Fishing 30.8 2011

Have been a bit lacy to write of every trip I have made,there has not been much to write about,small buggers ETC.ETC...
Last trip was funny in one way,I had fished for an hour without any hits and it was time to finish and go home but somehow I decided to do one more cast and BANG,a small one with my last cast.
Okay but about today´s session,went out with my brother for a couple of hours to fish,not to test.

I don´t know why but I had a feeling that this could be a good day,air temp 15 degrees,wind blowing from southwest 3-5 m/s and a cloudy sky.
The water temp had cooled down but was still warm in my opinion but it was the only issue so far.



We went to a bay witch we have named to Eldorado Because it´s almost impossible to make a blank draw there.
We fished for a while,my brother with lures and I used flies.
My brother landed his fifth or sixth before I had my first fish landed,all of them was from 1 to 2.5 kg:s.
We fished and enjoyed the landscape when a train suddenly attacked my fly.The place was almost identical with the one were I dropped the big mama last trip.
This time I was prepared and didn´t gave too much pressure immediately,it would have been no use,the fish ordered both speed and the direction....For a while,when she decided to show herself for the second time at the surface I knew that I would be the winner of this battle and let her make a couple of runs before It was time to land her.
I got her in the boat for documentation but I noticed that I didn´t have my tape measure with me,well,I put her in my weighing bag and my scale showed me a weight of 8,2 kg:s,put my rod next to her and took the length of that beauty by marking it on my rod.
After a photo it was time to let this beautiful beast go back to her own home and at this stage I saw there was blood all over the boat,looked at my hands and I saw a big cut on my right hand and a second after that I saw some bleeding scratches on my left hand too but who cares.
Fished a while after that but again my mind was somewhere else so we both decided to go home but at least I will be back soon.Here she is: 116cm:s/8.2 kg:s



And here`s a photo of her goin´g back where she belong.Hopefully I´ll meet her once again after...let´s say 2 kilos more :)

Black/Silver combo tutorial.

In my last post I wrote about a big ma´m who went away with my black/silver combo or what was left of it,it wasn´t much so Now I´m forced to tie more of these.
Think it´s better to tie 4-5 at once.
If ever gonna fish in Lovisa archipelago then this is a almost "must" tie,it has been outstanding this season.
While I started to tie I thought that why not make a tutorial of it.
Have to remind you that this is only MY WAY to do it,you can tie this kind of a fly in hundred different ways.

Equipments you need:

-Fulling mill Scorpio hook size 5/0
-A bit of mono line size 0.70
-Flashmix (Silver,Light-green,Light-blue,Black,Holo-silver)
-Lateral scale in pearl color
-Raccoon in black color
-Super glue
-Bug Bond or Epoxy
-3D-Eyes silver/black
-Tying tread Big Fly (I don´t like kevlar in these type of flies because of the dubbing-loops).

1.Tie a loop back on the hook using the mono-line,then tie a mix of flash as a tail(Silver,Holo-silver).Add some Lateral scale.Make a loop of your tying tread.


2.Mix some flash of all colors and do a dubbing brush.(I use to use dubbing wax at this stage)


3.After you tied and locked the brush add some black flash as a back.


4.Now it´s time for the head of the fly and there is some different ways how to do it.
you can tie the whole strip with glue on the shank but I prefer this way:
I`m cutting of the skin using a paper clip.



5.Tie all the flash away from next step using a hair clip.


6.Do a dubbing loop and add the Raccoon from your paper clip and do a brush of it.
Whip-finish the fly.


7.Add the eyes and form a head using Bug Bond or Epoxy.I used Epoxy until Nordic Angler started to import this fantastic product called Bug Bond and I haven´t use Epoxy since then.


8.After this your fly should look something like this,ready to rock.



9.Go and get them

Fishing 18.8 2011 Lovisa

Even if it´s a hard to confess I was left a little bit disappointed with yesterdays session,waited a lot more contacts with fishes so I felt I just have to do a new try today.
This time I fished just two bays,one sheltered and one were the wind had pushed cooled water for more than three days now.

The weather was pretty much the same then yesterday,maybe a little bit warmer.

No need to talk about the first sheltered bay,no action at all even I spent over an hour there trying all my tricks.

The second one provides me some memorable times.
It all started pretty well not many casts before I had my first fish landed,it was a small one who have swallowed my fly badly,it took me some time to dig the fly out from it´s mouth but it slowly swim away after the off hooking.



Fished for a while,saw some small fishes jumping around here and there on the surface,got my second for today,little bigger but still size small.



Then suddenly I heard some splash on the water behind me,oh SHIT !!!!it was my first pike swimming on the surface dying.
I decided to quickly retrive my line and go and get it for dinner when there was a BIG SPLASH....and the small pike just disappeared.....Nothing I could do,I just gazed on that place where the small bugger just a second ago swimmed around.The silence was palpable.
Continued to fish with the big splash in my mind...how big was it,is it still around.
Even if I managed to land a decent sized fish 4,3 kg:s my thoughts was little mess up.



