Smells like spring.

As I told you yesterday i got a Idea of my smaller flies I turned the idea into a fly and the model looked like this:



And plese let me introduce its big brother,it looks like this:



The big brother is tied on a TMC 911s 3/0 hook and maybe not so suprisingly I used Raccoon as tying material,I´m very happy with the result,like those colours and think it´s very fluffy too.

I´m in a superb mood today,the reason is that for the first time since November I had a pretty easy day at work.
I was able to finish one job before starting another and was also able to have a COFFEE BREAK !!! I`ll drink coffee every day but today I had a break.
All this + a little bit of sunshine and heard some birds singing made feel so good and happy.

Smells like the spring is on it´s way after all.

Chasing silver

I got a weird idea today.Remember last summer when I caught a pike about 80-85cm weight around 3-4 kg:s,it had swallowed my fly so deep that I had to take it for dinner.When I was gutting it I finded out it had in its mouth and stomach many,probably 30-40 very small fishes,about 3-4cm long,dont know what fishes it was but those small fishes inspirated me to tie a little army of these.
They are tied on a Daiichi 2546 SW hook size 1.
As material I used bucktail and fox.The body is mylar tube and selfbuilded dubbing brushes.The flies is 4-6cm long.

The moore that I look at them I got a feeling that they could also work for Seatrouts,you know the fairy-tale creature.
Maybe I will this spring sacrifice one pike hunting weekend for silver torpedos.

It was very difficult to start tying these small flies after I have tied pike flies for so long.
The best thing with these flies is that I got some ideas that I´m gonna use on my pike flies.

Colour combos

Watching my fly boxes and noticed that I really dont have much different colour combos,just the "traditional"ones.Thats the reason why I`m gonna tie some weird/unusual combos.
It´s not so easy to do as it sounds like but after some thinking and wondering I found out some interesting combos for example blue/yellow witch combo I loaned from Buster jerks "slowhand" Jaakko Ilkka.
Also as long i remember I have to show you another photo of the fly from my last posting after it has been wet down in warm water,it changes the profile a lot.



I don´t know why but I tied my "slowhand" fly also with bucktail and before a dip in warm water it look like this.



And after a warm bath the fly looks totally different.



It feels pretty difficult to imagine how the fly might look after the bath but I feel that these two looks okay,they will probably get their chances in the spring witch seems to be all too far away.

Now I think it´s time to tie up some more traditional...Allready got somthing in my mind.

Weird colour combos

I started yesterday thinking of my fly tying,wonder why I feel like my head is completly empty of ideas,one idea came to my mind and that is:why do I always tie with the same colour combos? I don´t know...I think I will try to find out some weird,different combos for variation.

The problem might be to find a "not too weird" combo because if it´s too weird then i will have no trust for the fly and if there´s no trust then propably I will not fish with it either.
An another problem is that the materials i like to tie with don´t got so many colours so there will not be too many combos to choose,take for example Icelandic sheep,I think I´ve got 4 or 5 colours,Raccoon 4,5 maybe six colours.
Maybe I´ll have to give slinky and other syntethics more chances.

It is a very big help to read all you other guys blogs and get inspiration and advices of tying techniques and different materials,I mean without Simons advices I would probably never get in touch with Icelandic sheep or Raccoon witch both are now my favourite materials.

I got a hell of a inspiration to sit behind the vice for while but after todays work (13 hours)both my body and mind aches so i just have to hope that there will be no snowfalls this weekend.

A little different.

So,back in buisness after a while.Not much to tell I´m affraid,went to Parainen for some days ago.
The question is:What the hell was I doing in Parainen? Just felt for to take a ride so I jumped in my car and get on the road.
Okay,I have to admit I was to a store called Kalastus-aitta,it´s a fishing store(suprise)Bought me some hooks and some lures and I was checking on a Hardy zane #10 rod but thank god I could refrain,still thinking of the new Vision rod so I decided to save my money to that.



After the visit to that store I was ready to have a dinner and then jump in the car and drive home.
Someone might call it crazy to drive 400 km for some small fishing equipments and a steak but i like to spontaneus things like that.

And after a very long time I finally was with my younger brother and finished some jerkbaits that we or should I say HE built with my help and some advices,its a copy of Hellhound,I fixed the paint.
I thougt that I was going to be more exited to build /paint lures but I didn´t because I dont like straight copys,maybe when I will do my own lures the feeling will be different,at least I hope so.





And finally,I´ve tied a fly today,my aim was to tie a fly with some different colour combo that were getting used to.
Well,the result was a little bit different that i wanted to,my courage ended but at least I was able to put the blue colour in there instead of black or orange and its making this fly a little bit different...Isn´t it ?

Dubbing brush.

I have planned for a long time now to build a "dubbingbrush machine"but,but....have been too busy and blaah,blaah....but today I made my first bubbing brush,not a machine,just the brush.
As soon as I get more time I must build a machine,the opportunities are almost unlimited with it,different colour combos etc,etc.
Still have to think what kind of material to use,this one is tied with angel hair.
Like the colour but there´s no volume in the fly.Anyway I will definetly continue to build more dubbing brushes.

