28.12-2013 Season over.

this date will be remarkable for some reasons,first of all,it was definitely last trip for season 2013,mixed up feelings with that,I mean..season 2014 continues 1 of January so only four days after 2013 ends,does it make any sense ? well,who really care,about starts and ends,nice to be able to fish.

I rather remember this trip for the second reason because it was one of my best ever.
woke up before 6 am so for once I was in time at the shore.In fact I was there so early  it was dark as in Batmans cave so I really took my time to load up my gear,even if there's not many boats out this time of year You will always end up in second place if you collied with a boat so I wanted at least some daylight before I was going to push out my battleship.
Have launched my kayak several times from this place so I saw immediately that even if the wind was strong it came slightly from a bit different direction than last time which meant I was able to get to that bay I had study from the map for a time already and often drive past it with my boat,I was pretty excited.
Had my kayak ready at shore,had changed my clothes including my new "lucky hat",fishing gear was ready so I had some time to think about what fly to use.
decided to go big immediately and ended up with a bream pattern I tied just a day before.

38 cm of ass kicker.
Couldn't wait no longer so I jumped in my kayak and I would have wanted to stay at some nearer places I resisted the temptation to do so and paddled straight to that bay I had in mind.
A very tough trip to paddle I have to say but I was SOOOOO pleased when my battleship slowly glided in to position at dawn.

I rested a while after that paddling,put everything ready for use,pliers,hook out pliers and my landing net,now it was time for my first cast,felt a bit bit strange because of the darkness,I didn't see the fly at all but who care,there was somebody else who saw it :)

A good start.and there was more to come.
Had some daylight even if it still was dark outside,bright enough to see a big splash when a slightly bigger mama attacked my "bream" and we had a fight on.surprisingly much energy in these pikes caught lately even if the water temp is no more then maybe 3-4 degrees celsius.anyway,couples of minutes later I managed to land her and was pleased when she posed with me like this.

After this fish I just sit and enjoyed a cup of coffee and think of my next move.
Decided to continue with same fly at same place and after two small jacks I once again felt a better hit at the other end of the line,and without more talking I posed with the second mam.

must be my lucky day :)
After this one I fished this spot for a while without more contacts so moved a bit but only 15-20 meters and immediately I had jack after jack landed,five or six in a row at best but felt it unnecessary to tease this small ones more and moved again 15 meters.

At this spot I just had to change the fly because of a massive amount of reed just under the surface and my bream was tangled in them almost  every cast,I choose my reliable color combo.

A pattern that is perfect for a place like this and not many casts before it started to deliver fish after fish and also some better ones like this for example.

Fished for a while with many small fishes.
Landed something between 30-40 pikes with some really beautiful mam's.Used only five flies at the whole day,no need for more if you only choose the right ones :)))

Anyway,I didn't fish places on my way back,had so good feeling about this season ender that I didn't wanted to risk that of blanking a spot.
from here it's really good to go to 2014 season.

Boxing day fishing

Now the weather is really cherish us fishermen,can't remember when I last time was able to fish this time at year,but no complains about that,just to enjoy.
So even today,way too much turkey,casseroles and other Christmas delicacies has been eaten in last two days so it was extra nice to come out in fresh air a bit.
Weather was windy as it had been for several days so no suprice when I saw those big waves when I arrived to the shore.
Only thing that they changed was that I knew that I wasn't able to fish on the windy side at all and to fish in totally calm water which was gin clear would be very challenging.
Decided to paddle to a place that had delivered fishes earlier in autumn,spent many hours there and landed some fishes which was small,in fact very small.
I was a bit frustrated because only a short way from here there was a place which I was almost sure would be some big guns available but because of those big waves I wasn't able to get there.

Not much more to tell you about from this trip I'm afraid.Fished some smaller places on my way back,landed two more XS sized jacks and of course this was to happen too,it was a while since I hooked up myself.

But nothing to worry about,it was barbless so it was just to rip it of and continue to fish.
Didn't for long,felt it was not worth it when you're not able to get to those places you wanted to.
So trip was much shorter than I thought but on other hand,why continue i f you not feel for it,looks like the season still continue.

Merry Cristmas

Merry Christmas to all of you.Hope you have a nice and peaceful holiday.

