Piketeaser

Some tying and casting

2012-02-11T10:58:00.000+02:00

Has been a quiet moment at work so I have had time to practice my casting skills and of course do some tying too.As I told you in my last post I found a nice pattern to tie (Tobbe Hedins fly)but the last one failed totally.My first mistake was that I forgot to add a second hackle (don´t even ask how I managed to do that :)).My second mistake was the head of the fly.I know that My Muddler heads could be good looking by some practicing but it feels a bit stupid to do a lot of work and spend a lot of material first and then ruin the whole fly with a head that´s look like doggy doo.I promised some photos too and here they are including THE head :)

On the fly in my last post I added straight away some Icelandic sheep but on this one I added first a bunch of Artic Fox 2XL to get a little bigger profile

Looking good so far..Isn´t it :).But here you can clearly see my mistake :/

And then the head that ruined this fly totally.Still decided to put the photo here on my blog so you can see that it isn´t easy all the time :)

Well,after I saw this photo I decided to Find an other solution for head,still don´t know how it will be looking in future,here is one proposal:

Also noticed that it seem to be hard to find Icelandic Sheep here in Finland,very few colors,after some study at internet I found a store in Poland Taimen.com and now I´m waiting for a parcel to arrive so I can tie some more of this pattern,also have some time to solve the head problem,meanwhile....

Have also practicing my casting skills in windy conditions with my brother using big flies with a lot of wind resistance and have to say that for me it feeling better and even my brother can get a fly out for about 15 meters now when he know the basics of double hauling.

Freezin´n´tyin

2012-02-05T11:48:00.001+02:00

So now our thin snow blanket has turned to 60 cm thick and has covered whole Finland.We had a very heavy snowfall here the other day witch messed up the traffic here in southern parts of Finland,over 300 accidents in one day and I´m talkin about just around Helsinki.But now it´s seem to be time for the other mess with winter,it´s cold,and not just cold,it´s COLD !!! and while I was at work this Sunday morning I tried to figure out What do I hate most in winter,the cold or the snowfalls...Don´t know,both of them is not very high on my wishlist anyway.-36 degrees Celsius 04.00 AM at home and 8.35 AM -35 in Helsinki when I went home.

Well that´s all about weather complains,the Spring will be knockin on my door sooner or later.Have done some fly tying now and then when I haven´t been busy at work (witch I have been a lot).This one is a pattern I have tied for a while as you can see in my earlier posts and if someone doesn´t know yet it´s inspirated of Niklaus Bauers Sheephead-fly from flydressing.se

Tested it in my bath and I liked what I saw,hopefully the more important judges feel the same way.And this pattern is something I really like,it´s also inspired from the flydressing.se site and is tied by Tobbe Hedin and it´s called Ezza long hair.This is originally a Seatrout/Salmon fly but I changed some materials and made it bigger so I can call it a pure Pikefly :)It´s not the easiest fly to tie but still I´m gonna some more of these.

There is a lot of job in this fly that you cant see on this photo,I will take some more photos of the next one in middle of tying too but not some SBS shootout,if you want that there is a tying movie on flydressing.se site.Materials I´ve changed:Artic Fox ---> Icelandic Sheep.Schlappen ---> Marabou.Also left out those rubber legs simply because I don´t have any and also used different flash.otherway is tied pretty much the same way like in that movie.It´s not looks as good as Tobbes tying (not even close)But I´m satisfied with it anyway and this was my first attempt so..... :)At least I need some practicing with those Muddler heads.

With little help from a friend

2012-01-26T20:57:00.002+02:00

So now we have about 50 cm:s snow in southern Finland and we get the whole package in two weeks.I have been at work most of the time so that´s why there have been no posts lately but the forecasts have promised a break from at least the heaviest snowfalls so I might get some rest and enjoy my hobby a while.I have also been a babysitter to my oldest daughters cat Hercules and I noticed that he also enjoyed my tying and at times drove me out of my mind.At least my younger daughter had fun while she took some photo shoots. Hey man,what are you doing? May I join your company? Oh FLYTYING...very interesting.

Don´t forget to add some Bucktail....DID YOU HEAR..BUCKTAIL...stupido....

Ok,now were on right track,I`ll take a look from the other side.

Why do have to be so nervous?Calm down man,I´ll just walk here in front of your face,keep on tying.

Ok.it look like you can handle it,hope you don´t mind if I rest here on your arm while you are finishing your fly.Hurry up,I´m hungry.

Even if it wasn´t the easiest way to tie a fly I´m pleased with the result:

And one more for the road:

Here´s two variants of same model,both have Bucktail under,one covered with Big Fly Fibre the other with Body fibre.Both have a nice movement in water.After that I added some Finn-Raccoon zonker in a loop and finalized the fly with one Marabou feather palmered round the tube.Oh yes,and a pair of Glow in the dark eyes from deercreek.

Winter time

2012-01-13T18:26:00.000+02:00

While I´m writing this post we have finally got a blanket of snow even here in southern Finland so now I can with certainty say that my season is over and a long waiting has begun.So now there will be about 4 months time to tie flies,train my casting skills,meet friends or whatever come to my mind.Last year I felt sick not be able to go out fishing but now I feel relaxed,calm.It almost feel good to have a small break from fishing.Was here some days ago out on a windy field testing my new Vision Big Daddy rod with different lines and at same time I practiced casting in windy conditions.And guess what....I was not alone,you´ll never guess who was with me....My brother who use to fish with Jerk baits tried flycasting,and after a couple of hours training it looked okay,in fact pretty good.It was nice to see him so excited.After a short talk he bought himself a combo,the same combo that I started my flyfishing for pike with.The combo includes a Guideline ACT rod(9ft),a Guideline Reelmaster Reel and two Guideline Pike lines S3 and a floating.All in lineweight 8.Now he has trained all days and getting better all the time,looks like he has completely felt for this genre of fishing,wonder when he calls me asking to buy my old wise :).Wonder if there will be more Fly VS jerk anymore :)Anyway,I think he wait for the springtime as much as I did last year.

About tubes.

2012-01-05T22:31:00.000+02:00

Have started to tie more and more flies on tube and I think it´s time to compare tubes and ordinary hook flies,whats good and whats bad with them.Want to point out that these thoughts are my own and not some absolutely truth,I don´t have enough experience to give anyone lessons :).Comparing tubes and let´s call them just hooks I find it easier to tie on a tube because I have more space on the "shaft" on tubes,I´m just tying the fly and cut of the rest of the tube witch is impossible on hooks.When I´m tying on hooks I always have to remember to keep the gap open.Of some reason I don´t feel comfortable to tie Zonker strips on tubes,maybe I´ll get over it someday ?Fishing with tubes......As I have told you earlier I have a slight feeling that I have dropped more fishes with tubes but as I also told you earlier I don´t have enough experience to say that it is so,it could be just bad luck or what ever but one thing is for sure,I will continue to fish with tubes,have tried some different hooks and still searching for the "best".The main advantage for tubes is their flexibility,you can wear different hooks,different sizes of them.Use tandem hooks,use barbless or not,all this on the same flyAlso you can choose the position of the hook,more back,more in front,it´s all up to you.

One thing that I didn´t found much information about from internet was how to attach your tube to your line so I´m not sure if this is the "right" way have done like this so far but if someone will tell me some another way to do it I would be grateful.First of all I´ll take a nylon coated wire and make a loop in both ends and then melt the nylon with a lighter,oh yes and don´t forget to put a hook of your choice in one of the loops :).

And a photo of the hook+ loop.

Then put a silicon tube on the hook shank.

Then thread the wire trough your tube.....Strength the silicon tube on your fly tube.

Now were have a hook attached to our fly and the next step is to attach it to a mono line witch should have been attached to our fly line with a loop to loop connection.I have used a 60-100 cm long 0.50-0.70 line in witch I have again made loops in both ends.One important thing is to make a loop big enough to thread your fly trough it.

I use to secure the knots with Aquasure glue.Next step is to thread your mono loop through the wire loop.

After that thread the fly+hook through the mono loop.

Now it´s just to tighten the wire and the mono lines and that´s it.

As I said there might be better ways to do this but so far this have worked good enough for me.None of the attachments have let me down so far.

Happy new year.

2011-12-31T17:00:00.000+02:00

So it´s seven hours and thirty minutes to go before it´s gonna be 2012.I haven´t done any summary of the last season simply because the season still going on.Just wondering my most memorable moments from 2011.Guess my biggest moment has nothing to do with fishing,I´m talking about my moving to a new place witch I finally call home after many years of travelling at my work.But because fishing is a big part of my life and I have been fishing a lot this year there have been some memorable moments in both good and bad also at sea.Starting with bad/sad things I have to say that the first thing that creeps in my mind is that I have grabbed my spincasting stuff all to easy when I have felt that my flycasting technique hasn´t been good enough in tough weather conditions,that´s one thing I´m gonna work hard with before springtime.The second thing is my loss in fly VS jerk to my brother,well not just the loss but he keeps reminding me about it every now and then :)(just kidding).My probably most memorable time at sea was in late August when I was able to land a gorgeous madam with a length of 116 cm:s and a weight of 8.2 kg:s.There has been a lot of other nice times studying new waters too but also big disappointments too by doing that in form of many blank draws.Well,that´s all for this year,I want to wish all you readers a Happy New Year with bended rods and tight lines for the next year.And remember that even if it´s partytime so don´t party TOO much :)

P.S BTW got me an late Xmas present :)

About Congo Hair

2011-12-29T22:19:00.003+02:00

I have tied the Regret pattern for a while now and it has worked very well,also I have tied Transformer pattern witch also doing good in a bit warmer conditions or when the pike is a bit picky.Have been looking for some new inspiration and yesterday when I was visiting a local store called Spey Clave I saw a interesting pikefly tied by a Finnish guy Markus Männistö.It´s a tubefly tied in some kind of two sections,front and back and I decided to try to tie something like it.After I studied a picture of the fly it was time to decide the materials and after a while i remembered I bought some time ago a material called Congo hair from another of my favourite shops called Nordic Angler.I tried to tie some flies with it then but to be honest I did not felt it very comfortable tying it,but to this fly I had a feeling it would be just good and after this fly in witch I´m very pleased with I think I´m on right track.

The photo isn´t the best of quality but I hope you can see the empty part between the front and back.The aim with it is to make a good balance in stops and to immediately go under the surface after your cast but I think it also makes the fly very easy to cast.I will definitely tie a couple more of these as soon I find the rest colors of this material.I´m still suffering with a terrible internet connection witch can die out now and then and my operator always keep saying Oh yes,we will fix it soon and today I get an message that they promise the problems will be solved third January,hmmm... we will see :).Almost forgot,also tied two Regret pattern flies some days ago,I haven´t tied too many flies in black/yellow color so I decided to fix that thing too.

Fishing with lures the yellow/black combo has worked well in sunny conditions,next summer we will see if the fly version doing same :).

After Christmas feelings.

2011-12-25T23:30:00.000+02:00

Who would have know a month ago that it wouldn´t be any snow or more precisely ice covered water here in southern Parts of Finland and the latest forecasts promising snow in February!!!Last year we had over 50 cm:s snow at this time and now nothing at all.Don´t get me wrong,I´m not complaining,I´m getting along very well without that white shit falling down.Instead we have had some rain,rain,rain and rain at some parts in southern Finland over 100 ml in a month,that´s more then in over 50 yearsStill I haven´t done too many trips as i would have wanted to cause of the very windy conditions,my removal and busy times at work.Now I have three days off duty but winds up to 23 m/s will keep me inside or somewere else but NOT on sea.So what is there to do? After some heavy eating yesterday I didn´t felt too well this morning so i decided to take a walk and at same time it would be great to examine my new village and the surrounding area and found a small river not too far from where I live,wonder if there´s any fishes in it.

At least the water level was high,wonder how it looks when it´s normal.Well,Santa brought me some stuff for my tying corner including a new "old school" lamp (love it)and a painting of Finlands oldest lighthouses and a box included some nice stuff like a string with a smell of tar,it gives a wonderful smell in my tying "corner".

felt very inspirated so I tied some flies but I havent take a photo of them all but here´s one tied with bucktail,added some Big Fly fibre and red and black flash.Then added some SF-Blend in Bleeding black color,ended up with Finn Raccoon in kingfisher blue color,now watching this fly I think red would have been better,anyway,it was nice to use some natural material after a long pause.Have to say about this fly that it´s looks better in natural then on photo :/

Christmas greetings from Finland.

2011-12-24T11:04:00.000+02:00

24th December,time to calm down and relax with your beloved ones,so without more talking I I wan´t to wish all you readers a warm and peaceful christmas.

-Merry Xmas.-Hyvää Joulua.-God Jul.-Feliz Navidad.-Buon Natale.-Joyex Noel.-Frohe Weihnachten.-Vrolik Kerstfeest.

A bit of fishing and some Body Fibre ties.

2011-12-19T20:49:00.001+02:00

Was out fishing with my floating tube on weekend and I have to say it felt heavenly,at least the first two hours,then my left knee said that I don´t want do this anymoreDon´t know if it was the cold water or what but anyhow I had to stop my session cause my aching knee.Anyway I landed two pikes 84 cm and 67 cm:s on this short windy and rainy trip,both fishes eat a black/red colored Regret fly witch has been a good color in tough weather conditions.I´m hoping to do this soon again even if I should think about some workout before getting out again :).Have also tied some Transformer flies using Body Fibre and even tested some of them at weekend and I like their smooth movement added with side to side movement also.I have a feeling it was a little bit too cold water for these flies to do their job because my both fishes hit the fly when I had a looooooong stop in stripping the lineand with these transformer fly you have to do pretty aggressive strippin if you want that side to side walk witch is the meaning with this fly.Here some latest ties.

Now I think I have some basics done with this pattern and it´s time to start customize this model with some crazy color combos.My local dealer Nordic Angler sent a package of SF-blend in Bleeded Black color witch I think will be a "killer color" in future.Other plans is to tie more Regret flies on tube but not too fast,the winter will be long :).

About Body Fibre.

2011-12-13T17:05:00.000+02:00

Have taken a bit easier with getting all my stuff on right places here at home now so there has been also some fly tying while I have checked out what material I have in stock and what materials should be ordered.Watched a tying movie from Youtube here the other day and even if I´m suffering with a VERY !!!! Slow internet connection at the moment I got some inspiration from it (again)It was Niklaus Bauer who tied a fly called transformer fly on tube.On the first one I tried to follow the recipe using SF-blend,on the second one I added some Body Fibre on it´s belly and two latest is tied with only Body fibre and I have to say that I´m very pleased with the result.Not too long ago I was a natural maniac but after I bought this fantastic material I have start tying also syntethics witch give me more options in tying.Body fibre is a material.....don´t know how to describe it but it´s near Slinky Fibre but softer,and it has a natural glow so I have often tied them without any flash.It also have a very nice movement in water if you compare with Slinky.I can really recommend this product to all of you tying Pike flies.I use to buy mine from a shop called Nordic Angler were you can find many more products that you´re not able to get from other stores in Finland,like Bug Bond for example.Here is two latest ties.First one is some kind of traditional color combo. For the second fly I used a color combo from Finlandia lures Nils Master wobbler color 03 and I have some big expectations on this one.

Football and cooking.

2011-12-11T12:30:00.001+02:00

As some of you already know my second passion behind fishing is football and even if I admit that I have been a Liverpool fan from the early 70´s I use to watch some of other teams "big games" like Sundays game El Classico between Real Madrid and Barcelona.As the difference from the other games I had my brother visiting me with his wife and daughter so I decided that there must be serving something else than the traditional beer and chips :).After a long thought I decided to make some sandwiches with smoked Salmon and onion and some sandwiches with mushrooms,Wanted to share the recipe of these tasty snacks with you.1.Chop some smoked Salmon and onion to small pieces.Add some dill.

2.Mix in some sour cream.

3.I´m not sure if you can get this kind of bread in other countries than Finland called Maalahden limppu,if not then any kind will do :).

4.This step is not necessary but it looks better in my opinion.Use a glass or something round to form the bread.

5.Just add the Salmon mix on the bread and put them in your refrigerator for two or three hours before serving.Yammy.....

The mushroom sandwiches are as easy to made like the Salmon breads.Mix some mushrooms and onions and add some chives instead of dill otherwise follow the rest of the recipe.

Something to drink....White wine,red wine or beer...anything goes.It´s all up to you :)P.S Barca won the match 1-3 at Santiago Bernabeu.(no offence to anyone)

Home building and fly tying

2011-12-11T10:41:00.001+02:00

There has been no fishing and very little tying lately but still I have been very busy by building my new place to place that I could call my home.It has been late evenings to came from this:

To this:

Still I have a lot to do but at least you can cook and wash your laundry and things like that,one more important thing for me is that finally the word HOME mean something for me.I talked a time ago with my friend who said it feels wonderful to go home after work and I remember that I thought that I new what it means but now I realize that I din`t,NOW I do,already on my way home from that dirty,noisy,busy city I start feel more and more relaxed when there is less and less cars and finally I´m almost on my own in the traffic,don´t have to worry about finding a parking place or is there much people in the local store,just step in buy what you need,no queuing drive home to your OWN parking place and that´s it.Have also met my neighbour,she seems to be a nice person.I also think that I´ll have to admit that the season is over for me.Even if the sea is not covered with ice yet I don´t think that there will be time for fishing until springtime because I really want to get my home ready first.Finally I want to tell you that there has been some fly tying too,not much but at least something to let the greedy buggers put their teeth in next spring,and there will be a lot more to come.

