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.

Almost like a new start.

Sorry for not posting for a while,was already prepared to close down this blog but got so many nice memories here so thought I could give it a go yet,it's like reading a diary which is pretty nice imo.
Facebook,Instagram and other social media seems to rule everything nowadays but It's cool to write small stories now and then and also good for language skills.
Anyway,there has been some fishing and fly tying this season so nothing has changed since my last post except there has been some more serious perch fishing now when weather and waters have been warmer.

                                                              Fishing

Fishing has been somewhere between good and excellent,even if I blanked for the first time in a very long time,think it was a year ago....at least,but on my second trip for the season fishing with my brother I fished for at least 8 hours with only one follower,well....it had to come but we had a good time with fun and good food.

Slow fishing doesn't matter as long as the food tastes good.

Tired fisherman.

At some point I started to fish much deeper than I ever had done before and slowly I got some good results.

                                                           Fooled by a big wiggle tail fly from four meter depth.

It was a bit difficult to find all deeper potholes in middle of nowhere so very soon I found out that I need a sonar and just days after I had a Lowrance Elite Ti7 total scan mounted,

Never thought how much it would change my fishing,even if I never been too much for electronics.

Had some issues with mounting the transducer but thank's to some friends it was actually easy solved.

Looks perfect

Early mornings

Relaxing summer fishing

Fished early season in waters that I knew so well but except one trip it has turned out to be "not so good" place anymore,well...I found some new spots to fish from thank's to sonar.

That memorable day was when I fished with a friend of mine in perfect weather conditions.

We landed so many fishes I can't remember,even good sized pikes too.

Tail size !!!

After two dropped monsters this felt so good

My friends 8.2 kg:s

After this magic trip I tried couple of times same areas and even some new spots,caught some but still thought it was time to change location.

I have study maps for a long time now and found some nice places which some has been total disasters and some very good.

It was time to start fish them carefully,first place is same waters I fished for over 40 years ago,issues with that place is that it's very,very shallow and most of the time you end up casting against the wind but I like it anyway,even if it is a bit tricky you always catch,also good chances to catch big.
Fished there for two times this season,had a blast,it's just that it's very small area and if water level is -15 cm fishing is almost impossible.

In good condition

 It was time to move again,this time to a well known place that has proved to be a very good place but maybe with my sonar I could take my fishing here to next level.
Biggest issue with this place is that you have to paddle a long way and at least half of the way against the wind,after fishing for 12-13 hours I really hate going against the wind,it's also pretty open area so the waves can be some kind of pain in the hole too.
When you get there fishing can be magical,in both numbers and size.

Say cheese

Mid-summer madness

About 110 cm + 9 kg:s

Among lily pads

Solid body

Thank's to a cold summer I managed to fish for pike in to middle of July.
After that I decided to give that fly fishing for perch a serious chance,I had tried it before but always ended up with small pikes or.....big pikes.
To be honest,I don't know how or why but this time I managed to land some perches,first small ones but very soon they got bigger too and I have now while writing this fished for only perch two times in a row and both time I have manged to got some good size too.Good to have an option for warm weather/water when pikes not feeding and most important,this is so much fun too.

First perch of this season

First cast of the morning

38 cm/770 grams

So much fun

Still waiting for that +40 cm fish

Could write so much more but I'll end this post here and make a new one of flies,tying and pimpin my yak.
Stay tuned.