Fishing 27/5 2012.Pikemania

This day was memorable,absolutely stunning,six hours fishing and at least thirty landed pikes and also some dropped fishes,among them a +100 cm fish.
No matter if I fished from windy or calm side the pikes were absolutely crazy.Only difference was that the size was bigger on the windy side.Fished only four spots but those spots were carefully chosen before I went out at sea.
The weather was against good fishing,sunny + 20 degrees and a small breeze,but sometimes it seems to work fine,would never thought this day would turn to a great fishing day.

Started 9 am at spot number one and cause to the weather I did not rush,instead I poured me a cup of coffee and took a look in my flyboxes and tried to figure out which color i should start with,first I wanted to test one of my new ties pink/white with a trailing hook,couple of casts but of some reason I did not had the faith in it so a change of it.Sunny day and in this place the water was pretty clear so how about orange/black? Hell yeah,why not.

Fished for maybe an hour,landed two small buggers,had some coffee enjoyed the life,suddenly I saw some small fishes,there were hundred of them,i was almost sure that there must be predators very close now.
The small fishes got silver colored stomach and a black back so now it was time to change the fly to my reliable black/silver combo.
While I was changing the fly i saw those small fishes starting to move around like headless chickens and as soon I got my fly out I felt that someone accepted my offer,a XS-bugger but the game was on,not too long before the second visit my boat.

from that moment those pikes turned crazy,I landed a lot of fishes,dropped some,anyway, they attacked my fly over and over again until it was totally raped.

Not much left of it :)))

So, i had to take a new look in my boxes and I set my sight to my new tie,a variation from Bulky flash slider which I named to Saver,and I have to say that that fly was worth it´s name.
It catch a lot of fishes and have to say hat the movement was very nice.
here is some photo shoots from this session,have no idea if there is photos from other trips too or if there is photos of the same fish,downloaded almost hundred photos from my phone and camera but anyway......

The Saver was busy.

It was fun,very fun but I still decided to drive to spot number two but it made no other difference then the size was slightly bigger her on the windy side,or let´s say it was a light breeze,not wind,anyway the size here was between two and four kilos.

I had one train classed pike hooked but after two failed chin grips I decided to use my landing net and of some reason just before I got the net in water the fly just came off and I just stood there fumed watched a +100 cm pike slowly glide away,well....it wasn´t meant for me I guess.

I landed some smaller fishes and suddenly I was privileged to see a sight that I have never seen before and probably will never see it again.
I made a cast close to the shore where the water surface was calm and I saw the fly all the way while stripping the line,just a few meter left I saw a small pike following the fly very close,had no line left so I moved my rod instead but it never attacked it when suddenly from nowhere I saw a monster just moved in and took the smaller pike and.....it was over,very exciting to see a thing like that.
Now I knew here was some decent sized pike too.

This spot was nice,these pikes was able to bend my Big Daddy more or less :)))

Well,it was fun but everything comes to a end so even this session,one more spot just about two hundred meters from this and even if I landed two fishes with three casts the size was getting smaller but that was not the reason I decided to stop,here is one reason:

And the whole day without anything to eat,just some water and juice had made me a bit weak so it was time for some BBQ and then to get something on my arms.
some more photos,the saver just after tie,will put in a SBS of it soon,I really loved the movement of this.

then some random photos from trips this weekend.

And even the Saver start to look a little dizzy.

And while checking the fly I noticed that my leader wasn´t at it best either,thank god I did not get the fish of my life with

this.....

This was truly a memorable day.but now I will have a couple days with flytying,need some black/silver combos and will certainly tie also some Savers in different colors.

Trying to relax.

I just went from sauna and bubble bath,have me a beer so it should not be surprise that I´m feeling fine.
Yesterday on Friday I went fishing after a crappy day at work and of some reason I first just enjoyed the silence and beautiful nature before I started to fishing and found some more differences then just technical.It´s very much mental too,at least for me.
It feels kinda funny that when I´m using spincasting it´s always three or four casts at one spot and if there´s nobody home then quickly to the next spot to give a new try but when flycasting I´m feeling more relaxed and no hurry anywhere,I´m often fishing only one spot without pressure to land a pike and when I´m fishing just one spot I use to be more accurate and It´s not unusual that I´m getting better results on one spot then driving around like a headless chicken.



