Fly tying news.The Shape shifter

I haven't updated anything about flies and fly tying for a while so maybe it's about time to do that.
Also a wind up to 30 m/s keep me away from water so got both time and inspiration to tie some flies,old style and even some new ideas.
There has been so much wrote about all "ordinary" flies so I just add some pics of them.

Some different Deceivers on hook from summer.

Actually this windy summer I became a big fan of deceiver variations tied in different ways and outfits,even one articulated with two hooks.

Easy to cast and work well,durability could be better but...guess you can't have everything in one package.
Also couple of articulated has been tied,mostly with a offset hook to be fished deep among reeds

Shank+offset hook

One tricky but very interesting thing was to blend bucktail and pike skinz or other synthetics.After some practicing I think they came out pretty good looking from vise,especially tied on tube and added a wiggle tail on the rig.

This type of tying is something I will continue with even if it's a bit tricky,you can use also "not so good quality" bucktail for it

One thing that I'm really excited of is a pattern that I got from a Irish friend of mine,he named it to "Shape shifter".
I told you earlier that I liked to fish with different types of deceivers but here in Scandinavia our waters turn to very cold in autumn and often you need to have looooooong stops while retrieving,and when fishing in shallow waters it can be difficult if the fly sink too fast,that's why this kind of a "hybrid" is so good.
The idea is simple,tied the backpart of a deceiver on the hook rig,and rest of the fly on a short tube.
Also you can combine one back part with different colored heads which mean I don't have to drag a lot of boxes with me which in turn is very good when I fish from a yak with limited space.

You see the idea here.

Same tail/hook-rig on two different flies.

As you can see there is a lot of different possibilities,I also like that the hook is positioned in middle of the fly.

These flies have worked very well this fall,will certainly tie more of these and also continue to develop these flies with my Irish friend.

Twin trip compilation.

Have had so much to do lately I even had no time to write some updates so I have to do a compilation of two trips.

Starting with the weekend two weeks ago Nov.14-15.I came to the shore very early and it still was pitch black.

I like to come out early this time of year  for two reasons.1,have noticed that 15-20 minutes before full daylight have been some kind of a prime time for big guns.

2,days are pretty short,it's pitch black before 5 pm.

Weather was cloudy,still a bit foggy,not wind yet but expected some breeze from south later on,water level on rise big time so conditions was not to blame if we were about to blank.

I went out before my friend arrived and didn't made many casts before my first pike was landed,monkey was of the back so I decided to change to a fly an Irish friend of mine have designed and named to "Shape shifter" (will be introduced in next fly tying post) and made my first cast into a slightly larger pocket on a reed bank and a second later someone attacked the fly with really bad intention,I saw my line moved about 20 meter sideways in no time,no nibbling on the fly.

The fish wasn't the biggest,not was the fight the hardest either but the hit on the fly was probably most brutal I've seen for a long time.

Six or seven casts later I had my second pike from same anchoring online,not a huge but a good one with so beautiful and clear markings I don't see often.

this seem to be a good day,just as I expected.

Also my fishing friend arrived and we continued to fish our way to our planned destination.

The expected wind didn't show up so far and in crystal clear water with a calm surface added to full daylight turned fishing to very slow even if I caught a fish now and then.

We arrived to our planned destination and decided to fish one drift past the reed bank before lunch break.

This is a place were I've seen a lot of breams so I changed my fly to a big 30 cm bream pattern before the drift and landed a lot of pikes.

We were coming to an end of the reed bank when I decided to continue just some meters further just because I thought it looked so good,fished those extra meters before too but without any success,third cast and my fly barely hit the surface before i had a heavy mean hit on it and  minutes after I had one more good one landed,very nice to end this drift like this just before lunch.

It's always nice to take a break with something warm and refreshing to eat but something happen to me on that break.

We fished for about three hours after the break but all I managed to do  was drop six !!! fishes in a row but no complains,+ 20 pikes landed including some nice doubles (low) can't be seen as a disastrous day.

                                                                    Nov.21-22 2015

Three guys in kayaks,except cold weather we had perfect conditions but.....

Only one better fish caught by one of my friend.

Except that one he got one more jack,I got two jacks,broke my reel.

Felt most sorry for my Italian friend who I fished for first time with this year.He blanked and also dropped a rod and reel into sea so we could easily call this day as BAD !!!

                                        

Fishing Nov.11 2015 Short session.