Both flies is basically tied by Niklaus Bauers recipe transformer fly.The first one is tied with SF Blend and the second also includes SF Blend but added some Body Fibre to give some extra movement in the water

My new home.

2011-12-02T22:49:00.001+02:00

So,what can I say? Was a little bit sissy and wasn´t fishing last weekend,he forecasts promised this and that,everything from 4-22 m/s wind so I decided not to take any risks and continued with packing instead.While I´m writing this post It will also be my first night here at my new home.Just came from sauna and drinking some coffee AND a glass of cognac,I think i have deserved it.Would have a LOT of things to do but I am simply too tired right now to any physical effort.There hasn´t been any fishing or tying for some days now so why should I not introduce you my new home until I´ll have something sensible to write about.This is my sauna:

And after spending some time in sauna it´s time to take a massagebath,this is my favorite place.

Two toilets....don´t know why but I´m not complaining as the second includes to the price :)

And while I remember,I wonder why the person who has built this place has also built two showers side by side ???

And another place were I think I might spend some times at..A fireplace.

Is there anything else worth to show ??? Well,the kitchen maybe...

That´s were I live for now,wish I could show you a cozy tying corner already but there´s one thing I have sort out first...A big load of boxes and bags waiting for someone to empty them.

Season just going on....

2011-11-26T20:52:00.001+02:00

A phone call to my friend this morning secured that tomorrow I´m travelling to Lovisa to fish for the last time this season,at least with boat.There has been very tough conditions for the last two days with winds over 20 m/s but our always reliable forecasts have promised winds around 2-5 m/s so fishing should be possible.Have also heard of some big catches so my expectations is high and I have a good feeling even if the wind is from between north and west and some snowfalls or heavy rain showers is also on forecast makers wishlist..water temp should be somewhere near 6´c and air temp between 3-8´c.Hopefully I will be able to show you something else than just wiews from the waters were i´m fishing....here is some new flies tied the last days and they will go to swimming school tomorrow,I´ll have to wait and see what the pikes will do to them.

Some tying.

2011-11-20T16:00:00.001+02:00

As I wrote some posts ago I just could not wait until December before tying flies.I feel it made good to have a break in fly tying,now ideas just flowing through my head and the only thing that limit my tying is that most of my materials are still packed away and I´ll take only the materials out witch I need for a specific fly that I have in mind.This one was tied yesterday inspirated by the song Purple rain witch I heard from the radio.

And this one was inspirated by the sunrise from this cold morning,I tried to catch both the feeling and colors on this fly.I´m otherwise happy with it but the blue color could have been a bit lighter but as I said,I´m satisfied with this too.

By the way,when I woke up this morning and opened the curtains and took a look outside I was a bit chocked when I checked the thermometer,-7 degrees celsius and forecasts promising some snow also to southern parts of Finland so......Enough about cold and snow,I was with my daughter to our local mall and I bought Allt om flugfiske,a Swedish fly fishing magazine and I saw some interesting pike streamers,guess I´ll have to dig in my boxes again :).

Golden oldies.

2011-11-19T21:20:00.001+02:00

As many of you who´s reading this blog know I will soon be moving to a new place.Have been busy lately with packing and everything else that has to do with moving.Today I was packing away some summer clothes that I don´t need this year anymore and guess what I found ?..... You might remember some time ago when I told you that I found a box of my oldest flies,I forgot them until today.So now I forgot everything else and started to study my flies instead of packing.Oh god how many nice memories flowing in my head watching these "flies" :).There´s actually much more of them but I´ll show you some that was on top of the box first,there will probably be a part two at sometime in the future.So, here´s some photos taken with my phone because I have already packed my cam away and can´t find it no matter how I try.ENJOY :D

Here´s one where I have used probably used 10 Marabou feathers,remember it was not so easy to cast....

And finally one that at least look like a fly.This one have delivered some fishes,wonder why I have put it away times ago ?

Couldn´t wait longer.

2011-11-18T21:58:00.001+02:00

Well,it´s true that I was to tie flies next time in December but.....I could not wait until that so even if I had packed away all my tying materials and tools I digged some materials from my boxes and bags and created this fly called Symphony because blending naturals with synthetics.

Including some Bucktail and Finn-Raccoon zonker for naturals and Big Fly fibre and Body fibre for synthetics.The fly is about 23 cm long and HEY !!!!The whole package is tied around my new hooks Partridge Universal Predator X size 6/0.

This hook has all feature to be my favorite,not too long shaft,big gap,strong but sharp and easy to make barbless with pliers.Have heard some praises,(SIIIIMOOOOONNN :))Will hopefully be tested before winter.

It´s getting closer,think positive.

2011-11-14T20:19:00.001+02:00

What is getting closer? Of course every flyfishers wet day dream called winter,oh thank god for the cold weather and dont forget the snow.At least five months without any fishing....Do I sound crazy? Probably yes but I´m trying to think positive and turning this case upside down.Now you have five months time when you can meet your friends witch you have almost forgot while chasing for pikes,do something nice with your family/wife/girlfriend ETC.ETC.Tie a couple of boxes full with some awsome flies instead of tying them in a terrible hurry three or four hours before your next trip.Take a look at your fly tying materials,do you got all needed materials in stock,clean up your tying corner,practice your casting skills (my biggest aim).Watch on your or your friends photos from last season.One thing I would love to do is to invite some friends to my place and tie flies together,the problem is that I don´t have too many fly fishing friends But I might have my fly tying evening in a some kinda different way,fingers crossed that it will be.No matter how cold it will be,no matter how much snow will fall down....Deep inside I now there will be the day when I´m able to launch my boat and get out there to lay out my line and say hello to those big mam´s

And finally,I recived a "letter" from Denmark today,more precisely from Sellfish media including a movie called A backyard in nowhere and I have to say it was a movie worth waiting for,I can really recommend it to everyone who loves to flyfish for pike.

More planning

2011-11-13T16:23:00.001+02:00

First of all,Congratulations to all fathers on fathers day (not sure if you celebrate it in other countries).I was at work this morning for a couple of hours (flagging)but after some rest I started to pack and put all stuff together but very soon I got tired to do it so pretty soon I started to plan my tying corner to my new home.still a bit over two weeks to D-day.Anyway I found a perfect tying table and a chair to it on internet BUT.....It´s veeeeeery expensive and I´ll just have to convince myself that it´s worth it,not that I couldn´t afford it if it was just that table but I´ll have bought new almost every furniture so I still have to think about it.And after spending some hours at internet I decided to check out my dealers tying assortment and was very happy to find that Partridge CS86X Universal predator hooks has arrived to Finland,ordered immediately me 5 packets of them both 4/0 and 6/0 size,have heard some praise....Also ordered me some different tying material just in case :).Very often all those most popular tying materials are sold out in winter time,I´m not the only one who tries to tie the winter away :).I have been very active with packing today and it look more likely that I will make one pike session in a couple of weeks.

Plans for winter already.

2011-11-12T18:31:00.001+02:00

As I promised in my last post I have one explanation about last weeks humiliation against jerkbaits,just kidding..no explanations but one thing I noticed was that I really need to practice my casting technique in tough weather conditions,this summer has been much of searching for new nice places for the autumn and as you all know so combing new places in hurry is much more effective with spincasting then with flies and I´ll have to admit that I have all to often grabbed my spin rod when the the wind has been troublesome and I´ll have just one or two hours time to fish.At our contest Fly VS Jerk I felt it time by time a little bit frustrating to get my fly out only 10 meters in a troublesome wind only because of bad casting technique.So now when I move to a new place I´ll hope they don´t think that I´m crazy when they see me on a windy day out at some field training my casting technique.It feels a little bit strange to already make plans for the forthcoming winter when I still have a slight chance to make one trip this season

Fly VS Jerk 2011.

2011-11-06T12:47:00.000+02:00

Woke up 4.15 am this morning and was at work for a couple of hours,came home and had me some breakfast and watched a stupid movie until I realized that I could do something better instead like write some lines about yesterdays fishing witch seemed to be the last session for this season.Yesterday it was time for me and my brothers Fly VS Jerk final fight for this season and I have to say that my brother took this much more seriously than I.......

I had only one fly rod with me added with one box with flies and just ONE line model slow sink against my brothers 4 rods+reels and and probably 7-8 boxes of different jerkbaits.Well,first of all I want to say that I hate everyone and everything that has to do with weather forecasts.The day before They promise a wind from 4-5 m/s --->well,it was at least 10 m/s....The wind should have been from south --->well,it was from east.....But it was cloudy,just what they promised.I had a good feeling it could a good day anyway but when we arrived to the shore we noticed the water level was at least -40 cm:s lower than normally.at that moment I knew that it would be difficult to compete against jerkbaits...And so it was.Normally we would have fish only in deeper water but this was a competition so we fished alternately jerk spots and fly spots and we started at a jerk spot.The competition could not have started better for my brother,he landed a small bugger (1.2 kg:s) with his first cast....We fished for 20 minutes and.....well.....no excuses: Fly 0- Jerkbaits 4 (3 fishes and the biggest 1.8 kg:s worth 1 point)We went to the second spot with a black cloud over the flyfishers (me) head but this place was planned for flies to shine: 0.8 meter depth,a lot of water plants so I was optimistic at this stage.While I fished my brother was frustated because with almost every cast he had some weed hooked on his jerkbait and after 10 minutes I had two pikes landed against zero for jerkbaits AND I also had the biggest catch by my first pike 2.9 kg:s,but just before the time was out my brother had one clean run and of course ha landed a fish at that time so the result after the second spot the result was: Fly 3- Jerkbaits 5.So far it could have gone either way But the third spot solved this competition with my blank draw against my brothers 4 pikes including the biggest catch 3.3 kg:s.Not much to tell you about the rest three spots,the result of this seasons final fight ended 5-12 to Jerkbaits including the biggest fish (3.4 kg:s) leaves no room for explanations,except one...but I´ll be back on that later.

Photo slideshow.

2011-10-31T21:06:00.000+02:00

Hi there,just tested my Windows Moviemaker ----> Feelings Enjoy.

Packing and longing for fishing.

2011-10-30T11:22:00.000+02:00

Just read a nice news from a newspaper,a warm autumn will continue witch suits me just fine right now because I will still be busy with my job and packing before I will be able to move to Sipoo.Just hoping that this forecast is correct,very hard to belive them after so many disappointments.I cant describe how much I longing for to get out at sea and lay out some line but I just have to get this removal done first,feeling a little bit confused because I have to be prepared that there might not be any fishing this year,it´s all depending on the weather.Anyway,some good things with this removal,now when my fly-tying stuff is all packed away I suddenly get ideas after ideas to create something new like for example this:While I was packing I found my older daughters old cheerleading equipments including these....dont know the name of these but for all you fly tiers the idea should be clear ;)

The material is some kind of plastic and there is material for hundred of flies.One of my biggest aim for the long cold winter is to get those module flies to the next level ETC,ETC....My official move-out day is December 1:st so until then there will not be any fly tying at all but I really hope for a couple of fishing sessions before the ice taking over the sea.

Always busy......

2011-10-18T20:23:00.002+03:00

A little bit late with this posting but have surprisingly been busy.....busy with what ? You will have the answer but first about my Sunday trip to Lovisa Archipelago with my godson.We were out at the first spot at 8.30 am and the weather was cold but sunny and almost calm so my skyhigh expectations sinked down to bottom in a minute.I felt and still feel pissed of with those forecasts,I´m just asking HOW IN HELL CAN THEY DO A FUCKIN FORECAST FOR THE NEXT SUMMER WHEN THEY STRUGGLING TO DO IT FOR THE NEXT DAY ???? Saturdays forecast promised a cloudy day added with some rain showers which mean a good weather for pikehunt,instead I see a sun shining from a blue sky without a single cloud anywhere.... SHIT !!!!We fished for hours without a single contact with any fish before my godson landed his first,he landed his second......third.........It must have been the worst trip for me for a long time and there isn´t much to tell you about it.We went home about 3 pm and I had ONE !!!! fish landed,my godson had 5 or 6,not too many he neither...So,as I told you earlier in this post I have been busy,busy with work AND........moving....Now its reality,I will be moving away from this noisy city to country to a village called Nikkilä in Sipoo.It´s a small place 35-40 km:s to east from Helsinki.Have to say I feel very happy with it but at the other hand it feels a little bit sad to think there might not be any fishing this year but I will survive that.I´m really lookin forward to move.One thing for sure is that there will not be any fly tying before I have moved in to my new place.Here is some pics from my tying corner.

And my flash board (sniiif...)

And now when we talk about being busy with both job and packing so let me introduce you my new "office" where I spend many hours every day :)

I call it my ant because of the size and the funny mirrors.

Fishing 9.10 2011 and some tying

2011-10-10T21:45:00.001+03:00

I was at work on Saturday and no hard feelings about that,tough wind with heavy rain so there would not have been any fishing anyway,tied some flies after work.Nordic Angler send me some hooks to test so I tied some flies on them and while I tied I made a decision to fish on Sunday,no matter what.Noticed that I didn`t took a photo of all flies I tied but here is some of them.

And finally one hell of a fly....Got the inspiration from Lonesome piker Stefaan Lonesome tom,god it has a nice movement in water.

Well...had a good sleep and went out on water at 11.00 am and the weather was a complete contrast to the day before,2-4 m/s wind from FUCKIN NORTH !!!! added with a nice sunshine from a clear blue sky.It was a nice autumn weather and I drove around with my boat watching for some nice places were I could find some fishGod I just love our beautiful archipelago at autumn,not much to tell you about fishing I`m afraid,had only four small pikes landed in six hours,one broken fly reel and one broken spin rod,still I enjoyed my trip even if it was a short one AND maybe the last one for this season....yes that`s right,as you might understand I hate to live in the city and have now find me a nice place out in the country and I have a buyer for my city apartment and have made an offer for the new place sooooo....We will see whats gonna happen in the next few weeks..Anyway...I want to share some photos of my new "Autumn hot spots" They look so beautifully wild and rough this time at year.

That´s all for now folks,have little mixed up feelings right now,hoping to get out at sea soon but who knows......

Fishing fishing....

2011-10-03T22:31:00.000+03:00

Even if there hasn´t been too many posts I have been fishing a lot but there hasn´t been much to tell you about except a lot of pikes sized XS in fact very small but last weekend I was two days at my cottage and of course I fished much.On Saturday I went out at 7.00 am in a wind blowing between 10-15 m/s so I decided to leave my flyfishing equipments on the beach.Wind from north,water level - 30 cm,not too promising and man it really was tough weather conditions.I haven´t fish with jerkbaits for a while and it took me a while before I had them to swim the way I wanted to.The funniest thing was that I tried with Buster jerks,Manta jerks,Hellhounds and everything but I had most landed fishes with my homemade baits.

On Sunday my alarm clock woke me up at 5.10 am and after a can of coffee and some sandwiches I vent for my brother at 6.30 am and now there wasn´t wind at all but it was cold and foggy.Today I started with flies and my brother with jerkbaits.I don´t know why but the pikes kept their mouths closed for a long while.It took us over an hour before the first fish was in the boat,I have to say that for me it feels so much better to get a fish with fly than a jerkbait,I cant explain why.Anyway about 12 o clock we decided to take a break including coffee and sandwiches and also took some time to make some plans for the rest of the day.for the afternoon we had some wind again +10 m/s ??? so I had to once again leave my fly fishing equipments.Because it was windy and cold we decided to just check out some new places without any pressure.Now and then we had some fishes until it was time to go home.I dont know why but of some reason I have not been too active in fly tying lately,looking for some inspiration.Have tied those Rudolphs lately and they delivered some fishes but I dont know.....something missing.

Fishing 24.9 2011

2011-09-25T19:57:00.000+03:00

Gave it a long tought but finally decided to go fishing to Lovisa on Saturday.The wind blew over 10 m/s,at times around 15 m/s from Northwest so I decided to leave my flyfishing equipments home and just use my spin cast and jerkbait equipments to see if there would be some hungry pikes out there.It was just as tough as I was expect it to be,the waves was over 1 m (3.5 ft) high and even in some sheltered bays I dont think that I would have enjoyed fly fishing.Started to fish around 11 o clock and as I thought it would be hard to find some active fish.It took me almost an hour to find active fish AND the right color for today wich was white/black/red,all fishes except one was catched with that color combo.

I catched 11 xs sized pikes in one hour and suddenly their eating just ended,not a single hit on any lure in any color for over two hours so I thought it was time to give up and go home after just four hours fishing but with this small boat and because of the wind I couldn´t reach all the places that I wanted to.Don´t know for sure but I have a feeling that the big ones were somewhere in deeper waters.The water has cooled down a lot but is still warm,think it´s about 13-14 degrees.The Sunday was a total contrast to Saturday with sunshine and wind 2-3 m/s northwest wind so I made a decision already on Saturday to stay away from the sea and sleep a little bit longer and just rest,I also had some fly tying on my mind,there was some one who didn´t like the idea because she likes to sleep on my tying material.

Well,finally she let me tie at least one fly model Rudolph.

Now there is nothing else to to then to wait for the wind to calm down so I would be able to give them a swimming lesson.BTW This is my older daughters cat Hercules.

Many people has ask me about why he is hairless,if my fly tying has something to do with it.....Well....No it has not :)

Rudolf the red nose....