Fishing 21/12 2013

Stearing at forecasts like a fool whole week and finally came Saturday when I had some plans to go out fishing again.
Last weekend I had to fish in freezin conditions but now while I was driving to the shore it was like any ordinary autumn morning,+4 degrees,a small breeze around 3-4 m/s ,cloudy and as top of all water level +1 m.
Had a good feeling when I arrive to the shore about 8.30 am and took my time to load up my gear and jumped in my kayak and started to paddle to my first spot just 200 meters away,it was a sheltered sunny place with a water depth around 1 meter.
Started all too well,third cast,first fish on a pink/white fly tied day before.
Fish for a while but no more contacts here,it might have been because gin clear shallow water and a clumsy angler padling all over that made all mam's clouse their mouths.
Moved 200 meters further to a place pretty much same looking as the first but with some wind included.
After some casts without contacts I decided to change tactics,usually in COLD water I use big flies and in FREEZY water I go for smaller flies,now I took a 40 cm copper/orange fly with black head even if the water was freezin cold.
Not many casts before I had my next one landed.Had also a better fish dropped from the trailer hook just behind my kayak.
Decided to make two more casts before paddling to my major target where I had in mind to stay for the rest of the day.
First of two..a cast close to the reed line and immediately I felt that someone attacked the fly,after some seconds I knew it was a better fish.
Cold water made the fight short and it was soon over,not a giant but a nice fish tough,or at least so nice it had to pose with me.seem to be a nice trip this one.

Anyway,had a huge area to fish at my next destination so I moved on,

Weather conditions was almost same as on my last location so I continued with my new favourite fly.

Of some reason I thought fishes would lay close to the shore so that's where I started to fish,
It felt a bit strange to lay your fly on places I had coffeepauses earlier this year.Landed many small pikes before I felt a train on my fly,this must be a bigger one was my thoughts after it ripped almost every inch of my line off the reel and anchored itself to the bottom.
I ripped and ripped to get her on move but honestly she moved when SHE felt for it,at some stage I remember to switch on my headcam and managed to get an epic landing on video which I will remember for probably rest of my life.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201307685390258&set=vb.1116437012&type=2&theater



It was awesome,pity I didn't took some decent photo of it,as u can see on the vid u don't see the fish too well,anyway,not the biggest but still a nice one and also one of the best fights I have been a part of.
The fish was so exhausted ( me too) so I didn't wanted to harm her more so I just let her recover in my net a while before I gently released her,really hope to meet her again.

Fished for a while without any contacts so I moved a bit and changed my fly to a blue/silver +40 cm now when I saw they worked.First cast,stripped the line and just when I raised my rod for a new cast a small jack jumped after the fly and I had it for some seconds before he shaked his head and disappeared into deep.
Fished for maybe 20 minutes at this place,changed back to copper/orange and started to land fishes again,not any big guns but some nice fishes anyway.
Once again moved a 50 meter deeper into that big bay I was at and anchored my battleship in good position to fish but first I had me some sandwiches and juice,needed some energy after all paddling and fishing.
After I had finished my "lunch" I looked in my boxes after some new fly to get into water but of
some reason I continued with that copper/orange fly which had worked so well so far.
And it continued to work,many landed pikes and also couple of dropped fishes.
Among these all fishes I had also this beauty landed so no wonder I had a big smile on my face while I was paddling back to the shore,packed my car and drove home.

Probably not the last trip of the season,even if I would be happy if I could end my season after a trip like this.

Season over NOT !!! Fishing 14.12 2013

Well,what can I say ? Last time I wrote it was about my season over.Guess what,it's not because we have had temps up to 8 degrees and there's still open water so even if the forecasts promise -4 degrees,it also will be sunny and acceptable wind that should be lying around 3-6 m/s so I packed my floating tube in the back of my car and some light setup too.
My new Vision Big Daddy with a foam grip will be combined with a slow intermediate line and a handful of flies will hopefully do the job.

Went to shore at 7.30 am,air temp -6 degrees,a small breeze made it felt much colder.Water level was about  +1 meter.
Major notice was that  the shoreline was open but only 2-3 meter out and there was a fifteen meter wide frozen slice before open water and as I couldn't see it melting quickly or that I was able to go trough it I had no choice then to find another place to launch my tube.

Drove around for a while and finally found a place with open water and quickly changed my clothes and pumped up my tube and went out in the freezing water.
Normally it would have been annoying to see that ice blanket lying all the way on the shoreline but it was nice now,I was at some kind of extra time when I once thought my season would be over,but here I was,laying out some line.

I let my tube go with the flow,making casts closest to shore I could make,every 8-10 casts and I had remove the ice from the line guides.

Frozen line guides wasn't the biggest issue,but a leaking pontoon was close to it.had to go back and get the pump with me.
Once again I let the flow take care of direction and made casts while I was drifting.
Landed my first fish on a place I had already drifted trough,nice....
I was enjoying my life now,sun came up and warmed up the air a bit,and Thought it was time to go for a Orange/ Red fly instead of the Pink/White starter,and not many casts before it payed of in a form of a biggest fish of the day,still a small jack around two maybe two and half kilo.
Now it was once again time to clean my line guides and to pump some air in the leaking pontoon.
Had some problem to get my way through the ice to a small islet but with some PERKELE and SAATANA I managed to get my feet hit the ground and decided also to have a sandwich and coffee.
Of some reason I didn't felt too comfortable.
The reason was that fuckin pontoon,why the hell didn't I take my kayak instead,warmer….faster….more gear…
Sun started to shine while I tried to get that frozen pump to work,I didn't managed to add much air so I decided to end this trip here.
With very little air in one pontoon I started to kick myself back to shore,casted some casts and surprisingly managed to land a small bugger,look like the sunshine activated pikes a bit but unfortunately I  had to think of my own safety so went back to the shore and packed my car and went home.
Good news is that our always reliable forecasts promise temps up to amazing +6 degrees,if that's the case you can still read about at least one trip out there for pike.Now I got some new ties in mind which need to carry out to reality.

