Eumer tubes.

very freezy conditions in Finland right now,-27 degrees at 06.00 am,but inside me is burning,I WANT TO GO FISHING !!!
I was yesterday on a boat fair in Helsinki and I have to admit that if I had unlimited cash I would propably get rid of a big amount of money on that fair,
but because I dont have it I just looked around and did some day dreaming.

There was some stands where they sold lures,reels and other fishing equipments and one thing is for sure,I cant just look at them,so I bought me a box of jerkbaits,
a T-shirt and some Eumers new tube fly kit for casting.I bought the 2 biggest sizes.
I´ll think they can be useful after a couple of months.
Very easy/fast to tie and at the video it looks awsome.
I tied one for fun.



The fly is about 30cm long and the weight should be around 35-45 gr.
Here is a photo of kits.



If you are intrested so from youtube (eumer spin tubes)you can watch these flies in action.
Here is the rest of the stuff that I bought from the fair.Except the flies I dont know if I ever going to use these,if not then my brother vill have them on birthday or so.






The next fair will be Go expo in Helsinki 11-13.3 and I´m living in a hope to get my hands on the new Vision big daddy rod and line,at least to try them....and if I dont get them there I´ll have to wait for the fly fishing fair in Tampere 16-17.4
and hey.....after that the season might get started......Oh goooood I dont want to wait.

And of course I´ve also tied a traditional fly too,after all fly fishing for pike is my main joy.
And finally I tied one with craft fur.I think it looks good.

Jerk baits

Yesterday evening,I was home after a hard day at work when my brother called me and ask me to drop by at his work.
My brother is working as a teacher and in their school they have a classroom for woodwork so when you read the title you might guess what was on my mind....

Too bad we had not too much time to build many jerk baits but it was fun anyway.
I didn´t take many photos but here is some.

I had one jerk bait finished and two pieces is waiting for further treatment.
The ready bait with the green and orange flames was inspirating me to tie a fly with the same colour combo.
I wonder why I got much easier to find nice colours to lures then to flies.
Hopefully I get some inspiration to tie some Craft fur flies this week,I´ll think I´ve got those colours in stock.....

Hangover day tying.

My first aim was to just rest for the whole day but I cant just be in bed for the whole day (alone :) )so I just had to get up and take a walk in a very cold but otherwise a beatyfull winterday.
After an hours walk I came home feeling sorry for myself and made me a big cup of coffee and took a seat on the couch and started to read some old fly fishing magazines.
I get my hands on a magazine called Pohjolan perhokalastaja number 4/2010.There was a story of a pikefly made of bucktail.The intresting thing with the fly was that it was NOT tied like an hollow deciver,It was tied in a "normal" way by just put the material on the hook and tie.I dont know how this story has passed my eyes without me showing any intrest to it.
This time the further I read it I get more intrested and when There was also a tutorial of it I found myself behind my vice trying to make one very good looking fly like the one in the magazine.
I tried to follow the tutorial exept that I of some reason tied this one on a tube.

I have to admit that I was very suprised of the result,I think it looks great.
This is a pattern that I surely will tie a couple more.
Even if it not tied in hollow style I think it will work.



There´s couple of things that I noticed while tying:
-You need quality bucktail to this one,it has to be pretty long.
-Dont tie with kevlar yarn.The idea with this fly is to put more and more material on each bunch and the last bunch is so thick that the bucktail will slip under the yarn while tighten it,I think uni cord will be better,at least I will give it a try.
As a hook I have planned to use Simons favourite TMC 600sp Size 3/0.

Tube time

Okay,so my spring cleaning is over and it was finally time to tie those fucki´n tubes that I promised to do.
This week was also meant to be Craft fur theme but the tubes and a big snowfall in Helsinki has kept me busy.
But after I slept about 13 hours between friday and saturday I had some energy to start tying some flies.Damn it´s difficult to tie small flies after those big pike flies,the first one was a disaster but after some whiskys I think they started to look better,hopefully my friend likes them too



I found out that I might need a vice for only tube flies,I was very close to get REALLY pissed of with that stupid needle on my "normal" vice,I cant get it firmly assembled.Well,maybe from the go expo fair in Helsinki next month.
Between those tubes I also tied a normal sized pike fly but to be honest I was wery drunk when I tied this so it´s not a good looking fly exept the colours,I like them and hoping that the judges in the sea likes it too.

From small things to big things.

Does anyone remember the song From small things mama the big things come performed by Bruce Springsteen ?
Anyway thats what came into my mind this weekend.It all started when my friend asked me if I possible could tie some small tube flies to him,6-10 pieces?
Ok,no problem I answered and on friday after work I thought that this is the right time to tie them.

