Autumn kayaking.

Among all tying and lectures I have had time for some fishing also.After I became a member of Jackson kayak fishing team I sold my other kayak to a friend of mine and we have done some trips together lately.
It has been very nice to see my friend has become a serious kayak angler and I think some big fishes he has landed lately has only increased his interest
We have had some nice time even if the pikes haven't co-operated with us all the time,It's kinda nice to just paddling around enjoying surroundings and testing different flies and lines,taking breaks on small islets including good food etc,etc.

As mentioned our fishing hasn't been good on many trips which is kind of dilemma,nice to paddle around in sunny weather with no wind or rain but for fishing that kind of weather doesn't fit in at all.
Anyway,the Autumn is on it's way neither we want it or not and while the weather and water cooling down also our fishing has turn to be better and better all the time.

It has been quiet noticeable that from morning to afternoon there has been very little action but when afternoon has turned to evening it has been much easier to find active fish and both of us has managed to land some better fishes,especially last weekend in a sunny but very windy conditions we both got  our better sized fishes in a very short time after hours of no action at all.
Gonna end this post with some random fishing shootouts from our trips,
Hope you can get in he feeling what it is to fish from a yak.

September fly tying.

A lot of things has happen after my last post,There has been some fly tying including two lectures/ guidance at my fly fishing club Espoon perhokalastajat which I really enjoy,so fun to tie flies together.
Hope to do this next year too.

Also have tied some flies with motto " back to roots" made of an material I used to tie with years ago.
Material is called Body fibre and I still got a lot of it left,think you can't buy it from Finland anymore?
Anyway most of you know I don't like tying these kind of patterns anymore but there has been much talking of downsizing your flies and for that purpose I think these kind of flies are just great.

If everyone would tie only these kind of flies tying material shops would be bankrupt in no time.
They catch fish,no doubt about that but are kinda boring to tie in my opinion,for me tying is 50 % or maybe even more in my fishing hobby so just some of these and then go back on track.

Preparing myself for JKFO in Blekinge and many people praise for a black fly without any flash and of course one had to be tied.

 
This photo remind me of a conversation we had with some guys on FB.We talked about a fly called "Ålen",a fly which got some big guns on it's conscience,not so long ago a 11,2 kg mam.
This is a fly that has to be tied in less than three minutes so you can guess there's n o time for some fancy dressing here,interesting story and absolutely worth a try.
Couple of flies later I managed to tie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-qX567eJfo&list=UUxc9YucCWHdwKRIVhm5fjeg

Here's some practice flies,in some pervert way I do believe in these.

And as long as I remember I need to add another SBS video of another fly,this time only with pics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOgtmvWzeYk&index=2&list=UUxc9YucCWHdwKRIVhm5fjeg

Autumn is slowly getting closer and bigger fish hopefully coming closer to shore were they are achievable with flies too.
Also time to dig the biggest flies from the boxes,love it..

So far my fishing has been shitty with couple of blank draws or just some small buggers landed but fishing from a kayak leave me opportunity to just take some photos or just paddle around,doing only good for an old fart like me :)

Kayak fishing,a lifestyle.

As I wrote about three seasons ago kayak fishing turned to my absolute favorite method after a very short time and even if I still fish a lot from boat it still remain No.1 method for me.

Three seasons with three different yaks but this Jackson Big Rig seem to be the best so far built for just fishing with a incredible stability.

Fishing from a yak has change my fishing from performing to more relaxing and enjoying  of  all surrounding too,don't get me wrong here,I enjoy also fishing from boat but in a different way,it's more about just fishing there.
Could put it this way,fishing from a boat is fishing and fishing from a yak is a more comprehensive experience.
In a kayak I see my ordinary spots in a totally different way which is funny because I have fishing same area for years now.
Anyway,I'm now officially a team member of Regional Jackson kayak fishing team and will
meet other Kayak anglers in a contest in Sweden in end of October.
The contest is in southern parts of Sweden in Karlskrona at http://www.pikestrikesweden.com/index.php .
Should be one of the best pike areas in Europe so feeling very excited about this.

Have had some trips done too but to be honest pikes haven't been too much of Co-operative lately.
Actually don't care too much,some days are better and some days worse.
Last Wednesday was pretty good with six landed jacks in two hours.
Made a small video clip of it.Kayak fishing is becoming more to a lifestyle then only a fishing method.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Idpr82mXeZI

Forthcoming two months will be preparing for the contest but without any stress for success,just waiting for awesome waters,an adventure.

A windy testrun.

23 August was time for my long waited testrun in my new battleship,had study the forecasts for some days and decided to take a go on Sat.because on Sun there was some thunder on meny and I don't wanna sit in a yak then.
Had two days to check out my boat before D-day but was so busy at work that I was mounting an anchor on Saturday morning at the beach.
Actually my yak stood all by herself for those two days so we can say that only thing I knew about it was what I had seen on youtube.
Thought it felt a bit more wind than 5 m/s they promised me still on Sat.morning but I was behind a small islet so I wasn't sure.
As I predicted I got all my stuff with me without any problems and another notice I made was how all the mostly needed things in fishing was planned to reach easily,like tackle boxes on both side of the seat.
As long as I fly fish I don't need the "rocket launchers" behind the seat I can use one of them as a nice net holder,seemed to work fine.

So,out at the sea....

Decided to try to stand up while I was behind the islet,the reason why I wanted to stand up was simply because this yak felt very stable in sitting position even if you sit very high and standing up was easy even for an old decrepit man like me.no problem to stand and fish anymore.Even if I mostly sit while fishing it's nice to have stability more than you need,feel safer so.

Now it was time to go paddling and my first notice was that it's a bit slower than my other yak,well this one is more than 15 cm wider which explain it,personally I appreciate width more than speed,and its not that much slower.

