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.

Wilderness Systems A.T.A.K 140 Thoughts after one season.

As I can see it now my season 2016 is over,even if I see it as a sad thing it's nice to watch photos and videos from the start to the end of it.
My biggest individual thing that happen was my move from Jackson to Wilderness Systems and as my ship for the season I chose their A.T.A.K 140.
My friend who I fish a lot with had bought it for the season and when I tried it out I decided that I want one for myself too.

And just a week after my decision I had my battleship ready for some serious fishing.

On maiden voyage.

Now six months later sitting in my living room writing bring a smile on my face and I think It's a good time to do a "walk through" of my battle ship.
My ATAK has been out in hot summer weather,in freezy conditions and overall I have to say that even if there has been some small issues I have been super pleased with my ship,I call it my companion from now on.

First impressions...Hmmmm....The seat,the seat is very comfortable,toe to toe with Hobie PA except adjustments which are better on Hobie,I made A LOT of long 15-18 hours sessions and didn't need to take many breaks because a sore or numb back.

If there's something to criticize about the seat it's absolutely about the fastening the seat,especially in cold weather with freezing fingers,small nuts and screws aren't very handy and at the end of the season I quit taking the seat of the kayak.I was very delighted to see some changes in new models,looks more handy to handle imo.

Out paddling the AWESOME tracking caught my attention,I set my sight were I wanted to paddle and I had not to pay more attention on my paddling,almost the yak read my mind were to go.
86 cm width sound like trouble when you need speed but imo the ATAK is surprisingly easy to paddle,can't help I'm comparing it to my former Jackson BigRig which was only 8 cm wider but paddling was a real pain,(otherwise I liked it).

Now that I mentioned BigRig I started to think about stability which was BigRigs best feature imo.
Have to say that of all kayaks I have tried ATAK got the best paddling features relative to stability,seem like WS have found the golden middle road here.

No problems to stand and fish.

Stability is good like it is in probably all fishing kayaks nowadays but what I like very much in this yak is that you got room to move your feet.
That's a thing I love,the open space in front of seat,as a fly fisher I really appreciate that,I don't need any center console in my fishing,I use that space for my fly line or to change my casting direction.
My spin fishing friend love the same feature because he can fish 360 degrees,I can use 180 degrees without a strippin basket.

One thing that annoyed me a lot in beginning was the tightness of both back and front hatches.
Noticed that front hatch was leaking a lot in first rough conditions,don't know why but it has stopped by now without any actions.
For some reason I think it was the hinge that caused it ???

On my yak the leaking stopped by itself but my friend had to add four layers of sealing tape.
Back hatch leak is worse,or was because I had an idea which I'm almost sure is correct why it was leaking.

As you can see on the pic above the seal on the lid have not touched the opponent surface evenly which in turn causing some gaps for the water to get into the hull.
I solved this problem by adding some foam under the support which lying in middle of the hatch.

The support

Why is it worse with a leak back than front ? Well,it's because the front hatch has not a connection to the hull as the rear hatch.
ATAK got a middle storage too which should be waterproof,it is but the bag in there isn't and if you get water into the hull your waterproof storage isn't waterproof anymore which in turn might upset you a bit if you got your phone in it for example....

A soaked bag

Water is dyed red of the bag.

Not a deal breaker by any meaning but something you should know,before you store any expencive things in that bag.
I'm not using that bag often but my friend does and he has solved that problem in a genious way,with a empty jam jar,pity I don't have a photo of it but the jar fits the hole 100%.

This storage in the small center console is something that has bothered my friend more than me,in rainy weather it just get filled with water,some kind of water removal would be nice.

The "issue" above doesn't bother me because I have removed almost everything from the top of the yak,if you have fly fished you know that a fly line can tangle on all possible places,even on the impossible places.
I removed also the console meant for a fish finder and just added a piece of foam in the hole which was meant for the transducer and yes,even the footrests have been removed.

Looking a bit ascetic but this suits me just fine,I might,just might clean it all up a bit for next season.
But hey,I haven't only removed things,in fact I have added things too,well....one thing but well worth the money,it's Yakattack Leverlock anchor trolley which is the best I have tried so far.
Easy to install,easy to use,no tangling or stretchy ropes etc.etc....

The price,as I writing this text it cost 1690 € to become a owner of a WS ATAK 140 which in my opinion is a good price,You get a kayak which is super stable,easy to paddle,top tracking and comfortable in use.
Just like any kayak you need to equip it for your own use to get the best out of it and I got some ideas ready resting,waiting for the right time for implement.Some of them are small cheap easy installs,other a bit more tricky to do but after a season I got a pretty clear vision of how I wanna do things and now when I can't go fishing for a while my most posts will be of pimping my kayak so,stay tuned.