Artic fishing 22.11 2014

My planned weekend trip with my kayak went a bit different due to a heavy snowfall on Friday evening.
First snow this year and we got about 10 cm at one time.
But as you know,the need for piking beats common sense I found myself at shore early in the morning emptying my Big Rig from snow and dressing me up in some warm clothes for some action out on water.

It didn't take me too long to get out on water among all snow and ice.
It may sound silly to go out in these conditions but I have to say that I really enjoy being out on days like these,no boats or other kind of noise,some peaceful vibes here.

Well it's cool to calm down after a week at work but hey,I'm here for the fishes so better to chuck some fluff before it gets too cold.

What a awesome start,eight casts and four landed pikes,seem to be a nice day at office.

While releasing my fourth fish my hookouts broke and had to get a long with my pliers until my friends were to arrive with a boat.

Even if it was a nice start and I was very tempted to continue I couldn't do so without my hookouts so thought it was a good time to take a break,drinking some non-alcoholic mulled wine which suit perfect in weather like this.

Felt kinda therapeutic to sit on a rock and listening to the silence and enjoy all surroundings which ended in some noise I recognized  to a well known boat,my new hookouts had arrived.
Had a quick talk with my friends before I decided to continue fishing.

This time of the year days are awfully short and at three pm I had to paddle back to the shore and pack my stuff before it would turn to pitch black.
Stopped at some spots on my way back and managed to land some decent fishes on my way back.

It was getting colder now and saw some ice close to the shores but "my" shore was still open so I had no problems getting to land,only issues was my frozen feet and especially my fingers.

Hard to do anything with no sense in your fingertips.

I also made a quick small video of todays fishing which you can see -->  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PQju-PfigA

But if I sum up this day except from frozen fingertips I got some fresh air,some workout in paddling through that pud,15 landed pikes and some time for myself in our stunning archipelago so if you ask me was it worth it my answer would be YES !!!! After all,I'm a piker to the bone :)

Fishing 15/11 2014

For once I was out in time,for first time since...I don't remember,out at sea about 8.30 am in some kind of dawn,gloomy conditions.
Wind from east 3-5 m/s,cloudy and cold was the name of the game,don't know the water temp but it was cold,perfect weather...

I was out with two friends of mine,I was with kayak and my friends with boat.
We still decided to fish pretty much same spots except the first one,too rocky for a boat with a water level of -35 cm.
Had no expectations at all,just nice to be out a bit.Not many casts before there was somebody nibbling my fly but didn't hooked himself.
couple of casts later ,same story.
Seemed to be small jacks on the run today so I changed to a smaller fly and not long before I had my first fish in the yak.

These small buggers was feeding a lot more than a month ago and it was fun to have some action now and then and a quick phone call to the boat confirmed my thoughts,they had also some action which was nice to hear.
After some time we met at a long reed bank which has been pretty good lately and the same thing happen even today.

We fished for some time,got some jacks now and then but suddenly my friend on the boat had a big hit on his fly and as soon when we saw it we knew that his old PB 102 cm should be history if he managed to land this monster.
About ten minutes later he had a big mom in the net and if you haven't seen a happy man then take a look at these photos and you can see one.
I got some more photos from the trip but I think  the only proper way to end this post is to put up these photos and enjoy them,we fished for hours after that but you surely understand that our thoughts was in the past.

His new PB is now 115 cm/ 12.0 kg:s

Jackson Big Rig,first two months.

 Season is turning to an end slowly so I think I could sum up and share some experiences with you of My battleship from Jackson Kayak called Big Rig.

As some of you know I have been more or less a kayak-freak for a time now and a Jackson team-member too since August and I've been an owner of the BigRig since late August. There will probably be many updates to come later on as I get more experiences. 

First impressions 

 After we finished our talks and sealed the deal with Timo from the JK distribution for Scandinavia http://www.erakettu.com/index.php?section=1 it was time to choose a battleship for me. Thanks to a friend and also JK team member Mikko's experiences and advice I also turned my sights to BigRig. Mikko, like me, also fly fishes for pike from the Big Rig. This was a huge factor why it wasn't so difficult to choose from the different models.

My first comment was "WOW,it is much bigger than I had thought",especially the impressive width (94 cm) was far more than in my yaks before,also this was the shortest one I've owned (401 cm) so I decided to take a rudder as an option to avoid any zig zag movements on the water.

