Weekend fishing Sept 16-17 and 24.Sept 2017

The reason why I put these two weekends together is that there wasn't too much action on any trip,about 25 pikes and ONE perch landed in about 40 hours is far less than what I'm used to catch this time of year.
Think the biggest reason has been very,very murky water,barely could not see the blade of your paddle so max 40 cm visibility was what I had to deal with.
Low visibility has been caused by strong winds and rains and also rotten water vegetation.
Anyway,think it's time to let this water rest for a while and travel for some clear water and actually I have a new place in mind which will be fished next Saturday.
Nothing extra ordinary to mention so will just add some pics from my two latest trips.

When fishing is slow I have noticed that I pay more attention to all kinda surroundings,Sometimes they are stunning,so stunning I forget to fish and just think how lucky I am to be able to be out here.

Fishing Sept.9 2017

Forecasts promised interesting weather for Saturday,calm in the morning and increasing wind later on,one thing that was continuing was rain,rain from morning to late night.
My plan was to go for perch in morning and for pike later on in windy conditions but as usually plans rarely come true.
Had a shitty hard week at work so at the time I planned to paddle out I sat in my kitchen sippin some coffee watching the pouring rain from my window but even if I was a bit late I still went out at 7.30 pm.
Still no wind so I decided to go for perch as long as it seemed to be reasonable,not even rigged my pike gear.
Maybe ten casts and I landed a small perch but after that it was all about pike,even if I tried to catch perch,pikes were really feeding and I think I landed + 30 of them with only 3 perch on the other side of the scoreline.
Pikes were overall small pocket size except for one decent sized.

These kind of fishes is the main reason why I use trace wire and strong hooks even when I fish for perch.
At some time I noticed that even if I had a new wading jacket it wasn't meant for this kinda weather and after maybe 6-7 hours I started to feel I was gettin wet even on the inside of my clothes which in turn made me to feel cold too.
Decided there was no idea going on when I wasn't enjoying what I was doing but for some reason I still grabbed my rod to do those famous "just couple of casts more" only 100 meters from the dock when I felt a heavy bite on the fly and this time it wasn't a pike.
I knew it had to be a big perch because of the bend on my rod and soon I had a good perch landed,quick measure and scaling and yes,my third +1 kg perch for the season was a fact,Mother Nature rewarded me for my patience,thanks for that.
Didn't wanted to push my luck further,good to stop fishing after this.

I was naturally very happy for the experience I had,I was totally soaked,took me hours to reach my normal temp but lying under a warm blankie at home I knew I would remember this day a long time.

Fishing Sept.2 2017 What a memorable day.

As I wrote earlier I had inspired from perch pro decided to give fly fishing for perch a good serious go this season and I have done so,after my fishes I set my aim target to catch a +40 cm/+ 1 kg fish which was a very ambitious goal due to my PB which was a shy 40 cm no scaled fish landed couple of years ago.
As I can see it the weather hasn't been optimal,not a single time when I has been out except this morning,total calm surface and warm but cloudy morning,not perfect but best weather so far.

Ready to hit the water

Railblaza camera boom

Excellent weather also to test my new toys,a home-made strippin basket with a higher rack mounted and also the Railblaza camera boom 600 was fresh mounted.

Beautiful morning

Went out around 7.30 and started to fish almost immediately and not long before I landed my first perch,had some coffee and continued with my fishing,hooked up a good pike,must have been a good 20 lb but dropped her close to my yak.
Fishing among lily pads is challenging but can give you some good rewards,but so far only small perches.

Lily pads

Big or small,love them all

Decided to paddle a bit further from the lilies to a more clean area but still with some reeds.
Felt so nice to be able to fish systematically which often gives me good results,so even this time.
The hit was heavy and angry,and it was not a pike,my heart took a new frequency for a while when I saw the fish,this must be a new PB I thought,I only had my "pike net" with me but decided to use it because I didn't wanted to drop this one.
When finally managed to get the giant in my net I was like wow,never seen that big perch live,a quick scaling and measuring and yes,Sept 2 will be written in my history as the day I landed a new PB,a nice fat perch measured 44 cm and weight 1.48 kg,top fish for me.

New PB

Don't know what happen after that but I found a huge flock of small baitfish,think they were bleaks feeding from surface,easy to locate with no wind at all,had a blast and landed perch after perch among these baitfish.
Well,even the best days come to an end,so even this one,always good to stop while you having fun.
Lifted the anchor and started to paddle back when I saw a place which I decided to give "couple of casts" to.
First cast and boom,a big perch,very big but not just there.43 cm and 1.22 kg is still my second biggest perch ever,a very beautiful fish imo.

Almost there 

Just one cm from my PB,still a beauty.

Landed a nice 30 cm fish with second cast too but nothing on third,didn't wanted to be greedy and try my luck anymore so I decided to paddle back to the shore ,felt nice to get home and just enjoy the experience Mother nature just gave me.

Tying video.Perch fly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVJjBHe09SQ 

Uploaded a new tying video of a simple Minnow which is quick to tie and catch well.

Tying video.

To be honest,I was very close to give up.Never ever had so much troubles to make a video before.
First attempt was my own foul,forgot to add a memory card in my camera,lost the voice from the video,could not download the vid and finally IMovie collapsed.
But after all struggles the video is out now.Pheeeeeew...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mq9AWqUgDU

Updated Wiggle wagon

Tying pike flies has suffered a bit due to my increasing interest in Fly fishing for perch which in turn including tying perch flies.
Some people know me as a flash tart and yes....Have to admit I am some kind of dependent of it so one day when I was tying some new perch flies I once again nailed my eyes on one of my flash racks and not for the first time I started to wonder where I could use these bright nice colored  neon and glow in the dark flash from Hedron.

