Inspiration sources.Bulky flash slider.

It has happened all too often lately that I have took a seat behind my vise and found myself staring on a empty tube on the needle without a clue what I suppose to tie. Thank god there is many different sources to get ideas and inspiration from. My latest inspiration started from a Finnish website perhokalastajat.net were I noticed a pattern that immediately aroused my interest. After I read the thread further I saw that there is a story of that fly in a Finnish flyfishing magazine Pohjolan perhokalastajat and after that it was time to study my personal library and after some digging I found the magazine and guess what....SBS guide. After reading the article I have to admit I was a bit disappointed because this pattern including two of materials i hate most to use: -Craft fur -Slinky fibre. But i learned to get along with flashmaterials so why not with these. This pattern has two variations called Bulky slider and Bulky flash slider. Because I´m tying on tubes and Bulky slider needs Schlappen as a tail and I don´t feel comfortable with those feathers on tube I started with a bulky flash slider. I started with a small bundle with Slinky as tail,added two bundles with Flash,more Slinky,then some Craft fur palmered round the tube.Lateral scale on both sides and finally one more THIN bundle of Slinky.Whip finish and.....That´s it

When I took it from my vise I have to confess...I didn´t like it,but next day when I looked at again I slowly started to think:why not... I have not tested this pattern in water yet but I have a strong feeling that this is not a pattern that deliver in cold water,we will see... And as so often before I started to modified this pattern too,not much but I changed Slinky fibre to Body fibre witch in my opinion have a lot better movement in water.

Next step will be to tie a couple of "normal" bulky sliders as soon as I´ll overcome my skepticism with those Schlappen feathers as a tail on tubeflies. I also have some other ideas and thoughts but I will be back with them soon in new posts.

Season opener at Lauttasaari 24.3

Woke up 30 minutes before my alarm clock should have done it anyway,felt so fuckin tired after 2-3 hours nervous sleep,headache..dragged me out of my warm bed and looked out from window,yeah...a small breeze added with sleet. Normally I would have dragged me back to bed and go on sleeping,perhaps for the rest of the day but not today,I felt great,it was time for some kind of a season opener. In my vestibule I had already a bag packed from yesterday ready for today.But better to check it out one more time. -Striping bag -Flies -Rod -Reel -Landing net -Chestbag including pliers,scissors,leaders ETC,ETC....

Everything seemed to be okay so after some coffee I jumped into my car and drove to Lauttasaari.One more cup of coffee,put my waders on and walked down to the shore. The smell of open water,the cold (almost freezy)breeze,crystal clear water,god I felt happy that moment,I just can´t describe the feeling.....I mean...I have practice my casting all the winter on a local field near where I live but to be able to lay out some line in open water...it just felt heavenly. As I told you in my previous post I didn´t had too much expectations to land any fishes,just took this trip to practice more my casting skills. Anyway,I tied a blue colored fly called "Haili" pattern to start with.Waded out in the cold water and started to practice my double haul. After an hour or so I felt that my balls probably must be blue colored by now,at least my fingers was both white,red and blue and on top of that I had no sensation in them either so i thought it might be time for a coffee break and why not take some photos too.

After two cups of coffee I changed my gloves to a dry pair and waded out in the water again but could not be there for more than maybe 15 minutes when the negative side of this kind of urban city fishing showed up it´s negative side.....

A boat of this size makes waves of that size that I decided to take a new break for my own sake (wanted the water to stay outside of my waders) with some coffee added with a sandwich this time. While I was eating I had a this fellow as company and he/she seemed to be delighted when I sheared my bred with him/her :)

Well,after WE had finished my sandwiches he/she lost his/her interest in me and I waded once again out in the water among ice floes to freeze my balls of me. After about one and a half hours fishing I lost a fly and with fingers with no sense it would have been impossible to tie on a new one so I decided to give up for today. I bought me a new camera for a while ago witch should be waterproof and of course I had to test that too,here´s a photo of my version of a Haili in action

After this opener I went to a friends birthday party same evening and while writing this post with a small hangover and some kind of a flu on coming I still feel so energetic I haven´t felt for many months.Maybe I will do some Seatrout trips more this spring..I don´t know,it all depends on how soon I can have my boat launched and go out for my biggest passion,flyfishing for pike.

Waiting for the opener.

Now it won´t be long before the long awaited season opener will come true.To be honest I had some thoughts that this will be the weekend to open it but I saw some pic´s from Lauttasaari took on Friday and...yes it could be possible to fish but thought that I will wait one more week,then it should be completely free from ice. I have to admit that it´s exactly not the opener I´m waiting for,little mixed up feelings here,this the season opener is more to get to open water and to lay out some line instead of fishing.I don´t have too big expectations of catch any Seatrouts. It has been interesting to tie some smaller flies for variety but....don´t know...miss something,I´ll guess it´s the passion for this kind of fishing. Anyway,here´s some new and probably last flies for Seatrout.(for this season)

And bought me some new hooks to tie Seatrout flies on Mustad S74 SZ-34011 size two so now I can also introduce the olive one I almost promised you.

