At the beginning of this winter I felt pretty down but now thinking it over once again it's only two and a half months to my official season starter,the GoExpo fair in Helsinki.And with a bit of luck you can in the end of march go Fishing for seatrout at Lauttasaari in Helsinki that too,and a month after that I maybe be able to start my pike season.
The reason why I'm not in nag mood is all about my new challenge in Salmon fishing,or let's call it training so far.
Have study some videos about both casting and tying.
It has been challenging but funny to learn how to tie salmon patterns,still far from a pro but progressing all the time :))).
Have also bought me some new tying materials mostly for salmon patterns but also found a color of SF-Blend called midnight blizz,and for a ver valuable price too.I had to buy several packages of it.
Also bought me two new reels,Orvis Mach IV # 9-11 and a Greys GTX 4 # 9-11'both also for a very valuable price.
Next on my shopping list is some or at least one line to my bigger reel and I was yesterday to shop Spey Clave in Helsinki and got some advices.It wil most suddenly be a floating Skagit line between 490-550 grain with a 10 or 14 ft,think I will wait for some fair offers here.
Funny thing here is that I havent done anything that was planned but as long as I have time to do the necessary maintenance on my boat it will do.
On todays program top is cleaning my tying corner,think I could ne in need for some more space here.
And then some new ties.
Hello folks.Had some plans for the next season already before last season ended but as so many times before they went totally wrong.
The reason why my plans changed this time was a store with 50-70% of the price and a couple of guys recommendations to try a Double hand rod,after two days of thinking and study I decided to go for it and now I´m a owner of a 13ft,#8-9 line weight rod,I´ll ave never ever tried a DH rod so it might be funny to try one next spring,I have tried to find a reel for cheap but good enough to take 200 yards of backing,a runningline and a heavy skagit line,have some in mind like Vision GT or Nite,also been offered a Hardy Mach as used but don´t know yet witch it will be,the point is that I don´t want to spend a fortune on a reel IF i don´t gonna fish regularly with it.
Here´s the rod with my pike reel Hardy demon 7000.
Have also study some flies and ended up that tubes are the way to go but will probably tie some on hooks before spring.
I just have to say that it has been a real challenge to tie small tubes after all those pikeflies big as seagulls but to be honest I´m pretty satisfied with these,I really believe that these could work witch in my opinion is very important,remember when I tied some flies for Seatrout earlier this season and it felt pain in the ass not to have any faith in either the fly or in anything that you do,this time it´s different.
Here´s the flies tied so far.
Have a feeling that tying some smaller flies doing good to my tying skills so will probably continue to now and then tie these small buggers too.
But even if I have a amount of 2500!!!! Pikeflies I have also tied some more from my latest inspiration source Muskie serie in Scandinavian style.
Here´s still one with a size 6 tied streamer so you can see the difference of my pike flies and small streamers.I just have to admire peoples tying skills who tie flies on size 20-28 hooks,I can´t imagine to do that with my skills.
There will be more flies both for Salmon and my main target Pike but it´s kinda refreshing to try something new and suddenly the winter doesn´t seem so fuckin long anymore.
Sorry for no posts for a while,it´s just that I have been so busy with different things,some of them has to do with fishing and some of them not.
Anyway now we have come to Christmas Eve and it´s time sit down and relax with family and friends,eat some good food.
Only two weeks behind without fishing and I'm already having withdrawal symptoms,don't know why this winter seems to be very hard,much harder then before,I mean...I'm here but I don't feel I'm living.
It seems to be a long winter this year,we had our first snowstorm here last week with wind up to 35 m/s and 40 cm:s snow.
This week hasn't been much better,not so much snow but -15 degrees cold.
I have tried to cure myself with fly tying but....I don't know.....I'm not in right mood for that either right now,thank god christmas is right behind the door so I get something else to think about then feel sorry for myself.
Can't find more to nag about,have to wait for the feelings to calm down before I will do some kind of a summary of this season and some maintenance to my reels and to my boat,washing my lines Etc,Etc...also time to repair all things at home that has been with less attention like to paint my fireplace.
That's all for right now,here is some latest ties which have to wait a long time before they will be introduced to the judges next spring.
Weekend is over and and looking at forecasts it might have been my last time for this season.From Wednesday to Sunday snow and up to -8 degrees is going to freeze all my spots were I would be able to go with my floating tube.
Anyway,as you can see from the title I was fishing both Saturday and Sunday And I wanted to share my experiences from those days with you.
Was very early at the shore on Saturday morning.Had plenty of time to get my stuff ready before there was light enough to get out floating.