Don't know why but never actually found any use for them although I really like those colors.
After couple of days when  I was just sorting out my flies when I suddenly got an idea,how about doing some kind of a update on the articulated Wiggle/Dragon wagons,long time since I tied them anyway so,yes,I will give it a go.
Picked all basic materials on the table and was a bit surprised how I managed to find everything from my a bit chaotic man cave.

Don't have many pics from tying,got some helping hands (paws) from Hugsy who for some reason tried to ruin my tying.

A pic of the rear hook with first bunch of bucktail is the only pick I took in middle of tying but they are almost similar to these ------>                           🔻🔻🔻🔻

Major difference is that instead of Magnum flash I used Hedrons Neon flash and "glow in the dark" flash.
Also head is made a bit different,instead of Ripple ice fiber or Craft fur I used Predator dubbing.

So,there's a final product ,I'm happy with the result and can't wait to introduce it to some big angry Mom's later on.

Fishing Aug.26 2017

Have been fishing mostly by myself this season so it was nice to get some company for some change.
Decided with my friend to get out early in the morning and so we did.
Forecasts had promised some hard wind and rain later on but at least 7.30 am we had a most wonderful morning with a blue sky,some clouds and barely no wind at all,a bit chilly though,well,Autumn is on it's way so.....

Increasing wind.

Early morning,things looked good at this moment

Last weekend water temp was almost 21 degrees so I thought that we could go for perch,we fished for a while but no bites,noticed that water temps had dropped a lot in just a week,only 15.5 degrees now,well,we had some cold mornings so no wonder.
Also wind was about to increase so we changed to pike gear instead.
After a while the promised 6 m/s was a joke,it must have been at least 13-14 m/s,paddling was a pain in the ass,not to mention casting flies,also the water was very murky.e
We decided to give up hope for the big ones and headed in to the reeds instead,it was a must situation if we wanted to continue fishing-
Even among the reeds fishing was difficult,wind and rain was heavy and next struggle we ran into was those lily pads,if the amount of them was out of this world in the middle of the bay,here among the reeds it was out of the universe,8/10 casts you were snagged.
Don't actually know what happen but in a short time I first saw some perches followed my fly and soon after that my friend had a rough bite on his fly but the pike came off.
I also dropped couple of fishes when I suddenly felt a soft smooth take on my fly,felt almost like I was snagged for a second before I noticed it was a fish,and not justa a fish,it was a perch very close to my PB on fly.
Short fight,quick pic and release --> close to my PB but not there yet.

Almost a PB.

Weather turned out out from nasty to strange....10-15 m/s,heavy rain showers.A minute after it was totally calm with a bit of sun too.
You was just about to start enjoy the fishing again when wind increased again and rain start to hammer us again.
Well,It wasn't the most enjoyable weather so we just fished,fished and fished without too many breaks,who want to sit and have a break in heavy wind and cold rain,I landed some small pikes and dropped some too,my friend dropped some before he finally managed to land one,that was my aim target,he's first trip of the season.Now I was ready to quit for today.
We fished our way back to the shore with not much to report,I landed a small jack

hard work pays off

Fishing was kinda slow but company was great,now it's time to figure out some material issues,need a new fly line and also got some ideas of some flies I wanna tie.
Also a Railblaza camera pole will be mounted for next weekend.

Fly tying

Yes,among all fishing there has been some fly tying too,including testing new models,materials,colors,hooks etc,etc.
And of course I have offered more thoughts on perch flies too,thanks for tips go to Daniel Bergman from Fly-Dressing and his awesome perch flies on   https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnDj4GODT_QrG3eWa8wcZtGJEngUonEnP

So many new materials on the market now I can't remember but Ripple ice fiber and Predator dubbing has been in very active use for me

Also tried some new hooks,Vision/Partridge Big Mama and Big Daddy hooks,Think it's similar to Universal predator hooks,green and red colors looks pretty good in many ties.Have made hook rigs of them too,no complains so far.

For me the the biggest "new" hook in use has absolutely been Partridge Extreme Predator Lock bend X in 5/0 size,to be honest this model has been a true "day saver" for me.

The location I have fished this season has been conquered of a ridiculos amount of lily pads,not only close to shore,they are fuckin everywhere.
A double-edged sword,challenging to fish but they also offer a good covering for big fishes too.
Ordinary hook flies use to get snagged all the time so flies tied on these hooks has been a good solution.
Tried them also on hook rigs but imo the work better as ordinary flies.

As you can see on pics upper it's hard to get a "clean run" .Spots are hot so a solution had to be made,got some friends who gave me some cool tips tying on that very short shank.

I have actually fished almost the whole season with these four flies,at the moment one of them is so worned out that I have tied a replacement for it but basically fished 85 % with these when it's about pike fishing.
I really like this pattern so I tied some on ordinary hooks too,just haven't had many opportunities to fish with them so far.

Even if I have fished with very few models lately I have tied different patterns which I hope to be able to fish later on this season,especially I hope to be able to use both wiggle and dragon tails much more than what I have done so far.

Finally some perch flies,I'm not an expert on them so I have mostly tied patterns I've seen from Youtube,I have made some small changes on some patterns which I've thought could improve things.just about to make a video of it and also some more practice needed before I will release it.
Anyway it's nice to tie some other flies than just pike flies too.

So simply to tie but so effective,use to tie these on Partridge Attitude streamer size #2 or TMC 811s size #2
If I had to choose only one hook my choice would be TMC because of  all big pikes hiding and hunting in same areas,a hook  bit thicker in goods combined with 0.50 mm fluorcarbon and a 20 lb trace wire makes me feel more comfortable if a bigger "non target" would be too interested in these 5-7 cm buggers.