Tying Bear & Lime fly

You might wonder what the fuck I'm talking about...

Check it out here and find the answer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puToXjH3b2k&feature=youtu.be

The ultimate Flash fly

So,after an example from a Finnish site I went to make a tying video Of a fly which I called Flashlight even if i had felt it as a tough task to do,but still after I saw it ready and had some feedback I have slowly changed my mind.......This is fuckin fun to do,so yesterday it suddenly hit me again: I want to share a video of a fly that has saved me so many days from  blanking that it's almost magical,that's why I dare call this fly the  "Ultimate flash fly".
This is not quiet the original pattern.It has change a bit through the years,if I remember correct the original pattern had a head made of Raccoon,also the light purple flash wasn't in the original.
Please note that when I say "original" I don't mean that I have contrived this fly,just that I found this pattern years ago and refined it for my fishing.

Anyway,enough talkin,here you are,The Ultimate flash flash fly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlD5XClsQ1M

Easter fishing & Big Mama updates.

                                                  Day one.

Finally we have real springtime here in southern parts of Finland With temps up to 20 degrees and some sun too.
Also suitably a four days of from work so plenty of time for fishing too,Don't know if I'a getting old or what but even if the weather would have been perfect for fishing and reports from my friends of some good sized fishes I decided to stay in bed long and do some undone things on Friday and go fishing rest of the days instead.
Only thing that has to do with fishing made on Friday was three simple baitfish patterns for rest of the days.

Thanks to my cats I woke up earlier than I actually meant,not just twenty minutes or so,
6.15 am I had already finished my breakfast,made some picnic lunch,feed the cats and drove 80 km:s to the shore.
I was standing at the shoreline watching the sunrise and a totally calm surface which usually mean tough fishing but I was extremely happy anyway,I had my camera with me,got some rising interest in taking photos,so,if no fishes then photography instead,can't go wrong here.

Haven't fix my kayak seat yet so I decided to not take any paddling marathon but stay close to the shoreline,know some nice spots here too.
Oh god it felt so good to go out paddle after so long time in warm sunny weather and it was an early morning.
Had my brand new Big Mama which I got from warranty with me and somewhere deep in my mind I had a slight hope that I could make a test with a big gun today.Well,I was wrong here but at first spots it worked just fine and a funny thing was that when I was having a break my friend asked me at FB if my rod is working and I answered it's still in four pieces so everything is just fine.
Wanted to take some photos of it too in this beautiful  surrounding.

 
Sadly,on next spot I got me an deja vu feeling....
My fly hit the end of the rod and this was the result.

So....second Big mama broken in short time,and also this time another one broken in Sweden,just like last time,well Vision warranty is well known as one of the best in Finland at least.
Some might think I'm crazy but I still have faith in this rod,mostly because it broke from a different place than the other and for this broke I have a explanation.

Well,I had a reserve rod with me which was my Big Daddy so I was able to continue fishing but to be honest I felt more for taking photos and just enjoy and relax.

First I went a bit concerned over that I wasn't in desperate need for fishing but after all,you do what you feel for,I had a really nice day out enjoying of our stunning beautiful archipelago BUT even here in all quiet and peace you are able to see stupidity AT HIGH LEVEL !!!

Really not understand WHY ???

No more stress about peoples nonchalance,continued with some small fishing and relaxing.

And finally some photos of fishing too,think I landed five or so small jacks.

                                                                 Day two.