Weather was nice for fishing,rainshowers,water temp 3-5 degrees air temp 4-5 degrees and cloudy and dark.Tee only thing that was missing was wind,in front of me was a total calm suurface of the sea.
The only good thing with no wind is that it´s much easier to maneuver the floating tube.
I had a specific bay in my mind so I didn´t fished so carefully among all reed on my way to it but still landed couple of small buggers on that short way to it.
Also got one pike landed while trolling with my fly.
While I was fishing a shoreline closing in on that bay a boat with two fishermen drove into that bay right in front of my nose and started to fishing.
Immediately they started to get pikes,not any big guns but anyway...
They killed every single fish they got and after some time I just couldn´t watch that slaughter anymore so I started to think out a plan B.
Because there was no wind at all I decided to take a ride round the whole island because I knew some nice spots on that route.
Have to say it was a nice trip to do,I mean,I had been there before but with a boat but with a tube you can get much closer to all nice pockets among water plants.
Landed some fishes now and then and when I got cold I went out from water and had som sandwiches and juice,just sitting on a rock and watched the landscape,man I love this time of year at our beautiful archipelago.
As you can see there´s not much of wind here.
After my "dinner" I fished this small bay for a while but I had to slowly go back before dark.
I spent almost ten hours fishing so I felt kinda exhausted when I arrived home just in time for a warm sauna and a cold beer.I felt really relaxed.
Day two.
While writing this I can sat that my season is over almost certainly. -20 degrees and 20 cm snow for next week so I guess it´s soon time for some kind of summary for this season,sad but true.
Anyway,I was about to tell you about day two.Have to admit that my warm bed felt like a reckoned option instead of cold wet clothes but I knew that there would not be many trips anymore so I dragged my aching body out to the sea,decided to go to the "slaughterbay" first and then on my way back check out couple of spots.I was on the calm side of an island and not surprisingly without any contacts but as soon as I came to the windy side I landed my first one.
Fished in that bay but only one contact in over two hours wasn´t exactly what I was looking for so I decided to go back in that wind again to try my luck.
On my way out from the bay I caught one more which was the last catch for the season.
Sorry once again for the clumsy release,had hardly no sense in my fingers at all so....
Went slowly back following the shoreline and fishing but there was no more contacts at all,both my legs and fingers was frozen so I decided to give up.
Went home to Sauna and bubble bath.Had already on Sunday a feeling that this was my last session for the season so now there will be fly tying,boat maintenance and repair for....3.....4.....maybe up to five months,
Man this sucks......
Some of you might have noticed that I have not posted anything new from fly frontier but it doesn´t mean I have been lazy;to be honest I have tied a lot of flies.
All my flies I have tied lately has been meant to be easy to cast (from a floating tube),big profile and to could be used in super shallow water so as all of us know it has had to handle of some kind of compromise and I have tried different solutions and I honestly think I have been successful with most of mine experiments,only one total disaster.
This was the basic from were I started to think the best solution for me and here is some different testing both in dry and wet look.
Also tried some flies with a muddler styled head but it wasn´t exactly what I was looking for.
This one has been good,at least one fish everytime.
There might be some flies more that I don´t remember but I also tried some baitfish pattern.
And finally my latest two flies in which I have big expectations.Inspired from Simon graham Muskie series.
Next weekend will be a two day session and so far the forecasts have been gently so I´m living in a hope to get something to report to you.
We decided with Pietro earlier at the week to go for a floating tube session on sat 17.11 and after some coffee at a gas station we went down to the shore and noticed a nearly perfect weather conditions for both fishing and floating,six,maybe seven degrees air temp,probably close the same in water.
No rain in sight but foggy and cloudy.
We trampled the short way over a channel to some good looking places and started to fish.
I made one difference to my usual starters and started with dark colored flies,one that was tied just for this trip.
But no contacts with this one,Pietro had some brighter colors but no hits on his flies either so we decided to move on a little bit and soon arrived to a long but narrow channel were I last session had many contacts.This time there was a heavy flow and at least I had some difficulties to maneuver my floating tube so I felt pretty exhausted when I finally reached a shelter bay.
Pietro who is younger and is in better shape than I fished more accurated in the channel but no contacts for him neither.
This bay was sheltered and super shallow no more than 80cm water on it´s deepest part.
I moved close among the shoreline and headed my casts away to the middle of the bay when I heard a splash 20 cm:s from the shoreline.A rapid perfunctory cast close to were I heard the splash and before I started to retrive the line I had my first contact for the day.
This was probably the smallest catch for the season so far but the game was on.
