Therapy fishing

I had a plan I'd go fishing this morning. I looked outside and the temperature was -5.5'c, way too cold for fly fishing so I had to wait until afternoon. The water has still been messed up in the coastal areas so I decided I'd go to a little quiet river once again.

When I got the shore, first thing to do was to break the ice inside my boat. It took a bit of violence before that two inch thick ice was in pieces. All the stuff on board and off we go!

The water was very clear and the weather was calm. All the shallow coves were frozen from the surface. I tied one of my latest fly patterns to the end of my line. Those flies really had some great moves underwater. They pulsate like jellyfish and they also have jerkbait-like gliding action in both vertical and horizontal directions. When the stripping is paused, they sink very very slowly. Perhaps I'll try to add some thin saddle hackles or similar to give the fly even more movement under water.

It's getting icy.

First cast and while testing how the fly moves, first little jack attacks from beneath and goes straight past the fly, wondering where did the bright colored bugger go.  Rest of the day went just the same way. I landed a total of 8 pikes in about two hours but the size was a disaster, almost all of them were under 1 kg. Nonetheless, It was so damn interesting to see those pike rushing to the fly and I saw many of them, 35-40 pcs in total. Water was 2-3'c and the pikes were so clumsy that only few of them hit the fly. I also lost two bigger fish after a careful take as they only grabbed the tail of the fly and started pulling. First one made a huge wave after hitting the fly and the second on was on for about 5 seconds. During that 5 seconds it pulled like a maniac and opened its mouth and the fly was let loose once again. After the last missed fish, I frustrated and turned back to the shore. On the way there I got a few more little jacks and saw about a dozen of them trying to eat my fly.

 

As a conclusion, It was awesome to see those little jacks ambushing their prey. I've never had a change to see so much underwater action on one trip. Too bad most of the fish were so small.

I must tie more of these.

Still I got to admire those little pikes, one of them had the guts to rush for the fly five or six times before actually hitting it. It seems that cold water really makes things small.....