With my former yak I had to wait to test it in rough weather but now it seem that I have to wait to test this in better conditions,wind was very hard when I came out from the sheltered bay behind that islet,really had to paddle as hard as I could to get forward,12-15 m/s in gusts,otherwise +9 m/s.

Not exactly perfect conditions for a yak ride but BigRig acted fine,just fine,felt very stable even in this wind,only issue was to get forward.

Paddling against the wind for a time that felt like an eternity but manged to reach a sheltered place suiting for a break and couple of photos.

at this side of a island I managed to do some fishing too and landed couple of small jacks an dropped at least three,soon the wind went in to this bay too and it became so strong that fly fishing wasn't an option any longer,well,I had a spin rod and some lures with me too and continued with them for a while,the wind went stronger and stronger all the time and I decided to take a last break before paddling back to shore.

On these pics you can see how the wind went stronger while I had my pause.

 If I thought it was heavy to paddle here I have to say it was nothing compared to paddle back,was totally exhausted when I got back to dock.

Wish I have had a chance to do  a trip in better weather conditions but need to say that even if the conditions was bad I didn't felt afraid at all,I'm sure I gonna love this battleship after some modifications suiting better for my fishing.

A new anchor trolley system is on top of the list and hoping to get it installed before the Autumn fishing starts,The original anchor system is pretty nice with it's hidden anchor rope but I can't position my yak  perfectly without more anchor point options which is pretty crucial in fly fishing imo.

This was only some first notices I made and while the Autumn roll on there will be more analyzes made so stay tuned.

Going to Jackson,third time lucky

Well,to be honest,even if Johnny Cash and June Carter went there in a song I went up to Nokia near Tampere to http://www.erakettu.com/index.php?section=1 for a visit.
Probably some of at least Finnish readers already guess what I was doing up there,that's correct,I'm now owner of  a new battleship, Jackson BigRig kayak.

This was like opening a Christmas package,so god damn excited.

Oh yes,it's a  Jackson and a Big Rig

Think/hope that this is "THE" yak for me,at least heard only praises of it.
My Wilderness system Ride 135 will still be in family but Jackson will be number one choice now,can't wait until weekend for a testdrive.
This time I took more time to solve out what I really need and what different models have to offer me.Also I wanted a brand that got that good spirit and flow so at the end line there was Hobie PA 14 and Jackson BigRig.
 Hobies Mirage drive was a very interesting thing but finally I decided that I don't really need that,I love to paddle and I also fish in very shallow rocky areas where there's always a risk that it's fins could take some damage,I also fish among reeds and I still would need the paddle.A small concern was also about my fly line tangle around the pedals which I heard not happen too often.
There was many good things about Hobie too so don't get me wrong here,it's probably a excellent choice too but this time I choose Jackson BigRig and I think we will come along great.
I will add here a link for you so you can see what kind of a battleship I'm gonna ride with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03DI2cI_a_c

Hopefully I will be able to get out on water next weekend and get some fishing,some photos and some paddling experience.It has been far too long since I last was out with a kayak,have waited for this the whole summer and now waters are slowly but surely cooling down so hoping to get some mam's to check out my cool boat.

Thunder,cyclones and rain.

After one weekend out of water I just had to go out and after some study of forecasts I decided to go out on Saturday because there was no thunder or tough wind on the meny.
After one weekend without fishing I was pretty excited when I was driving early on Saturday morning to the shore and was launching my battleship around 9 am.
Water was pretty warm even if it had rain for several days now but while driving sun was shining even if there was some clouds here and there but guess what ?
As soon as I had my boat in water first rain shower was on me and while I was driving out from the dock came the thunder,so fuckin typical of forecast makers.
Anyway,I had came so far so I was no to give up so easy.
Arrived to the first spot and so did the heaviest rain I had seen for years,in seconds I was totally soaked,my wading jacket didn't help a shit.
Rain stopped for a while but the thunder came closer and I decided to fish one more spot and stop fishing even if it hurt.
At my last spot something weird happen,the small breeze disappeared,water level raised about 30 cm in no time and somebody open the tap in heaven again.
The rain was so hard I could not see 10 meter ahead,no need to continue with this and on my way back I saw something I never seen before,a fuckin cyclone,yes,a cyclone and on a day forecasts promised NO rain,NO thunder etc,etc.

It felt both scary and impressive at same time,first it felt that it came closer to me but finally it past me with good margin.
So as you can guess,my FIRST BLANK DRAW for a long time but else what could I wait in this weather and also so short time at water,could not even focus on fishing in that thunder and blaa,blaa blaa....now I have used a very special excuse for blanking,wonder if I ever will make it better.

Fly tying in wait for cooler water.

This summer will be remembered as a warm..no,a hot one,in July 26 days with temps over 27 degrees which has warmed up the water to over 25 degrees at some places.First it worked to go a bit further out but lately water has been that warm even there so I have decided to stop my fishing for a while in the name of Pikes welfare.
Temps has been cooled down a bit but are still in region of 25 degrees,hoping for some rain showers later on because I just need to get out next weekend,it might just be that I'm out for pearch or even zander if the weather not cool down enough.
Anyway even if I have been so lazy tying flies for several months now there has been a fly every now and then and I have even managed to  get a tying video made of a Pink/silver fly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oaXEhErp9Q

Also got me some new awesome 16 mm eyes from flydressing and have to say that even if they look big in the package the look only amazing on the flies.

And finally some random photos of my ties lately,noticed that should update this part more often too :)

Those awesome popperheads are made by Chris Chandler from Jerkbaitmania so if you  interesting in them you need to turn to him.
As I told you I have been a bit lazy to update my ties but I will try to show up some more ties soon and next weekend I will go out fishing so stay tuned.