Pietro also landed his fist one close from were I also got mine.
Clock was ticking and we decided to slowly let the flow take us back but of some reason I moved to an another channel and after a while I thought I saw an even better looking place and moved further away and after a while still further and after some time we both were at very good looking place fishing in a pretty heavy wind.
It would have been easy to let the waves and flow take over and just drift back to the shore we were so close to another sheltered bay at this moment so we decided to check this out as a last mission for the day.
I tested different flies but with no success until I found my Pink/Chartreuse fly (SBS earlier in this blog) and almost immediately I started to catch some fishes,or almost catched.Dropped too many this session.
All pikes were barely attached,not any rage in the attacks so that might be one reason.Several times I thought my fly was among some waterplants and ups..it was a fish,
Anyway,it´s autumn and the water is cold and we had been in the water for several hours without any break at all,darkness was on it´s way and it started to rain so we decided to start moving back,just before we left Pietro landed a fish but a small one this too.
On the way back to the shore I had a heavy hit on my fly but dropped this also without any eye contact but this one felt like a better one,not a twenty pounder but maybe ten....Who knows.
Even if the tube drifted almost by itself back to the shore I was exhausted.It took me some minutes before I even could walk But the positive thing was that I didn´t freeze at all.
The biggest positive for me was that I really enjoyed this trip,no moaning about all dropped fishes,it was just awsome to go out fishing with good company.Really looking forward to go out again and if it´s about the forecasts then I can set my sights on next weekend.
Was lucky to be able to go fishing last weekend.It felt very nice even if the weather conditions was freezing cold,but this time a very heavy wind was a bigger issue then the cold.
I went to the shore about 7.15 am,twilight and a air temp around one,maybe two degrees,watched at those massive waves banging the shore endlesly and decided to lay out my floating tube from a less windy place even if I had a bit longer way to my scheduled spots.
After I had get my immersion suit on and my tube paccked I start to kick myself out to the sea and the first spot.Very soon I knew that this would not work.
Had no enough power to go against the wind so I decided to let the tube drift and made some casts while I was drifting along the shoreline but wasn´t surprised when I didn´t had a hit on the fly.
After a while I arrived to a small "canal" where it was calm enough to handle the floating tube and also to fish,the canal was so narrow I was able to fish both sides and even if it was meant to just find a sheltered place to fish I think all the fishes was in this canal too,had a lot of them from both sides while I was slowly drifting to the other end and came to a good looking bay,there was an issue,a big issue,it was covered with ice so no fishing there either,the only solution for me was to fish the canal over and over again,you might think it was boring but I can tell you it wasn´t.
Landed something between 10 to 15 pikes at 6 hours,small fishes this time but still I enjoyed every minute.Here is one video recorded from that session.
After that I or let me say my feet needed to get away from that water so next issue was to once again start to splash against the wind but thank god it wasn´t so long,but it was pretty painful with nearly no sense in my feet at all.
Felt very strange to walk from the shore to my car when I couldn´t feel my legs,but after some time and several cups of coffee it was time for the second round,it was shorter,much shorter with just three landed pikes before my feet started to aching that much I didn´t enjoyed my fishing anymore so I decided to give up.
Forecasts promising some warm weather for the next three weeks so Still some hopes to go out freezing my legs and balls of me.
Anybody remember the time when you just grabbed your rod,your tacklebox and jumped in your boat or took a walk to the shore and started to fishing ?
Not that you couldn´t do it again anytime but how many of you honestly do it anymore ?
A lot of electronics has come to our fishing or in some equipment close to it to stay as a natural part of it.
Cameras,mobile phone,hands free stuff to it,sonar,navigator and trolling motors for boat use and not so usual but still excisting reel that start to spooling your line just by pushing a button.With a fish on it also handle the brake if there´s too much tension on the line.
Someone likes a "helping" hand in your fishing and someones don´t,my opinion goes pretty much in middle of it.
I´m using a hands free ear-bud while fishing,on my I-phone you can find a app called fiske loggen where you can do some notes About your cathces including weather conditions etc,etc...,I have camera with me,a waterproof made for though conditions attached to my boat with a rubber legged stand,very handy and cheap.
It really help you if you´re alone in the boat and land your dream fish,instead of pics like this
you can have pics like this,it really makes a difference :)
Newest member in my "Electronic" family is a GoPro hero helmet cam and have to admit it´s nice to watch videos after your fishing,you will deffinately see more videos here on my blog next season,and to be honest I think that even if it nice to watch photos videoclips is the natural trend to let you live your moments again in the long cold winter.