Well,had some personal things to do and when I was ready with them I checked the clock and saw that if  I decided to go back to work I would be there about 15 minutes before I anyway was to go home and was already over halfway to a nice fishing spot I decided to give it a go even if I knew it would be a session less than an hour.
Think I have never ever got me ready this quick to hit the water before,made a decision were to fish when I was already out on water.
Limited time made my decision much easier than normal.I was lucky that water level (+20 cm) and wind (East)suited to fish a reed bank just 100 meter from the shore I launched my yak so in about 15 minutes from I arrived to the shore I was ready for the first cast.
This session was short so there is not much to tell you about it either.
Dropped some fishes from a one hook wiggle tail when some jacks wee only nibbling on the tail.
I had not a single  hook-rig with stinger hooks for wiggle tails with me so I had to use a ordinary tube fly with double hooks.
Landed some nice fishes hooked only on the trailer hook from were they were easy to release too.
I decided to let my yak drift just a little bit more to a very shallow area and changed my fly to a big 35 cm long bream imitation which is a pain in the ass to cast but got a awesome movement in water and also I was able to fish it slowly with a intermediate line.This place look awesome with sparse reed.
Made a cast straight into the reed and started to retrieve the line slowly.Water was crystal clear so I saw the fly all the time while retrieving,also saw a huge swirl and in a split second my fly disappeared in a big wide open gap and My well started fall season was to continue.
I don't know if it was the cold water or what but this pike was pretty lame in action,it actually wasn't a big challenge to force her out from reeds and land her gently in my net.
She also was hooked only one a size #1 trailer hook so guess I was a bit lucky here but hey,it all count's.
This lady was that size I had to  get a photo or two of her and even now she behave so well.
After some pics she was gently released (like all my catches) to were she belong.
I went on as a happy man once again and waiting for the weekend to come.

Nice bream butcher.

I kissed a girl and I liked it.

Nice fat back.

Fishing Nov.7 2015

As I told you in my last post I had some high hopes about this weekend fishing.
Reason to that was the weather conditions forecasts had promised all week long.Hard wind from south/east,rain showers,cloudy,4-7 degrees and water level on the rise.I was excited.
I was actually so excited that I eat my brekfast in my car while driving to the shore and I arrived to the shore so early it still was pitch black and found my friend "Thebeis" already waiting for me,I wasn't the only one waiting for this session.
Luckily we had flashlights so we saw to load our kayaks and still we had to wait for about half an hour for the dawn with everything ready to hit the water.
It still was very dark when we started to paddle/pedal to the planned first spot,luckily there's not much boat traffic at this time of year,anyway I had a warning light which I use to put on when I hear a boat closing in.
Our main plan was to go to the furthest place and fish our way back to be in better control of the weather conditions and also to be able to get back in time with at least some daylight left but we could not resist to stand up on a place that has been so good for us several times.
Thebeis stopped first and I pedal couple of meters further and throw the anchor just when I saw him lay out his fly close to a reed bank,10 seconds after I did the same.
My fly just hit the water when I heard Thebeis said "fish on"...I made two slow strips and boom,I also had a fish on.
What a start to our day,felt superb even if I knew this would be a good day.
We fished on this spot and landed couple of fishes and decided to move on but not to our main target but to a place along the way were we use to only pass by because there's usually a boat or two already but it was "clean" at the moment so we decided to give it a go.
We landed a lot of fishes,dropped some too still only jacks,when I decided to make one last cast before lunch break I managed to catch a fish which was going to be my biggest of the day,not a big gun this either but man we had some time out there.

While we had something to eat we calculated we landed and dropped about 30 pikes already.
Even if forecasts promised it could be up to 10 degrees warm it felt very chilly because of the wind.
After an hour we decided to get to the bay that was our main target for the day.

After ten minutes paddling/pedaling we went to the bay and started to fish,we got some but fishing wasn't as crazy as it was before lunch and also it was getting cold so we decided to start getting back but fish couple of spots on our way back.
There isn't much to tell about rest of the day.Thebeis landed a lot of fishes on our way back,

I think I had two more but overall we landed about 50 pikes so even if there wasn't any big ones we can say we had an awesome day out and really looking forward to next time.

Fishing Oct.24-25 2015

This weekend I should have been in Sweden at JKFO but after many coincidences I found myself at home.

At least I was able to go out fishing with a good friend of mine which ease my pain and we had a good time on Saturday even if the fishing was a bit slow.

Don't know why but fishing from a yak is a lot of fun even on slow fishing days.

It can be pain in the ass too but we have noticed that taking breaks now and then can really make the days.

Decided that from now on I will really put some serious effort on the food too,so nice with some barbecue and good drinks out there instead of a chocolate bar and a bottle of water.

We were early out on Sat,morning in a pretty calm weather but we knew it was going to be a bit more windy later on,one concern was the sun which was not a part of our plans for todays fishing.
On our first spot we didn't manage to catch anything but on the second spot my friend had a good sized fish hooked for a while but unfortunately he dropped it just beside the yak.
I also had some bites before I managed to land a fish,a small jack.
Fished a lot of spots and one one of them I got fish two casts in a row but overall fishing was slow so we decided to take a lunch break,actually it was more than just a break,we had a break for almost one and a half hour which is much we got daylight only for a short limited time.

A good lunch break really doing good,stayin focused is a key factor on days like this with all those gentle takes,still we dropped a lot of fishes today.
At 3.30 pm we started to paddle/pedal our way back but fishing some spots and in the cloudy dusk I managed to land a fish which was slightly better size though not a monster size.

and one more fish from same spot...

Darkness almost surprised us and just when we left car parking with cars loaded it was almost pitch black already.
Back home tired but happy.
Can't wait for next weekend when forecasts have promised good southwest wind with some showers and water level on rise.
Expectations sky high......