One thing to mention is that I´ve had so much stress lately at work and unfortunately I have taken it with me sometimes out to the sea too,even when I´m fly fishing I have not could relax until yesterday,thank god I have only next week at work before my vacation starts,I really feel I´m in need for it now.
Anyway,went out last Friday with calm down as my main target.Fished only one carefully thought spot,fished it pretty accurate and landed three pikes in four hours,felt relaxed while driving home.



This morning I started with a visit at our local bakery early in the morning,newly-baked bread and some coffee gave me a good start to this Saturday.
I drove to Lovisa and jumped into my boat and took of to another carefully thought spot with two and a half hour to fish before it was time to get to my cottage and sort out everything there before my three week long vacation starts.



Water level was low but to my surprise the watertemp was much colder then I thought it would be,even after several days of sunshine and temps over twenty degrees the water temp was only between nine and eleven degrees,that´s probably why the fishes has still been found in shallow water.
Had me a cup of coffee before I started to fish and like on Friday the pikes was in very low water,in no more then 40 cm:s depth.There were two issues,first of all,the water was covered with birch pollen which made the water look like some green pudding.
Second issue was that the pikes were not too interested in my fly at all,I saw one or more pikes follow my fly several times but no one attacked it at the first hour,after that I landed a pike who compete of the title:My smallest ever pike no more then about 30 cm,maybe two inches longer then my fly,hooked on the trailer hook (#2 Maruto Carphook).

Time was running out so there were no more fishes and I went to my cottage and spent the rest of the day there and now everything is ready there too for my vacation,have a plan to go fishing tomorrow,hopefully the weather would be fine.

I´m so sorry for no photos here,I have at least 50 photos on my camera and my phone but not able to download them on this computer(without my daughters help).
Have photos from my fishing and some new flies,would love to share them,I´m living in a hope I´ll get my laptop next week.

Fishing and OPINIONS :)

13 days without my own computer now and I start to feel slightly pissed of now,don´t know how to attach photos from this piece of shit for example,and try to ask of a teenager if it´s okay if daddy want to loan her laptop.... Anyway,there have been some fishing at least,three trips to be exact.Nothing revolutionary to tell but some things like my last session on last Saturday when I made a pure and simple blank draw,it has always been tough times when it´s not Spring anymore but not Summer either.I simply can´t find those damn pikes that time,I tried from shallow water,deep water.Windy side,calm side.No matter if I fished among water plants or open water,not even rocky water made no difference.When your fishing goes like that you would be grateful even for a tiny small little bugger on the other end of the line. And now to the Friday fishing,it was as tough as my story above except that it was not a blank draw but almost..... I had a interesting conversation with Simon Graham some time ago talkin about tubeflies,or their hooks to be exact. I made a "promise" to fish with only tubes this season and so I have done so far,but on that Friday I broke that promise After I dropped some fishes I decided to try a "normal" fly and BANG,a few minutes later I landed a XS sized bugger,coincidence or not...you tell me,anyway when your fishing is tough you or at least I don´t wanna drop the perhaps only fish for the day so I´ll have to go back to the drawing board again or change back to hookies again,there´s one issue with that: I have tied hundreds of flies on tube :))),what the hell am I gonna do with them? Then to a thing that bother me slightly and that´s the lack of respect for other fisherman´s opinions. Read here the other day of a guy who landed a HUGE pike on amazing 19,2 kg:s,nothing wrong so far but his next decision had even bigger effect,he killed it..... After what I have heard he has recived death threats and other in my opinion very stupid feedbacks. What I mean here is...even if 99%(me included) of us would have released that fish we have to remember one thing:he has not done anything illegal,and that´s the point,it´s an opinion VS opinion,not a wrong or right opinion,so threatning someones life...can´t even find the words. And the same thing on a other site,normal hooks VS barbless hooks,this list could go on and on to the end of days You can have your opinion heard in other ways too,it´s just about listening to each others opinions. One example from my own "fishing career" is from a couple of years ago when I put some photos from a fishingtrip up on a Swedish site(edgeflyfishing)There was one photo of a pike lying on a bench in my boat,one guy commented on that pic:have you ever tried Rapala weighing bag?The pike would probably feel better and not to mention that it would help you to keep your boat clean. He didn´t start the comment by You stupid amateur or anything like that,he did not criticized my photo in any way,he just told his opinion and guess what?today I´ll have a weighing bag with me when I go fishing. So,enough with this nagging,enjoy your fishing,no matter if you using spin cast or fly fishing.Let´s listen and learn from each other,hopefully our fishing will be even more enjoyable.