Second impression was all the little details,like the anchor solution, rod protectors/throughs for rod/reel combos on both sides of the yak and nice storage space on both ends and under the seat,definitely enough for a fly angler.
Also that "Jackson bottle" and two lureboxes, not to mention the rod holders was pretty cool gear to get with a yak.
The weight (45 kg:s) of the yak was something that concerned me a bit but after you learn some tricks it's not that difficult at all.

Test ride 

Got my yak on a Wednesday and days were just draaaaaaging on waiting for the weekend and the long awaited testride but finally even that day was on hand.
Weather was cloudy with the sun showing up among all the clouds but not too much wind which was good so I could concentrate on discovering this boat with no other things to worry about.
First thing at the shore was to put the seat on place,you can choose from HI or LOW position,I chose the HI position. It was like sitting on a normal chair,very easy to stand up.Secondly I adjust the lumbar support,very easy to do,I love functional solutions which are easy to use.
Because this was only a testride I had only one rod and some lures and a landing net with me instead of packing the whole yak full.
My first thought was the stability, it's incredible,first yak I dare to stand up in without any fear, not that I often stand while fishing but it's nice to know that you can do it if you want to.
Secondly I noticed that it was a bit slower than my other yaks,BUT !!! It's the price you'll have to pay for stability, I'm willing to do that, it's not that slow anyway.
As I told you I had not done any special arrangement for the yak to suit my fishing, I was pretty excited to test the original anchor rig which could be awesome with no rope in your feet .
The weather was fine when I left the shore but typically when I was as far as I had planned to go the weather quickly changed from this

To this

and just minutes after to this

So I had the "honor" to test my ship in tough conditions immediately and even if my energy was about run out paddling against the wind I have to say there was NO PROBLEM to handle this yak, barely wet my feet, I was in love 
Summa summarum of the first trip was that I noticed the incredible stability in rough conditions.The original anchor rig wasn't good,or let's say it don't suit my fishing, got several times tons of weed hanging from the anchor. For those who want their anchoring point only back this solution is genial.
So,an anchor trolley was on top of the list and I wanted this to be done properly so I installed pulleys with stainless bearings

At this point I haved change the position of the pulleys and I'm very satisfied with the function of the trolley now.
My fear of tangling my fly line into the anchor rope was unnecessary, I got the rope under the seat .Got some plans to modify this solution later this winter to make the trolley even more comfortable to use

In use

So far I have been extremely happy with my BigRig. Not much negative to say about it. Couple of things I'm extra happy with:
First of all I love the stability, it really is incredible.
Secondly I like that I can store two rod/reel setups on each side of the kayak in the rod protectors, it's very nice to have them stored like that, you can't have them in rod holders behind you due to your back casts. I have my landing net in one of the "rocket launcher" behind me anyway.

Also like the pre- mounted GoPro holder in the front of the yak. It enables you to take videos of your fishing, nice variation to the head strap mounting.
I have also mounted a rack for a normal camera in case I want to take a nice photo of a nice fish.

You can also see the rod tip cover on the right side of the camera and the pre-mounted rack for your GoPro camera on the left.
That rack has been awesome for me, I remember a nice fish times ago which ended in a photo like this:

After that I wanted to do something to be able to take decent photos and I can recommend this solution to all of you who fish often alone,it's cheap and easy to work with.
At the end of the season I was fishing in Blekinge archipelago Sweden and on the second day the weather conditions were tough,maybe toughest I've ever been in.
Wind wasn't more than 11 m/s at max but the rolling waves were very big and for some minutes I was a bit afraid I will fall of the yak but it behaved so consistently I very soon forgot what kind of conditions I was in and I could concentrate fully on my fishing.
What was important for me with this experience was that I know that I can go fishing with this yak in almost any conditions in my home waters.
At this stage I want to remind you that these things I write about are NOT any kind of absolute truth,
only MY opinions.
There isn't a kayak which is best in everything, it's all up to you what attributes you appreciate and choose your kayak after that.
So,even if I think my relationship with BigRig will continue for a long time there's some things I would love to see changed
Would love to see a waterproof small storage box near the seat were you could keep your keys,phone etc,etc...
So far I have resolved it with a loose box, there's that much room under the seat.
This is my third yak and so far absolutely best for my use, it has some deficiencies but all the basics are there,and always nice to find your own solutions too to suit your own fishing.
I hope This post of my thoughts answers any questions you might have about the BigRig, I can say that if stability and space is your primery criteria, Big Rig offers them both.    