Muddlerheads.

One fly each day seems to be my tempo,well why hurry?
I was going to test the fly I tied yesterday in swimming pool but my friend had something else going on so there were no testing today,wouldn´t want to tie too many of these before Í´ve made some tests.
I couldn´t help myself so I tied this fly,little different then the one from yesterday.



The hook is a Mustad 34011 3/0.
The tail is rabbit strips in chinchilla colour.
Added some Bucktail in black.
The body is tied of Polar fibre in steelgray colour.
Added some fosfor hair.(should be looking good in twilight)
The head is tied with Reindeer in orange and white.

I´ve also told you that the fly from yesterday was my first with a head tied in muddler style,well,I have to confess that I found a photo that show you that it was my second time using that technique here is the very first.



Wonder were the hell this fly is right now...

Also told you that the New Vision big daddy fly line is everything I will need before the season opener but today I found out that I need new scissors and some razor blades if I´m going to tie more muddlerheads,could be better finish on this one.



Damn,when I look at my first muddler I feel that I´ll have to tie some more of them,but with marabou.
To be continued......

Something new,something old

Told you here couple of days ago that I cheked out my tying materials if there is something that I would desperatly need (damn,there wasn´t anything).
I found in my Marabou bag between all feathers a material called Pseudo marabou and after i digged in my memory for a while I remember that i have tied some flies with it,guess if I know where the flies are now....That´s right,no I dont remember,but let´s see if I have some photos of them....


So,I found this one but cant remember if I have fished with them ever.
Also very hard,almost impossible to find any patterns or tutorials of anybody using this material.



And here is another one,bigger I think ?

My intrest for marabou is rising again after a while,I stopped fishing with them because they went so heavy when thy got wet but now my casting technique is much better then a couple of years ago (hopefully)so it might be worth a try to take them from the box again and give them a real chance.
I think they look pretty good anyway.









Or what do you think?

Looking at my photos found out that Icelandic sheep is a very naughty material....

Something else.(Suprise...)

Yeah,I know,I know,I promised to tie some new flash flies but once again suprisingly I´ve changed my plans.
Actually i dont even know for sure where I got this crazy vision,well,after I saw those Replot stingers I have started to use more and more of different zonker strips,
thanks to Simon for that,Simon is also to "blame"for my using of Icelandic sheep.
Craft fur then...I guess I dont have to explain,I mean if you tie pike flies I´m sure all of us must have heard of it.

The head tied in muddler style,The inspiration came from Stefaans flies so thanks to him.
Even if it dont look good as Stefaans VERY GOOD LOOKING flies I´m very pleased with my own because its my first contact with Deer hair and muddler style.
Also find it very intresting to see the action in the water due to craft fur witch is very heavy material VS deer hair witch should be floating.

Oh no,not like this.

As you can read from the title todays tying session was....nicely said a fuckin disaster,I dont think even my first flashabou flies looked as bad as these.
Maybe I can explain,I saw a nice looking pattern on the web and when i watched it it looked much easier then to tie in a loop(like I use to do)But bullshit,the first fly is a way too bushy but ok,lets try again with less material,the result was a piece of shit.
No more excuses or explaining of this or that.I failed with these and thats the fact.
Here they are as a evidence that fly-tying is not always easy(for me).





The second is better because I put some bucktail first to give some volume but after that everything went wrong.
Hopefully I dont have to be the whole day at work tomorrow so I can make some new ones,and this time I will tie them like Niklaus Bauer on flydressing.se,nice and easy.
No need to make easy things difficult :)...

New year,new tricks

First of all i want to wish all of you a happy new year,hopefully your rods will be benbed and your lines tight in the coming year,I was allready sleeping when 2010 become to 2011 but today I have almost been busy, I´ve tied two flies today,first I planned to tie some flash-flies but as so often I changed my mind in last minute.
My boss told me that there will not be work tomorrow so maybe I could tie them then.

So,the first one is tied on a Mustad 34011 3/0 hook,the tail is big fly fibre,some flash,white and olive coloured Raccoon zonker,and spiced with some micro barbs (now when i finally got them).



The background wasnt the best choice for this fly,it looks very small but its actually 22cm long.

The second one is also tied on a Mustad hook.
The tail is 12cm long purple rabbit zonker strips and the body is suprisingly raccoon zonkker purple and white.



Have also cheked out my tying materials to find out if ther´s something that I need to buy but no,i´ve got everything that I need for now,also cheked my flies and finded out that flash flies and some baitfish pattern flies is all that i just have to tie before the season opener.

On my buying list in fishing equipment is for now only a Vision big daddy line,first i thought even to buy the rod too but decided to not,allready got a Hardy Zane,Vision GT4,Guideline ACT4 Couple of TFO:s rods,and if i dont get along with these I´ve got three Flextec rods so,NO,not before I get rid of some older rods i wont buy any......I think......At least I want to test it first...