From wiggle tails back to basics

It seems  like a eternity since I was fishing  even if it's only a week ago,knowing that season is coming to it's end makes me wanna spend time as much as I can out on water and I have set my sights on next Saturday.Weather conditions should be at least tolerable.

Things I've done whole week ??? Surprisingly tied flies of course.
Some of you might have noticed that I'm using pretty much wiggle tails which I think make a big difference especially now when water has cool down a lot and at the moment it's around 5-8 degrees Celsius,they got a seducing movement in slow retrieving and even in those long stops you need.

They come in so many sizes but I have mostly used them in Jumbo Slim size,fits perfect for my fishing.

I've used to fish these tails with tube flies but have earlier tried them even on ordinary flies too,mostly on articulated flies with very good results.
Articulated flies are heavy to cast in a long run and I also wanna be well prepared so I have made some tail attachment on smaller flies too.

All these articulated flies have worked so well,has gave me a good amount of fishes but like we all know Pikes can be picky too and one thing that works sometime is to downsize the fly and that's what I looking for in these flies for.

For some reason I actually got high hopes on these smaller buggers with wiggle tails,hopefully I will be able to fish them on forthcoming weekend.

While tying these different patterns I have started to think if it's clever or not to tie so many different patterns.
Would it be better to concentrate on less patterns and maybe do some small variations on them for different conditions ?
While thinking of it I watched an "old" video of Niklaus Bauer  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pqC_fpxUpM&index=19&list=PLnDj4GODT_QrG3eWa8wcZtGJEngUonEnP 
For you who doesn't understand Swedish it's about "how to tie an pikefly" Don't know why but it felt kinda therapeutic and relaxing to get back to basics,no need to try to improve with exotic and fancy solutions or materials  all the time.
Tied couple of new tubes too even if I got hundred of them,I tied them just for fun.

These big tubes work best in springtime just after spawning and in late Autumn just before ice so they will soon be introduced to some big fat slimy Mam's,
My next post is hopefully about fishing,fingers crossed mother nature allow me to go out getting some experience to write about.

Fishing Oct.20 2016

Had me a four days off from work and had big plans to fish like I never done before but unfortunately mother nature stepped in and said no,no...
Our weather conditions has been a big pain in the hole the last weeks,hard winds,low water level etc,etc.
So,it's my last day off and I have been out once...yes....once,and even that on my first day off,Thursday.
On Thursday conditions was pretty good except the water level which was steady on -60 cm which is a lot because were I use to fish,it's not more than max 2,2 meter water normally.
Conditions isn't something any of us can change so I just had to adjust my own fishing with lines and flies.
Used a Airflo Elbi line with a intermediate head and floating running line to not get snagged all the time and ordinary flies in deeper areas and changed to tube flies on shallow parts.Shallow mean normally 1 to 1.5 meter but now 60 to 80 cm of water.
Forecasts had promised a moderate wind of 2-4 m/s and cloudy so I also had in mind to check out a new place to launch my kayak,much closer to the hot spots.
Went out much later than I use to do but hey,I got four days off so why hurry,didn't know I wasn't able to go out those three days...

While paddling to the hot spots I saw a lot of baitfish at surface so even if I hadn't high hopes I felt slightly hopeful to catch something.
When I arrived to the first spot and threw the anchor I noticed there was about 50 cm water,oh gosh...
Tried couple of casts with a traditional articulated hook fly but snagged so often I decided to continue with tube flies and not long before I landed my first for the day.
Fished only outer edge of the reed bank because in among the reeds there were only 30 cm of water.

Funniest catch was a small jack that took a bite of the wire between the hooks and refused to let go so I had to "release" him even if he only had need to open his mouth to get loose.

 
Felt a bit lazy so I weighed the options,to stay here or to paddle further but have to paddle back against the wind.
Decided to go further even if clock was ticking and I didn't have any faith in my fishing at all,but second cast and I landed a good fighter,not big but fun.

Fished a while and damn,pikes were really feeding but their takes were soooo smooth you barely felt the hit,dropped a lot of fishes before I landed next one.
Don't know why but played around with different flies and found a tube fly I tied on a course with Niklaus Bauer at Spey Clave long time ago and believe it or not but I had never fished with it before,decided to give it a go,oh man this fly was big but surprisingly easy to cast,very pleased with it.

It also had a awesome movement in water,don't know if that made the difference or what but I started to catch fish after fish,well...dropped some too but overall it went better,landed a slightly better too,not a monster this either but after those 2-3 kilos fishes this was a nice surprise.

Fishing is usually good in autumn but unfortunately days are also shorter.
Had about 6 km to paddle so I decided that it was better to start paddling back before it gets dark.