This day was more planned for fishing as main thing so I was early woke up and study both map and forecasts and preparing for a "vertical soup".
Today I was going with my friend so we were going with the boat which allowed us to move on quickly if we wanted to.
Had me plan written in my head for different situations and we were out at about 10.30 am.
I was prepared for a difficult day because temp up to 20 degrees and barely no wind at all and as cherry on the cake the spawning was to start any day now.
Decided first to start in  bay just outside the spawning area but after a while fishing there was no more than one jack following my fly so we decided to move a bit across the bay,no action there either.
We saw a fly fisher fishing from tube and he was fishing very close to the shoreline were we could not go with our boat so we just had to fish from were we were able to.
after a while my friend landed his first of today which was followed with some more jacks,I was still blanking.
after an hour of teasing all small jacks we decided to go to find some better sized green torpedos which was afterward thinking a good choice,from a small pocket my friend landed a small jack with first cast,yes,a jack... Where the hell were all big guns hiding ? spawning already ?
We let our boat drift until we came between two islands about one kilometer from a spawning place and the wind was pushing water like it was a stream or so.after about twenty casts and some smaller jacks my friend had a bit heavier hit on his rubberlure,water was crystal clear so we saw from a long way this was a clearly better fish,for a while it seemed to be a really big mam until we saw why it seemed to be so big,there was fuckin two of them.

WTF ? this ain't a spawning area,or haven't been earlier years,anyway,barely hooked I chingripped it,we took the weight which was 7.00 kilos,my friends next best ever,,quick photo and released he mam.

Nice.Continued fishing on different spots without anything to tell about,but with a good mood.
Only thing worth telling about was that closing in to that spawning area we could hear splashing among the reed so we knew spawning was on.
You know the feeling after a good sized fish close to your PB ? In this photo you can almost touch the feeling =D

Anyway,even the best of days coming to it's end and so did this one too.decided to fish one more spot on our way back and it was on the other side of the two islands were we just had fished.
We already had some twilight and weather turned much colder so we decided to make a quick stop and I choose a reliable Black/Silver fly which so often has worked fine for me and with one of my last casts I managed to land a slightly better sized fish too.

This one wasn't measured or scaled but a nice size imo.
One more day that will stay in my memories a long time,a nice way to end a top notch day.

Making of a tying video

Many people have asked me for tying videos and a part of me have wanted to do them but there is a massive job to do them and I'm a bit lazy.
Anyway,I have had so many inspirations from other peoples videos so I thought I want to possible give someone inspirations from my videos so now when I had a day of I decided to give it a go.

Training flies,preparation,empty batteries etc,etc... seems that everything was against me.

But three failed flies later I finally managed to get a video done and after so much positive responses all failures was wiped away and there will be more to come for sure.
Biggest issue was to uppload from computer to Youtube a 16 min long video --> 366 minutes.
Anyway here it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2jQXJZxLSE

Enjoy :)

Mental hangover.

I have had this subject in mind for a long time now but never still wrote about it

I'm almost sure that every angler going through a flames of hell  while waiting for open waters,pain won't ease by looking/reading at your friends reports of PB fishes all around the world which these days are so easy by the social media.

not easy mentally....at least in my opinion.

Then to another kind of pain in the ass which I think many fly tyers going through every now and then.

You have some nice,maybe new materials and great big plans what to tie.

Pouring some good whiskey in a glass,or a cold beer perhaps,take your time to see that everything,materials,tools is close to hands in your fly tying lab,taking a seat behind the vice and BANG !!!

You just sit there wondering what the fuck you had in mind...yup,your head is emptier than your wallet.

Familiar feeling ???? could make a bet that at least 90% of tyers answer is yes.

I've had these bad times before but not at same time and always managed to find some new pattern to tie or using some new materials to drag me out of this misery but this time this feeling is overwhelming.

I will try to describe the feeling when you suffer of both at same time,because that's what I'm doing right now,this has going on for some time now.

It all started couple of months ago,I was very busy tying customer ties,I just kept tying and tying and at same time I made plans for my own flies,what kind of flies,colors,size,materials ETC,ETC....

I tied three big orders at same time,about 80 flies and still with only 5-6 flies to tie I was thinking like:Yess,soon I'm able to tie some of my own visions too but even if I'm able to tie 5-6 flies a day the last flies took me horrible long time to tie,I know,I know...some might say just push you through this but I got one special feature which is that If I force myself to tie up flies you can clearly see it from the flies and that's a thing I don't wan't people to see.I want people to see they are tied with pride and joy.

