With little help from a friend

So now we have about 50 cm:s snow in southern Finland and we get the whole package in two weeks.I have been at work most of the time so that´s why there have been no posts lately but the forecasts have promised a break from at least the heaviest snowfalls so I might get some rest and enjoy my hobby a while. I have also been a babysitter to my oldest daughters cat Hercules and I noticed that he also enjoyed my tying and at times drove me out of my mind. At least my younger daughter had fun while she took some photo shoots. Hey man,what are you doing? May I join your company? Oh FLYTYING...very interesting.

Don´t forget to add some Bucktail....DID YOU HEAR..BUCKTAIL...stupido....

Ok,now were on right track,I`ll take a look from the other side.

Why do have to be so nervous?Calm down man,I´ll just walk here in front of your face,keep on tying.

Ok.it look like you can handle it,hope you don´t mind if I rest here on your arm while you are finishing your fly.Hurry up,I´m hungry.

Even if it wasn´t the easiest way to tie a fly I´m pleased with the result:

And one more for the road:

Here´s two variants of same model,both have Bucktail under,one covered with Big Fly Fibre the other with Body fibre.Both have a nice movement in water.After that I added some Finn-Raccoon zonker in a loop and finalized the fly with one Marabou feather palmered round the tube. Oh yes,and a pair of Glow in the dark eyes from deercreek.

Winter time

While I´m writing this post we have finally got a blanket of snow even here in southern Finland so now I can with certainty say that my season is over and a long waiting has begun. So now there will be about 4 months time to tie flies,train my casting skills,meet friends or whatever come to my mind. Last year I felt sick not be able to go out fishing but now I feel relaxed,calm.It almost feel good to have a small break from fishing. Was here some days ago out on a windy field testing my new Vision Big Daddy rod with different lines and at same time I practiced casting in windy conditions. And guess what....I was not alone,you´ll never guess who was with me....My brother who use to fish with Jerk baits tried flycasting,and after a couple of hours training it looked okay,in fact pretty good.It was nice to see him so excited. After a short talk he bought himself a combo,the same combo that I started my flyfishing for pike with. The combo includes a Guideline ACT rod(9ft),a Guideline Reelmaster Reel and two Guideline Pike lines S3 and a floating.All in lineweight 8.Now he has trained all days and getting better all the time,looks like he has completely felt for this genre of fishing,wonder when he calls me asking to buy my old wise :). Wonder if there will be more Fly VS jerk anymore :)Anyway,I think he wait for the springtime as much as I did last year.

About tubes.

Have started to tie more and more flies on tube and I think it´s time to compare tubes and ordinary hook flies,whats good and whats bad with them. Want to point out that these thoughts are my own and not some absolutely truth,I don´t have enough experience to give anyone lessons :). Comparing tubes and let´s call them just hooks I find it easier to tie on a tube because I have more space on the "shaft" on tubes,I´m just tying the fly and cut of the rest of the tube witch is impossible on hooks.When I´m tying on hooks I always have to remember to keep the gap open. Of some reason I don´t feel comfortable to tie Zonker strips on tubes,maybe I´ll get over it someday ? Fishing with tubes......As I have told you earlier I have a slight feeling that I have dropped more fishes with tubes but as I also told you earlier I don´t have enough experience to say that it is so,it could be just bad luck or what ever but one thing is for sure,I will continue to fish with tubes,have tried some different hooks and still searching for the "best". The main advantage for tubes is their flexibility,you can wear different hooks,different sizes of them.Use tandem hooks,use barbless or not,all this on the same fly Also you can choose the position of the hook,more back,more in front,it´s all up to you.

One thing that I didn´t found much information about from internet was how to attach your tube to your line so I´m not sure if this is the "right" way have done like this so far but if someone will tell me some another way to do it I would be grateful. First of all I´ll take a nylon coated wire and make a loop in both ends and then melt the nylon with a lighter,oh yes and don´t forget to put a hook of your choice in one of the loops :).

And a photo of the hook+ loop.

Then put a silicon tube on the hook shank.

Then thread the wire trough your tube.....Strength the silicon tube on your fly tube.

Now were have a hook attached to our fly and the next step is to attach it to a mono line witch should have been attached to our fly line with a loop to loop connection. I have used a 60-100 cm long 0.50-0.70 line in witch I have again made loops in both ends. One important thing is to make a loop big enough to thread your fly trough it.

I use to secure the knots with Aquasure glue. Next step is to thread your mono loop through the wire loop.

After that thread the fly+hook through the mono loop.

Now it´s just to tighten the wire and the mono lines and that´s it.

As I said there might be better ways to do this but so far this have worked good enough for me.None of the attachments have let me down so far.