More experiences of fly lines.

It has been a while since I have talked about fly lines,still I'm not an expert of fly-lines but I got some more experiences now a few years later so I can tell you my opinions.
Please notice that what I'm writing about here isn't any absolute truths,just my opinions !!!

Well,what have I learned in these years,at least I have learned that there's big differences in weights even if they are classed for example nine weight,also I have learned something of how different tapering affect my casting.
Also gonna come up with durability which has left me a thought that at least one famous fly-line should do something about it.

My first line (for pike) was a Guideline pike in eight weight which I can't say much about simply because I didn't have any other lines to compare it with,bought it because heard so many praises from many users.
Fished with that until I heard big boys using nine weight equipments and after buying me a casette reel I was able to easily change lines in middle of a fishing session.

Will remember my first nine weight lines were
-RIO Scandinavian pike
-Guideline pike i/s2 ?
-Guideline pike floating

RIO and sink model of Guide was mostly in use and both are IMO good lines,they both fitted all my rods,I might like a bit more RIO line in extreme cold conditions,and don't get me wrong here,RIO will turn to very stiff too but not as much as Guideline did.
Durability of both lines were good,still got Guideline left and RIO came to it's end this spring after 4 years intensive use.

My floating Guideline is still not used a single time,have not needed it.
Vision Big Mama was also tested but didn't like it with big heavy wind resistant pike flies,too thin running line and too long head IMO.
Also my next lines were from Vision,Big Daddy,a natural choice to my Vision Big Daddy rod,they fitted most of my other rods too.Slightly overweighed with a short head but they really matched each other and worked well in freezy conditions too,still wanna point out that no line work perfect in cold water IMO but this was the best I had tried so far.
This combination was mostly my first choice for a long time until a guy built me custom line,or two actually,one slow sink and one fast sink mostly for boat use.
These lines are heavily overweighed,built of a DH shooting head and a running line welded together and works like a full long line in action.
Built from a DH head means that it has to be cut from the back part which means it has no front taper at all which mean it turns over big flies even if your casting technique isn't perfect or if you cast in tough windy conditions like I often do.They also work quiet nice in cold conditions.
If I have to say something negative about these lines it's that they not match all my rods,in fact they fit only my Vision GT4 SW and Big Daddy,well no line is perfect but these are close to it,at least for my use.
Anyway,I had searched for some "normal" lines that could be bought from shops too and after read many praises from different users I felt I need to give a try to RIO Outbound short.
My first experiences from this line was that it felt also heavily overweighed but not annoying much.
It worked well with my both Hardy Zane and Guideline LpXe RS V2 rods and I thought I finally had found it,only action in cold water was a mystery.
Had already heard some rumors of shitty durability but my line was just fine,but suddenly under just one trip big parts of the coating just fell of and left the line core left.

For me it proves that it's not just some few examples that has bad quality,it's a bigger problem with the quality,too many coincidences here.

My latest addd to my line family is Airflo 40+ Sniper for cold water use which has been tested just couple of times so it is a bit early to say anything absolute about it but my first sentiments was it is a bit overweighed,and it felt surprisingly stiff,it wasn't that cold yet,it might be smoother after some more use.

I'm still searching for a perfect line or should I say I'm looking for a perfect rod/line combination,I'm still hoping to get some more tests with my Airflo line with my other rods than just Visions not to mention rumors that there's a new rod/line combo from Vision coming out in February.
Until then my testing will continue.

Season over.

So,sitting at home on my couch "celebrating" Finlands 96 birthday in a heavy snowfall and stormy wind finally admitting my season is over,had a plan to go out fishing today but a phone call from a friend confirmed my suspicions were right,shoreline had a ice  cover on it and this heavy wind at latest ruin my plan but funny how I don't feel so devastated I use to feel in these situation.
It might reflect from my outstanding season memories,almost feeling my fishing has raised to a whole new level.
This winter I got a lot to do,biggest thing is to feature my boat for next season,with a Ipilot front engine mounting as a main target,including battery and wires and main switch too,also got some plans to add some rod holders.some smaller things too,like some solution for fly/lureboxes to be easy to get to but still be out of my way,small maintenance to the main engine.

Only one thing annoying me and that,s my latest trip,it was a fuckin blank draw,in other hand,maybe it was a reminder that even a good season include bad days.
Took some landscape photos because the fishes didn't wanted to co-operate.

As you can see on those photos winter was on it's way even then.
I don't have much more to write about right now so I thought to add some photos of my latest ties here,more to come,four to six months time now to tie.