A big reason getting  this mental hangover was probably to tie same pattern over and over again,only different colors.

Afterward it's easy to say that I should have tied some of my own ideas every now and then for alternation but decided to do it different so actually I got myself to blame.

Anyway,have now got me some new materials,have tied some different patterns like the one that was completely out from my comfort zone,small and without eyes.

Now afterwards I realize that I tied them because they are completely different that I use to tie,some teasers were tied on the road to where I'm now moaning :)

These three flies were tied among the customer orders as some kind of therapy I'll guess.

Have also searched for some new inspiration by finding new materials like those awesome saddles from

http://www.bluedotmediashop.dk/

Or extra select bucktails from http://www.helsinkispeyclave.com/shop/index.php?language=fi

And my latest add to new materials.

Optic fibre from http://www.foxy-tails.co.uk/ Which original mission was to solve the problem with the heads of my flies,have searched for a replacement for Sculpin wool and when Steven from Foxy tails recommend this I couldn't resist and received a package from UK and was happy of those amazing bright colors,have to tie a fly....

First I was afraid of when will I empty my head and start  stearing at my vice but somehow I just started tying without too much thinking and this was the feeling I needed,could not add this material to just the head,small bunches all over the fly,here's the result which I'm pretty happy with.

As you can see I'm start to feel better already now when I got the right medicine,next weekend some fishing and not gonna force me to tie or doing anything else either and soon you will see.

I'm gonna get back stronger than ever :)

Big Mama.

Even if the title could mean something else too I'm sorry to disappoint you by telling you this is only about Vision  new rod made for pike fishing and which is  designed by Swedish "Mr pike" Niklaus Bauer.
The rod is 8.4 ft and available only in 9 weight,at least so far.
Weight should be 128 grams which is far lighter than Big Daddys 152 grams or Venus 151 grams.
I have not scaled other than Big Mama  and my scale says 130 grams,well,,no complains about that,close enough.
My first impressions of the rod without reel or line was,it's stiff,very stiff.
EVA handle is a thing that I've heard so much talks about,some are strict against it,and some praise it,
Some says it's better in cold conditions,well....I can't agree with that,don't see any difference.I have fished with Big Daddys both handles and EVA might be more sustainable then the cork version but it smell ugly IMO.
I think biggest reason is the price,think EVA is cheaper to build than cork ????
Anyway I don't see EVA handle as a bad solution,just different.

Also the shape of the handle has shared opinions,the D-shape is known from the Vision Venus rods already so I think it's a bit strange why there's so strong opinions about it now,biggest discussion has come about the flat surface on the upper side on the handle that almost force you to have your thumb on the rod while casting,I can see why someone doesn't like it but for me who have always used that kind of grip it doesn't bother at all.
I like it !
But also some things I don't like,I got a Scotty rod holder and this handle doesn't fit in it,but maybe I should blame the holder instead of the rod here.
One thing I blame the rod is for a hook hold missing,a big minus here,Big Daddy got it and almost all my other rods too.

They say the rod is dark green,probably so but in my eyes it look black,no big deal :)

Had mine bought from my local dealer Spey Clave in helsinki from the GoExpo fair in the beginning of March but not until two weeks ago I was able do go out for some pike and of course it had to be tested.
The weather was very windy,8-10 m/s and flies big as chickens was some challenge to overcome first.

As I wrote the rod first felt very stiff but casting with a fly in real  situation made me change my opinion a bit.
Even if the rod felt stiff the action comes right from the handle which made it felt a bit softer,which is a attribute I like.
It's a bit faster action than Big Daddy which I like,but not as fast as on Venus which I also like :).
A nice rod to handle whit fishes too,no surprises in action here.

