Merry Christmas.

Wanna wish all readers and followers a very good peaceful Christmas.
Stay safe and take care of each other.

Fly tying news.

Thought it would have been more difficult to integrate to tying flies in my new lab but to be honest I must say I have been pretty productive lately,almost surprised myself.
I think one key factor has been to tie couple of one pattern,change to some other pattern --> couple of flies etc,etc.
Also playing around with some materials,just for fun but also to get some kind of variety to it all.

Mostly articulated flies has come out from my vise even if they has caused some disagreement here and there because of double hooks,well,I have fished with them for a season and haven't noticed they would cause more damage than flies with single hooks,good to have options imo.

One pattern I really wait to fish with is a fly tied on a 6/0 Partridge Predator X Jig 60 hook with a Fly-Dressing Sculpin head and a Partridge Predator X 4/0 hook,

Had some awesome results with this pattern last season even I fished only a short time with them.
Not funny to cast but as I said,I like to have options.

What I really looking forward to is to see if I could match spin guys with these flies in late spring season when they diggin pikes among reeds with their spinner baits,will tie some with a reed protection too.Got a feeling this could be a killer

Some ordinary flies of course too...

On the one with a custom painted wiggletail I also played a bit with Senyo Lazer dub,a material I have almost forgot I got in stock,cool to play around a bit.

Tubes and Beast variations is next on line,got a lot of them but no man can have too many flies so as soon as I get some more materials like thread,glue etc,etc there will be some serious box filling until I'll be able to go out again.

Season 2016 second and final end.

Was lucky to get couple of new chances after the "first end of the season" but as I see the things now there won't be new chances anymore so  Nov.26 2016 will be written in history as a season end for me.Forecasts promise very cold weather for next two weeks and I would be very surprised if we would see another miracle.
Anyway,as I wrote in a earlier post,days are shorter and a good plan were you gonna fish is crucial so I checked wind directions and water levels very carefully before I went out.
Wind from East 4-6 m/s,cloudy,some small rain showers and a water level of +40 cm sounded promising.
My earlier experiences told me that slightly deeper calm bays would be my top priority target for today,also set my sights to 15 minutes after sunrise.

I arrived to the shore about 6.15 am and it was pitch black so I had some time to gear up.
My plans was to fish a bit deeper than I normally do so I changed my line to a fast intermediate,the water were I fish is crystal clear so I thought it could be hard to get pikes to get the fly close to surface,still you can fish in shallow areas with a Int.line too.
So,paddled out 150 m to the first spot and four,maybe fifth cast and first fish landed,a two kg bugger.
Not many casts later I felt someone was nibbling the fly when just three meter from the yak a Ma'm hit it hard,water was so cold that there wasn't any big fights and not until I chingripped her I noticed that it was a slightly better one,4-5 kilos.

As you can see it was still pretty dark,have had some good moments before just before daylight steps in.

Next destination wasn't too far so after five minutes my battleship was slowly gliding into position just before full daylight,Saw two boats a way out fishing a windy reedbank,I was hoping I had made right decision by stayin on calm side.

On these short days my fishing is pretty intensive so no long coffee breaks now.A banana and some juice and out with the fly,strip....strip....strip....and BOOM.
First cast and fish on and seconds later fish landed,no big drama with this fish either.

Was very happy on how the day started.
Caught some smaller fishes too from same anchoring spot when I again felt a slightly better one on the other end of the line but as with the other fishes,no big fight now either.

Was wondering could this be same fish I landed maybe ten minutes earlier ? Not sure about that but at least I had some daylight now.
Landed couple more fishes from this bay.

Even if the fishing was good I decided to try my luck on the windy side.
Said and done,
Only to paddle couple of minutes to get there so no big deal.
Funny how the water was totally different here,so clear I decided to change the fly to a more dark color.

Fished for a while here but very soon I gave up the hope,why sit here and freeze when I can go to to a shelter place much warmer and even fishing was better there.Landed just one bugger here.

On my way back I noticed that it was getting colder and when I looked at the sky I was pretty sure I would see some snow soon.
Still beautiful colors.

Oh gosh I love autumn colors.
It was a small bay with barely no wind at all so I decided to paddle to the end and started to fish from a drifting kayak.
On the second drift I felt something heavier hit my fly and after a short battle I landed biggest of the day,not a monster size but a nice one anyway.

After this fish I fished for about 15 minutes and landed one more fish and decided to stop fishing even if I could have fished for maybe two hours more but thought I would be happier to put an end on my season with a smile on my face than to perhaps not get anything on the rest of the day.

Used only two flies on my last day of season 2016,landed 14 out of 18 with the upper one and 4out of 18 with the copper toned and a custom painted wiggletail,can't be anything but happy with this day.
Now it's time to start thinking of new plans for 2017.
Some tuning of my kayak,some (a lot) fly tying and map study is on top of the list
Not a winter without FlyVS Jerk which will be out in February,nice to have a Finnish team in the competition too.
And of course some tying videos will be both watched and also made so stay tuned.