2011-09-22T20:41:00.000+03:00

No,no,no.Its not Christmas,I just call these new flies Rudolfs because of their red noses.Have already tested the red/white and orange/black flies and they looked good in the water especially the red/white.I´m still testing different materials,have still some issues to solve out with the head of the fly.On the two first flies I used Icelandic sheep witch have a nice move in the water but there are so few color choices so on the olive colored fly I used Artic fox witch has more color choices,hopefully I will be able to test it soon,and hopefully it works.Anyway,as you can see I´ve tied these on hooks,there might be tubes later.One thing I really like about these flies is that they will not be floating on the surface for twenty seconds after your cast,it goes under the surface immediately BUT it will not sink like a stone,it´s kind of slow sink and when not retrieving the line it hover in the water horizontally.It don´t got a up and down movement so it´s very important to use materials with good movement in the water.I have used Body fibre witch has slowly turned to one of my favourite syntethic material,it really looks good in the water.I also tried Big fly fibre but like more the movement on Body fibre.-Tied on a Fulling mill Scorpio 5/0 hook-2 bunches bucktail,one back and one on the middle of the shank-Body fibre (hopefully Nordic Angler will keep this material in sortiment)-Icelandic sheep or artic fox as head (still working on what materal would be best)BTW I love those eyes on the olive one,they look better natural then on the photo.Also from Nordic anglers sortiment.

Fishing 17-18.9 2011

2011-09-20T22:04:00.000+03:00

I spent 10.5 hours fishing at Lovisa archipelago on Saturday and it felt good,in fact it really good.The forecast betrayed me once again but this time they promised sun,it was cloudy.they promised calm,there was wind round 4-5 m/s.I had a good feeling about this day,and I was right.Got some fishes from every spot I fished,the biggest was 2X 94 cm:s and a lot of smaller ones.Also got one pearch 540 grams,I thougt it would have been heavier because of its length but no...

One thing I noticed was that the pikes were very greedy,I had a several pikes who had swallowed the whole fly/lure,especially the first one after some minutes I didn´t have any choices but to cut the hooks of the lure to get it out from it´s mouth.A very nice way to spent a Saturday,About 20 pikes studied my boat from inside,also checked out some new places.Here is a photo of the "sunny" Saturday....

o So I went home happy and relaxed and decided to do this again on Sunday.So,I woke up on Sunday morning at 6.00 am but instead of snooze I switched off my alarm clock and slept until 9.00 am and was at shore 10.30 am and was a little bit irritated right from the start.My mood didn´t went better while I was closing my car door and at same time made my spin rod 3 ft shorter.......FUCK !!!And today I had my sunshine and a totally calm surface but I decided to try some fishing anyhow.I started in a bay ful of water plants and after a hour I had a fish on but dropped it close to the boat,continued fishing for a while without any contacts before It was time to move on to the next spot.The next spot was a little bay and I anchored in the middle of it and took my fly fishing equipments and started to fishing.It took me almost an hour before I had my first fish landed,a GIANT PIKE;almost 11 inches long.......thank god it was easy to off hook that beast.Well,15 minutes later I felt a heavy attack on my fly,after a minute or two I had an eye contact and I felt YES!!! + 100 cm:s.After some rushes the pike seemed ready to surrender and when I got it right to the boat and was going to grap it it made a loooong heavy dive under the boat,nothing amazing with that except that my fly line had tangled to the trigger of my life jacket.First I heard and felt a WHOM when my life jacket was filled up with air,a second after that I heard a CRACK noise when I cracked my fly rod and of course I dropped the fish.....FUCK !!!At this stage I was so pissed off I decided to get back home,on my way back to the dock I saw a place and stupid as I am i decided to give it a try,I still had one unbroken rod (spin) in the boat.I put a lure on and made the first cast--->the lure hanged up on some water plant or something and SNAP --->a broken line and a lost lure......FUCK !!!!!Now it was time to give up,I went home,straight home without no coffee breaks or anything else either.Today I took my rod to Spey Clave and they will send it to Sweden so I think I´ll have to use my other rods for a while and my Sunday disaster is also the reason why I havent posted anything of this trip earlier,was all to pissed of.

Weekend fishing 9-11.9 2011

2011-09-12T19:26:00.002+03:00

Have been the whole weekend at my cottage for a very long time,in fact this was the first time this year!I went to my small islet on Friday evening so late it should have been useless to go fishing because of the darkness,instead I had a good dinner and prepared my equipments for the next days fishing.I woke up to my alarm clock 5.30am and had me some coffee and sandwiches. While I was lookin out from the window I knew it would be a difficult day from a fishermans perspective,no wind at all,the surface of the sea was totally calm.Well,I wasn´t gonna let that bother me,not now when I finally had a whole weekend doing something I really enjoy.Jumped into my boat and drove to the first spot.It felt kinda ghostly driving slowly trough the fog on a totally calm surface.

The first spot for today was the small bay called Eldorado.When I came there I first listening to.....the silence,it was so quiet,not even the seagulls had any noise,no other boats ,absolute nothing,god I enjoyed that feeling.Because I knew it would be a tough day I started fish with LURES !!! You get a bigger area fished without moving the boat all the time.This bay called Eldorado was worth its reputation even today but only because I had patience to spend over an hour there before I landed a small bugger.Please don´t get me wrong,I wasn´t in any hurry,it was just that because of the weather I had a small plan to check out some new places today.So,after the first fish it was time to lift the anchor and drove away to check out some new places.I came to a very interesting place with some rocks sticking up from the water and a lot of water plants and of course some big bed of reeds,I was almost sure that this will be THE place for today,well it might have been if the sun just would have stay away for a while...

so,a totally calm surface and some sunshine....not the best options for some serious pikehunt but what could I do about it ? thats right,nothing so just started to serve some lures to them and try to enjoy the sunshine.I also saw a lot of migratory birds moving south away from the forthcoming winter.

God I enjoyed this feeling even if i didn´t get too many fishes,I really love autumn,especially in our archipelago.I fished some new places,got some fishes,not any big ones but it kept the mind up and suddenly when I looked at my watch and noticed I had been fishing for nine hours I felt it would be nice to have something to eat,started the engine and steered my boat back home,but on my way I once again get an idea,I saw a place were I often have passed but never fished before because there is a lot of stones just under the surface and the last thing I want to do is to destroy my engine on them but now I lifted the engine and used a oar to come closer,changed the lure to a Rapala Minnow spoon...Yes,the sissy lure but Who care :).I didn´t made many casts before I felt a heavy tug but lost this one after 20-30 seconds,a quick cast near the same place and this time I was more lucky.Landed a beautiful mam 4.1 kg round 85 cm:s,nice.....

Fished for a while on this place and landed some fishes too,among all pikes a pearch 750 grams.But hey,I was hungry and at this stage I was starving and now it was time to drive to my cottage and have a small steak and some coffee to dessert.I went out fishing for a while after an excellent meal,had some fishes but most of the time I just study some new places and find some interesting places for the later autumn.I went back to my cottage at 8pm,just before the darkness felt over the whole archipelago.

More coffee and watched TV for a while before I went to sleep so I would be at my best next morning.Next morning when I woke up the weather looked far more better,cloudy,windy added with some rain showers,After a quick breakfast I had my rain clothes on and then out to hunt,I had sky high expectations because the weather but after three hours fishing and only one landed pearch I slowly started to prepare myself for a home trip back to that shitty noisy city.If I remember right I landed 14 pikes and 2 pearches and enjoyed every moment of this weekend.Sadly I don´t think there will be any fishing this week watching the forecasts,heavy rain and winds from 10-16 m/s will probably keep me away from my hobby untill next weekend.

Module flies part I

2011-09-07T21:47:00.000+03:00

I had an crazy idea here one day while I was changing a couple of hooks on some lures of mine,I don´t know exactly how many days I kept on wonder and wonder but suddenly the plans were at that point when it was time to try to fulfill them.So yesterday late at evening I took a seat behind my vise and started to tie some new flies.The idea is to tie a small fly,Tarpoon model but smaller which can be fished by itself.

In this version the fly is about 10cm:s (4 inches) I prefer to fish this style when it´s difficult to make the pike attack your fly.Then you Got a option to put a small tube hanging loose on the leader and suddenly you got a fly 15-20 cm:s

By tying 2-3 "tails"you got the basics right.I tied the "heads" on a 15mm long tube.By changing colors/materials on the tubes you have a "new" fly by changing just the head of it.

These flies or should I say this fly will be tested next weekend with two friends to see if there´s any idea to develop them.

Fishing 30.8 2011

2011-08-30T21:50:00.006+03:00

Have been a bit lacy to write of every trip I have made,there has not been much to write about,small buggers ETC.ETC...
Last trip was funny in one way,I had fished for an hour without any hits and it was time to finish and go home but somehow I decided to do one more cast and BANG,a small one with my last cast.
Okay but about today´s session,went out with my brother for a couple of hours to fish,not to test.

I don´t know why but I had a feeling that this could be a good day,air temp 15 degrees,wind blowing from southwest 3-5 m/s and a cloudy sky.
The water temp had cooled down but was still warm in my opinion but it was the only issue so far.

We went to a bay witch we have named to Eldorado Because it´s almost impossible to make a blank draw there.
We fished for a while,my brother with lures and I used flies.
My brother landed his fifth or sixth before I had my first fish landed,all of them was from 1 to 2.5 kg:s.
We fished and enjoyed the landscape when a train suddenly attacked my fly.The place was almost identical with the one were I dropped the big mama last trip.
This time I was prepared and didn´t gave too much pressure immediately,it would have been no use,the fish ordered both speed and the direction....For a while,when she decided to show herself for the second time at the surface I knew that I would be the winner of this battle and let her make a couple of runs before It was time to land her.
I got her in the boat for documentation but I noticed that I didn´t have my tape measure with me,well,I put her in my weighing bag and my scale showed me a weight of 8,2 kg:s,put my rod next to her and took the length of that beauty by marking it on my rod.
After a photo it was time to let this beautiful beast go back to her own home and at this stage I saw there was blood all over the boat,looked at my hands and I saw a big cut on my right hand and a second after that I saw some bleeding scratches on my left hand too but who cares.
Fished a while after that but again my mind was somewhere else so we both decided to go home but at least I will be back soon.Here she is: 116cm:s/8.2 kg:s

And here`s a photo of her goin´g back where she belong.Hopefully I´ll meet her once again after...let´s say 2 kilos more :)

Black/Silver combo tutorial.

2011-08-19T16:30:00.011+03:00

In my last post I wrote about a big ma´m who went away with my black/silver combo or what was left of it,it wasn´t much so Now I´m forced to tie more of these.
Think it´s better to tie 4-5 at once.
If ever gonna fish in Lovisa archipelago then this is a almost "must" tie,it has been outstanding this season.
While I started to tie I thought that why not make a tutorial of it.
Have to remind you that this is only MY WAY to do it,you can tie this kind of a fly in hundred different ways.

Equipments you need:

-Fulling mill Scorpio hook size 5/0
-A bit of mono line size 0.70
-Flashmix (Silver,Light-green,Light-blue,Black,Holo-silver)
-Lateral scale in pearl color
-Raccoon in black color
-Super glue
-Bug Bond or Epoxy
-3D-Eyes silver/black
-Tying tread Big Fly (I don´t like kevlar in these type of flies because of the dubbing-loops).

1.Tie a loop back on the hook using the mono-line,then tie a mix of flash as a tail(Silver,Holo-silver).Add some Lateral scale.Make a loop of your tying tread.

2.Mix some flash of all colors and do a dubbing brush.(I use to use dubbing wax at this stage)

3.After you tied and locked the brush add some black flash as a back.

4.Now it´s time for the head of the fly and there is some different ways how to do it.
you can tie the whole strip with glue on the shank but I prefer this way:
I`m cutting of the skin using a paper clip.

5.Tie all the flash away from next step using a hair clip.

6.Do a dubbing loop and add the Raccoon from your paper clip and do a brush of it.
Whip-finish the fly.

7.Add the eyes and form a head using Bug Bond or Epoxy.I used Epoxy until Nordic Angler started to import this fantastic product called Bug Bond and I haven´t use Epoxy since then.

8.After this your fly should look something like this,ready to rock.

9.Go and get them

Fishing 18.8 2011 Lovisa

2011-08-19T10:35:00.009+03:00

Even if it´s a hard to confess I was left a little bit disappointed with yesterdays session,waited a lot more contacts with fishes so I felt I just have to do a new try today.
This time I fished just two bays,one sheltered and one were the wind had pushed cooled water for more than three days now.

The weather was pretty much the same then yesterday,maybe a little bit warmer.

No need to talk about the first sheltered bay,no action at all even I spent over an hour there trying all my tricks.

The second one provides me some memorable times.
It all started pretty well not many casts before I had my first fish landed,it was a small one who have swallowed my fly badly,it took me some time to dig the fly out from it´s mouth but it slowly swim away after the off hooking.

Fished for a while,saw some small fishes jumping around here and there on the surface,got my second for today,little bigger but still size small.

Then suddenly I heard some splash on the water behind me,oh SHIT !!!!it was my first pike swimming on the surface dying.
I decided to quickly retrive my line and go and get it for dinner when there was a BIG SPLASH....and the small pike just disappeared.....Nothing I could do,I just gazed on that place where the small bugger just a second ago swimmed around.The silence was palpable.
Continued to fish with the big splash in my mind...how big was it,is it still around.
Even if I managed to land a decent sized fish 4,3 kg:s my thoughts was little mess up.

Don´t know how long I fished but suddenly I thougt I saw a BIG silhouette behind my BLACK/SILVER COMBO.As soon as I saw it it disappeared so I was not sure was it something.
I made cast after cast on the place were i saw the silhouette and suddenly BANG !!!
Fish on and immediately I new I had a train on the other end of the line, I don´t know what the hell I was thinking about when I grabbed my camera with the other hand while got the fish of my life to land.
When I saw my fighting partner I was just WOW.It was at least 100 cm:s,propably 120 cm:s,i just throwed my camera away and started to use my both hands to land the fish,
30 seconds from that my leader said snap.........and i was left stunned,I just,just..
I cant remember the first minutes after that,I was so confused,felt totally paralyzed.
After I catched my breathe I just had to call a friend of mine who also use to fish for pike and tell him about what just happend.
I used a barbless hook and really,really hope that the fly will drop of soon so this beautiful beast can go on hunting.
I fished for a two or three hours but my mind was on different planet then my body so I don´t remember much of it.
While I was driving to the dock I stopped on a place to check out if there´s somebody home,well,one pearch 630 or 670 grams,I don´t remember.

Now after one nights sleep my disappointment has slowly faded away and now my feelings are okay and I know this will be a experience that I will remember a long time,funny how the fishes you don´t manage to catch are the most memoriable

Fishing 17.8 2011

2011-08-17T23:07:00.008+03:00

Because of the warm summer there hasn´t been much fishing,almost every session has turn out to some kind of testing.
But today I decided to go out FISHING !!!
I had with me only my reliable Regret flies,not a single new one.
As my rod I choosed my Guideline LPXe RS v2(who has named this rod must have been out of his/her mind)
and for line I took my RIO Scandinavian pike.

The weather....It was nearly perfect,a small wind 4-5 m/s,cloudy.But the water temp
It´s still near 20 degrees and that was the biggest issue.

I decided to start fishing from the windy side on a reef in the middle of the sea but nobody home here so I moved over to the shelter side of the reef.
Fished for a while,took me a cup of coffee and a delicious pie with feta cheese,pepper and garlic,and listen to the silence for a while and started to fish once again.
Fished for a while but got my first fish for today after an hour after I changed my fly to suprise,suprise....Black/silver combo.
In cloudy conditions I use to start with black/red combo,even today but it didn´t deliver any fishes today.

Moved position to another reef but without any result not from the windy side or the shelter side so after I had fished a third reef without any action I decide to slowly drive back to the dock and fish a sheltered bay on my way back home.

Drove slowly into that bay and shutted of the engine and quitely let the anchor into the water.
Decided it was time for a cup of coffee before I continue fishing.
Fished for a while,dropped some fishes,it was fun anyway....

After I dropped so many fishes I finally managed to land one that hit my fly when I had only the leader outside from my rod so the fight was over in about 10 seconds,
a small one once again.The catches aren´t my top aim but it would be nice to land some decent sized fish soon......after all these small ones.

Not much more tell you i`m afraid except that I made a rack to dry of my flies.
Propably not a new idea for many of you but here is a photo of it anyway in case someone should be intrested

Oh yes,one more thing.Every single hit and also both landed fishes was catched with black/silver combo and after today´s session it looks like this...Not much left of it.

Think I´ll have to tie many of these.

Welcome autumn and bigger flies

2011-08-14T13:26:00.006+03:00

The weather has slowly but surely cooled down and so also the water,if this continue for a while it will soon be time for some serious pikehunt.
The summer was all too hot for fishing,I can´t remember when there has been so little fishing than this summer.
Well,there has been some short trips but the size has been very small and the one single decent sized fish I had on my fly...I just lost it.
So I got big expectations for this autumn now when the big mamas soon will arrive to lower water depths to the inner archipelago.

Because of the warm summer I have had some time to prepare myself for the autumn fishing.
Have bought me some new technical underwear to float tube fishing.
Bought some new customized fly lines.My boat should be ready for some cold conditions so..Yes I feel prepared.
Got my first two fishes on my upside down flies and both of them was attached on their under lip so the test wasn´t very successfull but I will still continue testing.
I have also tied me some bigger flies,just in case....
These two are about 26cm:s (a bit over 10 inches)and like the one in my last post these two will be tested soon but will be more seriously used later in autumn.

