A windy testrun.

23 August was time for my long waited testrun in my new battleship,had study the forecasts for some days and decided to take a go on Sat.because on Sun there was some thunder on meny and I don't wanna sit in a yak then.
Had two days to check out my boat before D-day but was so busy at work that I was mounting an anchor on Saturday morning at the beach.
Actually my yak stood all by herself for those two days so we can say that only thing I knew about it was what I had seen on youtube.
Thought it felt a bit more wind than 5 m/s they promised me still on Sat.morning but I was behind a small islet so I wasn't sure.
As I predicted I got all my stuff with me without any problems and another notice I made was how all the mostly needed things in fishing was planned to reach easily,like tackle boxes on both side of the seat.
As long as I fly fish I don't need the "rocket launchers" behind the seat I can use one of them as a nice net holder,seemed to work fine.

So,out at the sea....

Decided to try to stand up while I was behind the islet,the reason why I wanted to stand up was simply because this yak felt very stable in sitting position even if you sit very high and standing up was easy even for an old decrepit man like me.no problem to stand and fish anymore.Even if I mostly sit while fishing it's nice to have stability more than you need,feel safer so.

Now it was time to go paddling and my first notice was that it's a bit slower than my other yak,well this one is more than 15 cm wider which explain it,personally I appreciate width more than speed,and its not that much slower.

With my former yak I had to wait to test it in rough weather but now it seem that I have to wait to test this in better conditions,wind was very hard when I came out from the sheltered bay behind that islet,really had to paddle as hard as I could to get forward,12-15 m/s in gusts,otherwise +9 m/s.

Not exactly perfect conditions for a yak ride but BigRig acted fine,just fine,felt very stable even in this wind,only issue was to get forward.

Paddling against the wind for a time that felt like an eternity but manged to reach a sheltered place suiting for a break and couple of photos.

at this side of a island I managed to do some fishing too and landed couple of small jacks an dropped at least three,soon the wind went in to this bay too and it became so strong that fly fishing wasn't an option any longer,well,I had a spin rod and some lures with me too and continued with them for a while,the wind went stronger and stronger all the time and I decided to take a last break before paddling back to shore.

On these pics you can see how the wind went stronger while I had my pause.

 If I thought it was heavy to paddle here I have to say it was nothing compared to paddle back,was totally exhausted when I got back to dock.

Wish I have had a chance to do  a trip in better weather conditions but need to say that even if the conditions was bad I didn't felt afraid at all,I'm sure I gonna love this battleship after some modifications suiting better for my fishing.

A new anchor trolley system is on top of the list and hoping to get it installed before the Autumn fishing starts,The original anchor system is pretty nice with it's hidden anchor rope but I can't position my yak  perfectly without more anchor point options which is pretty crucial in fly fishing imo.

This was only some first notices I made and while the Autumn roll on there will be more analyzes made so stay tuned.

Going to Jackson,third time lucky

Well,to be honest,even if Johnny Cash and June Carter went there in a song I went up to Nokia near Tampere to http://www.erakettu.com/index.php?section=1 for a visit.
Probably some of at least Finnish readers already guess what I was doing up there,that's correct,I'm now owner of  a new battleship, Jackson BigRig kayak.

This was like opening a Christmas package,so god damn excited.

Oh yes,it's a  Jackson and a Big Rig

Think/hope that this is "THE" yak for me,at least heard only praises of it.
My Wilderness system Ride 135 will still be in family but Jackson will be number one choice now,can't wait until weekend for a testdrive.
This time I took more time to solve out what I really need and what different models have to offer me.Also I wanted a brand that got that good spirit and flow so at the end line there was Hobie PA 14 and Jackson BigRig.
 Hobies Mirage drive was a very interesting thing but finally I decided that I don't really need that,I love to paddle and I also fish in very shallow rocky areas where there's always a risk that it's fins could take some damage,I also fish among reeds and I still would need the paddle.A small concern was also about my fly line tangle around the pedals which I heard not happen too often.
There was many good things about Hobie too so don't get me wrong here,it's probably a excellent choice too but this time I choose Jackson BigRig and I think we will come along great.
I will add here a link for you so you can see what kind of a battleship I'm gonna ride with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03DI2cI_a_c

Hopefully I will be able to get out on water next weekend and get some fishing,some photos and some paddling experience.It has been far too long since I last was out with a kayak,have waited for this the whole summer and now waters are slowly but surely cooling down so hoping to get some mam's to check out my cool boat.