As I wrote earlier I didn't knew winds would get stronger a day later so I had big plans including high hopes for the forthcoming days but winds up to 18 m/s and a water level which has dropped to -75 cm has kept me on the shore tying flies which I will write a new post about.

Fishing Oct.15 2016

Perfect weather conditions have been very rare lately,just like last Saturday,we came close with not too much wind and clouds but a water level of -60 cm forced me to carefully think about the area were to fish.

I could have choose a lake but for some reason I love sea conditions and after I had changed my mind couple of times I ended up on a place were there's some deeper spots too.

Had no high hopes here,very rare to catch big here but at least there would be some water to fish from.

I wasn't fishing alone today,had a team member from Wildy Fishing Finland with me and one more was expected to meet us later on.

It was pitch black when  we arrived to the shore which was good because we had time to paddle to first spot and be able to fish just before "sunrise" 

Fishing started just as slow as I expected,don't know why but I felt a bit annoyed of it,In summer and warm weather I can take some slow fishing but when it's cold and windy I don't enjoy to be out that much just for fun,I wanna catch.

Don't know how long it took but surely too long before I had a dance partner at the other end of line,at least it was a decent sized but for some reason it did not wipe away my irritation 

After this fish it was slow for a long time,we saw a lot of boats cruisin around lookin for fishes  they too,I'm more for systematic fishing than running from spot to spot like a headless chicken.

Anyway,my fingers were frozen and also overall it was cold so time to take a break in form of coffee and some sandwiches.

More important was to change dry gloves.

Have noticed that thin rubber gloves combined with gloves of wool is a combo far better than all fancy super technology gloves...at least imo.

Not long before I manged to land my second fish of the day.

Before I managed to land this one I had dropped a lot of fishes,same shit continued whole day.

Think I dropped six in a row before landed next.

All takes was so tiny you barely noticed them and both of my friends also dropped a lot.

Eleven hours and maybe ten pikes....I was cold,I was exhausted,I was hungry so I had hopes of a better reward but you know...pikes doesn't always co-operate.

My new Black'n'gold articulated fly and two of my articulated with sculpin heads were most in use of this day so no surprise they delivered most fishes too.

Now I'm gonna tie up some new ideas in a hurry because as it looks now I probably hit the water next Thursday already.

Hopefully water level is more normal then,fingers crossed...

Fishing Oct.8-9 2016

Even if the wind was insane the need for fishing took a clear win of a tempting choice to stay home in a warm bed.
Weather conditions or shall we say wind conditions wasn't optimal for a fly fisher using a kayak,12-18 m/s combined with a water level at -65 cm was a hard task to beat and most of all it forced me to think outside the box and fish on different spots than usual.
Decided to fish deeper areas,2-4 m sounded good imo and now it was time to put the "Bottom crawlers" in real test.

Fishing those deeper banks in middle of nowhere is boring..until something happen.
I often have to wait long...Cast after cast without any hits but today my patience was going to be rewarded.A heavy hit and after a minute or so I managed to land a better sized Ma'm.
Shame my GoPro cam refused to co-operate but managed to get one decent pic anyway.

Landed only smaller fishes after that,also the wind drove me crazy,too hard to fish so I decided to go back home to see if there was to be less wind next day.

Next day I wasn't excited at all,don't know why...but after some coffee and sandwiches I finally managed to drag my ass out.
forecasts promised slightly less wind and also water level had rise a bit and was -30 cm now,so still very low water.
Day wasn't to start well,woke up early but had a long breakfast and left home about 7 am.
Noticed I was running out of gas and decided to refill before fishing but remember I forgot my wallet at home,FUCK !!!!
Got so many friends and relatives living in the area so I wasn't too worried how get home so I just drove to the shore and launched my yak without problems and started to paddle out.
15 minutes later I arrived to my first spot and not many casts before i had my first fish landed,a jack but game was on.

Couple of casts later I managed to land a slightly better fish and thought I could take a pose pic with a camera of this one but could not find any of my cameras...had forgot them on the front seat in my car.
I had my phone so I could take pics but quality is shitty,FUCK,FUCK !!!

Felt it was time to paddle on,just 2-300 meter further were  i had pretty good fishing but only in numbers.
Then it happen again,had a small jack chin gripped and was just to release him when he rushed away and caused a nasty deep cut on my fingertip,no problems because I do got a first aid kit BUT could find only blisters which wasn't any help at all,wet fingers and heavy bleeding...