Waiting for the autumn fishing

2011-08-10T21:47:00.008+03:00

Have been busy behind my vice tyin both upside down flies and preparing for the forthcoming autumn.
Watched Simon Grahams blog and saw a awsome looking fly in green/copper color combo.
I just love that combo even if I as I can remember haven´t catch a single fish with it.

Started with some olive colored bucktail,added copper flash and after that my plan changed once again,my plans seems to change now and then,that´s why my table looks like this.....once again :)

Well,back to the fly.
After copper flash I added some Body fibre in light brown color blended with peacock colored SF Flash blend.
One Micro barb on each side of the fly and more copper flash.
After that it was time for a cup of coffee thinking what the hell am I doing and trying to decide what could be the next step.
After two cups of coffee I had a plan.....
Added a bunch of tan colored bucktail tied in hollow style,

Then more Body fibre(light brown),Copper flash.
Added a bunch of red Artic fox on each side of the fly as gills.
Now I had to drink more coffee because so far I was very happy with the result but I had not a clue what I should do to next and didn´t wanted to destroy the result.
I changed my mind propably more often then a woman with her clothes but finally I decided to add a dash of Icelandic sheep in dark green color.
Still some space on the tube so a collar of olive colored Raccoon in dubbing loop(Thanks to Niklaus Bauer I always use dubbing loops these days).
Finally a head of Bug-bond(just love that stuff)with some 3D eyes and the fly was ready and here´s the result.

This fly is 24 cm long and will be tested soon but will be in more serious use later in autumn.
Don´t know why but I prefer bigger and dark colored flies without too much flash in my autumn fishing.

Upside down

2011-08-08T22:42:00.006+03:00

I read an article from a magazine called Allt om flugfiske where they have studied C&R
fishing of pikes.I´m not going to try translate the whole story,not with my language skills but the point was that a group of people catched pikes with different metods
Flies,Jerkbaits,Wobblers and lures.
As hooks were used WMC 8650 treble hooks in 2/0 size.
The pikes mouth was divided to six parts.no critical areas was lips,outside,palate
while the critical areas was gills,aorta and throat.
even the bleedings was divided in three sections:none,little and massive.

871 pikes were landed and five of them died,it means under one percent.
All of those who died were hooked in a critical area with a massive bleeding.
I have always thought that a wobbler or a jerkbait with two or even three treble hooks would be the worst scenario for a fish
but to my suprise the biggest killer was spin flies,you know those flies meant to fish with spincasting equipments with usually one treble hook.

One of the most critical areas in a pikes mouth is downside where the gills join together and the ventral aorta supplies the aorta with oxygenated blood.just one stich in that area increase the bleeding a lot wich decreases survival possibilities.

The flies usually has its hook downwards so there is a risk that the hook punctures that critical area.
there is a couple of flyfishers in Sweden started to use upside down flies just to investigate if there´s any idea to use them.
Also the Allt om flugfiske magazine want some more reports from fishers using upside down flies and I decided to try them for a while and report both good and bad things.

My first thought is that even it´s a upside down fly or not the hook has been attached here and there in pikes mouth,my "normal"flies has been hooked in the upper lip and even from outside so I´m a little bit suspicious about it but I will test them to the middle of September and send a response and hopefully win a fishing day with Niklaus Bauer in Sweden :)

You can read more about the research from www.sportfiskarna.se-->miljö&fiskevård-->kunskap&fakta.

And here is my first upside down flies one on hook TMC 8089 size 2 and one one tube.
there will be a couple more of these soon.

Fishing 5.8 2011

2011-08-08T21:21:00.007+03:00

As I told you in my last post I will go fishing no matter what and so I did.
I went out fishing with my second younger brother who doesn´t fish too often instead he like to build Harley Davidsons.
The weather conditions was very windy,something between 8-10 m/s I think.But we had a couple of sheltered bays in our mind Where even I could do some flyfishing,my brother fished with normal lures.

When we arrived to our first spot I followed Simons advice and just enjoyed the silence and had a cup of coffee and a sandwich before some real action.
The wind was tricky blowing from back right but I didn´t manage to attach any fly in my neck.
We fished for a while when my brother had his first fish landed,a small pike about
1 kg.
Not long after that he had his second fish landed,a giant pearch maybe 100 grams....

At this stage I felt it was time to have another cup of coffee and study my flies more seriously and decided to use my reliable black/silver flash fly and while I was attaching my fly my brother had a hit again but he lost it somehow.

Some minutes later it was my turn to say:FISH ON,and oh my this was a angry one,and after many trips with just small ones this was a decent sized maybe 4-5 kg:s.
I had it already next to the boat and was just to grip it when the fly suddenly came off and in that second i saw it the fish was gone.
Hard to say this but Tiemco 600sp hooks will soon be history.....
Well,this one wasn´t meant for me and like I wrote in my last post I don´t care,it was a nice battle anyway.

I had a plan to go fishing today but wasn´t able to do so but tomorrow will be a new try.
Still hoping for the water temp to sink a lot,it´s still near 20 degrees.
Forecasts promising a wind from 5-7 m/s cloudy and rain showers so it´s really looking good for some serious pikehunt.

Holiday approaching.

2011-08-04T21:26:00.003+03:00

Yesssss,tomorrow is my last day at work before my well earned vacation.tomorrow after work a couple of hours fishing after a long break.
Have a lot to do searching for a new apartment but hopefully there will be some fishing too.
Forecast promises some wind around 7 m/s and 20 degrees air temp,hoping the water temp has dropped a lot from last time.
Monday would be a good weather for pikehunt with some rain and wind,cloudy +16 degrees,crossing my fingers up to elbows I´ll be able to get out on the sea.

Got my deliveries from Nordic angler including Body fibre in new colours,had some plans to tie couple of new flies but instead of that I´m sitting here and writing my blog.
Well....maybe I´ll got enough flies,not in mood to test any new ones,just wanna get out at sea and lay out my fly line,don´t give a shit if I´ll catch any fishes at all,just need a break from that noisy city.
That´s all for now,hopefully ll be able to give you a report of fridays trip to Lovisa Archipelago.

Busy,busy

2011-07-28T21:50:00.007+03:00

Haven´t posted anything for a while simply because there hasn´t been much to tell you about.
It hasn´t been any fishing and very little tying because there has been so much to think about like my younger daughters confirmation,trying to find a new apartment,have also done a lot of extra work.
Thank god after one week I will have two weeks JUST FOR MYSELF!!! Then I will go fishing,no matter what.
The weather has been extremly hot and dry but today we had some heavy rain showers and thunder in Helsinki so hopefully the water temp has sink to a reasonable degrees.

That´s all for now,here is some photos of my latest tying,all inspirated by Simon Grahams latest posts.
Very pleased with my yellow/orange/red combo.

And I also like those not so usual combos.hope they delivering something.

These were all tied inspirated by Simon Graham and this last one was tied inspirated by Niklaus Bauers Sheephed fly even if This fly doesn´t include any Sculpin wool at all.
Tied in one of my favourit colour combo.

Blended Body Fibre.

2011-07-22T20:58:00.004+03:00

Have been over 30 degrees celsius for a week now so there has not been any fishing at all and even flytying has been in background now because of the heat.
even the water temp has again raised over 24 degrees almost everywhere I use to fish.Anyway I have a plan to go fishing tomorrow but it depend what the forecast says,
don´t wanna go driving around in boiling and pea soup coloured water spiced up with a massive bed of blue-green algae.
The second horror-scenario is heavy rain and thunder that has shaked western part of Finland coming to Lovisa.
Well,it will be tomorrows concern.

Have at least tied to new flies,got me an idea from my last post were I mentioned Body fibre,it´s a little bit like Slinky but softer,actually so soft it´s hard to get any profile on your fly without for example to tie Bucktail under it.
Have lately tied some flies of SF blend and decided to blend some SF with Body Fibre
And have to say I think it works,it still has the softness but on other hand also some posture.
The idea of the colours are inspirated from Simon Grahams late postings,They looked so awsome I just had to use them(colours).

The second one looks just black but there is a dash of silver and pearl coloured Lateral Scale,have big expectations on this,Black/silver combo has been outstanding this year,pikes have destroyed three flies with black as main colour,let´s see what happens with this one.

Both flies are about 17cm and are mostly planned for the coming Autumn but will be tested ASAP.

Fishin´n´tyin

2011-07-19T20:19:00.006+03:00

I went back to that bay on Sunday afternoon with a new flash fly inspirated by a JAK-spoon which delivered many fishes on Saturday.
There is a photo of that spoon in my last post in that very small buggers mouth and the fly looks like this:

The weather conditions was about same as on Saturday maybe not so windy.
I couldn´t land as many fishes as on Saturday but at least 4 pikes which was a little bit bigger than on saturday,think they were somewhere between 1.5-2.0 kilos.
I don´t know the reason but I felt they attacked my fly with more rage then the lures.
One of them jumped 3-4 times like a seatrout up and down before I was able to land it.

I also once again got me a "nice" sunburn.....

Anyway,bought me a bug bond kit and from now on the epoxy glue is useless.
Just tied one fly with a "bug bond Head" and I´m already a big fan of it,so easy,so clean to use,hopefully Nordic angler will keep it in stock long as possible.
This fly is tied with Slinky fibre and I have to say that I like Body fibre more than Slinky,its a little bit softer --->more movement in the water,I just have so few colours,think Nordic angler will soon have an order.....

Fishing 16.7 2011

2011-07-16T22:43:00.010+03:00

Went out fishing with my brother this morning at Lovisa archipelago.
Got my own boat on trailer so we used our small Sun Buster instead.Left the dock at
7 AM and the weather was pretty good for some pikefishing,a small breeze,cloudy with some rain showers now and then.Air temp around +15 degrees celcius,don´t know about the water temp,it was still warm but much colder then last trip.

We decided to start on a place where we haven´t fish before at this year,it´s a rock pile in the middle of the sea and there has usually been fishes at this time a year.
The water depth is from 3-10 meters so instead of flyfishing I did some spincasting and jerkbait fishing instead.

We get some fishes even if my brother said that this will not work.
After an hour or so we went to a familiar place to see if there would be somebody home,a shelter shallow bay where flyfishing was possible,my brother tried with jerkbaits but because of the water plants it wasn´t so funny,the fly worked very well,delivered two pikes in 15 minutes.

While we were driving to our third spot we decided to give a whole new place a chance were we had often passed but never fished before.

Because it was a new place for both of us we both used spincasting equipments so we could quickly fish the whole area and see if there´s anybody home.
What I really miss in all new places is my sonar to see water depth and the shape of the bottom but this boat don´t got one so it was just to try fishing.

Three pikes later we decided to go on but I don´t know how we went so adventurous and instead of a familiar place we once again ended up on a totally new place,a sheltered strait between two islets which looked good but was empty of fishes....

And after that we decided to go to our planned spot but very soon we found out that there wasn´t any fishes there either and the wind had started to blow heavier now so we started slowly to drive back to the dock.
The wind blowed for at least 9-10 m/s and the waves went bigger so we took a new course back home.
I don´t know why or who´s idea it was but we went in to a very windy bay whit a lot of rocks and waterplant,we anchored in the middle of the bay and I think by the anchor rope the depth was about 2 meters and start fishing.
Very quickly we found out that this was a jackpot,the size was from XS to S but there was a lot of fish,about 20-30 minutes and at least 15 fishes,I made my new record:4 casts ---> 4 landed pikes in a row.

The last fish was probably the smallest pike I ever have catch.

My brother had an appointment so we couldn´t stay longer,what a shame ,I have a feeling that somewhere in that bay was the big one just waiting for me,I might get back tomorrow to make a new try.
I don´t know how many pikes we landed today but somewhere between 25-30 I think,it was a nice trip even if it wasn´t so much flyfishing and the size was small.I will be back to the new places with my flyrod now when the places are tested and found out that there is fishes.

While I wrote this my brother called me and said we landed totally 28 pikes ?????
Don´t know and don´t give a shit about how many we landed but it was fun :).

Some arrangement.

2011-07-14T20:03:00.009+03:00

Sorry for not posting anything for a while but to tell you the truth there hasn´t been too much to write about.
I haven´t been out fishing because of the weather,first too hot then too windy but hopefully I will be able to go fishing late on Friday evening or early on Saturday morning,have some plans with my brother.
I haven´t even tied a single fly for over a week.

Now,confess that you are at least a little bit curious what the hell I have done the whole week.........

Well,I have made some bigger arrangements with my tying corner,the corner will be a room!
I don´t have any Photos from where I started but it has been a hell of a job to do,
not ready yet but before winter it should be ready with a new TV and DVD-player,comfortable couch where I can watch football(soccer)or my fishing movies
and a big tying place and also room for all my fishing and tying stuff.

Here is a photo after three trips to our local dump.

Still two or three trips before I can take new furnitures in.
My new tying table has been a little bit messy for a while but slowly there will be some room to do something.

I left a small consol behind my tying table where I put allready some of my stuff like some reels and lines and my fishing films,books.
The lower part is full of "very important" fishing magazines.

I have for while wonder what to do with my Flashabou´s,not good to store in boxes and today was the day to fulfill my plan that has been in my head for a looooooong time now,I´m very pleased with the result.

Easy to find what you are looking for,or to see what you got in stock,I really think this arrangement will work.
I will update this "project" soon but now I`m gonna focus for some fishing at weekend.

I´m stunned.

2011-07-10T10:16:00.005+03:00

Went home yesterday from my cottage with some mixed feelings.
I understand that most of people like warm and sunny days at summer but as everything also this case have its reverse side.
It has been +25 to over +30 degrees now in many weeks which is nice when you are on vacation but while I was out on sea for two days my thoughts was OH MY GOD!!!
While the air temp rised near +30 degrees celsius the sonar showed me some incredible water temps,at lowest 23,4 degrees and at highest 26,2 degrees.
The water colour reminded me of thick pea-soup when big beds of blue-green algaes covered the whole archipelago,the surface of the sea was calm,also saw some dead fishes here and there.
At many places there was big beds of water plants where my sonar showed a depth over 4 meters.
The place where I had my PB Pike was so full of water plants that it would have been impossible to fish there,in fact I felt so sad about all this that I didn´t fish hardly at all,was just a couple of times out with my floating tube training to cast in sitting position.

Now I´m gonna cross my fingers up to my elbows that the air temp will drop a lot,also hopes for some heavy rains for a week not only for the fishes but for the whole nature.
By waiting I think I will tie some flies.

The curse of the black fly

2011-07-06T10:03:00.005+03:00

Even if the title sounds like a ghost story it´s only telling about my last fishing trip yesterday and the day before.
Not much to tell you about the trip,had only one small pike landed but this story is about the big one that escape.

The weather itself was perfect for fishing,cloudy with a wind 5-7 m/s,but the problem was water temp it was at some places +21 degrees celsius and at lowest +17 degrees so had to try to find fishes a little bit deeper than usually.
Also decided to fish late at evening and early morning when it´s a bit cooler.

I fished on a place where the sonar showed a depth from 1,2m to 7,5 meters and after almost an hour I felt someone hit the fly,and it was hit by rage,I felt immediately it was something big but after 10-15 seconds the fight was over without even an eye contact.
The only thing was left was a raped fly and once again a fly with black as main colour,coincidence or not but the last fly that was teared apart was almost identical in colours with this.

Here is a photo of the earlier fly.(Tying material is cut by me just to show the hook)

Sounds spooky :).
Also tested my Flash-flies with coneheads but Found myself in a dilemma,they dont sink fast enough(used a sink/3 line) in my opinion and don´t wanna cast heavier flies so maybe it´s time to wait till the water temp sink a bit and fish for Pearch or Bream(not sure about the English name of Lahna)for a while.

The weather here is now sunny +25 degrees not a single cloud on the sky so there will be no fishing before evening but I had a plan to go training with my floating tube so I can handle it later in autumn when I will take some trips with it more seriously.

Here is some new flies in my Flash family.

FLASH FLIES !!!

2011-07-02T21:10:00.004+03:00

I promised for some time ago that there would not be any flash flies for a loooooooong time....Well,I lied,I can´t explain why but I feel that my head is empty of new ideas,it all started when I decided to start to tie on tubes.
I know I could tie some more Regret-flies on tube but today I felt relaxed and peaceful so of some reason I decided to give those fuckin flash-flies a new and definetly a last chance (I know I said it all before)and to my big suprise everything went moderately well,I mean..I´m happy with the result even if it doesn´t look like a masterpiece :)
but I belive that I can get some fish with these.
Still need some training but this is at least a start,and a good one in my opinion.

Also bought me a new camera today,waterproof,shockproof ETC,ETC....
so I could take some pics later at Autumn when it´s raining and the wind is blowing.
This is also a camera I can take with me when I´m out with my floating tube.

Have study a lot fishing from floating tube lately,I have so far only went out with it in summertime but have plans to examine some places in late autumn so I might need some new stuff like warm clothes under my Waders,now I got a camera but still looking for GOOD gloves,they need to be warm and comfortable.
Well,still have time to find some.......

On tour.

2011-07-01T20:00:00.009+03:00

Went home from my Vacation tour from a warm sunny Sweden this morning to a if possible a warmer and sunnier Finland with a temp around 30 degrees celsius.
Of course my trip included some visits to different fishing stores starting from a big shop called Berras outdoor in Stockholm where I did my first shopping including some tying material.

After some kilometers and many cups of coffee I arrived to one of my favourite shops in Örebro:Sportfiske & Outdoor where I bought some more material and talked a while with the owner.
Not much more to tell about the rest of the trip except the visit at Fiske och Fritid in Karlstad where I filled my tying material bags even more.
Here is the result of my tour in Sweden.