I´m also hoping to have a Minn kota bow motor with I-pilot installed on my boat next season and some update to my sonar/navigation system should also be done but these two is in my long term plans,needs to fix all the necessary things first.
Still working on my allrounder fly,trying different variations,trying to make a compromise of
-Easy to cast
-Big profile
-Good and nice movement
-Made for shallow water
Got some different solutions which will be tested on Saturday,so stay tuned.
Weekend is over and the fishing also for at least a week,just watched at forecasts from TV and I heard a chocking news,we will have a heavy snowfall here in southern parts of Finland.
News like these always cause some nervous palpitation in me,is my season over,still living in hopes of some sessions with my floating tube.
The biggest issue with the snowfall right now is can i get my boat to any workshop.I don´t wanna drive with a trailer in slippery conditions.
Would love to have this repair done this autumn.
If not,it´s gonna be a busy spring.
Have some plans to equip my boat more suitable for fishing but have first to see how much money it will take to fix all the necessary things.
Noticed that surprisingly I can´t take equal amount of flies in my tube as I use to have in my boat so I have tried to figure out some kind of a allrounder fly in my best colors and tied up some test flies which hopefully will be tested next weekend,at least the "bath test" was pretty promising But I will come to this after I have introduced the flies to the judges next weekend.
So...What can I say,went out with my floating tube this morning with a hurry no one has never seen before,I forgot my lunch bag,I forgot my wallet but those things were not important.
I had my fly rod,my tube,immersion suit ETC,ETC.....Only things that count´s.
Went to the shore just some minutes over 7am,small breeze,heavy rain,dark clouds and fog,what more could a pike angler ask for.
In no time I was ready and heading out to my first spot,had my Black/ Silver combo ready for some action and not long after that I arrived to the first spot I landed my first mam,a big fat but very lazy.
Fished from a drifting tube and landed some fishes when I suddenly remembered...My camera,almost forgot I had a helmet cam with me,put it on and continued fishing when suddenly BANG a heavy hit on my fly and immediately the cam on --->
Even if this was a small one it put some pressure on my rod,the fight was over in some minutes and I was slightly disappointed when I saw it was a small one,thought it was bigger.
Even the best sessions have to end at some time,so even this.Eight hours fishing with nearly twenty landed pikes,biggest 6,4 kg (unofficial) and many between tree to five kg:s so have to say it was a pretty memorable day.
Here´s some photo shoots from today´s session.
Not too many photos but the water temp around six degrees kept my fingers in my pockets as much as possible
As it seems to be right now the forecasts has promised me at least one trip for this season which is planned to be at Saturday,+6 degrees,small breeze and rain so not just be able to go for some fishing,even the weather seems to give me a good chance to get some catches.
Was to Lovisa yesterday but only to get my boat out of water and now it´s on trailer at my brothers frontyard waiting for some measures to be made so all fishing for the rest of the season will be from a floating tube which will be nice,it gives you a new perspective to your fishing by getting much closer to the fishes and allow you to fish out places which is impossible with a boat.
So,am I excited ? Oh fuckin yes !!!!! I really am,gonna enjoy every minute of my time spent on water.
Also got some new ties made.Big hopes on my Black/silver combo here without a conehead so hoping to be able for some long stops in shallow areas.
Probably will also try out some poppers with a slow sink line to see if it still work.
Got me a "pearch" pattern tied with some extra flash in case of muddy water.
Gonna go with one rod,one reel (cassette)three lines classed floating,intermediate and a sink2.These equipments should cover most of the situations I can think of.
Two days to go.....
Had high hopes for this weekend,was really looking forward to go out fishing with my floating tube,but the first setback came on Friday morning in form of snow and a temp around -3 to -4 degrees.I could have get along with that but Saturday morning temp -10,6 degrees and snow was too much to handle.
That,including a massive headache made me drop back in bed.
I was lying in bed with big feelings tumblin inside me,none of my thought was positive.Sadness,rage,depression...I just can´t describe...Is it over once again for....at least FUCKIN FIVE !!!!! months now ?
My brother was out fishing from boat and a call to him ensured me my fears,there is ice here and there already.
Lying and staring at my roof...No use to be in bed either,stood up and get to my bedroom window and start to staring again.......
Fuckin shit...it´s October.......Made me some coffee....shift from window to TV and my staring continued.....
Every year the same thing,first weeks without fishing I feel like could kill myself.
I have tried to think out something positive from this but have to admit it´s hard right now,well...our always reliable forecasts promising some warm weather next week,maybe there still hope for a reasonable season end in sight.Have to put my high hopes a bit further to next weekend...