Don´t know how long I fished but suddenly I thougt I saw a BIG silhouette behind my BLACK/SILVER COMBO.As soon as I saw it it disappeared so I was not sure was it something.
I made cast after cast on the place were i saw the silhouette and suddenly BANG !!!
Fish on and immediately I new I had a train on the other end of the line, I don´t know what the hell I was thinking about when I grabbed my camera with the other hand while got the fish of my life to land.
When I saw my fighting partner I was just WOW.It was at least 100 cm:s,propably 120 cm:s,i just throwed my camera away and started to use my both hands to land the fish,
30 seconds from that my leader said snap.........and i was left stunned,I just,just..
I cant remember the first minutes after that,I was so confused,felt totally paralyzed.
After I catched my breathe I just had to call a friend of mine who also use to fish for pike and tell him about what just happend.
I used a barbless hook and really,really hope that the fly will drop of soon so this beautiful beast can go on hunting.
I fished for a two or three hours but my mind was on different planet then my body so I don´t remember much of it.
While I was driving to the dock I stopped on a place to check out if there´s somebody home,well,one pearch 630 or 670 grams,I don´t remember.



Now after one nights sleep my disappointment has slowly faded away and now my feelings are okay and I know this will be a experience that I will remember a long time,funny how the fishes you don´t manage to catch are the most memoriable

Fishing 17.8 2011

Because of the warm summer there hasn´t been much fishing,almost every session has turn out to some kind of testing.
But today I decided to go out FISHING !!!
I had with me only my reliable Regret flies,not a single new one.
As my rod I choosed my Guideline LPXe RS v2(who has named this rod must have been out of his/her mind)
and for line I took my RIO Scandinavian pike.

The weather....It was nearly perfect,a small wind 4-5 m/s,cloudy.But the water temp
It´s still near 20 degrees and that was the biggest issue.



I decided to start fishing from the windy side on a reef in the middle of the sea but nobody home here so I moved over to the shelter side of the reef.
Fished for a while,took me a cup of coffee and a delicious pie with feta cheese,pepper and garlic,and listen to the silence for a while and started to fish once again.
Fished for a while but got my first fish for today after an hour after I changed my fly to suprise,suprise....Black/silver combo.
In cloudy conditions I use to start with black/red combo,even today but it didn´t deliver any fishes today.

Moved position to another reef but without any result not from the windy side or the shelter side so after I had fished a third reef without any action I decide to slowly drive back to the dock and fish a sheltered bay on my way back home.

Drove slowly into that bay and shutted of the engine and quitely let the anchor into the water.
Decided it was time for a cup of coffee before I continue fishing.
Fished for a while,dropped some fishes,it was fun anyway....



After I dropped so many fishes I finally managed to land one that hit my fly when I had only the leader outside from my rod so the fight was over in about 10 seconds,
a small one once again.The catches aren´t my top aim but it would be nice to land some decent sized fish soon......after all these small ones.



Not much more tell you i`m afraid except that I made a rack to dry of my flies.
Propably not a new idea for many of you but here is a photo of it anyway in case someone should be intrested




Oh yes,one more thing.Every single hit and also both landed fishes was catched with black/silver combo and after today´s session it looks like this...Not much left of it.



Think I´ll have to tie many of these.

Welcome autumn and bigger flies

The weather has slowly but surely cooled down and so also the water,if this continue for a while it will soon be time for some serious pikehunt.
The summer was all too hot for fishing,I can´t remember when there has been so little fishing than this summer.
Well,there has been some short trips but the size has been very small and the one single decent sized fish I had on my fly...I just lost it.
So I got big expectations for this autumn now when the big mamas soon will arrive to lower water depths to the inner archipelago.

Because of the warm summer I have had some time to prepare myself for the autumn fishing.
Have bought me some new technical underwear to float tube fishing.
Bought some new customized fly lines.My boat should be ready for some cold conditions so..Yes I feel prepared.
Got my first two fishes on my upside down flies and both of them was attached on their under lip so the test wasn´t very successfull but I will still continue testing.
I have also tied me some bigger flies,just in case....
These two are about 26cm:s (a bit over 10 inches)and like the one in my last post these two will be tested soon but will be more seriously used later in autumn.

Waiting for the autumn fishing

Have been busy behind my vice tyin both upside down flies and preparing for the forthcoming autumn.
Watched Simon Grahams blog and saw a awsome looking fly in green/copper color combo.
I just love that combo even if I as I can remember haven´t catch a single fish with it.

Started with some olive colored bucktail,added copper flash and after that my plan changed once again,my plans seems to change now and then,that´s why my table looks like this.....once again :)



Well,back to the fly.
After copper flash I added some Body fibre in light brown color blended with peacock colored SF Flash blend.
One Micro barb on each side of the fly and more copper flash.
After that it was time for a cup of coffee thinking what the hell am I doing and trying to decide what could be the next step.
After two cups of coffee I had a plan.....
Added a bunch of tan colored bucktail tied in hollow style,



Then more Body fibre(light brown),Copper flash.
Added a bunch of red Artic fox on each side of the fly as gills.
Now I had to drink more coffee because so far I was very happy with the result but I had not a clue what I should do to next and didn´t wanted to destroy the result.
I changed my mind propably more often then a woman with her clothes but finally I decided to add a dash of Icelandic sheep in dark green color.
Still some space on the tube so a collar of olive colored Raccoon in dubbing loop(Thanks to Niklaus Bauer I always use dubbing loops these days).
Finally a head of Bug-bond(just love that stuff)with some 3D eyes and the fly was ready and here´s the result.