As you can see I bought me some new hooks to compete with Tiemco 600sp,they are Gamakatsu F 314,also interested to try those Fish sculls,think they are the same that Simon use?
Anyway,I haven´t called or answered my cellphone for a week,not neither touched a computer,or checked my e-mail so I have some withdrawal symptoms :).
Almost immediately after I arrived home I finished some old flies and tied more,
living in a hope that tomorrow I will drive to my cottage and do some pikehunt.
One thing that can ruin my plans is the forecast wich says that there might be some thunder but if it will be then I might just rest and tie some flies again....

More Regret tubes.

2011-06-24T12:57:00.003+03:00

As I wrote some time ago it´s all about inspiration and to get the right mood and the fly tying seems to be very easy,no problems to choose colours,material ETC,ETC.
Still have time to tie some more before it´s time to jump into the car and go to Lovisa and celebrate the Midsummer with some good food and maybe some good red wine.
Have also fishing in my mind but the wind is still blowing around 10-11 m/s but maybe later this evening and tomorrow when the forecast promising just a small breeze 2-4 m/s,cloudy and no rain--->nice weather for some pikehunt.

Anyway here is three new flies made today and hopefully they will be tested in real conditions later this evening.

Finally,a Regret on tube

2011-06-22T20:59:00.006+03:00

This Spring/Summer season I have fished 99% with my Regret-flies and I have been very pleased with them,the movement looks awsome and they are easy to cast although their size.
If I have to mention one bad thing with these flies it would be that the hook is too much in front of it so the hooking capacity could be better,that´s one reason the Regret tube saw the daylight,it´s easier to decide in wich section of the fly you want to place the hook.

So ladies and gentlemen,let me introduce you the Regret tube no I.

There will surely be more of these in different colours as soon as I have more time to tie them.
The Midsummer is next weekend and I will probably spend the whole weekend at my cottage,hopefully there will be some fishing too,the forecast says there will be winds over 20 m/s so even my new overclassed line won´t probably help but hopefully
I´m able to test my tube at the weekend.
After the weekend it´s time for my long awaited VACATION !!!

On my first vacation week I will travel to Sweden Karlstad to meet friends but the biggest aim is to eat a pepper steak at restaurant Pråmen.

After that I will spend much as possible time at my cottage relaxing and fishing,hopefully I have more of Reg.tubes tied then.

One good thing with tubes is that it will also solve my leader issue.
I use to go with Pafex Predator wire but have not been completely satisfied with it,after one or two fishing days it looks like a spring.
Have this season tested a new wire called Optima kevlar wire that many people have praised so much,well,I disagree,I don´t feel comfortable using it.
I first used it on my second or third trip and after one fish I had to change it to a new one.
Gave it a new chance last weekend but after just three small pikes it looked like this so I think I that´s enough with testing this wire.

With tube flies I have used Berkley´s nailon coated steel wire attached to a short mono line attached to my fly line so hopefully my leader problems will be solved with this solution.

Fishing 18-19.6 Lovisa

2011-06-19T18:58:00.010+03:00

Went with my daughter to our cottage late on Friday evening.
We were both very tired so we decided not to go out fishing on Friday,instead we eat some good food and play games for a while before it was time to go to bed.
I woke up early on Saturday morning and look out from the window and noticed a small breeze and heavy rain,well who cares?

While I was eating my breakfast my daughter also woke up and after we finished our breakfast we went out to the sea to do some pikehunt.
Very soon we found out that it would be difficult to get some fishes at all.The wind started to blow harder and the rain went heavier and heavier and after a couple of hours we decided to give up,at least my daughter succeed to land a small one,I had not a single hit on my fly.
When we arrived to our cottage we were both very hungry and on today´s menu was Hamburgers and french fries with Coke.

After that meal my daughter went to fish from the shore and I just had to take a nap.
My "nap" last for five!!! hours but belive me,it felt good.
After some cups of coffee It was time to make a new try out on the sea.
Now my daughter decided not to come with me,it was her time to take a nap.

The rain had stopped but the wind was around 8-10 m/s so I had to find a sheltered place to fish.
After I studied the map I made my decision were to fish.
even if it was a sheltered bay the wind blew pretty hard anyway but there was nothing I could do about it right now.
As I told you some days ago I bought me anew line and I decided to give it a try right now.
The line was ment to my Vision GT4 rod and of course I had forgot to take it with me.
Nothing to do to that either so I grabbed my Guideline LPXe rod and start to fish with that instead.
Even if the line wasn´t perfect for that rod it felt good to cast with such a heavy line in that wind,to be honest the wind hardly disturbed me at all.

The water level was high,the wind broke the surface and I was on place were I usually get fish so I had a good feeling about this evening.
Not too long before the first little bugger came to say hello to my black/red Regret fly.

Two more casts and the second one also wanted to meet my Regret fly.

After these two fishes my black/red Regret stopped to deliver more fishes and I started to change colours after every five casts.
And while I was just fishing without any pressure the sun decided to show some light between the clouds.
Next cast after the sun started to shine I had my third fish at the other end of my line,It felt a little bit bigger/stronger than the two others.

Anyway,had no problems to land this either even if it tried to do some tricks like swim under the boat ETC.ETC...

Have to praise my new Baker pliers,it is so easy to release the fishes with them.

As you can see on the photo my camera has got some damage on my trips before and some photos looks small because it doesn´t always fully open the lens cover.
Anyway,after this fish I had only one hit but could not land the fish so After a cup of coffee I went back to my cottage and after some sauna it was again time to sleep.

Woke up 5.30 am and went immediately out on the sea.
The water level had dropped at least 35 cm:s so even before I get in the boat I knew it´s going to be tough and how right I was,3 hours fishing ,changing colour,size,done all tricks I know but not a single hit was the result of this mornings session.

At least I took some photos of the waters I fish in,as you can see you have to know where you can ride with your boat,if the water level is normal many of these rocks are just under the surface.

Went back to my cottage and made some coffee and sandwiches and went down to the shore to have my breakfast and just relaxed before it was time to once again drive home to that noisy city....

Intermission news.

2011-06-16T19:31:00.004+03:00

Have been too busy to write anything lately,actually been so busy I haven´t had time to tie a single fly.
But finally tomorrow I will go to my cottage for the whole weekend and the forecasts sounds very promising so my expectations are sky high.

Got my custom line last Monday and can´t hardly wait to test it in real conditions.
It´s made of a Vision ACE running line and Visions DH shooting head with hardly no front taper at all,very aggressive and short.
The weight of the shooting head is around 25-26 grams so its pretty heavy but I think at least my Vision GT4 rod can handle it.

I have also examined the map looking for some nice places to fish from my floating tube.
Talked with a guy who doing a lot of trips with a tube and it would be really great to do some trips with such experienced guy.
Have already found some good looking places for the golden Autumnfishing.

I´m really looking forward for this weekend because I will have my younger daughter with me fishing after a long break due to her teenage intrests :).
That´s all for now,after I finally had an easier day at work I´m busy with babysitting my older daughters cat while she´s at work,but this is really fun.

Fishing 12.6 2011

2011-06-12T19:57:00.006+03:00

As I told you in my earlier post I was at a barbeque party yesterday so today on Sunday I wasn´t so early out fishing but started from the dock about 10am and went home 5.30pm
so there was a lot of fishing anyway.
Didn´t check out on any forecasts at all but it was almost tropical weather conditions so I was looking for a nice day out on the sea but had not big expectations about play with any fishes,but why not wash your lines and flies while you enjoying the sun.
Anyway,I started as usual in these conditions on the windy side,well...windy meant 3-4 m/s so it was almost calm.
I fished for a couple of hours without a single hit,took a cup of coffee and tried again with smaller flies and faster line stripping but nothing seemed to help.

Also noticed that I was a little bit irritated,not because of the fishless sea but
I don´t know....too many of small things like the line slipped from my fingers in backcast or knots/mess ups on my line or dropped the whole line from my line basket
ETC,ETC...

So,after a couple of hours line wash I decided to check out a small sheltered bay and after 15 min driving and a quick coffeebreak (I drink too much coffee I know)I started my line wash again and kept going for a while when i thought it was time to find out what I´m doing wrong and do something to it.
First of all,I had fished with small flies(4-5 inches long)and changed to bigger flies (6-8 inches).
Next step was to use a sink 3 line to get my flies go deep faster.
I was just about to make my first cast with new specs when it suddenly hit me what was wrong,and it was very simple to see.
The bay where I was fishing was surrounded by trees and I was on the wrong side of it because the sun shined on it from the middle to the shore.
On the other side of the bay the trees made a small shadowed area from the shore to almost middle of the bay.(very difficult to explain in English because of my language skills,hope you understand what I mean).
So before my first cast I drove to the shadowed side of the bay and felt good because my skin was slowly turning red in the sunshine.
First cast and....no,not a hit but a small breeze witch broke the calm surface made me feel hopefull that this will not be a blank draw trip.slowly retrieving the line...was there somebody tasting my fly...no,a stone...or...no it wasn´t nothing.
Second cast,20 meter away close to a bed of reed,immediately BANG,the first fish was landed about a minute from that.
The water conditions was so warm I didn´t play with the fish at all so it would have a chance to survive the stress,took a photo of it in the water and was able to test my new baker pliers,they worked well.

It was a small one but it felt good because I had found fishes and felt it was more than just luck.
After that I changed my fly and my mind was filled with joy.
I fished for a while with nothing to report and decided ti might be time to give up because my skin was RED !!!! now.Changed back to my orange/chartreuse Regret fly and lift the anchor and let the wind carries the boat.
At the end of the bay I get my second for today,this was a small one too and I lift it up from the water just to release it and goodbye,it was nice to meet you....

After that it really was time to quit and once again drive home feeling happy and relaxed.
Funny how some trips just are more memoriable than others even if the fishes aren´t big,even small things can make your day.

Tomorrow I will have my custom line but watching the forecasts it might take some time before I´m able to test it(thunder,rain and wind).

New stuff.

2011-06-11T14:42:00.003+03:00

Went today to my older daughter to get her laundry home to me where she can wash it by herself (she don´t have room for a washmachine),went on the same trip to A store in Helsinki called Wobbler and bought me a Baker Hook out plier and a Rapala weighing-bag
(not sure if it´s the right word in English).
I had planned to buy these things for a while now and I decided that today is the day.

I also met a guy Lauri Selenius and I ordered a custom line of him wich I will get on Monday,cant hardly wait to test.
Today it´s time for a barbaque party but hopefully I will be out on the sea tomorrow morning.

That´s it !!!

2011-06-11T00:16:00.004+03:00

I can´t understand why I am so stupid that I don´t learn from so many mistakes.
I don´t remember how many times I have tried to tie flash-flies and always disappointed with the result,so even today.

One big mistake was to try to tie these fuckin flash-flies was that I was a little bit irritated because after many coincideces I din´t went fishing today,next try will be on Sunday,IF the weather allow.
Anyway,I made a promise to myself that there won´t be flash-flies for a very long time now.
Here´s a photo of the beauty.

After this shit I took a cup of coffee and decided to just tie some normal tubes but I just wasn´t in right mood so except these two new ones I still have to rely on my old tubes and of course my Regret flies too even if they are a little bit tricky to get deeper,even with a sink 3 line,the water temp has raised to near 20 degrees (celsius) so I think I´ll need to get deep if I want to get somebody to play with.

Well,the clock is 0.40pm witch mean that I have to get some sleep because I`ll have much to do tomorrow.
Hopefully I can write about a fishing trip on Sunday,here is the other flies that I tied today.

BTW as you can see they aren´t ready yet,they still need a epoxy head and some finishing.

Fishing 5.6 2011 including tests.

2011-06-06T20:41:00.006+03:00

Had a BAD week at work including flagging on Saturday so my brother Janne had a easy gig to persuade me for a daytrip to Lovisa on Sunday.
The weather wasn´t once again the best for fishing but who cares,it was nice to get away from the noisy city anyway.

When we came to the first spot I instead of fishing just listened to to the silence,it was amazing,only a couple of seagulls had their noice somwhere far away.
After my breakfast including sandwiches and a lot of coffee it was time to piece together my rod for todays fishing,I had choosed my Hardy Zane and for my line I decided to start with RIO Scandinavian pike int/sink 3.
Sink 3 because I also had deciced to fish only with my new tubes wich are very light and were we fished was a depth of 2-3 meters so no need for int or floating line.
The water also felt warm so there was no need for too slow line stripping.

Contrary to our expectations our...well...at least mine started well landed a almost 4 kilos and with next cast one around 2 kilos while my brother lost two fishes.

After the sun started to shine the fishing went harder and harder,some VERY small pikes was landed by me but my brother had not a single hit for hours.
There was pikes following my fly but they did not attack them.

Well after many hours my brother dropped the monkey off his back with a monster pike around 300-500 gramms.

Went home around 7.30pm and summa summarum of almost twelve hours fishing was 11 landed fishes a lot of dropped fishes and a bad sunburn but at least I felt rested and happy.
I also made some notice of my equipments,My RIO line is very messy,dont know why but I dont remember how many times I had a million knots to solve out,Visions Big Daddy is a serious contender.
Next thing is about my flies,got an idea how to make these flies better,will show you as soon as i have time to tie some.

Testing new tubes in Lovisa.

2011-06-02T20:19:00.004+03:00

I vent to Lovisa on Wednesday evening and because I was pretty late at my cottage so I went straight out to fish or to be exact my main thing was to test my new tubes.
As I told you earlier the forecast didn´t promise to good weather for fishing and for a while I was able to do some testing without any fishes disturbing.

After the sunset the fishes activated them self a bit but no one attacked my fly with any rage so even if there was some fishes tasting my flies I could land only one fish.
At least the flies seems to work and thats good.

Woke up this morning before 6.00 am so I was out fishing sometime near 7am.
I had a small breeze helping my morning fishing and I had some contacts but could not land a single fish,I don´t know if it was the hooks (TMC 600sp 3/0)or the lacy fishes
but I´m not concerned for now,have heard reports from some of my friends of lacy fishes so I think my flies deserves another chance.
Anyway,the result for todays six hours fishing was cheerless:after the sunrise the fishing became very difficult,just one landed fish and had no more then 4 or 5 contacts.

Met my cottage neighbour this morning and we talked about were we gonna fish,I had two places in my mind and decicded for one of them and my neighbour who got a very small boat decide for the other wich is nearer our islet and met him again this afternoon and he showed me some photos of two beautiful pikes around 3-4 kilos....
Life isn´t fair......Well,maybe next time.

Preparing with tubes.

2011-05-31T21:05:00.004+03:00

Things have turned a little bit upside down here lately,for not so long ago I was a sworn natural material tyer who tied my flys on hooks and now it´s syntethics on tube.
Once again these were inspirated by Niklaus Bauers flies.
I have to say that I really have a strong trust in these,even if they are syntethics.
Surely I will tie also naturals when I find a pattern I like,most of all I want to tie versatile using different materials.

Anyway I have also slowly but surely decided to start tie more tubes started few days ago and Tomorrow I will travel to Lovisa to test these flies.
Hopefully my rib will not be worse,it´s almost okay now.

The forecast is bad,really bad for fishing: 21-28 degrees with sunshine,3-6 m/s wind but I just have to lay out my lines after a weeks rest with my rib.

When inspiration hits.

2011-05-29T19:09:00.008+03:00

There wasn´t fishing in this weekends program because of my rib wich is still aching so I have entertain myself by watching Fly VS Jerk parts 1-3.
I have to say that I really like those movies,everytime I watch them I get some ideas or inspiration.Last time I watched part one I saw Niklaus Bauer tying a fly wich was a inspiration to the Regret fly.

This time after I watched all parts I opened http://www.flydressing.se/ and found an interesting fly from their SBS side called S.Farrar baitfish pike and decided to try and was very satisfied with the result.
Easy and fast to tie and good looking,what more could I ask of a fly

And while the bobbin was warm I also tied an order of two flies and dropped them into an mailbox.

I think I will tie some more of these in different colours testing different materials.
I tied these using Body fibre,Congo hair,Flash fibre,Slinky fibre.
I have an vision of using more flash but still remember my last flash flies so I think it might be better to wait a while with my genious visions....

On Flydressing.se site was also a SBS fly called Flash deciver,could it be worth a try ? Hmm......who knows.

Trip 27.5 with nag nag

2011-05-27T20:15:00.006+03:00

Was this morning 8.15am out flyfishing for pike at Lovisa archipelago.The weather was almost excellent with air temp 8-9 degrees,cloudy and a wind around 5-7 m/s.

Even if the weather was fine and I had four landed fishes I feel pissed of.
You might wonder why,let me tell you:
First of all I´ll propably have to take a break from fishing untill I´ll have my fractured rib fixed,cant go on like this no more.
I fished for six hours and while I drove home I felt that something was wrong.

every curve or hill,even those fucking potholes on road made me gasping for breathe.At one moment I thought that I wont make it but as i wrote some weeks ago:life is hard but so am I,so here I am writing at this blog anyway.(just kidding)
Dont want to go to a doctor this evening waiting for hours among all drunks and drug addicts so it has to wait untill tomorrow.

I tested my Flash regret with sky high expectations but the action in water....
Well it reminded me of a drill,or a nail,I cant understand how I failed so totally.
The flash had no movement at all.I HATE FLASH !!!!!Well,it might,just might be something wrong with the tyer too...Who knows.

Because I was alone and the fishes was sized xs I released them in the water without any photos but I took some photos from the waters where I use to fish.