It kept bleeding and bleeding and soon I started to feel a bit weak..and hungry,hey,I got a lunch bag with me but forgot it too in the car....
Fished for a while and had pretty good fishing,15-20 landed fishes so it was time to paddle back to the shore where I had a n appointment with my brother and his wife who kindly lend me some money so I could buy some gas.
My yak looked like someone has been slaughtered in it so it need a rinse.

Have to say it was a action-packed day with some adversity too but it all ended up well and I can't wait to get out again.

Filling boxes between trips.

Funny but true,when fishing is good corollary activities feels better too,like fly tying and blog updates.....

Find it sometimes so hard to get motivated for fly tying but lately I have in fact been very productive.

This color combo has been outstanding on my two latest trips and they both have been destroyed on their first day in use.
A bit boring to tie same shit over and over again but what can I do,if they like it I try to give them what they want.
So,here's one more in almost same colors.

I said almost same colors,i just had to add some new??? holographic brown flash from Hedron to the head on this,blended with some holo olive flash.

Tied a completely new pattern to me too,it was inspired of  Niklaus Bauer  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-krKG683-qE  Burbot.

Had a special place in mind for these "Bottom crawlers" and actually I fished with them on that place last weekend but without results.I still gonna continue to test them,got a good feeling of them,thought they would have been a pain in the ass to cast but actually they wasn't that hard at all.

And just to avoid to be bored I tied some more traditional ties too,after ties above these kinda flies are  almost easy to tie.

These "normal" 17 cm sized flies looks so tiny in water after those +35 cm articulated flies with a jumbo slim Wiggle tail,but both sizes have worked fine for me,some days bigger is better and some days smaller are killers so good to be prepared.
Finally a Beast fly which in this color has been probably my most productive  fly this season,think I have tied at least ten of this color combo already.

Almost forgot one fly that I had sky high hopes for but which was a disappointment.
Thought this small fly could have imitated a bleak or any baitfish pikes are feeding of close to surface.
I really gave time on good spots to it but not a single hit on it last trip,maybe will give it another go

Boxes are filled again for the next trip which will be next weekend,hopefully wind will calm down a bit before that and also I would not mind if water level was to rise about 50 cm,it's so low at the moment I need to fish another area if it's gonna stay this low,three or four days to go.

Fishing Oct.2 2016

Two awesome weekends behind,was there more to come ?
A question that was in doubt while I was driving to the shore early in the morning,it was cold and very foggy at the moment but forecasts had promised a warm,sunny day with a wind 0 m/s and as a cherry on the cake water level was about -30 cm so you could easily say that all odds was against me.
As usual,when I hit the water it was pitch black,wanted to reach my first spot before sunrise because I had a feeling the day could only turn worse after that.

This time I came a bit late to my first spot,not that I was lazy but I just had to stop for some pics.
Have said it before and have to say again,I'm stunned over the beauty of mother nature,I feel privileged and lucky to be a part of these views.

Well,I was a bit late but it was still dark and some haze when I arrived to first fishing spot.
Feel kinda strange to cast when you don't see the fly well but here the noise it makes in casts.Anyway,not many casts before I had my first fish landed,a nice fish,maybe three to four kilos,a good start.

It's amazing how quick the daylight roll over you,felt like no time when darkness was gone,but it was still very foggy so I believed in my chances to get some fishes landed.

Love the photo above.
Anyway,it felt like nature woke up with the sunrise and soon you could see some awesome jumps when pikes attacked those huge baitfish schools  while they were feeding from surface.
It made also my "job" easier to locate the pikes.
For some reason pikes seemed to be a bit picky compared to other times I made this kind of fishing,but with patience I finally managed to land something.

I could have fish here for some time but wanted to move on to my final destination.
On my way there I almost shit my pants.
You know the feeling when it's calm and quite and you slowly paddling and enjoying all surroundings.
That's what I was doing when I suddenly heard a massive rumble among the reeds,oh fuck,it was close to me..WTF is happening ? felt scary..for real.Before I reacted anymore a DEER rumbling from the reeds just in front of me straight to the water,hard to say who was frightened more,me or him but anyway he started to swim across the bay while I was to find right frequency to my heartbeating.
Was so " in shock" I didn't dig my camera from the bag but at least I took a pic with my phone.

Shame on the quality but it all happen so quick.
Even the fog was almost gone before I arrived to my planned fishing area and I expected fishing to be extremely slow but I was wrong,well sort of......
I had a outstanding couple of hours and landed a lot of fishes,some very good sized too.

After the sunrise fishing went slower and slower,landed a fish now and then but also the size went smaller

I was out for about ten hours and landed 26 pikes which is a good amount imo and even if fishing was kinda slow in late hours of my day I couldn't be anything but happy when I arrived home.