This fly is 24 cm long and will be tested soon but will be in more serious use later in autumn.
Don´t know why but I prefer bigger and dark colored flies without too much flash in my autumn fishing.

Upside down

I read an article from a magazine called Allt om flugfiske where they have studied C&R
fishing of pikes.I´m not going to try translate the whole story,not with my language skills but the point was that a group of people catched pikes with different metods
Flies,Jerkbaits,Wobblers and lures.
As hooks were used WMC 8650 treble hooks in 2/0 size.
The pikes mouth was divided to six parts.no critical areas was lips,outside,palate
while the critical areas was gills,aorta and throat.
even the bleedings was divided in three sections:none,little and massive.

871 pikes were landed and five of them died,it means under one percent.
All of those who died were hooked in a critical area with a massive bleeding.
I have always thought that a wobbler or a jerkbait with two or even three treble hooks would be the worst scenario for a fish
but to my suprise the biggest killer was spin flies,you know those flies meant to fish with spincasting equipments with usually one treble hook.

One of the most critical areas in a pikes mouth is downside where the gills join together and the ventral aorta supplies the aorta with oxygenated blood.just one stich in that area increase the bleeding a lot wich decreases survival possibilities.

The flies usually has its hook downwards so there is a risk that the hook punctures that critical area.
there is a couple of flyfishers in Sweden started to use upside down flies just to investigate if there´s any idea to use them.
Also the Allt om flugfiske magazine want some more reports from fishers using upside down flies and I decided to try them for a while and report both good and bad things.

My first thought is that even it´s a upside down fly or not the hook has been attached here and there in pikes mouth,my "normal"flies has been hooked in the upper lip and even from outside so I´m a little bit suspicious about it but I will test them to the middle of September and send a response and hopefully win a fishing day with Niklaus Bauer in Sweden :)

You can read more about the research from www.sportfiskarna.se-->miljö&fiskevård-->kunskap&fakta.

And here is my first upside down flies one on hook TMC 8089 size 2 and one one tube.
there will be a couple more of these soon.

Fishing 5.8 2011

As I told you in my last post I will go fishing no matter what and so I did.
I went out fishing with my second younger brother who doesn´t fish too often instead he like to build Harley Davidsons.
The weather conditions was very windy,something between 8-10 m/s I think.But we had a couple of sheltered bays in our mind Where even I could do some flyfishing,my brother fished with normal lures.



When we arrived to our first spot I followed Simons advice and just enjoyed the silence and had a cup of coffee and a sandwich before some real action.
The wind was tricky blowing from back right but I didn´t manage to attach any fly in my neck.
We fished for a while when my brother had his first fish landed,a small pike about
1 kg.
Not long after that he had his second fish landed,a giant pearch maybe 100 grams....



At this stage I felt it was time to have another cup of coffee and study my flies more seriously and decided to use my reliable black/silver flash fly and while I was attaching my fly my brother had a hit again but he lost it somehow.



Some minutes later it was my turn to say:FISH ON,and oh my this was a angry one,and after many trips with just small ones this was a decent sized maybe 4-5 kg:s.
I had it already next to the boat and was just to grip it when the fly suddenly came off and in that second i saw it the fish was gone.
Hard to say this but Tiemco 600sp hooks will soon be history.....
Well,this one wasn´t meant for me and like I wrote in my last post I don´t care,it was a nice battle anyway.



I had a plan to go fishing today but wasn´t able to do so but tomorrow will be a new try.
Still hoping for the water temp to sink a lot,it´s still near 20 degrees.
Forecasts promising a wind from 5-7 m/s cloudy and rain showers so it´s really looking good for some serious pikehunt.

Holiday approaching.

Yesssss,tomorrow is my last day at work before my well earned vacation.tomorrow after work a couple of hours fishing after a long break.
Have a lot to do searching for a new apartment but hopefully there will be some fishing too.
Forecast promises some wind around 7 m/s and 20 degrees air temp,hoping the water temp has dropped a lot from last time.
Monday would be a good weather for pikehunt with some rain and wind,cloudy +16 degrees,crossing my fingers up to elbows I´ll be able to get out on the sea.

Got my deliveries from Nordic angler including Body fibre in new colours,had some plans to tie couple of new flies but instead of that I´m sitting here and writing my blog.
Well....maybe I´ll got enough flies,not in mood to test any new ones,just wanna get out at sea and lay out my fly line,don´t give a shit if I´ll catch any fishes at all,just need a break from that noisy city.
That´s all for now,hopefully ll be able to give you a report of fridays trip to Lovisa Archipelago.