are still packed away and I´ll take only the materials out witch I need for a specific fly that I have in mind. This one was tied yesterday inspirated by the song Purple rain witch I heard from the radio.

And this one was inspirated by the sunrise from this cold morning,I tried to catch both the feeling and colors on this fly.I´m otherwise happy with it but the blue color could have been a bit lighter but as I said,I´m satisfied with this too.

By the way,when I woke up this morning and opened the curtains and took a look outside I was a bit chocked when I checked the thermometer,-7 degrees celsius and forecasts promising some snow also to southern parts of Finland so...... Enough about cold and snow,I was with my daughter to our local mall and I bought Allt om flugfiske,a Swedish fly fishing magazine and I saw some interesting pike streamers,guess I´ll have to dig in my boxes again :).

Golden oldies.

As many of you who´s reading this blog know I will soon be moving to a new place.Have been busy lately with packing and everything else that has to do with moving. Today I was packing away some summer clothes that I don´t need this year anymore and guess what I found ?..... You might remember some time ago when I told you that I found a box of my oldest flies,I forgot them until today. So now I forgot everything else and started to study my flies instead of packing.Oh god how many nice memories flowing in my head watching these "flies" :). There´s actually much more of them but I´ll show you some that was on top of the box first,there will probably be a part two at sometime in the future. So, here´s some photos taken with my phone because I have already packed my cam away and can´t find it no matter how I try. ENJOY :D

Here´s one where I have used probably used 10 Marabou feathers,remember it was not so easy to cast....

And finally one that at least look like a fly.This one have delivered some fishes,wonder why I have put it away times ago ?