Some tests

2011-05-24T22:25:00.008+03:00

Now after a weekends test in real conditions with my Guideline LPXe RS V2 (jesus what a name)and Visions Big Daddy line I have to say I like the combination,it has a faster Action the my GT4 or Hardy Zane rods and it was a little bit difficult at first but after a couple of hours it was a pure pleasure to handle.
I bought this rod with a fast action because in windy conditions I want higher linespeed then I could get with my Vision or Hardy rods but I dont want to go to a class 10 rod yet,feel it´s not necessary.
Planned also a A.Jensen High Tide rod in class 10 but ended up with this.
I was able to test it in windy conditions too and when I got the timing right I could get my biggest flies in reasonable lenghts,think I just need some training with these fast action rods first to give any reliable judgements.
I have a plan to go fishing next weekend IF I get my FRACTURED RIB in condition,
Yes,it is fractured,was to X-ray yesterday.
Anyway,if I´m okay then it will be some testing with different lines,at least with Guideline Pike #9 and RIO Scandinavian Pike also class 9.

The water temp in Lovisa has raised to over 14 degrees and the spawning is over so I think the pikes will soon go to deeper water where I dont trust my Regret-flies anymore so I have to find out something new,Tied two prototype version of a flash-Regret wich also will be tested IF I´m able to fish.

I don´t know why I always tie this same colour,maybe because it deliver most fish in water where I fish,at least the second one isn´t blue/silver wich also has been a reliable combo but hasn´t deliver for some time now,I don´t know why.

These are not going to be part of any beauty contests so the finish is some kind of crippled,I have a feeling there will be a lot of changes before I´m satisfied with this model.
And finally ,almost forgot to show you the fly that delivered the biggest pike and the pearch on last trip.

Fishing trip 21-22.5 Lovisa

2011-05-22T20:37:00.007+03:00

I was very tired on Friday when I came home from work so I decided to sleep over and go go fishing early on Saturday morning and so I did.
Went first to my cottage and put some heat on and evenly had two cups coffee and then it was time for fishing.
The forecast for the weekend said sunny,3-6 m/s wind and a temp of +17 degrees.
And very surprisingly it was sunny but the wind was around 10-12 m/s and the temp was 12-14 degrees,I just wonder how it is so difficult to a have a correct forecast at least with the wind.

Anyway I went out with my boat and tried to find a place where I could do some flyfishing but I had to start with some spincasting first because of the gusty wind.
Three first spots and nobody home.
Driving to the fourth spot thinking about strangling someone who making those fuckin forecasts.
The fourth spot,a sheltered bay at least delivered some fishes sized xs.
One thing to mentioned was that I fished the three first spots spincasting and started to flyfish on the fourth,got me fishes with two first casts and after one hour I had landed six pikes but the biggest was propably two,maybe two and a half kilos.
That was enough for my Ssaturday fishing.

When I went back to my cottage I was going to fill some gasoline to my boat,I dont know how but I slipped and hit my rib,still don´t know if it´s fractured,But its hurting,guess I´ll have to go to an X-ray tommorow.

I don´t know why I sleep so well always at my cottage but once again I missed my planned sunrise fishing,woke up 8.30 am With a aching rib,pulled of the curtains and saw a sunny morning with a wind propably around 6-8 m/s.
My rib was blue and swollen and every time I took a deep breath it felt like someone pulling a knife in me.

I still decided to try to fish and after breakfast I went to the same sheltered bay where i got all fishes yesterday.
Even with a aching rib I managed to do some flyfishing using my Guideline LPXe rod with a Vision Big daddy int.line.
Yellow/red was the colour for the first 2-3 hours delivered the biggest pike for the weekend 90cm/5.2 kilos AND a Pearch wich I think is my PB with 795 grams.

After that it slowly stopped to deliver so I just had to find a new colour combo and as so many times before the reliable black/silver got me back in buisness with at least 6-7 pikes,the size wasn´t big but felt good anyway,I even forgot my aching rib.

Took me one fish to dinner all the other was c&r.
Even if I almost forgot my rib while I was fishing it surely got back in my mind when it was time to get my boat back on the trailer,I can guarantee it´s a painful thing to do with a fractured rib.
Life is hard but so am I :)

Beauty and beast

2011-05-19T21:35:00.008+03:00

Bought me a Big Daddy sink line today so this weekend I will be fishing and fishing and maybe I will be fishing too.You might wonder why I am so excited about just this weekend,well,it´s because I also bought me a beauty and a beast in same package and it is a Guideline LPXe RS V2 9 feet class 9 rod.
The white colour looks awsome and I can´t describe the power in this rod.

It feels....cant find words but it´s awsome,it got a fast action so need to be carefull with the timing in double hauls but when you got the timing right then.....

The Big Daddy line fits to this rod like a nose to a head what a wonderful combination,still gonna test my Guideline Pike line also.

Well,now when I have praised something it´s time to critcize something.
I wrote about the angry pike around 3 kg:s witch raped my fly,broke a lock and almost cut my kevlar wire,I examined the fly today a little bit better and found out that the fish not only raped my fly,it also bended the hook,don´t know how,had the same hook (Fulling Mill Scorpio 5/0 )with the other fishes i got and they don´t have any damage at all so I will propably go on with tying on these hooks in future.

Have surprisingly been busy at work so there hasn´t been much fly tying this week but here is at least one Regret in olive/red colour combo wich has delivered some +100cm fishes,hopefully it will work for me too.

Two trips.

2011-05-16T18:16:00.010+03:00

Sorry for not posting anything for a while,I have been very busy at work BUT I also took time for some shorter trips.
last Tuesday 10.5 I was for a 4 hours trip to Lovisa archipelago in sunny and almost windfree conditions,not the perfect weather for fishing but I decided to try anyway.

Not much to tell you about I´m afraid,after four hours fishing the result was three small fishes,the biggest was around 1 kg,maybe 1.5 kg:s.
Anyway it was relaxing anyway even if I got my first sunburn for the year,my nose and cheeks and even my forehead had a new nice red colour when I arrived home.

Once again I tested every Regret-fly from my box.

I fished the whole trip with my Vision GT4 rod+Vision Big Daddy int.line,I really like this combination,so easy and smooth to throw those big flies,gonna buy also the sink version.

Last weekend I planned to spent on my cottage but was so tired on Friday so I decided to have a good sleep between Friday and Saturday night so I went away on Saturday morning.
While I was driving to Lovisa I was a little bit worried about the wind.
the forecast talked about a windspeed round 17 m/s and I was very surprised that for once they where right.
After some difficulties I finally arrived to the islet but to go fishing...no fuckin way !!!
For the first time I was scared in my new boat in those weather conditions.
Well,it felt hard to just waiting for the wind to calm down,there was nothing I could do so I examined my fishing equipments and just rested and relaxed with sauna and a couple of beers.

Late on the Saturday evening the wind started to calm down and on Sunday morning at 6.30am when I woke up the wind was tolerable for some fishing and after my morning coffee I was at 8.00am at my first spot washing my lines and flies.
I don´t know if it was because of the yesterdays wind or what but after 4 hours fishing the result was just one hit witch I couldn´t land but I felt relaxed so my weekend was succesfull anyway and I will deffinately do some short trips after work later this week now when I dont have to launch my boat every time I want to go fishing.

I have also tied some flies and while I was fishing I got an idea of a new colour combo to my Regret pattern.

Finally a photo of the sea when the wind has started to calm down.

Fly tying.

2011-05-08T16:02:00.005+03:00

Even if the season is on I´m still tying flies now and then,especially when I get my hands on some new materials,like my latest acquisition called Body fibre.
It´s a syntethic material witch texture is somewhere between Slinky fibre and Mirror image.
I first felt that it was more difficult to tie because it is much softer then Slinky but after some training flies I managed to tie one decent fly and this one will be tested on Monday evening.

Also need to tie a new black Regret-fly,noticed that the lock and wire wasn´t the only part that broke with my 2.7kg:s pike,even the shank of the hook was bended.
It was a strong fish but to bend the shank of the hook(Fulling Mill)Unbelievable.

Third time lucky

2011-05-07T19:40:00.017+03:00

Today was my second trip after the season opener,I was on a couple hours trip last Wednesday but it was a stylish blank draw as the opener.
I woke up early this morning and was at 8.00am on the first spot.
It was a beautiful morning with sunshine and a small wind round 3-4 m/s,the air temp was 8-9 degrees,I don´t know about the water temp but it was cold.
I don´t know why but I wasn´t concerned about the sunshine at all,in fact I felt very optimistic about this trip.
I had only two boxes with flies with me:one box with Replot stingers and a box with Regret flies.
For the rod i had chosed my Vision GT4 SW with my new Big Daddy int.line.Don´t wanna bring so much stuff with me for a day trip.Well...I could have some use for a floating line too....

I heard noise from the bed of reeds so I think the spawning was still on but I´ve also noticed that small fishes "jumped "on the surface now and then so there might been some hungry predators too,Now it was time to put my Regret flies in a real test.

I fished for an hour or so enjoying the sunshine and I have to say that the new Vision line is absolutely fantastic,my Regret flies are big and wind resistance but you can get them 20-25 meters out with ease so I really enjoyed my fishing.
Suddenly 10-15 meters away from me I saw many small blank fishes came up to the surface and jumped around like they were escaping for something,a quick throw where they jumped and there was my first hit but I couldn´t land it,a new throw and BANG I´ve got it.Unfortunately the hook broke it´s gill and it was bleeding so heavy so I couldn´t release it anymore so I´m going to eat some fish today and tomorrow,the weight of the fish was 3,2(3,19)kilos.

Well,the monkey was of my back so now it was time for a coffeebreak.
While I was enjoying my coffee I heard some splashing here and there,not only inside the reed so at least some of those Pikes had finished their spawning.

Time for the second round,I fished for a while when I felt someone attacked my fly hard and determinedly,this one fighted much harder then the first one but after a couple of minutes it had been inside the boat for a photo and some specs and finally been released.2.7 kg/70cm was the specs.

This one totally raped my fly so I decided to change it and was very lucky to do so because the lock was broken and also my Optima kevlar wire looked pretty bad.

Wonder what would have happen IF there has been a +8kg fish,this was only 2.7kg.
These were the new locks that I decided to test belong my reliable Berkley´s snap locks,well this test ended right now !!!

After I changed the whole leader I decided to change to spot number two but there was already a boat and number three didn´t deliver anything so I came back to my first place and decided to spend the rest of the day here.

I fished for some time without any hits,just testing my Regret flies and even if they are my own I just have to praise them a little,the look simply awsome in the water,I feel much more comfortable to fish with flies in wich you have some trust.

I was just testing my flies when suddenly A train swallowed my fly and took it away 25-35 meters away from me.I felt that this one is big,really big.
The train swimmed to left,then to right,away from me,at me,there was nothing I could do,and when it swimmed under the boat I was sure my rod will break.
My rod has never been so bended before,just when it started to have some noise from the seams i just had to ease the pressure on the fish and that relaxed the fish also a bit.
It took at least 6-7 minutes before i even had an eye contact with the fish and under the fight I had a dream of a +10 kg:s,well,I have to admit it was a small disappointment when I saw the fish first time,+10...no,not even close,maybe 4kg:s.

At this stage my opponent was ready to surrender.
The weight,length and a photo and finally back were it belongs.
Weight was 4,84 kg:s,length 86 cm:s and the photo:

The photo looks like shit because I was alone,hard to take some nice photos of your catch if you got the fish in one hand and the camera in the other.
Tomorrow I gotta go to work but perhaps on Monday evening you find me again doing some pike teasing.....

Little bit of this and that

2011-05-03T19:36:00.010+03:00

Haven´t felt so relaxed in many months than I feel right now,the reason is that I was able to fish last weekend and I´m going to do the same thing tomorrow.

Me and my brothers are going to launch a smaller boat at Lovisa tomorrow and that boat will stay in water untill autumn,it also allow me to do some small trips even after work.
It will be much easier now to do some "ex tempore" trips when the weather is fine or if you just feel to go fishing for a couple of hours after work when there is a boat ready waiting in the water.
Last season I always had to wait for the weekend exept my vacation when I spent three weeks at my cottage.

Trained yesterday with Water silk and Congo hair and slowly but surely I learn to use these materials too.
Here´s one with a stomach of water silk and the back is Congo hair blended with Slinky fibre.

Ordered some new material from Nordic angler called body fibre,it should be like Slinky but in a length of 35cm,sounds interesting.

Well what more cuold I tell you ? Yes,I decided to build a wire for bait fishing and I took my tools and start working,bought me a plier a couple of weeks ago,they were cheap.....and I could also call them useless shit.

And finally some Pics from last weekend,my daughter had a camera with her wich I didn´t knew anything about.

In the the last photo you can see the sun is shining but under that dark cloud it rained heavily.

Season opener 2011

2011-05-01T18:05:00.004+03:00

So finally after five long months I´ve got my season opened 30.4.
Not much to tell you about I´m afraid.I went to my cottage on Saturday morning and turned on some heat to get the house warm and dry.The winter was still there with some ice on the shore and even if the sun was shining the conditions were freezy.Just when I was gathered my rods it started to snow,after a while it turned into a massive hail.
It lasted for an hour or so and ended when the ground was totally white.

For a couple of weeks ago I promised that I´m gonna open my season even if it rains nails and so I did.
The sonar showed 7-9 degrees (celsius)water.temp,dont know the air.temp.
Some wind,maybe 6 m/s or so.
Had also read some reports that the spawning is on so I had not a single thought about getting any fish.

When I came to the first place I heard some noise in a bed of reed and yes,the spawning had started.Even if the water was muddy I saw several pikes close to each other propably having some fun.
I didn´t want to disturb them so I decided not to fish,instead I could take a photo of them,IF I had camera with me,oh fucking yes,I´ve forgot my camera at the cottage.

Left the first place without any kind of fishing and while driving to the second spot the wind started to blow harder and harder and of course a heavy rain should be included,fished for an hour without any contact with any kind of fish.

The wind was tricky,blowing from my right side and after the fly hit my neck for the second time I decide to stop before something worse happend.

I woke up 6.30am this morning and the temp was 0 degrees with a wind about 10-11 m/s so I decided to wait for some time to see in witch direction the weather conditions should change,and they turned worse.

I tried to fish from the shore but the wind was so hard that I didn´t enjoy my fishing at all (too much work to get the fly out)so I decided to stop.

You might get the opinion that everything went wrong on my opener but I feel very relaxed after this weekend,I didn´t had any expectations so I´m not disappointed at all.
Will propably do some shorter trips next week,hopefully the spawning is over next weekend,if it´s so I hope to get the monkey of my back then........

A story of a piece of wood that become a lure

2011-04-25T21:08:00.015+03:00

Nothing revolutionary,just want to show you how I built a lure.
I haven´t had time to built lures as much that I want because I use to built them in my Mom´s garage but when she died two years ago we sold her house and suddenly I had no place to build them.
As my youngest brother also build lures we were two to share that problem,he works as a teacher and he ask the principal if it would be okay to use the woodwork classroom to our hobby and it was okay but of course I cant be there by my own so I just build these lures when it suites my brother(no offence).

As I have told you my stuff is ready for the opener but as usual my brother just woke up from his hibernation and now he´s spending all his leisure at school now.
I have been there now and then keeping him company and built something myself too,like this piece of wood that has sanded round and has taken the fist step to became a lure.

To make a lure that wiggling walk I use to put some weight here and there and then cover the rest of the holes.

Then it´s time for 5-6 times varnish until you get a good looking surface.

Then choose your colours and let the airbrush sing....

Dont forget to have fun,it should be.......

Now when it has some clothes on it´s time for some varnish again,3-5 times should be enough,then it´s just some small finishing (if you want to).

And finally a photo of a piece of wood that hopefully will do what I have planned it to do.
Just add some hooks before you throw it to say hello to the BIIIIIG Mamas.

Good,Bad and ugl.. Kind

2011-04-24T19:42:00.011+03:00

Got a Photo from the place were I use to launch my boat and even if there is some ice I still feel very optimistic that I could use this place to launch my boat next weekend but if it seems difficult I will find another place because I WANNA GO FISHING !!!!!

Because I have all my necessary stuff ready and still be in a flu including fever I have rested almost the whole easter except some small things like the tail lights to my trailer and some extra leaders.

Nothing strange about that but these are totally different then those I´ve built before.
Instead of using just 0.70 mono line I decided to go a different way.

Two different sizes of mono line first 0,70 then 0.50 and instead of Predator wire I finally will test the Optima Kevlar steel wire,I´ve heard lot of praise of it.
And I will also test these new nameless locks instead of my old reliable Berkleys Snap locks.
Even if I will test these new locks I´ll have to praise those Berkleys Snap locks.
I´ll never ever have lost a fish or fly because of these locks so they will be hard to beat in my use.

And from praises to carping.
Bought me some Scientific Anglers pike leaders for my lightweight lines.
They wasn´t expensive but still I think that you have the right to require for at least some durability.

The package looks like this:

And by just taking the leader out from is package made the stiff wire warp like this:

I couldn´t fix it straight anymore so I dont think I will use these leaders again.

I think that will be all for today but just to remind you readers at least from southern Finland of how fast the spring has become here is a photo from beginning of March taken from "Puu-Vallila" in Helsinki.

I wrote about some good stuff,some bad stuff and finally some kind stuff.
Some people dislike Sfinx cats because what they look like,Well....it´s up to you to decide but let me introduce you my Older daughters cat called Hercules,never ever met a cat so kind and goodhearted.

One week to go.