Hook bounded.

My first touch with these flies was just couple of days ago In Karlskrona Sweden were my friend fished with them and are also designed by him.

Really liked them and so did Blekinge pikes too,Mikko gave me two of them and gave me a good SBS lesson and I had to copy and now I'm just waiting to get out to fish with them.

Have a good feeling about them.

This may even be some kind of turning point in my tying,If these flies work as I think they will I might go back to tying on hooks again 

Olive and that black one is tied by Mikko,two others by me.Believe in them so much I think I'm gonna tie up some more of them forthcoming week to got some good color combos before weekend.

I'm using a slightly different hook than Mikko.I'm going for a Partridge Universal Predator X in 6/0 size.
What makes this fly so special is the tail part of it,it's tied on a small shank which makes it turn athwart in retrieve stops.
Nothing new with flies tied on shank,even I have tied them but they have been gigantic sizes,up to 50 cm which makes them too big in most of the waters where I fish.
These are about 18-20 cm:s long which makes them more allrounders in my fishing...I think =D

I start this tie by making two shanks,one small for the tail part,for the tail part I'm using a 0.8 mm thick and for the hook a 1.00 mm thick.

After this part it's tying that's count's.
Starting with the tail bur first I use to prepare it with kevlar thread.

This one is tied with hackle feathers and flash but you can use Schlappen etc,etc as well.

Connect the tail to second shank and tie it to the hook,Once I'm using kevlar thread to do it.

As you can see on the two last pics here the shank is a bit shorter then the hook shaft,Empty space is reserved for the head.

Materials used on the hook is simply bucktail and flash and some ostrich herls.Three bunches of bucktail is enough.
On this fly I don't hollow style but on a fly with bucktail as the main material I think it's important to use quality materials,My choice for bucktail has been Helsinki Spey clave Extra select tails.

You can take a guess which one is extra select here.....

I have used three different colors but that's of course all up to you.
Then there's only the head left,three bunches of deerhair,trim it and finish with some epoxy.

Almost forgot,added some rubber legs on this one.
It should be a fly that sinks when retrieving and slowly rise up in stops  using a intermediate line.
Hoping to get some tests done next weekend

Fly tying.

Some new flies tied again so I thought it could be time for a new post to show them to you.

   Black'n'silver 

This color combo has delivered most fish to me with a huge margin to others,no doubt about that
At sometime I didn't even used other colors,just because they were not needed.
The original pattern was actually Black'n'white with a dash of red in it but through years it has turned to look more or less like the one on photo above.
This one is tied in three sections.

-Tail.Is tied with grey bucktail to give some volume,covered with a mix of Hedron magnum flash in holo silver,mirage and opal colors.Also added some lateral scale in silver.
Not wrong to add some  hackle feathers  if you feel to.

-Body.Is tied in a loop using Hedrons normal flash in holo black,holo silver and mirror image.

-Head.Is tied of Foxy tails Optic fibre. As you can see there's a shimmer of blue in it which give it a nice herring look

    Copper'n'black

Copper is a color I have used usually combined with orange or white or if I tie a black head at least I add some other colors on it but this one was especially tied for the JKFO event in Blekinge in Sweden where all recommended dark colors so I choose to tie a black head instead without too much fancy stuff added.
This one is also tied in three sections.

-Tail.Is tied with bucktail in rootbear brown color,Big fly fibre in copper color and Magnum flash in copper and orange colors.

-Body.Is tied of a flash mix using holo black,dark gold and copper colors,all tied in a loop.
Also Added some ostrich herls in brown color,use to give a nice movement,especially in retrieve stops.

-Head.Is tied of optic fibre in forrest green color.

     Green'n'gold

Had heard of it often but because green had not been that productive color it therefore was not used too often.
But after Fly VS Jerk movies where Niklaus Bauer used it and also praised it I just one day decided that I'm gonna fish with a green/gold until I land a fish,well,not many casts before mission was completed and after that green'n'gold has been a well trusted color in my box,it has even made my day couple of times.
The one above is not a "traditional"one because of the head but can be classified as a Green'n'gold anyway.It's tied in three sections like most of my flies so far.

-Tail.Is tied Traditionally with bucktail in tan color,added magnum flash mixed of gold and orange colors.

-Body.Is tied surprisingly of normal flash mixed holo and dark green,also a dash of gold too,in a loop of course.