Rumble in man cave.

When my daughter moved out I immediately started to build a man cave for me and had big plans of this and that but since that dramatic change in the weather which allow me to fish again there has been a break in styling,except a carpet and a chair.
But what there has been is some tying even if my material is all in boxes in a locker.

Also there has been a lack of inspiration every now and then but somehow I have managed to find it in form of conversations with friends or from https://www.facebook.com/groups/1539980909589609/
(not sure you can see it) but it's a group called Northern Pike Fly Fishing Finland,quality tying and good stuff overall.
There hasn't been tons of flies tied but at least some.here's some pics.

First fly tied in my new lab.

These articulated flies has been outstanding this Autumn so I want to have a good amount of them tied just in case.

Pretty much based on Niklaus Bauer "Black bream" pattern but I have tried to put in my own twist to it by adding one bunch of bucktail but on the other hand left out some other materials.
I can swing this bastard with my #9 weight rod a whole day without a need of sick leave,I love it.

But I wan't to tie other stuff too so my next mission is to tie some smaller replacement flies for my old ones,noticed that many of them were badly chewed.
Also wanna work on a pattern I have had in mind for a while now,need something to match my friends spinnerbaits in late springtime,no worries,not gonna add any blades on them,just a view of a weed guard is haunting me,it just has to be tried out.
Luckily I got time to do some plans yet.

Artic fishing Nov.20 2016

As I wrote in my earlier post I was hoping to write something about fishing next and guess what...I'll do that.
To be honest the day wasn't very good,actually it was close to a disaster,It was raining when I left home,temp was only 1.5 degrees so it was a bit chilly but it was going to get worse.
I drove 50 km:s and almost immediately when I arrived to the shore rain turned into snow and the snowfall was heavy.

All surfaces on my yak went frozen and slippery,not a good start but hey,"No pain,no gain" so I tried to find a way out thru that slush.
I think,or at least it felt like the temp quickly sank and now raised again back to that 1.5 degrees.
First casts was a pain,my line felt kinked and stiff but after ten,fifteen minutes it was more normal again.
The snowfall was very thick now and it also filled my kayak with snow and I didn't wanted any extra weight to paddle with so I needed to empty it now and then.

Many of my planned spots were covered with a thick layer of slush and I had some problems to get my ordinary flies to sink thru it so I used my flies with a Sculpin head instead,problems with those heavy buggers was that they don't allow long stops which are crucial in these water temps.

Luckily the snowfall ended at one point but many of my planned spots were impossible to fish but still managed to land  some fishes among that slush.

Days are so short in Autumn,you get twilight sneakin at  you at 3 pm already so a good planning before you go out save some time for fishing instead of paddling.

I learned a lesson when paddling almost 1.5 km:s to a bay just to meet this sight.

I can tell you it was frustrating.....
Clock was ticking so I  decided to start paddle back and fish couple of spots on my way.
My jacket is leaking from the neck so my back was soaked and it was chilly too so even if sunshine usually is bad for fishing it was pretty welcome this time.

Amazing how the weather can change in just couple of hours and it didn't ruin my fishing either,actually it felt like fishes were more active now.

Fished this spot carefully because it was just 200 meter back to shore but as I said,clock was ticking and after 8 hours out it was time to give up before dark.

I landed six or seven fishes which isn't so much but thinking that I could not fish most of my better spots the result wasn't so bad after all,had no breaks because of the short time to fish and all catches feels good in this cold weather,you need them for a reward for frozen fingers,toes and cheeks.
Looking at forecasts now it seems like I'm gettin out next weekend too,even if the weather can change quickly as I noticed today.

I have a dream...

No,no,no and one more time NO.
I'm not trying to imitate Martin Luther King here,my dreams are so much insignificant like I might be able to go out fishing again,set my sights to next Sunday.

After two weeks of cold and snow weather has dramatically changed to rain and temps around +3,+4 degrees so I think I might take a break from my man cave build up,yes correct,I'm building a man cave for my use.

My youngest daughter moved out to a cabin on he own so we were left with a extra room,and when my wife several times has hope that my tying lab could be somewhere else than our bedroom we decided that I could move the lab to the extra room,said and done.

Of course it's a bit sentimental when your kids moving out but on the other hand I'm a bit excited about this even if it will take a long time before this project is solved and done especially now if I'm able to fish too.
Here's some pics of how things progress,notice I got three co-workers giving their helping han....paws

These "helping" paws have been very.......okay,let's call it helpful,but as some of you might know I'm a big fan of cats,so it has been fun,they have probably been excited too.

But,as the title said,I have a dream and as it look right now it will be fulfilled too so even if I had removed all my lines from the reels,washed them and stored them I'm excited now as a child just before Christmas.I really looking forward to write a report of fishing next,fingers crossed.