2011-04-22T14:18:00.011+03:00

Lying home with a terrible flu as my pal,thank god I´ll can rest for four days,after that I have four days at work and then the hell breaks loose,its time for the long awaited SEASON OPENER.I´ll have moaned for five long months and after a week the waiting is over.
I dont give a shit if it rains 10 inches long nails,I will open my season anyway.I just spoke to a friend from Loviisa and he told me that there is very little ice here and there but after a week it should have melted totally.
12 degrees (celsius) and some rain right now in southern Finland is is very welcomed by me right now.
Got my boat from Maintence yesterday so there should not be any problems to wait for a while.
I had a plan for today to fix new tail lights on my boat trailer but the rain and my flu added with some fever changed it to some fly tying included with a test fly,not so serious about it,just for fun.
I built in two sections,front and back.
The front is tied in "normal" way but the back is tied very hollow.
Its more a beast then beauty but who cares,it will be interesting to see how it works.

The test fly is tied with Mirror image and water silk using bucktail in the back section.
I blended some pink mirror image with light blue and chartreuse water silk and I think the colour is looking pretty nice.
I also tied a usual fly vith these colours.

Have also buried the idea to tie some flash flies,it seems too difficult with my tying skills.Think it will be better to tie something like this instead.

As you can see All my latest flies is tied on a tube,I´ll think you will see more of tubes from me from now on,quit using eumer soft tubes and using HMH tubes instead wich are more stiffer and don´t rolling round the needle like a headless chiken.

Finally,yesterday I recived a package from western Finland included...guess what....
No,not Raccoon zonker this time but:

Now I have something to do if fly tying starts boring me.
That´s all for now,think I´ll tie some more flieswith mirror image and also going to test more of Congo hair and Water silk now while I´m in right mood for that.

Sorry for my confused posting,it´s just that I´m so tensed up waiting for next weekend.

Now It´s just waiting.

2011-04-17T17:00:00.015+03:00

As the title says everything should be ready for the opener,lines,rods,reels,flies lures,all the tools,have my boat on maintence and will have it next week.
Even bought me a new car with 4WD so I could put my boat in water in some tricky places too.
I was this weekend at the flyfishing fair at Ylöjärvi wich is near Tampere.

I went there with a "just watching" mentality and almost succeed with that.
Bought me some XXL-coneheads to my future tubes,also watched at a tube vice but actually I dont think it will solve my issues in tying tubes but Spey clave (a Finnish flyfishing Store) might have the perfect tool for me,will see it at next week.
Talking about Spey clave I will test a A.Jensen High tide #10 rod as soon as I can go fishing,tried it in the store and it felt very good and after a weekends test trip my rod collection might have a new member.....

And talking about rods i watched Alhospeys VERY BEAUTYFUL Bamburods (handmade)at the fair and I´m...I´m just speechless,what an art !!!

I went home from the fair yesterday and decided to test my new coneheads,I also told you that I have study some flash tying by watching Niklaus Bauers Piketube video from Youtube on and on and yesterday it was time to try it myself and I´ll have to say it was difficult,felt it was almost impossible to keep the flash in a dubbing loop so I think my flash flies will look like this for a while but I will practice and someday I will succeed with these.

And today when it was 15 degrees(celsius)outside and all my necessary things were done I took my time to train a little bit,it was fun....belive me....it really was.

Forget the perfect D loops.This is pike fishing :).

Hook or tube ?

2011-04-10T22:17:00.007+03:00

I dont know how many times I have promised to start fishing with only tubes and still I´m tying about 95% on hooks,why? I dont really know.
I think I´ll have to find out....

Tubes

+ The fly should last longer
+ Possibility to change hooks (different sizes/always a sharp hook)
+ Propably cheaper to tie ???
+ Easy to change the lenght of your fly
+ Easy to choose where you wanna place the hook

- To change your fly it might take you some seconds more.

Watching this comparing I dont find a good reason why I shouldnt tie some more tubes and when i whatched Niklaus bauer tying a piketube and a sheepheadfly on tube I have slowly turned my sights on tubes again,just need to update my tube tying equipments
And have made a decision of a tube vice,I´m tired to play games with that fucking needle.
First nervous breakdown is when you need to attach the needle to the vice,it´s almost impossible to get it attached so it dont detaches when for example tying bucktail on your tube.
The second breakdown is IF you succeed to tie your bucktail then to get your fly of the needle.
Could this be a reason for not tying tubes ? Don´t know......

Anyway,here is a photo of my only tubes that has delivered some pikes.

As hook I´m gonna use TMC 600sp 2/0 or 3/0.

Sorting equipments part two

2011-04-10T17:03:00.009+03:00

First of all I have to say sorry that there hasn´t been any postings for some time,the reason is that i´ve been very busy at work and some problems with my internet connection wich should be solved now.
The season opener is SOOOOOOOO close now that I can almost touch it and all my fishing equipments is almost fixed and sorted out with new lines and sharpened/or changed hooks,the reels is oiled and.....hmmm did I forget something? Yes,the boat of course,but nothing to worry about,tomorrow on monday it will be a maintenance on the motor and then after that its only waiting.

Here is some photos of my flyfishing equipments.Start with my first choice rods.

And then the reels.

And finally the light weighter in line weight #6.

Have also bought me some new tying equipments like Veniards bobbin wich I like a lot,but the biggest change was a new tying thread.
I´ve always used Kevlar thread but tying Bucktail was a bit tricky with it so when Mikko Stenberg from Spey Clave recommended me a new thread I decided to give it a try and now I have to say that I propably wont change back to kevlar anymore.
The problem is that I dont know even the name of the thread but as soon I´ll visit Spey clave again I´ll ask for some specs and tell you more about it later.

I have also tested a new store in finland called Nordic Angler and was very pleased with it too.
Bought me some usual stuff included Raccoon and a couple of some new materials for me like Congo hair and Water silk and of course I´ve had to test it on my Regret-fly and after some training this was the result.

It feel very soft and even if I have not tested it yet I think it will work fine.
By just holding both materials in your hand I think it´s very hard to feel the difference wich of them will work better in water but soon I´ll find out that too.

Sorting equipments part one

2011-03-31T19:19:00.012+03:00

Even if there has been snowfalls here in southern Finland it melting away pretty fast right now so I´ll set my sights to middle of May when there should be a serious chance to get on the water and do some serious bisnes.
I have usually waited untill the spawning is over but I´m not sure if I can wait so long this year.
But instead of the last minute planning of rods,reels,lines ETC,ETC....I have started to sort out everything now because I really hate to do my hobbies in hurry.

Because I also do some spincasting and jerkbait fishing it make the whole thing little more complicated,Anyway Im almost finished and some results:

For spincasting I´ll have two choises:
-Shakespeare Trion 7,6 feet lureweight 20-60g+Daiwa Coastal reel with a sparepool.
Lines to the spools will be Power Pro 0.19 and 0.28.

Second choice will be a:
-Shakespeare Ambidex titanium plus 7,6 feet lureweight 20-60g+Shimano Cruxis reel.
The line to this will be Power Pro 0.32.

For jerkbaitfishing I will choose a Strike Pro Contact 6,8 feet,lureweight
up to 180g+Shimano Calcutta 200 GTB reel.
The line will be Power pro 0.36 or 0.41,I havent decided yet.

I´ll have some old rods and reels in reserve if something will break but these are my first choice and for pikefishing.

And the next step will be to sort out my flyfish equipments from:
-Two #9 rods (Vision,Hardy)
-Two reels+ 6 sparepools
-Nine lines in class 9.

One ready set is my Guideline ACT in weightclass 8+Guideline Reelmaster reel and my choice for a line will be Guideline Pike #8.

The second ready set is my old reliable Orvis Clearwater rod + Orvis Battenkill LA
reel in class 6 with a guideline bullet line.

And what would this blog be without showing some new flies,model Regret.
These will propably be my last Regrets for some time,I have study flash tying for sometime now and think i will start with some practice this weekend.

And finally,here´s one who dont give a shit if I have to tie my flies without a chair

nag,nag,nag.....

2011-03-27T21:47:00.011+03:00

Okay,the weekend came,was and went.And as usual it was all too short and also as usual my plans to prepare my reels rods and lines for the opener was ruined but as I look out from the window and see the god damn fuckin snow falling down I guess it doesnt matter for now.....SHIIIIIIITTTTT !!!!!
Last year I made my first trip in middle of march to central Finland.
The first REAL trip was 8-9 may when I was targeting pike.Looking at the ice conditions now it´s going to be a though game if I want to make my season opener at same date.
For the next year I´ll just have to buy some icefishing equipments,this fuckin snow and ice is really makin me loose my mind.
I´m so pissed off i could bite my pinkie off me.

But as usual.....what the hell can I do about it?Thats right,nothing.
Nothing else but to take a seat behind my vice,have a cup of coffee,a glass of some good and expensive cognac,tie some flies with no hurry.Examine your flies and find new models,materials,colour combos etc,etc...

The winter is absolutly not funny but always try to think that things could be worse,much worse.

And finally after my complaining moment I think it´s time to introduce my weekend flies:

Dubbing brush tests part II

2011-03-22T19:49:00.007+02:00

So,now I have made some tests with different materials and I ´ll have a strong feeling that this will be a usefull tool,BUT....Need to handle these issues first:
-Spinning the brush.This is the biggest issue right now,the dubbing tool doesnt work in a way that I want.Got allready a plan to solve it.
-The hooks are in different position to each other.This is a easy problem to solve,changin the hooks place and it should be a done case.

Anyway,I think that after some practice with the amount of different materials the rest of all issues will be solved.
here is a couple of photos of brushes done with different materials.
Lets start with Marabou:

And the second one,a not so ususal combo,Icelandic sheep and slinky,added some black flash:

They look more like the beast rather then beauty but after some practice I think it will turn around.

Testing the dubbing brush machine.

2011-03-22T17:04:00.012+02:00

Even if it´s too early to say that this machine works I want to share my first test experiences with you.
First of all I use a dubbing tool(not sure about it´s English name)to spin the brush with.

Attach the wire to the hook on the tool and take it over the "table" behind the other hook.

Then add some material,in this case Ice wing with a dash of something pink...

Then pull the wire over the materials and fasten it on the hook of the tool.

Then spin carefully 4-5 times the tool and after that move the "table" and after that spin again.

At least with Ice wing it´s very important to remember to sometime use the tying needle or the scissors to solve the material,otherwise you´ll have a Ice wing worm,not a brush.

Then it´s a open highway....just spin some time(remember to solve the material at times)and cut the wire near both hooks and.....you´ll have a complete dubbing brush.

Even if there´s some issues Ithat needs to be solved this test was very promising and I will still do some more tests with Marabou,Flashbou ETC.ETC.....
Stay tuned.....Cheers.

Some woodwork.

2011-03-21T20:23:00.004+02:00

Yesterday when I was tying My Regret in a new style all started because I runned out of dubbing brushes so its time to tie some new ones,but because I have tied my dubbing brushes here and there I decided to make it a little bit easier to me.

I called my brother who works as a teacher and asked if I could use the woodwork class and after a yes I spend a while at his school and made me a almost professional dubbing brush machine

I havent test it yet but I´ve planned this in my mind for some time now so I´ll think this one will work.
Soooo,here it is my dubbing brush machine:

Weekend disaster and fly tying.

2011-03-20T18:41:00.011+02:00

Oh no....A slight setback in weather conditions,about 2 inches snow at the weekend.
Well,to be honest the whole weekend was a disaster starting with saturday wich was a flagging day here in Finland,woke up 3.30am and starting to flag 04.00.

4 hours and 54 flags later went home with aching feets and arms,and just when I was suppose to take a nap the snow started to fall.
Went back to work at 3.30pm,it took over 5 hours to collect all the 54 flags and after that I started to plow some snow but because the snow just kept falling I founded it useless to go on anymore on saturday.

This morning I woke up by my alarm clock at 4.30am and let me tell you I felt slightly PISSED OFF while driving to work....on a sunday.
So plowed rest of the snow and sanding,it took me 12 hours before I was ready so you can understand I dont have more then two new flies to show.

The first one is coloured traditionally orange/black.Added some wider flash wich I regret a bit,I like the thinner more.Hopefully it bother just me

Then to the other one,I still call it to regret pattern even if it´s tied in a different way then the others.
The Big fly fibre is still there but instead of a dubbing brush I tied some Ice wing fiber straight on the hook.

And it looks like this,at some flies I feel it might look better.

And more diffrences is 3 bunches of Ginger coloured Bucktail and now finally I remenbered to add 4 Microbarbs and due to the olive coloured Raccoon I decided to add more flash on this fly.
Also added some red Artic fox and steelgray Polar fiber to the head.

With all these changes this Regret looks like this:

Sorry bout the bad quality of the photo,I´m jut too tired to focus right now.
Right now I need some sleep and hopefully Be more zippy then now.
This is a weekend I want to forget ASAP

Fill the boxes

2011-03-17T22:04:00.008+02:00

The mail man brought me an envelope and I´ll just have to thank the Mistpool store,unbeliveble quick delivery wich I feel very important now when I´m in mood for tying.

Yesterday I tied a can we say traditional red/black combo in Regret pattern.

And now when I get some more of Big fly fibre there will be more of these,at least
orange/black
pink/white
blue/yellow
blue/white
red/white
There´s some ones to start with,got also some special colour combos in my mind.

And with the new colours it was today time for a green nuanced one,here with a dash of grey and white added.

Added also some bronze coloured flash in this,think it´s look good.
After the fly was ready and I examined I felt that some microbarbs would have suited in there nicely ,well maybe in the next one...

Anyway,the first box has been filled up with Regrets and the second is on it´s way.
It feels very good to have a lot of boxes full with flies that you really trust.

No regrets about these Regrets

2011-03-16T18:57:00.007+02:00

Still tying this pattern and have to say that I´m very satisfied pleased vith both colours and specially the movement,tried them in my friends bath and in my opinion the movement was awsome,guess I´ll have to try to get a video of it.

Now my expectations raised to heaven,and of course I was forced to order more different colours of Big fly fibre,some Bucktail wich I´m in fact was to a shop and choosed some good pieces so there will be more to come as soon as my materials arrive from my local post office.

Well,the flies....
The first one is a chartreuse/orange combo,even if it might look yellow,yuo can blame my photo shooting skills for that.
And as all exept the first regret is tied on a Fulling mill Scorpio hook size 5/0.

And the second one.....
Actually it´s not looking the way I meant,my plan was to make a simple one coloured white fly with a dash of some blue/pearl nuance but as so many times before in the middle of tying I changed my mind and added some grey Raccoon at the end.
Anyway,I think it look good anyway.

Testing in a simple bath made also my imagination flow a little bit.I could almost see a 45 inches/ 25 lbs pike following my fly
Perhaps after a month or so it might be reality......Cheers.

Go expo fair 2011.

2011-03-12T21:32:00.006+02:00

So the first true spring sign Go expo fair is over.I was there workin with my fly fishing club Espoon perhokalastajat.Saturday wasn´t so bad exept my hangover,tied some flies size 10-12 and after hook size 5/0 it wasn´t so easy but after a couple of training flies they looked at least decent.
The aim with this tying was to give people without experience a chance to try tying and fly casting also.
I´ve also met some friends on saturday and here I´m tying a fly with one of them.

On sunday there were more people and I didn´t had time for too many breaks,I tied flies in 3,5 hours without breaks and have to admit that it was tough,at times there was some kind of line-up of people waiting for their turn.

Well later on afternoon I had time to check out the presentation and straight away to test the Vision Big daddy rod and due to the big expections it was a disappointing experience so no deal on that,I like my GT4 more.
At least I bought something,like a new scissors and some tying material,and finally I found the very much-vaunted Optima kevlar line,so bevare Predator line.

And as usual,after the fair the burning for the season opener is almost driving me out of my mind but talked to my friends from Salo and they said the Ice is around 45 cm thick and here near Helsinki the snow conditions hasn´t went much better then on the photos couple of weeks ago so while waiting I´ll guess I´ll just going to tie some more of these Regret flies...

Here´s one with a very fresh Epoxy glued head.

A tutorial to Regret.

2011-03-11T22:10:00.016+02:00

Now I have found a pattern exept the replot stinger that I really like and I will call these flies simply to Regret.
I´ve also made a small tutorial of it:

1.First I tie a loop of mono fishing line 0,70 back of the hook.

2.Then a bunch of Big fly fibre.

3.Before step three I´ll make a dubbing brush like this:

4.And after tying it on the hook it should look like this:

5.Now its time for the first bunch of bucktail.The firstone should be a little bit bigger then the second:

6.Then the second one.I don´t use hollow style.

7.This step is not necessary but I use it because I feel it´s easier to tie the next step.Tie some wool yarn on the rest of the shank to get it easier to tie the raccoon strip.

8.Now it´s time for the Raccoon zonkker strip.I use to comb it first to get rid of the wool that lies on the bottom of the strip.

9.After tying the zonkker strip it´s time to whip finnish and do a epoxy head and the fly is ready:

I´m using super glue after every step to secure the tying,think it´s necessary with this pattern,otherwise the pikes will tear it apart

I also use to cut a little bit of the big fly fibre and taper it,and also I use to add some flash.
One thing that I forgot to mention is that I use only quality bucktail to these flies.
And before the season opener you will definetly see more of these flies in different colours,here is to start with:

Well now the time is 11.04 pm and tomorrow will be a tough day at the fair in Helsinki so I´ll have to get some sleep so good night to all of you.

