A story of a piece of wood that become a lure

Nothing revolutionary,just want to show you how I built a lure.
I haven´t had time to built lures as much that I want because I use to built them in my Mom´s garage but when she died two years ago we sold her house and suddenly I had no place to build them.
As my youngest brother also build lures we were two to share that problem,he works as a teacher and he ask the principal if it would be okay to use the woodwork classroom to our hobby and it was okay but of course I cant be there by my own so I just build these lures when it suites my brother(no offence).

As I have told you my stuff is ready for the opener but as usual my brother just woke up from his hibernation and now he´s spending all his leisure at school now.
I have been there now and then keeping him company and built something myself too,like this piece of wood that has sanded round and has taken the fist step to became a lure.



To make a lure that wiggling walk I use to put some weight here and there and then cover the rest of the holes.



Then it´s time for 5-6 times varnish until you get a good looking surface.



Then choose your colours and let the airbrush sing....



Dont forget to have fun,it should be.......







Now when it has some clothes on it´s time for some varnish again,3-5 times should be enough,then it´s just some small finishing (if you want to).





And finally a photo of a piece of wood that hopefully will do what I have planned it to do.
Just add some hooks before you throw it to say hello to the BIIIIIG Mamas.

Good,Bad and ugl.. Kind

Got a Photo from the place were I use to launch my boat and even if there is some ice I still feel very optimistic that I could use this place to launch my boat next weekend but if it seems difficult I will find another place because I WANNA GO FISHING !!!!!



Because I have all my necessary stuff ready and still be in a flu including fever I have rested almost the whole easter except some small things like the tail lights to my trailer and some extra leaders.



Nothing strange about that but these are totally different then those I´ve built before.
Instead of using just 0.70 mono line I decided to go a different way.

Two different sizes of mono line first 0,70 then 0.50 and instead of Predator wire I finally will test the Optima Kevlar steel wire,I´ve heard lot of praise of it.
And I will also test these new nameless locks instead of my old reliable Berkleys Snap locks.
Even if I will test these new locks I´ll have to praise those Berkleys Snap locks.
I´ll never ever have lost a fish or fly because of these locks so they will be hard to beat in my use.

And from praises to carping.
Bought me some Scientific Anglers pike leaders for my lightweight lines.
They wasn´t expensive but still I think that you have the right to require for at least some durability.

The package looks like this:



And by just taking the leader out from is package made the stiff wire warp like this:



I couldn´t fix it straight anymore so I dont think I will use these leaders again.

I think that will be all for today but just to remind you readers at least from southern Finland of how fast the spring has become here is a photo from beginning of March taken from "Puu-Vallila" in Helsinki.



I wrote about some good stuff,some bad stuff and finally some kind stuff.
Some people dislike Sfinx cats because what they look like,Well....it´s up to you to decide but let me introduce you my Older daughters cat called Hercules,never ever met a cat so kind and goodhearted.

One week to go.

Lying home with a terrible flu as my pal,thank god I´ll can rest for four days,after that I have four days at work and then the hell breaks loose,its time for the long awaited SEASON OPENER.I´ll have moaned for five long months and after a week the waiting is over.
I dont give a shit if it rains 10 inches long nails,I will open my season anyway.I just spoke to a friend from Loviisa and he told me that there is very little ice here and there but after a week it should have melted totally.
12 degrees (celsius) and some rain right now in southern Finland is is very welcomed by me right now.
Got my boat from Maintence yesterday so there should not be any problems to wait for a while.
I had a plan for today to fix new tail lights on my boat trailer but the rain and my flu added with some fever changed it to some fly tying included with a test fly,not so serious about it,just for fun.
I built in two sections,front and back.
The front is tied in "normal" way but the back is tied very hollow.
Its more a beast then beauty but who cares,it will be interesting to see how it works.







The test fly is tied with Mirror image and water silk using bucktail in the back section.
I blended some pink mirror image with light blue and chartreuse water silk and I think the colour is looking pretty nice.
I also tied a usual fly vith these colours.



Have also buried the idea to tie some flash flies,it seems too difficult with my tying skills.Think it will be better to tie something like this instead.



As you can see All my latest flies is tied on a tube,I´ll think you will see more of tubes from me from now on,quit using eumer soft tubes and using HMH tubes instead wich are more stiffer and don´t rolling round the needle like a headless chiken.

