Fishing and testing Semper Fi 26.8 2012

I was out fishing today on Sunday and nothing new with that,what made this day special was that I had a guy with me that Is very interested in fishing but has not landed a pike in two years...TWO YEARS !!!!

He is a friend to my brother and I heard that last time he was fishing with my brother he had fished for ten hours without a single hit on his lure while my brother landed pike after pike
My brother was on work at our cottage so it was an easy decision to take him with me with a promise that he will get a fish today and what a start he almost had he had a hit on his second cast but couldn´t land the fish but at least we knew there was somebody home so continued to cast our lures (flies for me) into the water,both had some hits but no landed fishes.

It took us a while before Alex shouted that he had a fish on and this time he landed it.
It was a small one but I ,have never seen a guy so happy bout a fish,it really felt good to help someone like this.



Of some reason the fishing was tough,very tough,and I started to panic,would it be a blank draw for me?
After three hours of fishing I finally landed a fish,size XS,but anyway,it made my day.
Of course I was bleeding even on this daytrip too,almost a tradition already,don´t even ask how I do it.





We had some work to do at our cottage so at this stage it was good to finish our fishing.

The water temp was still warm,17-18 degrees celsius and the water level low which could be one reason why the fishing felt so tough but you also could feel that the autumn was near now and two,maybe three weeks more and it should be better and easier to find fishes.

Also tested some new ties inspired from Simon Grahams blog,a pattern called Semper Fi.
Loved the way they moved not to mention how easy they were to cast,still gonna give them a facelift so they fit more my style.The movement was nice but I want a bit bigger size so the next flies will be same except they will have a longer tail







All tied on Sakuma manta 546 Long shank size 6/0

A step by step tie

just wanted to share some tying instructions of a pattern that has worked very well on my last sessions,this color showed here almost beat the Black/Silver combo last spring and delivered second most last weekend ,right after Black/Purple combo.

For this pattern I prefer one with a bit longer shank Sakuma Manta 546 long shank in size 6/0,don´t have to tie all materials so close to each other which gives more movement in water.
What you need is:

-Bucktail
-Big Fly Fibre
-Flash (Mirage is outstanding on this)
-Lateral scale
-Body Fibre
-UV-resin or Epoxy (don´t wanna argue which is better,all up to you)
-3D Eyes



First I use to cover the shank with tying thread.



Add first bunch of Bucktail.(if you got good quality of it you dont have to use hollow style)



Then add small bunches of Big fly fibre evenly round the shank and taper the tail.



Now you can add some flash.I use to do it in a loop because the fly will last longer and it´s easier to get the material evenly round the shank,it´s even nice to mix different flash if you want to.Tying in a loop is not necessary either.





Now as you can see I have to tie next bunch of Bucktail with hollow style because this piece was too soft.




Then the second loop with flash,a little bit shorter then the first one.



We getting nearer the hook eye now,add one piece of lateral scale on both side of the fly.



Add small bunches of Body fibre evenly round the shank,DON´T ADD TOO THICK BUNCHES!!!
otherwise it will kill the movement of the fly.
And it´s good to brush them a bit before tying them.




Now your fly is ready if you want to but for some reason i always wanna add a UV-resin or Epoxy head and of course 3D eyes too,not necessary but makes the fly look better.
After the head is ready it´s time to introduce your creations to the judges under the surface.Think they will love it :)



Tight lines.

Lovisa Archipelago 18-19.8 2012

So...Two days fishing behind and have to say that it was enjoyable,even if Saturday morning din´t start to well,and now in retrospect I have to wonder how STUPID can a man be? I saw there was fog coming,I knew it was thick and still I jumped in my boat and went out at sea,after two minutes I was lost,completely lost.I didn´t had clue were the hell I was,and those readers who has been with me fishing know how rocky those waters are.This was the wiew from drivers seat....



It was pretty scary I must say,Thank god I did not start to panic,i could think pretty clearly so I decided to take a right turn and I knew that the shoreline has to come against me sooner or later,drove very carefully and soon I saw the shoreline.....
Wait....I know were I am,I need to take a little more to left and there´s my first fishing spot....what,this isn´t were I thought I was,anyway,I slowly let the boat glide into that bay and now it was time to throw the anchor and sit down to wait and take a cup of coffee.

After an hour and three cups of coffee there was an small breeze blowing and I was finally able to see the landscape,and oh man,no way I was able to get away yet But I didn´t need to hurry either.looked like a fishing spot.





Why not do some fishing while waiting for the fog to blow away.started with spinnerbaits first and landed some small buggers,used a paddle to move closer to the shore and started to fly fish but landed only one fish but bigger then with spinners.

Two hours later There wasn´t much left from the fog and it was time to study were the hell I was.Well I was pretty close to the place I thought I first was so a short drive later I could start from spot A.