-Head.is made of a dubbing material called Senyo's laser dubbing in hot orange color.


     Olive'n'white

Another tie inspired of Niklaus Bauers flies.
Remember years ago when I first started to use olive colors in my flies,of some reason I loved it even if it was the time of black'n'silver so even if I tied with olive I didn't used so  much.
At some times Olive'n'Red worked nice,not in numbers but usually better sized fishes were landed with that combo.
Even if I had not tried to imitate any special specimen with this kinda flies I still use to fish with it on places where i  know there's lot of breams.Where's breams there's often big pikes which might be the reason I use to tie these flies very big 35-45 cm.
Because of the big size I use to tie these flies in two sections.

-Tail.Is tied of bucktail in olive color covered with some magnum flash in holo gold,holo silver and just a couple of green strands too.
On top of tat I have added some Ostrich herls in olive and some krinkle flash in opal color,lateral scale can also be used.

-Head.Is tied of craft fur in cream color tied in a loop.

Need to mention about the eyes,Flydressing 16 mm eyes suit these "megaflies" very nice in my opinion.

While writing this post I have got new inspiration from my friends awesome looking flies which worked fine in Blekinge and I'm up to tie up something totally new kind of flies which will be tested forthcoming Saturday,Will soon add photos and experiences of them so stay tuned :)

JKFO 2014 Karlskrona Sweden

Have just arrived home from a FANTASTIC event in southern parts of Sweden.
This was absolutely the highlight of the season even if the fishing was tough,very tough.
Anyway,we had a meeting with Mikko at the harbour in Helsinki and we arrived there in good time before start to make sure we had made all preparations.Also we study the map and forecasts and decided how to drive our 500 km in Sweden.

Forecasts seem to change often in Sweden so there was no use to worry about that even if we had to found some shelter areas because we both fly fish.

Not much to tell  about the boat trip we eat a buffet dinner,couple of beers and of course a whiskey.
After a well long sleep we started to drive the 500 km from Stockholm to Karlskrona.

We only stopped for some coffee and fuel and one longer stop for some food and didn't went to island Senoren before it was pitch-black.
We signed up for the competition and enjoyed a SUPERB supper at the camp made by Gunnar Ahlströms wife and a guy who's name I unfortunately not remember,a nice guy anyway.
Have to say the food was super good trough the whole event,a BIG,REALLY BIG THANK'S for that.

After we had enjoyed our food it was time to discover our cottage and meet two very nice Swedish guys who we shared the cottage with,

Had some talks about Saturdays tactics  before it was time to get some sleep before the start next morning.
Could not sleep much but still didn't feel too tired 6 am when the sound of alarm clock made me jump up and start to make some coffee before our morning info.

Me and Mikko got Swedish team member Tommy Lönnbacke with us.
Weather conditions was perfect,we decided to go in totally different direction that we had planned which I still think was a good decision afterward thinking.awesome venues to fish.
Mikko and Tommy found some fishes but i was struggling,afterward I think I know what went wrong.
Fishing was tough,in fact very tough.
First days 107 cm fish was the biggest in whole competition and only two out of forty anglers managed to land two 80 cm fish which was the minimum.
My biggest was 77 cm and couple of very small ones
The winner came from Czech republic Petr Skarka with 82 and 87 cm fishes landed.

Fishing here was totally different than in my home waters.
Use to fish reed banks but here it was near rocks and also in very shallow waters,30 cm water can be a top spot here.
Also rocks under surface of course are hot spots which mean you have to cast without any point of reference
Water was so clear you could see the bottom three meter down which made the fishes very shy.
Saturdays fishing with barely no wind at all in these crystal clear waters compared with my big flies was doomed from the beginning.
My friend Mikko also came with a thought that I used too short leader which I also think could have made a difference.
Anyway,even if either I or my friend Mikko managed to land a +80 cm pike we both (and probably everybody else too) were very happy that we were a part of this event,nice to meet new people which you had "spoke" too only on FB before.Forty anglers from different countries,all like-minded kayak anglers in one place,the feeling was so warm-hearted it's impossible to describe with words,it's something that you need to be a part of to understand.
Here's some random photos from the visit to some of the most rugged and at the same time most beautiful places I have visited.

Safely home writing this post but to be honest I left a piece of my heart in Blekinge and hoping to go back soon.
If you planning a trip there then I can recommend to be in contact with  http://www.pikestrikesweden.com/index.php