Finally,yesterday I recived a package from western Finland included...guess what....
No,not Raccoon zonker this time but:



Now I have something to do if fly tying starts boring me.
That´s all for now,think I´ll tie some more flieswith mirror image and also going to test more of Congo hair and Water silk now while I´m in right mood for that.

Sorry for my confused posting,it´s just that I´m so tensed up waiting for next weekend.

Now It´s just waiting.

As the title says everything should be ready for the opener,lines,rods,reels,flies lures,all the tools,have my boat on maintence and will have it next week.
Even bought me a new car with 4WD so I could put my boat in water in some tricky places too.
I was this weekend at the flyfishing fair at Ylöjärvi wich is near Tampere.





I went there with a "just watching" mentality and almost succeed with that.
Bought me some XXL-coneheads to my future tubes,also watched at a tube vice but actually I dont think it will solve my issues in tying tubes but Spey clave (a Finnish flyfishing Store) might have the perfect tool for me,will see it at next week.
Talking about Spey clave I will test a A.Jensen High tide #10 rod as soon as I can go fishing,tried it in the store and it felt very good and after a weekends test trip my rod collection might have a new member.....

And talking about rods i watched Alhospeys VERY BEAUTYFUL Bamburods (handmade)at the fair and I´m...I´m just speechless,what an art !!!



I went home from the fair yesterday and decided to test my new coneheads,I also told you that I have study some flash tying by watching Niklaus Bauers Piketube video from Youtube on and on and yesterday it was time to try it myself and I´ll have to say it was difficult,felt it was almost impossible to keep the flash in a dubbing loop so I think my flash flies will look like this for a while but I will practice and someday I will succeed with these.



And today when it was 15 degrees(celsius)outside and all my necessary things were done I took my time to train a little bit,it was fun....belive me....it really was.











Forget the perfect D loops.This is pike fishing :).

Hook or tube ?

I dont know how many times I have promised to start fishing with only tubes and still I´m tying about 95% on hooks,why? I dont really know.
I think I´ll have to find out....

Tubes

+ The fly should last longer
+ Possibility to change hooks (different sizes/always a sharp hook)
+ Propably cheaper to tie ???
+ Easy to change the lenght of your fly
+ Easy to choose where you wanna place the hook

- To change your fly it might take you some seconds more.

Watching this comparing I dont find a good reason why I shouldnt tie some more tubes and when i whatched Niklaus bauer tying a piketube and a sheepheadfly on tube I have slowly turned my sights on tubes again,just need to update my tube tying equipments
And have made a decision of a tube vice,I´m tired to play games with that fucking needle.
First nervous breakdown is when you need to attach the needle to the vice,it´s almost impossible to get it attached so it dont detaches when for example tying bucktail on your tube.
The second breakdown is IF you succeed to tie your bucktail then to get your fly of the needle.
Could this be a reason for not tying tubes ? Don´t know......

Anyway,here is a photo of my only tubes that has delivered some pikes.



As hook I´m gonna use TMC 600sp 2/0 or 3/0.

Sorting equipments part two

First of all I have to say sorry that there hasn´t been any postings for some time,the reason is that i´ve been very busy at work and some problems with my internet connection wich should be solved now.
The season opener is SOOOOOOOO close now that I can almost touch it and all my fishing equipments is almost fixed and sorted out with new lines and sharpened/or changed hooks,the reels is oiled and.....hmmm did I forget something? Yes,the boat of course,but nothing to worry about,tomorrow on monday it will be a maintenance on the motor and then after that its only waiting.

Here is some photos of my flyfishing equipments.Start with my first choice rods.



And then the reels.



And finally the light weighter in line weight #6.




Have also bought me some new tying equipments like Veniards bobbin wich I like a lot,but the biggest change was a new tying thread.
I´ve always used Kevlar thread but tying Bucktail was a bit tricky with it so when Mikko Stenberg from Spey Clave recommended me a new thread I decided to give it a try and now I have to say that I propably wont change back to kevlar anymore.
The problem is that I dont know even the name of the thread but as soon I´ll visit Spey clave again I´ll ask for some specs and tell you more about it later.

I have also tested a new store in finland called Nordic Angler and was very pleased with it too.
Bought me some usual stuff included Raccoon and a couple of some new materials for me like Congo hair and Water silk and of course I´ve had to test it on my Regret-fly and after some training this was the result.



It feel very soft and even if I have not tested it yet I think it will work fine.
By just holding both materials in your hand I think it´s very hard to feel the difference wich of them will work better in water but soon I´ll find out that too.