I was hoping for little more help from the wind but no,had to get along with this almost calm weather,just a tiny little breeze.
Fishing was though,just as I thought but still I was able to land about six or seven pikes before the nature decided that it was enough with fishing for now and attacked me with a heavy thunder and now it was the right time to have a lunch break at my cottage.My both brothers with their wives had arrived to clean all three shacks and I had also to do my part of the cleaning and have to say it was worth it.
I found a box with some old home made lures I made years ago,didn´t even remember I had them anymore,nice....



Anyway,my shack was cleaned and I had me a bite and time to drag my ass out fishing again,weather was sunny,calm so no big expectations on but fishing was pretty good anyway.I was a bit surprised.And surprised that my black/purple fly worked so well,it was meant to cloudy and dark conditions.





It was nice fishing but even a nice day come to it´s end and while the sun slowly fell to the horizon I drove back to my cottage for a well earned dinner and a couple cups of coffee and some sleep.



I slept well,in fact VERY well,woke up 6.30 am and made me some sandwiches and coffee.while i was eating I looked out from window and saw a dark,grey sky with a light breeze,at this stage my expectations was better then yesterday and after I finished my breakfast I went out at sea again.



I started from couple of well known places and landed some fishes but it felt though anyway.



After a couple of hours fishing the wind turned of and the surface turned totally calm and the fishing went even more though,could not land a single fish from my regular places so I started to find some new instead and I found a place that might be a real hot spot when the water temp cool down a lot from todays +19 degrees.





Landed one fish from here but after a month or so I have a feeling here you are able to find some big guns.



At this stage my back was hurting a lot so I decided to stop the fishing for the weekend and take a short break before driving back to the shore and start driving back home prepare for the forthcoming week that I have to spend at work,but have to say that it was nice to relax the whole weekend with fishing,I think I can handle the five forthcoming days at work now.

Thoughts before next session.

Sittin her and writing just to calm down a little.I´m so excited that tomorrow I will go for a two days trip to my cottage and flyfishing for pike,actually for the first time this year.
Have tied some new flies which was not made for this trip but will still find their way to the judges under the surface tomorrow.






My last trip to lovisa archipelago was pain in the ass,all pikes were deep among all weeds so even if I heard them and even saw some it was almost impossible to reach them with both flies or spinnerbaits.

Fished for at least five hours with only three landed fishes,two with spinners and one with fly.
This time I´ll try only with flies even if I got me a parcel from Sweden,Söder sportfiske to be exact including four packages of Savagear Real eel softbaits,will be tried next time because I really longing for some flyfishing right now.
Some photos from last session.









I don´t have big expectations from the two next days,looking forward to lay out some line and enjoy....

Back to fly tying

It has been a while since my last posting.It doesn´t mean that I have not been out fishing.
The truth is that I have fished a lot which take some time,I also have started at a new job which takes me a LOT of time so there hasn´t been too much extra time for writing.

Anyway the weather has slowly cooled down and somehow you can feel the summer is finally over and the autumn is on it´s way bringing the big predators to shallow water closer to the shore.
In other words it will soon be time for some serious pikehunt,and when the water cool down a little bit more it´s time to grab the flyrod(finally)and fish the way I really love,starting tomorrow.
I put both tying and flyfishing on hold for the whole summer and has been fishing with spinner and chatterbaits instead,that including some lurebuilding too and I have to admit it has been nice in some ways.













These have worked fine with a lot of catches.
Chatterbaits have also catched some fishes but as much I´ve expected when I started to use them.Last time I was fishing I had a competition between them,ten casts with spinnerbaits and then ten casts with chatterbaits and spinners won with nine against three pikes,even the size was bigger with spinners.

One thing that came to my mind was my wounds from almost every trip I have made lately.Had earlier this season a pretty bad wound on my thumb but I didn´t learn much from it....at my latest session I had a decent sized fish caught and the chatterbait was deep in it´s throat and while I was releasing her she dumped her teeth in two of my fingers and once again I had blood all over,it was bleeding pretty much so I almost stopped my fishing but finally it dried up.
A friend of mine wasn´t as lucky as I,a pike burst a bigger vein and he had to go to hospital and get five stiches on his thumb,he also lost a lot of blood before he get there.Therefore I bought me a small first aid kit to have in the boat,I strongly recommend the same to all of you pikehunters,(you can see some pictures from his blog: http://aspfishing.blogspot.fi/)

As I told you earlier my flytying has been on hold for a while but now before the autumnfishing starts thought it would be nice to add some new members to my older ones but.....



No excuses here,just to clean up first :)
And then some tying,it felt a bit strange after a long pause.



Even managed to tie in loop without all materials on the floor.



Think I need some practice.



Anyway,now it´s time to get some big mam´s landed before the long cold winter arrive.