Photos from last trip and some tying.

Wind up to 14 m/s at my spots so instead of fishing there will be some tying today,also need to wash my fly lines and other small things so everything is ready for the next session,next week the spawning is probably over. And BTW,thanks to my daughter I can put some photos here on my blog from the last trip.

And sorry for this photo,alone in the boat and wanted to release the fish fast because the off hooking took all too long in my opinion so had no time to do it better this time.

And the color of the day...surprisingly black/silver,with this fly I landed 10 of 16 pikes.

. Some more catches.

Here is a pic from Sunday,a dead pike with some kind of damage on it´s side.Wonder what could have cause it? No other wounds as far as I could see.

And from fishing to tying: First a traditional Red/white which delivered a pike first time ever for me.

Sadly I lost this fly on Sunday but tied a new one on Sunday evening,need to have one in my box from now on :) More traditional colors.

And traditional seems to be the name of the game.

Lovisa 5-6/5-2012.Monkey is of.

As the title say I landed my first fish for the season 88 cm/4.3 kg:s last weekend.Why I write about it 4 days later is because first I was without internet connection and right after they fixed that my NEW computer just didn´t wanna start and yesterday I took it to a repairman and I´ll have to get along without my own computer from three to six weeks. Anyway,about my weekend fishing.On Saturday morning I went out to Lovisa archipelago once again to shake of that monkey from my back and started with a quick sight at a place I know pikes are spawning,could not hear any noise of spawning(which was good) while i just sit in my boat drinking a warm cup of coffee enjoying the silence,weather was warm and calm so not too big expectations for any catch but I was wrong. Had no anchor so I just let the boat drift while i was enjoying my coffee.the water depth was not more than one meter.Suddenly I saw at least ten small pikes slowly swim into that bay where I was just about to leave so I knew the spawning wasn´t too far anymore.It looked amazing seeing a armada of pikes swimming so close to my boat I´ve could have touch them if I wanted to. About 50 meters outside the bay in middle of old waterplants I put the anchor were it belong -->in the water and began to compile my equipments including a brand new line built by Lauri Selenius (a master in line building)floating running line and slow sink head and started to fish. Not many casts before I felt something at the other end of the line but because of the waterplants I wasn´t sure was it a fish or some weed.Suddenly I saw a big splash and a small bugger turned around just in front of me,oh...so close. Same thing was repeated several times until I changed my hook from single to one with a trailer hook,yeah,now were talking. Not many casts before my rod bended a lot,this time I knew it was a fish at the other end and 30 seconds later a beautiful Ma´m was visiting inside of my boat.88 cm:s/4.3 kg:s was the stats of my first catch of the season.C&R of course. It felt better to stand and sit after that,what was it?Oh yeah of course,it was the monkey who was of my back :))) I fished for many hours and had a fish now and then but the first one was the biggest and once again I have to say that I dropped all too many fishes,small ones but...not good anyway. On Sunday my brother was with me and believe me or not but only with flyfishing equipments,well in that jungle jerkbaits would not have been so useful anyway. Felt a bit sorry first for him cause of his 3-5 meter long casts but after some hours casting practice it started to look good,only his first fly catch was missing. I had four or five small buggers when I saw a BIG pike swimming just after my brothers fly and right behind the boat it attacked but my brother wasn´t able to land it,what a first catch it would have been,+100 cm:s for sure,maybe a 20 pounder?? who knows. We fished around nine hours on Sunday and landed 16 pikes at the weekend,so sorry my brother didn´t manage to land any but he was very happy anyway,there will perhaps not be any Fly VS jerk fights anymore but who care,to have fun is the main thing. Photos....I have a LOT of photos on my camera but I´m not able to transfer them to this computer,maybe my daughter could do it when she arrive home. Tomorrow I had plans to go fishing again IF the weather or should I say wind is calm enough for FLYFISHING FOR PIKE.