ATAKS on the go.

So,Maiden voyage with my new ATAK 140 is done and have to say I'm not just happy...I'm a VERY happy man now,It is a awesome kayak.
This is my third Wilderness system kayak,Both Commander 140 and Ride 135 were good kayaks imo but WS has with the ATAK take kayak fishing to a new level.

                                                                First impressions.

When I launched this yak my first impression was how everything was kinda I had paddled this boat a long time already,even if I just put the seat and footrests randomly on it immediately felt like built for me.
Next notice was that the seat felt very comfortable and after 13 hours/15 km I still think that this seat fighting toe to toe with my former Hobie PA:s seat in comfort,no breaks were hold caused by numb back or legs.Also very easy to adjust.
Next remarkable thing to notice was the incredible tracking,had all my gear behind the seat and seat almost as back as could get ( you know I love to have a big open space in front of me) and still tracking was easy,in fact so easy you didn't have to think about it at all.

Paddling was also smooth in both tailwind and wasn't much harder against the wind either,I love that the kayaks sides are angled in a way you can put your paddle in water close to kayaks side which give you more power with less effort to get forward.I didn't felt exhausted,not even tired after our first trip with this kayak.

I'm a guy with a bad sense of balance,that's probably why I loved my former Big Rig,the problem was that it was extremely heavy to paddle.In ATAK you find stability and paddling features in a VERY good balance,you can fish 360 degrees easily,that combined to open space in front of seat makes this a good feature on fishing kayaks.

We also fished on a warm wonderful springday in a light breeze and sunshine but nothing revolutionary on that front,maybe 15 landed fishes and my friend dropped a lot,at least 10.
Also on some spots spawning was on so we didn't want to disturb them like those two idiots in a rubber boat.....

Next weekend will most likely be a fishing "marathon" including two LONG fishing days,stay tuned

New videos from FLY TV

Niklaus bauer fishing rivers with Johannes Pedersen and Steffen Jensen in Denmark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH7_UPvOK40

Niklaus Bauer tying a "Disco herring" on a new video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8ZMZ5Y9Y0g

End of an era.

As you can see on my new photo something has happened,it's nothing dramatic,it's just that all my friends who I fishing with driving a Wilderness system kayak and they asked if I wanna join to them in a new their/our own team and after thinking about the whole thing and tried my friends new ATAK 140 I decided to go for it.( a wonderful ship)
This mean I'm jumping out from Jackson regional team but want to say it's nothing dramatic and I got no hard feelings against anybody from Jackson team,I just decided to go for something new here and this opportunity sounded good to me.
We are now six guys in the team,from one is  new member and we are just gonna continue what we have always done but from now on as a official team.
We gonna come with a new "team blog" and of course we are gonna be involved in social media too.
Will still update things on my own blog too and put links to a new blog as soon as we get started with everything.
Have a good feeling about this,stay tuned...

My newest battleship WS A.T.A.K 140 .

Sunshine and hails.Fishing April 22-23 2016

Had a three day "off duty" mode on and of course I took some time to go out paddling and testing my Kilroy DT.
On Friday I was out for eleven hours and as I predicted fishing was slow,managed to land only four jacks so it became more testing new flies,new lines and also my new yak of course.
Weather was so cold I didn't enjoy any form of campfire either,only coffee and sandwiches for dinner.

Tried at least 40 flies,both big and small but fishing was slow,and a cold snowfall made me give up on catching anything for the day so gave more attention to adjust my seat for better tracking and also tried different paddle lengths.
Tracking when paddling against the wind became better when moved the seat maybe 15-20 cm forward,very annoying if you have to fix your direction all the time.
Tried paddle lengths between 240 and 250 cm but didn't find big differences in paddling.
Got a plan how lift the seat 5/10 cm which I think will do a big difference in both fishing and paddling,now banging the paddle in the kayak very often when paddling,and lifting my arms doesn't feel comfortable.
Not only complains,good things are that now when I have found a natural place for my gears the Kilroy feel very functional and handy,also i like the speed you can reach with it,and without too much effort.

Saturday morning was cold,in fact so cold that I decided to stay at home but afterward thinking it was nice of my friend to call me and he get me draggin my ass out fishing and when I arrived to the shore weather was warm with a warm light breeze,I knew that fishing would be slow but the good weather compensate that.

Started to fish 100 meter from shore and not long before my friend landed his first fish of the day.
My fishing was slow,just as I expected.We fished for couple of hours without any fish contacts.
In a small bay among the reed I saw some pikes following my fly without any intention to attack it,tried to fool them for a while before I thought there's no idea so we decided to take a lunch break

As you can see we had very nice weather at this stage,have to say that a lunch taste so much better outdoor.
After lunch we decided to paddle a bit further to a spot that use to give nice fishing but just as day before fishing was slow and also like the day before it started to snow and after a while we noticed that temp dropped from about 10 degrees to 2 degrees and also we got hails,said to my friend that I will fish one reed bank and then I'm done,had mentally prepared myself for blanking when I maybe 3 meters from "finish line" managed to land my first and only fish for the day which was a small jack,not often I'm cheering this much after a maybe 60 cm fish,didn't even lift in the boat for releasing.
After that it was just a bit to paddle back which always is more fun with good company .