Thunder,cyclones and rain.

After one weekend out of water I just had to go out and after some study of forecasts I decided to go out on Saturday because there was no thunder or tough wind on the meny.
After one weekend without fishing I was pretty excited when I was driving early on Saturday morning to the shore and was launching my battleship around 9 am.
Water was pretty warm even if it had rain for several days now but while driving sun was shining even if there was some clouds here and there but guess what ?
As soon as I had my boat in water first rain shower was on me and while I was driving out from the dock came the thunder,so fuckin typical of forecast makers.
Anyway,I had came so far so I was no to give up so easy.
Arrived to the first spot and so did the heaviest rain I had seen for years,in seconds I was totally soaked,my wading jacket didn't help a shit.
Rain stopped for a while but the thunder came closer and I decided to fish one more spot and stop fishing even if it hurt.
At my last spot something weird happen,the small breeze disappeared,water level raised about 30 cm in no time and somebody open the tap in heaven again.
The rain was so hard I could not see 10 meter ahead,no need to continue with this and on my way back I saw something I never seen before,a fuckin cyclone,yes,a cyclone and on a day forecasts promised NO rain,NO thunder etc,etc.

It felt both scary and impressive at same time,first it felt that it came closer to me but finally it past me with good margin.
So as you can guess,my FIRST BLANK DRAW for a long time but else what could I wait in this weather and also so short time at water,could not even focus on fishing in that thunder and blaa,blaa blaa....now I have used a very special excuse for blanking,wonder if I ever will make it better.

Fly tying in wait for cooler water.

This summer will be remembered as a warm..no,a hot one,in July 26 days with temps over 27 degrees which has warmed up the water to over 25 degrees at some places.First it worked to go a bit further out but lately water has been that warm even there so I have decided to stop my fishing for a while in the name of Pikes welfare.
Temps has been cooled down a bit but are still in region of 25 degrees,hoping for some rain showers later on because I just need to get out next weekend,it might just be that I'm out for pearch or even zander if the weather not cool down enough.
Anyway even if I have been so lazy tying flies for several months now there has been a fly every now and then and I have even managed to  get a tying video made of a Pink/silver fly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oaXEhErp9Q

Also got me some new awesome 16 mm eyes from flydressing and have to say that even if they look big in the package the look only amazing on the flies.

And finally some random photos of my ties lately,noticed that should update this part more often too :)

Those awesome popperheads are made by Chris Chandler from Jerkbaitmania so if you  interesting in them you need to turn to him.
As I told you I have been a bit lazy to update my ties but I will try to show up some more ties soon and next weekend I will go out fishing so stay tuned.

Spin fishing with my daughter 27.7 2014

Weather here in Scandinavia has been so warm for a long time now that water temps has raised up to over + 24 C degrees so there hasn't been much fishing lately but some small fishing trips last for 2-3 hours has been done and on last Sunday it was time for a trip with my daughter,made it last year too so we could almost call this as a tradition.
Very nice to go out and fish in some kind of "basic" way,not any fancy tricks,just spin casting,need no brains for that :)
Had some new rubbers unused which I thought could get some time in water.

This has became some kind of a highlight of my fishing trips,it's more to be together and have fun then just fishing.
We was out at sea at 11 am and because of the extremely warm conditions we decided to go a bit further out to see if we find some windy and cooler water and after a while driving we found some nice spots to fish.
Right at our first spot I managed to land two small buggers which was nice because fishing at my regular places has been a real pain in the ass lately.
We decided to go even further out and found some spots with gin clear water which gave us pretty decent amount of fishes even if the size could have been much bigger.
But anyway,we had so much fun,we eat and fished and before we knew clock had turned into evening and around 8 pm we decided to pack our bags and go back because the pikes didn't wanted to co-operate anymore but 15-20 landed fishes in these conditions is a amount I still find to be decent.
some random photos from our trip.

Went once out last week too but one landed fish in seven hours ain't much to tell you about except that I almost killed myself.....

This weekend I decided not to fish which I regret deeply already but next weekend I will go out no matter what.
Also longing for some kayak fishing but not sure if it's time for that next weekend,depend of the water temp,not even sure if it's gonna be pike or pearch but one thing is for sure,it's gonna be flyfishing this time.