Tube solutions and new ties.

I have tied a lot of new flies for this forthcoming season which still seem to be light years away because of -10 degrees night temps.
As you can see most of them is tied on tube.I lost my faith in tubes last season because of so many dropped fishes but have had time this long winter to think of the reasons why´s so.
I have tried different hooks but I have read so many praises of TMC 600sp so I find it hard to believe that I have fished with "wrong" hooks.
Already in middle of last season I started to think of this issue,wondering what could be wrong and slowly my thoughts went to the attachment of the hook.I used to work with Eumer or HMH hard tube in L-size and attached a hook with a soft silicon tube which allowed the hook turn sideways or flat in pikes mouth which in my opinion was the biggest reason of so many dropped fishes.



This was not the only issue,L-sized tube was also kinda narrow for any leaders that I use.It was a real pain in the ass to change a fly with frozen fingers.
It also put some limits of different hooks that I wanted to try.
After some asking around and study I found a solution that satisfied me.

I changed the tube from L-size to XXL-size.Only this solution allow me to use one of my favorite hook,Sakuma Manta.The hook eye fits narrowly Right into that size.



It seem to be a good solution too but for me it wasn´t enough,I wanted to use different hooks and with example both TMC 600 or Partridge Predator hooks this solution would not be possible cause of different size on hook eyes.



This problem was solved With a stiff plastic tube from a company Etola.
Both TMC and Partridge hooks fits narrowly into this and by pulling a Sakuma hook right trough into the XXL tube I think I have enough of different choises.




Now before Season starter I have made all my new tubes with this solution and have added a Stiff tube for the attachment to the old ones,of course I can´t use the Sakuma hooks on the older flies but still got enough options but what´s more important for me is that I have flies in which I believe,that´s make all difference in the world.Can´t wait for some open water.
And of course I got some new ties.


too.

Grumpy old man´s nagging

I don´t know what the fuck is going on here in Finland,it should be Spring and all that snow should be melting and birds should be singing but instead what do we got ?
Oh fuckin yes,temperatures closing in to -30 degrees and new freezing records for this winter with a top of -38.2 degrees from last night,and sometimes when when temps lying around -10 degrees we gonna have  heavy snowfalls,fuck the cold,fuck the snow and fuck the whole winter,I´m just about having enough now.
Forecasts promising cold weather all week so the F word (means fishing) will be a wet daydream  to me for a while.

Idea box in fly tying has been kinda empty for a while,one fly now and then has made me studying the internet to find some kind of inspiration like the White fly in my latest add.
And finally I found a inspiration source from Youtube in form of a new video with Niklaus Bauer tying a Sheephead fly.
i have tied these sort of flies before but this was a updated version of it and I enjoy sitting behind my vise again,all grumpy thoughts has left my dirty mind and I don´t feel annoyed anymore.
Thank god for the internet word and it´s endless inspiration sources.

Welcome official Springtime.

So,my official Springtime has started,now when the GoExpo fair is over,but have to admit our Springtime has take a massive step backward in form of last week cold and especially last night`s almost -30 degrees.
Last year my season started March 23 but this year it will almost suddenly start later.

I had a good time at the fair seeing friends from all over the country,tying flies at Espoon perhokalastajat stand,and of course to check out if there would be some "must have" stuff and to my slightly surprise I only spent 9 € on tying materials and that´s all,believe it or not =D.

A bigger concern for my wallet is my increasing interest to kayak fishing,have a feeling that I would love it I have promised myself that I will wait over this summer and if I still feel the same then....I will go for it.
As it looks right now there will be some moaning and nagging  for some open water for a while so I have study the mighty internet world looking for information about kayak fishing and also rant onto some interesting fly patterns which have inspired me to spend some time behind my vise.

I read a blog here couple of days ago http://olojajaolemista.blogspot.fi/ and saw a white fly,which inspired me to once again try on mission impossible,to tie a white fly...yes,a WHITE fly without any red or black spot,just white with a dash of flash and this time I succeed to end it without anything extra on it.

There has been other inspiration sources too but this one gave some kind of a extra kick,still got some tails to attach to hooks (Michael Johnsons pattern).
Here´s one more ready,I had some kind of Buster jerk color C041 in my mind but it all ended up a little bit lame,should have been a bit darker.

Tied on a Sakuma Manta 546 long shank  # 6/0 .

As I have mentioned before I had a feeling that I drop more fishes from tubeflies than from ordinary flies and after some thoughts I think I know why,have attached the hook to the tube with a silicone tube which might be too soft,the hook turn sideways when the pike attack and easily slip out from the mouth and now i found a new kind of tube which allow me to use more different hooks and the hook also sitting perfect attached to the tube.
It was a hell of a work to change the attachment on every tubefly I have but it´s done and next season will tell me more was I right or wrong.
While I was studying my fly boxes searching for every tubefly I own i noticed that I have A lot of forgotten flies,flies that has never ever been in water except when I had tested the movement,sinking ETC,ETC....
Forgotten flies result to this.

A lot of flies looking almost same,guess I should do something about that too.
Everything looks okay for the pike season,lines rods,reels...so everything is just waiting now,and tying of course.

 

One week to official spring.

Morning fellas.While writing this post and looking out from my livingroom window I have to say it´s looks like were a million mile away from any sign of springtime.
On Friday morning when I went to work we had a +1 degrees on our thermometer,on Saturday morning we had -19 degrees and now on Sunday morning we are in  a middle of a heavy snowfall including -7 degrees.
Hard to believe that my official springtime starts next weekend in form of the GoExpo fair in Helsinki,
and hey,last year I started my season 23 march and I don´t wanna do it much later this year either so,no I.m not concerned about the weather because it´s less then one month before I´m able to lay out some line in water.
Fly tying have been the name of the game last couple of weeks and I found a nice pattern posted to a fly tying forum on Facebook (with fly rod after pike) and following the Finish forums it look like we got some kind of a trend at least  here in Finland.

As you can see it´s not a fly usually been used,It is a normal fly and a tail tied on a in my case a 1.0mm flurocarbon line which gives the fly it´s special look.
There is probably many ways, to tie the tail part but here´s my way to do it.

this is the laborious step,and after you have attached that tail to your hook it´s just normal fly tying.

Got couple of these ready for action and some tails waiting for further treatments.
Some of the ties have been nice and some...hmm..less nice,but anyway,pikes will be the judges of that later on.

These flies are big in my opinion and will probably be used only at springtime just after spawning and from a floating tube.
I´m not gonna sit the whole season in my floating tube so there has also been some traditional ties,both on tubes and hooks,
just have a feeling I´m running out of ideas,these tail flies cheered me up a bit but would be nice to find out something of my own too.

Well,that´s all for now folks,time take some coffee and start to study the massive internet world to find some ideas and inspiration.