First times it was a pain in the ass to get the Kilroy onto my roof racks even if it's lighter than than my Big Rig but now I have learned the tricks how to do it so it's not a issue anymore.

Sunday was my "chillin" day,tied some flies which I will show you in a other post,got some video material from this weekend which still waiting for editing and very soon the weekend is on hand and I really hoping to get out again.

Season 2016 opener,Kilroy in water.

April 16 will be written in history as my long awaited season opener for 2016.
All anglers who don't like ice fishing and  have to suffer 3-5 months of frozen waters and generally cold weather can understand how it feels to get on open water again,first cast in months,first take,first landed fish of the season.
For me there was also a bit more excitement in form of my new kayak,new paddle and lines...and a new rod of course,not to mention that I had a army of new flies too.

woke up about 3.30 am after only maybe two hours of sleep and after a quick breakfast I took some coffee and sandwiches to eat while driving.

Arrived very early to the shore in a temp of  -1.5 degrees but no ice in sight,good.

I love these early mornings at shore.

It took me a bit longer to unload the car and make my kayak rigged so it was good that I was early out.to load the yak in hurry and feeling 110% eager never come out good.

First trip,need to be prepared.

As I wanted to be sure I decided to take two setups with me,one with a intermediate line and one with sink line,should be able to cover a lot of waters.

Daily tools.

I managed to find proper places for everything and went out on water,decided to do some more adjustments later on.

I paddle a bit and fished a bit,repeat that couple of times,I was in so good mood that I even dropped my first fish that hit my fly,but hey,that really increased my focus.

I fished for about 5 hours,landed four fishes,had both coffee breaks and lunch before three of my friends arrived.

Could write a book about our trip which lasted for seventeen !!!! hours.

We had so fun even if the fishing was slow.

When the fishing was slow I had time to study and think about my ship Jackson Kilroy DT.

This is the first ship that doesn't get me that WOW feeling,it doesn't have any fancy extra features that makes those feelings...but it doesn't have to,this is just how I want it.

Cool that Jackson has built a ship that suit fly fishing so well.

It's a wide open shell which is stable to stand in,fast enough to paddle,easy enough to handle.

Most important for me is the open space in front of my seat.as a fly fisher I really appreciate that there is very few objects were to tangle my fly line.

Also easy to load your stuff in it.

Some concerns too,even the highest seat position is a bit low in my opinion,it's good for paddling but maybe some kind of a higher "fishing position" on next model could be possible to get :).

Anyway ,think this is a kayak that work for my kinda fishing.

Very early to judge this yak yet,only my first impressions,my opinions might change many times through the season yet.

Made a small video of my opener,had some issues with the editing program which hasn't been in use for a while,but anyway,enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXrt7SXwXRI

Fly fishing fair Tampere April 9:th

As I heard on Friday morning my waters were still frozen I decided to jump in my car and drive to Tampere to check out the fly fishing fair on their 30 year jubileum instead of tryin to find some open water.

This fair doesn't give me much to watch when I only fish for pike but nice to meet friends and see if there's any cool new gear,you know,those "must have" things.

About 95% of my time was to watch Niklaus Bauers tying at the Vision stall,always gettin so inspired to see new ideas and materials like this Wiggle tail in new cool red/holo silver color.

Had some good fishing with red tails last season already.

Will be out in shops soon.

Another interesting gear was the "new" Big Mama line,tried it with the new Big Mama 2.0 rod in 10 weight,gosh it felt soooo good,very close to "must have" managed to control myself......so far.

I wan

Vision also announced of a new rod/line serie  http://xoflyfishing.com/index.html

No pike rods b

      

ut I'm a Finnish guy and Vision is a Finnish brand so I want to spread the word in case someone's interested.

What more can I say,rest 5% was to buy some stuff,not much I needed but still good to take advantage when you can get all you need at once.

I'm so inspired to tie some flies now and even got some ideas BUT I'm most excited about next weekend,that's when my season will begin....stay tuned.

Still waiting for open water

Have set my sight on next week to finally be able to get out with my kayak,drove down to the shore today and think that I might be a bit too optimistic but hopefully I'm wrong on that.
I have made some last time acquisitions in form of a new line

As you can see on the pic I bought it from https://smartlures.nl a shop well worth a watch.
Also waiting for my Vision Big Mama rod arriving from warranty repair,and have to say that it's a pleasure to do business with Vision,it's easy,it's fair and it work,not gonna go in on details here but very happy on how they treat customers.

Washed my waders and hoo rags too,need to be clean and neat when because I have invited some big green mam's to visit my kayak in near future.
Boxes are filled,hook rigs built so winter could go away now.