And as a end of this nagging I´ll introduce a new tie...Hope you readers didn´t had a bad day as I....
Looking at forecasts now is kinda pain in the ass,next weekend is going to be cold,and it looks like my season will be over soon.
One thing is for sure,My fishing from boat is over for this season which leave me fishing from a float tube,nothing wrong with that,I have not much experience about it but looking forward to take a go in it.
The reason why I´ll have to interrupt my boat season is simply that it needs a massive maintenance and a even bigger repair and a lot of new parts and at least all you boat owners know that it´s very expensive so my decision was to start right now and do things in a long run so it will be in perfect condition when spring season starts.
So now I have woke late nights reading about fishing from a floating tube.
Don´t get me wrong I have fished from a tube but it has always been on warm summer evenings with waders and a T-shirt and of course a life jacket.
This time it will be different,water temps lying around 10 degrees while writing this post but very cold nights for the rest of the week will surely take away couple of degrees before weekend so we talking about totally different conditions and because the season coming to it´s end I wanna enjoy of it as much as possible so some investments was necessary and the most important for me was a immersion suit,have been playing enough now with life jackets and warm clothes so yesterday I became a owner to a Palm Cascade suit and Palm Shoot water shoes.
Only one thing I really wanna buy is a GoPro camera but will see if that happen before next weekend,not so necessary.
Also need to dig all my floating and intermediate lines from their boxes and put them on my reels and spare spools.
So pretty much ready for the weekend,high hopes I have to admit,have also drove around looking for some nice places like this.
Have also some other places in mind if this won´t be as good as it look.
And of course there has been some fly tying too,hopefully this inspiration hold on for the winter too :)
So,not much more at the moment to write about but hopefully there will be something worth telling you about after next weekend,at least there will be a lot of fishing.
So,the weekend came and went.i was out fishing in very calm wind,warm cloudy weather but one thing that made the biggest challenge was to find "clean" water.
At most of my spots the water was so muddy you could not see the fly from maybe eight inches distance but after some driving around I managed to find a spot with with some clear water,not crystal clear but clear so why not start here,the surface was like a mirror no movement at all the whole nature felt so quiet and calm this morning,I just love mornings like this,even if there´s more challenge to get any fishes but not long before I felt a familiar tug,I knew immediately it was a very small jack at the other end of my line,after 20 seconds I landed a monster of maybe fifteen inches long but the game was on.
I fished with a slow sink line and a fly that swim just under the surface so I saw the fly almost from the beginning of retrieving to the end and after some time just washing the line I saw a small wave separates from the reed closing in to my fly quickly and following it from a inch away,made a loooooooong stop ten feet from the boat,the pike was staring at my fly....a moment that felt like a eternity,a tiny little strip of the line and BANG,there we go,the second for the day.Man I enjoyed,even if even this was small one.
Both fishes was caught with a Pink/chartreuse colored fly tied on a Sakuma Manta 546 6/0 hook.
Something happened after this,many follows but not a single hit.so I decided to let the fishes rest for a while and enjoy a cup of warm coffee and a sandwich.
While I enjoyed my coffee I wondered what to do next,to get the small jacks interested in my flies and thought of a solution to go down in size and chose a small maybe five inches long fly tied also on a Sakuma 546 6/0.
Not a perfect solution,landed one fish more and decided to take a look at the new place I wrote about in my last post.
Drove slowly there,no need to hurry,I was in a good mood.
The water there was like the coffee with milk I just drink,had no big hopes this time at this spot,but decided to give it a try anyway.
If the pikes cant see your fly then make it noticed in other ways,this was a test of my new popper fly I tied just for this place in mind.
Not a big success this either,so I changed it to a gold/green flashfly and after an hours fishing I had landed two more fishes XS sized these also I decided to go for some clear water again and while I was driving in to sheltered bay I saw a well known boat with four also well known fishermen in it.My brother and three friends with him.They have had no luck and landed only one fish at the whole morning,my brother had dropped a big gun just minutes before my arriving.
Anyway,water was clear so far but the wind pushed more and more mud into this bay so without any contacts I decided to give up and try one or two more spots,and not much to tell you about them,landed just one fish at the last place,a small one even this,the biggest issue right now was and still is the battery which is on it´s way to break down,have to see if it has to be fixed before this season is over.In that case there will be more float tube sessions at the end of the season.
And then some new ties here show you,have so much inspiration and ideas now.
and the same fly after swim school,gonna write more about the difference between dry and wet flies.
That´s all for now.Tight lines to all of you who´s gonna go fishing in the middle of the week.