So,what I really waiting for...The big Mam´s to arrive to shallow water,and after spawning...I will be waiting :) Meanwhile there has been more tying and maintenance of equipments needed for pike hunt.Have also get me some new stuff like new materials.As I told you in my last post I had some new material from Nordic Angler and I have no turned them from this

To this

I really like that Grizzly striped material,cant wait to get more colors of it.Here is a photo from middle of tying so you can see better how it look like.

The second material is called Nordic fibre.Here´s a fly with it blended with my favourite synthetic Body Fibre.

Things slowly but surely sorting out,had some serious problem to find Titanium wire but finally had a tip of a German shop (Camo lures) who had this BOA wire I was looking for. It´s the same wire that many use in jerkbait fishing. Well, I had some different use of it.

Some of you already guess what I was planning to do with it,that´s right,a trailer rig to some of my bigger flies.

I saw this thing from flydressing.se site and decided to give it a try. As main hook I choose a Partridge Universal Predator # 4/0 and as trailer hook a Maruto 8265 Carp hook # 2 witch I made barbless. The hooks are attached to each other with titanium wire and as tying thread I have used Kevlar and super glue just in case,gonna make a couple of them.Let´s see how it works. And finally a thing that should have been done a long time ago,yes,I washed my wading jacket. After many slimy Mam´s visiting me in my arms in a couple of years and without washing the smell was,hmm.....let´s just call it....priceless. But it wasn´t a easy gig.I could have had some use of a woman´s helping hand here. First a wash without that bleeching stuff or softener either.Not to use tumble drying either. After rinse I let my jacket hang so most of the water run out,after that I used some stuff called ReviveX and dryed my jacket with a hairdryer. A lot of work but I´m happy with the result,the jacket is as good as new. It´s amazing how a grown up man can get so exited year in,year out of the forthcoming season :)

Springtime II

Now looking at forecasts I have to say that it sure looks good,next week says it´s rainy and warm weather and if that is what we get I live in a hope that I will be able to launch my boat in middle of April. But....This seasons opener will not be as usual,I´m gonna go for Seatrouts at Lauttasaari in Helsinki in about two,maybe three weeks. Well,to be honest I´m doing this most for practicing my casting,just feel it much more interesting to practice in water then out on some field even if I probably wont get any fish. Have to raise my hat to those flyfishers that year in year out fishing for only seatrout,I mean,I know guys casting about million cast in a season and land one,maybe two fish in a season,well,that´s nothing for me. Anyway,I have tied some flies..just in case :).

These flies has to be enough,simply because I don´t got more hooks to tie on,don´t think a 6/0 hook will work :).I would like to tie one olive green colored fly more but only if I find some decent hook to tie on. These flies are tied on Fulling Mill Pikehook size 1/0 and Mustad ??? Streamer hooks size 2. Will go with my pike rods 9# but will change my line to a 9 weighted Guideline Coastal slowint.Had me new waders Vision Ikon with Vision Mako shoes which will also be tested. The mailman brought me a parcel from my favorite dealer Nordic angler (thank´s Mikko)including some new test material which looked interesting and will turn into some pikeflies tomorrow.Would like to tie some already but to be honest(once again)I had me a big steak for dinner and also had me a bottle of red wine and opened a second bottle for 10 minutes to go so no,no fly tying right now,and sorry for probably more clerical errors than usually

Welcome Springtime.

So,even if there is snow and ice here in Finland and it´s impossible to go fishing for me there is always at least one sign for Springtime and that´s GoExpo fair in Helsinki faircenter,that´s were my Spring officially starts. I was visiting the fair at Saturday right from the start.Nothing new to tell about it,nice to see friends that you usually see only at summertime,to check out some new stuff and as usually buy something necessary like Visions trousers for boat use ETC,ETC..... Bought me some tying material to tie flies for Seatrout!!! Yes Seatrouts.I have a plan to go for some silver torpedos while the Pikes are spawning And of course I have to tie some flies for them too.

Still gonna tie some more but I´m not sure what kind of flies I´ll have to tie but I´ll guess they will be like those two I´ve already tied. But I have not forgot to tie some goodies for my aim target either.Noticed that I need some Black/Silver combos in reserve,Pikes destroyed at least six or seven flies last season so now I´m prepared for that with some extra flies. I´ve also have some new color combos in my mind,here´s one of them,a black fly with some red flash and a head of Salmon pink finn raccoon zonker.

Next step for the forthcoming season is Finnish flyfishing fair at Tampere,my plan to travel to Sweden Sportfiskemässan was ruined because I cant be away from my work at that time.After that fair it won´t be long before I can write about my long awaited season opener.