Well,there was some kind of surprise coming later on,Had in mind to try this rod with different lines,had six spools with me but still casting with my first choice line,a homemade line built from a Vision Ace shooting head I thought I felt that the rod was loosing its powerful action cast after cast and finally when I landed a small bugger and just lifted my rod to get the fish closer it just snapped.10 cm:s above the handle,like this

So no more tests that day.
Called my local dealer Spey Clave and I could have had a new rod the same day (what a customer service,thumbs up and hats of here) but I wasn't in that hurry,so I get a new one next day instead.

So,a week later it was time for some new tests,this time I had three lines with me:
-Vision Big Daddy SloMo #9
-Vision Big Daddy S3  #9
-Airflo 40+ Sniper Int. CW  #9

Wind wasn't that heavy like it was last time but still around 5-6 m/s,I was also using smaller flies this time.
Started with a brand new SloMo line from Vision head weight 21 grams and head length 8.5 meter.
Not really liked this combo,for some reason I don't feel comfortable wit floating lines and this line remind me of a floating line,think it's the topping,and also it might have something to do with it that the line was brand new.
Next line in line was Airflo 40+ Sniper,don't know the weight of the head but it feel pretty heavy in use which I like because it use to suit my casting style,was a bit concerned because last year the running line felt very stiff but not anymore.
This line was in use for couple of hours and felt actually very good wit this rod.It loaded the rod nicely and maybe because of the weight casting was very smooth,had some fishes landed too,think this combo will be in use more often.
Finally it was Big Daddy Sink 3 turn,had big expectations on this combo,I mean both are Vision product so I was expecting a lot.
Had sadly not much time left to cast too long anymore but managed to get some kind of an opinion of this combo and shortly said,it felt pretty much same that with Airflo,would like to know the head weight of Airflo because felt it loaded a bit,just slightly better the rod than Big Daddy which weight is 21 gram.

Summary of my first thoughts about my Big Mama are positive even if it broke at my first trip.
the action is medium fast + IMO
Love the way the action starts all from the handle,hard to describe the feeling but make it feel that the rod is both smooth and stiff at same time.
More thoughts will be written while my experience increase here in the next months but please remember these are just MY views about the rod not some absolute truths.

EDIT : All "casting" have been done from a kayak in sitting position !!!

Still waiting.

So,even if I have been out fishing for pike couple of times it feels that I still waiting because all of my latest trips have been to not so familiar places,because my own better known places are still frozen but in good way to be fishable soon.
Here is a photo couple of days ago.

Today while writing this it might already been open water there.
It hasn't been just waiting,it has been a hell of tying customer ties this year and there would be many more ties to do but I'm forced to take a break from it because my own boxes need to be refilled too and to get my both battleships ready for the forthcoming season,and of course I want to do some fishing too :)
Here is some,JUST SOME of my latest customer ties

And also been tying some for my own but noticed that all of my flies are about 12-15 inches long I thought I could be in need for some smaller too and I can tell you that after been tying some chickens for a long time now it's a really tough task to downsize your flies to under 10 inches,also I use to add eyes on all of my pike flies but on my latest ties I didn't add them either so I have to say I was really out of my "comfort zone"

The story of these flies started actually from my fishing trip two weeks ago when I broke my brand new Big Mama rod and called my dealer Spey clave in Helsinki to tell them what happend (They really deserve all credit of taking care of this warranty case !!!) and after two days I went to the shop for a new rod and also they showed me some awesome bucktails,premium select tails dyed by them self in colors you are not able to get from anywhere else.
They also got some extra select Schlappen feathers in cool colors,well,a must buy once again =D

Usually I use to tie in bucktail just for the volume but these looked so fuckin awesome so I didn't wanna do that so I decided to do some kind of decivers of these.
They are simply tied of Schlappen feathers and bucktail,added some Ice wing in blue pearl among the bucktail and a thing that separate these from normal decivers is that I decided to use Nayat hair from Foxy tails as heads on some of them (black and brown).
Testfishing will be done next weekend,even the forecasts promising kinda good weather,especilally on Sunday with a light wind from southwest,rain and cloudy,what more could a piker beg for.