Tying different patterns

2011-03-09T22:21:00.003+02:00

While waiting for the Go Expo fair in Helsinki were I´m going to Work for Espoon perhokalastajat the whole weekend I have tied a couple of new totally different looking flies that I´m used to.
The first one is fly that i saw on a Finnish flyfishing site and immediately get inspirated.
It doesn´t have much of volume so it´s effect is more based on it´s movement wich I hopefully get with those microbarbs and a YES...Raccoon zonker strip.
The rest of the fly is tied of bucktail and deer hair and is tied on a TMC 600sp 3/0 hook.
Here is two photos of it both wet and dry,the fly looks totally different.
The movement looked good even if it´s tested just in a kitchen sink

And to the second one.
For this one I´ll found my inspiration from one of my favourite movies Fly VS Jerk extended version were Nikolaus Bauer from Sweden ties a very good looking fly with a tail of big fly fibre,then added an dubbing brush(home made),two bunches with bucktail(yellow,orange)and finally added some guess what....red raccoon strip.

All this was tied on a TMC 911s 3/0 hook and in my opinion this one looks awsome.
It´s 25cm long but I dont think it will be difficult to cast,it´s pretty airy.

I just have to tie some more of these in different colours,definetly one of my favourite patterns beside replot stingers.

Also decided that I´m going to give Partridge AD Swier hooks a chance this year even though everybody seems to dislike them.
Fulling Mill scorpion hooks may alaso be on my test list this season.
Well,thats all for now,see ya soon :).

Practice,practice.

2011-03-07T19:55:00.010+02:00

Unfortunately my flycasting skills is not very good so after a long cold winter I really need some practise before the season opener and at the weekend I got got my daughter with me to a very windy field were we spent almost 6 hours practicing flycasting with different lines from #5 to #9.
The weather was sunny but the wind made the conditions freezy and without a couple of thermo bottles with coffee our practicing session would surely have been much shorter.
Even if it was "interesting" to cast a class 5 line in that wind the most waited test was my new Vision Big Daddy line with a Vision GT4 MF #9 rod and I´ll have to say it felt good,in fact very good,the short very aggressive front taper works very nice in windy conditions,cant wait to do some tests in little warmer conditions.

Anyway,the spring is getting nearer and nearer each day and so is the season opener.
One of my fishing mates from kalakaverit.fi caught this weekend a beautyful ma´m 108cm/9,0kg:s wich I have to say not really eased my burn.
I have also tied some flies,this time on a TMC 600sp 3/0 hook,heres one of them:

I think it looks good.

and finally some photos of our sunday practicing,and as you can see the snow conditions it will still take some time before I can send you some photos of real action but sooner or later the day will be there.

Some thoughts about hooks.

2011-03-03T20:47:00.004+02:00

Tomorrow I´ll be a owner of a Vision Big Daddy fly line,finally it has arrived to my favourite shop Spey Clave in Helsinki,so now it´s only the rod thats missing,well the fair is coming closer,two more weeks to go and hopefully I will be a owner of that too.
Me and some friends had a very interesting conversation on kalakaverit.fi about pike hooks.
Now when I think it sounds very strange that I have wrote about Rods,reels,and lines,and of flies,flies but not of hooks.I´havent fly fished for pike so long that I could say that I´m an expert but reading from internet and asking from friends about their experiences Í´ll get started.
Now about two years later I´ll have some favourites.I havent made any scientific experiments but there´s one fact i`ve noticed:
With TMC 911s 3/0# I have landed most fish,dont know why but it´s a fact and thats the reason it has become my favourite,I also like the long shank,room for more material when needed.

I´ve also use Mustad 34011 or Mustad 34007 as reserve,These hooks has same profile but 34011 got longer shank.
For smaller fly size and lighter line class I use TMC 9089 #2,The gap is big as TMC 911 but is much thinner and lighter and also got a shorter shank.Even if its thinner it´s strong enough.

And from Simon Grahams advice I have also tied some flies on a totally different hook,a very short shanked hook called TMC 600sp,this is a hook that I before used only on tube flies but I like to do some experiments with some short shanked hooks too.

My latest hook test is Daiichi 5426 #1 SW-hooks but more tests with these will be done later on when the FUCKIN ICE has melted.
Here´s a photo of the hooks that I use:

TMC 911s
Mustad 34011
TMC 8089
TMC 600sp

I´ve also tried some Varivas hooks witch I didnt like,Mustad 840??? but It wasnt made for sea conditions(saltwater)so they rusted very quikly and went very bad looking,Sad because i liked its profile.

Waiting for the season opening.

2011-03-01T19:32:00.007+02:00

I have not wrote for a while but I havent been lacy,the spring is coming very fast now and I have a lot to do both at work and with fishing equipments,but who care about the work?
I have tied some flies both for spin casting and fly casting.I also found a big box with unfinished jerkbaits and because I´m not able to build my jerk baits always when I want to so now when I had an opportunity to do so I have spent some times with them too.

Here is an old model I finished yesterday.I call it Digger.
Its 25cm(10 inches)long and it weights about 110 grams,I also put some Raccoon-zonker
on the tail(very suprisingly).
The hooks are 4/0 sized VMC triple hooks.

Both me and Jabala(Freaky pike on fly)are moderators on a finnish fishing site called kalakaverit.fi and I read an very interesting story of Jabalas way to tying
slinky fibre,and by putting some material with more movement in front of the fly it at least look good,in my opinion much better then a fly with just slinky.
I think this will be the way I will tie my slinkys from now on.
Dont now why but I got big expectations from this one.
Suprisingly the material with the movement is......yes..RACCOON

And as I told you in my last post I bought some Eumer pike tubes from Helsinki boat fair I tied one more of them too and you´ll never guess what material I used......

Eumer tubes.

2011-02-20T15:10:00.010+02:00

very freezy conditions in Finland right now,-27 degrees at 06.00 am,but inside me is burning,I WANT TO GO FISHING !!!
I was yesterday on a boat fair in Helsinki and I have to admit that if I had unlimited cash I would propably get rid of a big amount of money on that fair,
but because I dont have it I just looked around and did some day dreaming.

There was some stands where they sold lures,reels and other fishing equipments and one thing is for sure,I cant just look at them,so I bought me a box of jerkbaits,
a T-shirt and some Eumers new tube fly kit for casting.I bought the 2 biggest sizes.
I´ll think they can be useful after a couple of months.
Very easy/fast to tie and at the video it looks awsome.
I tied one for fun.

The fly is about 30cm long and the weight should be around 35-45 gr.
Here is a photo of kits.

If you are intrested so from youtube (eumer spin tubes)you can watch these flies in action.
Here is the rest of the stuff that I bought from the fair.Except the flies I dont know if I ever going to use these,if not then my brother vill have them on birthday or so.

The next fair will be Go expo in Helsinki 11-13.3 and I´m living in a hope to get my hands on the new Vision big daddy rod and line,at least to try them....and if I dont get them there I´ll have to wait for the fly fishing fair in Tampere 16-17.4
and hey.....after that the season might get started......Oh goooood I dont want to wait.

And of course I´ve also tied a traditional fly too,after all fly fishing for pike is my main joy.
And finally I tied one with craft fur.I think it looks good.

Jerk baits

2011-02-15T20:32:00.006+02:00

Yesterday evening,I was home after a hard day at work when my brother called me and ask me to drop by at his work.
My brother is working as a teacher and in their school they have a classroom for woodwork so when you read the title you might guess what was on my mind....

Too bad we had not too much time to build many jerk baits but it was fun anyway.
I didn´t take many photos but here is some.

I had one jerk bait finished and two pieces is waiting for further treatment.
The ready bait with the green and orange flames was inspirating me to tie a fly with the same colour combo.
I wonder why I got much easier to find nice colours to lures then to flies.
Hopefully I get some inspiration to tie some Craft fur flies this week,I´ll think I´ve got those colours in stock.....

Hangover day tying.

2011-02-13T16:23:00.003+02:00

My first aim was to just rest for the whole day but I cant just be in bed for the whole day (alone :) )so I just had to get up and take a walk in a very cold but otherwise a beatyfull winterday.
After an hours walk I came home feeling sorry for myself and made me a big cup of coffee and took a seat on the couch and started to read some old fly fishing magazines.
I get my hands on a magazine called Pohjolan perhokalastaja number 4/2010.There was a story of a pikefly made of bucktail.The intresting thing with the fly was that it was NOT tied like an hollow deciver,It was tied in a "normal" way by just put the material on the hook and tie.I dont know how this story has passed my eyes without me showing any intrest to it.
This time the further I read it I get more intrested and when There was also a tutorial of it I found myself behind my vice trying to make one very good looking fly like the one in the magazine.
I tried to follow the tutorial exept that I of some reason tied this one on a tube.

I have to admit that I was very suprised of the result,I think it looks great.
This is a pattern that I surely will tie a couple more.
Even if it not tied in hollow style I think it will work.

There´s couple of things that I noticed while tying:
-You need quality bucktail to this one,it has to be pretty long.
-Dont tie with kevlar yarn.The idea with this fly is to put more and more material on each bunch and the last bunch is so thick that the bucktail will slip under the yarn while tighten it,I think uni cord will be better,at least I will give it a try.
As a hook I have planned to use Simons favourite TMC 600sp Size 3/0.

Tube time

2011-02-12T20:44:00.005+02:00

Okay,so my spring cleaning is over and it was finally time to tie those fucki´n tubes that I promised to do.
This week was also meant to be Craft fur theme but the tubes and a big snowfall in Helsinki has kept me busy.
But after I slept about 13 hours between friday and saturday I had some energy to start tying some flies.Damn it´s difficult to tie small flies after those big pike flies,the first one was a disaster but after some whiskys I think they started to look better,hopefully my friend likes them too

I found out that I might need a vice for only tube flies,I was very close to get REALLY pissed of with that stupid needle on my "normal" vice,I cant get it firmly assembled.Well,maybe from the go expo fair in Helsinki next month.
Between those tubes I also tied a normal sized pike fly but to be honest I was wery drunk when I tied this so it´s not a good looking fly exept the colours,I like them and hoping that the judges in the sea likes it too.

From small things to big things.

2011-02-06T21:53:00.021+02:00

Does anyone remember the song From small things mama the big things come performed by Bruce Springsteen ?
Anyway thats what came into my mind this weekend.It all started when my friend asked me if I possible could tie some small tube flies to him,6-10 pieces?
Ok,no problem I answered and on friday after work I thought that this is the right time to tie them.

But the first problem started immediately,where the hell is my tube fly tools?do you see them?No,not me neither.

So,I looked for my tools a while before I get so pissed of with this mess and decided to make a massive spring clean before tying anything.
The first thing was to empty the table and then try to sort out my tying materials,
and there was a lot of it.
Remember I told you that I only got 4-5 colours of my favourite material Raccoon zonker,well I lied...I found 12 of them.

And also found a lot of rabbit zonker strips.There was two coloured,there was crosscutted strips.
Many of these was colours that I didn´t knew I had in stock.

And the number of flashbou materials then....Think I´ve gonna tie some flash flies before spring....

I was also a little bit suprised of the number of body materials,don´t need too much of them when you tying pike flies.My guess is that I have tought to tie something else,who knows.

Before I had sorted out some of my materials friday had turned to saturday and of course I had to go to work on saturday (flagging day in Finland)so after a 3 hour long night sleep it was time to go to work.Man it sucked.....

On saturday after work I just had to take a nap because otherwise I´m very irritated and that´s not funny for anyone...
After a couple hours of sleep and a pot of coffee I was ready to go on with my cleaning,but to be honest my inspiration was below zero but I decided to go on anyway.
Next step was to sort out my lures and flies and after several hours I found out that I dont have enough of room for everything so what now.

I decided to sort out the rest of my fly materials because I had still not founded my fuckin tube fly tools either.
A little interjection here,does my text sound like I´m pissed of??? At least I´m tired.

And finally guess what i found in a plastic bag with my fly hooks? Yes,correct,My tube tools.
The temptation to just start to tie those tube flies was big but no,may the cleaning continue,but OH NO,the clock is 12.30pm so let it continue on sunday.

On sunday I allready felt that I dont want to wake up at all but after I was almost ready the only option was to finish this case.
And after some hours,just before THE footballmatch between Chelsea and my favourite Liverpool started I was in a situation that I need about 10-15 tackleboxes to sort out rest of my equipments it was time to close this case and take a seat on the couch with a cold beer in my hand and enjoy the game,I´ll think I´ve earned it.

Chelsea-Liverpool:0-1

So,a small promise to tie some(5-10)small tube flies turned into a big case that took me the whole weekend(no offence)and still they are not tied....This week perhaps.

Tying Ice wing II

2011-02-03T16:54:00.005+02:00

Even if the snow is falling down from the sky and everything is gray and gloomy I can see it,I can smell it and I can feel it...The spring,it´s coming slowly but surely but all my big plans I had for the winter time it seems that I don´t gonna have time to fullfill my plans bout a tying corner,jerkbait building.
Even my plan to tie some flies every single day is ruined due to the snow situation in Helsinki,it has been a hell of a winter.

Anyway,I´m starting to wake up from my winter lethargy and spending more time behind the tying vise then my couch or bed and now when I yesterday recived my order from Mistpool with some hooks and other tying materials I hope that I can show you some new flies more often.

My yesterdays delivery included a LOT of Craft fur witch might be my next weeks theme,and NO,I still prefer naturals before syntethics,it´s just that I want to learn to tie some good flies with different materials so it´s practice and even more practice so I hope that someday I´ll have some trust in syntethics also.
Here is some flies made of Ice wing that I tied yesterday and soon they will have some epoxy heads done and after that I think it will be Craft fur time.(if i dont change my plans again after reading my new Pohjolan perhokalastaja magazine)

And BTW:Tied on a Tiemco 8089 #2 and their lenght is around 10cm:s (4 inches).

Tying Ice wing.

2011-02-01T21:41:00.006+02:00

Just showing small signs that the spring is on it´s way and I´m allready tying flies for summer,crazy,isn´t it?
Anyway,I use to fishing with smaller size of lures at summertime so why would I not do the same with flies either?
I have also noticed that in cold water in spring or autumn the fly need to have a lot more attractive movement when you stripping the line much more slower than in warm water,that´s why I think it´s justified to use natural materials in cold water.

In warm water I often stripping the line with both hands very fast using the technique:"take it or leave it" and it very often works specially in the middle of the summer so thats one reason I tied these flies with Ice wing,don´t need so much movement then.
These flies still waiting for a epoxy head witch I´m going to make tomorrow.
Need to work with the heads to get them some kind of imbalance onthe flies and hopefully I´ll get some jerkbait action.

These flies are also planned to use with some lighter line class from #6 - #8 at maximum,that´s why I use different hook as I use to.
For these flies I used a Tiemco 8089 #2 instead of my favourite 911s.
The gap is pretty big on this hook.

And as the title says the tying material is Ice wing,very messy stuff.All my clothes sparkles like a christmas tree.
But the clock is ticking and I got an early wake up tomorrow so without more bullshit:here they are.

And as an ending,two,maybe two and a half months to the season opener.
Would like to write about fishing instead of fly tying.

Smells like spring.

2011-01-28T20:02:00.006+02:00

As I told you yesterday i got a Idea of my smaller flies I turned the idea into a fly and the model looked like this:

And plese let me introduce its big brother,it looks like this:

The big brother is tied on a TMC 911s 3/0 hook and maybe not so suprisingly I used Raccoon as tying material,I´m very happy with the result,like those colours and think it´s very fluffy too.

I´m in a superb mood today,the reason is that for the first time since November I had a pretty easy day at work.
I was able to finish one job before starting another and was also able to have a COFFEE BREAK !!! I`ll drink coffee every day but today I had a break.
All this + a little bit of sunshine and heard some birds singing made feel so good and happy.

Smells like the spring is on it´s way after all.

Chasing silver

2011-01-27T20:12:00.003+02:00

I got a weird idea today.Remember last summer when I caught a pike about 80-85cm weight around 3-4 kg:s,it had swallowed my fly so deep that I had to take it for dinner.When I was gutting it I finded out it had in its mouth and stomach many,probably 30-40 very small fishes,about 3-4cm long,dont know what fishes it was but those small fishes inspirated me to tie a little army of these.
They are tied on a Daiichi 2546 SW hook size 1.
As material I used bucktail and fox.The body is mylar tube and selfbuilded dubbing brushes.The flies is 4-6cm long.

The moore that I look at them I got a feeling that they could also work for Seatrouts,you know the fairy-tale creature.
Maybe I will this spring sacrifice one pike hunting weekend for silver torpedos.

It was very difficult to start tying these small flies after I have tied pike flies for so long.
The best thing with these flies is that I got some ideas that I´m gonna use on my pike flies.

Colour combos

2011-01-22T13:56:00.005+02:00

Watching my fly boxes and noticed that I really dont have much different colour combos,just the "traditional"ones.Thats the reason why I`m gonna tie some weird/unusual combos.
It´s not so easy to do as it sounds like but after some thinking and wondering I found out some interesting combos for example blue/yellow witch combo I loaned from Buster jerks "slowhand" Jaakko Ilkka.
Also as long i remember I have to show you another photo of the fly from my last posting after it has been wet down in warm water,it changes the profile a lot.

I don´t know why but I tied my "slowhand" fly also with bucktail and before a dip in warm water it look like this.

And after a warm bath the fly looks totally different.

It feels pretty difficult to imagine how the fly might look after the bath but I feel that these two looks okay,they will probably get their chances in the spring witch seems to be all too far away.

Now I think it´s time to tie up some more traditional...Allready got somthing in my mind.