But the first problem started immediately,where the hell is my tube fly tools?do you see them?No,not me neither.



So,I looked for my tools a while before I get so pissed of with this mess and decided to make a massive spring clean before tying anything.
The first thing was to empty the table and then try to sort out my tying materials,
and there was a lot of it.
Remember I told you that I only got 4-5 colours of my favourite material Raccoon zonker,well I lied...I found 12 of them.



And also found a lot of rabbit zonker strips.There was two coloured,there was crosscutted strips.
Many of these was colours that I didn´t knew I had in stock.



And the number of flashbou materials then....Think I´ve gonna tie some flash flies before spring....





I was also a little bit suprised of the number of body materials,don´t need too much of them when you tying pike flies.My guess is that I have tought to tie something else,who knows.





Before I had sorted out some of my materials friday had turned to saturday and of course I had to go to work on saturday (flagging day in Finland)so after a 3 hour long night sleep it was time to go to work.Man it sucked.....







On saturday after work I just had to take a nap because otherwise I´m very irritated and that´s not funny for anyone...
After a couple hours of sleep and a pot of coffee I was ready to go on with my cleaning,but to be honest my inspiration was below zero but I decided to go on anyway.
Next step was to sort out my lures and flies and after several hours I found out that I dont have enough of room for everything so what now.

I decided to sort out the rest of my fly materials because I had still not founded my fuckin tube fly tools either.
A little interjection here,does my text sound like I´m pissed of??? At least I´m tired.





And finally guess what i found in a plastic bag with my fly hooks? Yes,correct,My tube tools.
The temptation to just start to tie those tube flies was big but no,may the cleaning continue,but OH NO,the clock is 12.30pm so let it continue on sunday.

On sunday I allready felt that I dont want to wake up at all but after I was almost ready the only option was to finish this case.
And after some hours,just before THE footballmatch between Chelsea and my favourite Liverpool started I was in a situation that I need about 10-15 tackleboxes to sort out rest of my equipments it was time to close this case and take a seat on the couch with a cold beer in my hand and enjoy the game,I´ll think I´ve earned it.



Chelsea-Liverpool:0-1

So,a small promise to tie some(5-10)small tube flies turned into a big case that took me the whole weekend(no offence)and still they are not tied....This week perhaps.

Tying Ice wing II

Even if the snow is falling down from the sky and everything is gray and gloomy I can see it,I can smell it and I can feel it...The spring,it´s coming slowly but surely but all my big plans I had for the winter time it seems that I don´t gonna have time to fullfill my plans bout a tying corner,jerkbait building.
Even my plan to tie some flies every single day is ruined due to the snow situation in Helsinki,it has been a hell of a winter.

Anyway,I´m starting to wake up from my winter lethargy and spending more time behind the tying vise then my couch or bed and now when I yesterday recived my order from Mistpool with some hooks and other tying materials I hope that I can show you some new flies more often.

My yesterdays delivery included a LOT of Craft fur witch might be my next weeks theme,and NO,I still prefer naturals before syntethics,it´s just that I want to learn to tie some good flies with different materials so it´s practice and even more practice so I hope that someday I´ll have some trust in syntethics also.
Here is some flies made of Ice wing that I tied yesterday and soon they will have some epoxy heads done and after that I think it will be Craft fur time.(if i dont change my plans again after reading my new Pohjolan perhokalastaja magazine)





And BTW:Tied on a Tiemco 8089 #2 and their lenght is around 10cm:s (4 inches).

Tying Ice wing.

Just showing small signs that the spring is on it´s way and I´m allready tying flies for summer,crazy,isn´t it?
Anyway,I use to fishing with smaller size of lures at summertime so why would I not do the same with flies either?
I have also noticed that in cold water in spring or autumn the fly need to have a lot more attractive movement when you stripping the line much more slower than in warm water,that´s why I think it´s justified to use natural materials in cold water.

In warm water I often stripping the line with both hands very fast using the technique:"take it or leave it" and it very often works specially in the middle of the summer so thats one reason I tied these flies with Ice wing,don´t need so much movement then.
These flies still waiting for a epoxy head witch I´m going to make tomorrow.
Need to work with the heads to get them some kind of imbalance onthe flies and hopefully I´ll get some jerkbait action.

These flies are also planned to use with some lighter line class from #6 - #8 at maximum,that´s why I use different hook as I use to.
For these flies I used a Tiemco 8089 #2 instead of my favourite 911s.
The gap is pretty big on this hook.



And as the title says the tying material is Ice wing,very messy stuff.All my clothes sparkles like a christmas tree.
But the clock is ticking and I got an early wake up tomorrow so without more bullshit:here they are.





And as an ending,two,maybe two and a half months to the season opener.
Would like to write about fishing instead of fly tying.