Finally the spring is coming, at least it feels like it. We've been enjoying lovely, sunny days, growing longer each day. Nights are still cold but the snow has started to melt slowly during the day. If things keeps going the same way, we can expect some serious fishing in about six weeks (always optimistic!).
To be honest, I'm not expecting much from the spring season, as this winter has been much like the last one, cold and snowy. The problem with the snow is that all the water from the melting snow will flow across the fields and forests, to the ditches, creeks and rivers carrying all kinds of mud, sand, clay, fertilizers etc.. All this nasty stuff will then run along the rivers and creeks to shallow bays, where all the big mamas are waiting for the spring happening. And when the water is shit, the fishing will be shit as well.
Well, I'm having my fingers crossed...
Monday, March 7, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Some cool stuff
I've recently found a couple of webshops selling some cool stuff for tying pike flies. The problem here in Finland is, that it's hard to find a shop with a decent selection of pike fly materials. And when you find one, they mostly have some basic stuff regarding pike flies, as their main concern is trout fishing.
These following shops mostly sell synthetic fibers, which I also prefer over most of the natural materials. Ok, good bucktail, rabbit strips and other soft fur, saddle hackle etc. are unbeatable when it comes to liveliness and action, but the availability of good quality bucktail is poor and those soft furs have a tendency to carry a lot of water.
Also, the synthetic flies usually last very long, I've never had to replace any synthetic flies because they were bit to pieces, although many of my flies have caught dozens of fish. Main reason for me to dump a fly is because the hook has gone out of shape due to some serious rock contact.
But those natural materials are the best way to go, if the fishing seems to be difficult and the synthetic flies don't work. That's when you most probably will score with the traditional stuff.
So about the shops:
The Fly Tyers Dungeon has all kinds of synthetic fibers and dubbings for sale at a great price. The most interesting stuff for a pike fisherman are probable the products Kongo Hair and Water Silk.
Kongo Hair is a nice polypropylene fiber that does not absorb water and has some nice colors. It's great for tying a bit smaller baitfish imitations or EP-baitfish-style patterns. I like it best when applied on the surface of slinky-bodied baitfish patterns. It can create nice, smooth profiles and a has lot of cool colors. Very inexpensive as one package has a lot of this stuff.
Water Silk is a lot finer synthetic fiber, with a nice shining surface and even brighter colors than Kongo Hair. Great for doing some very contrasting gills and backs for baitfish patterns. Very inexpensive.
And another great site that I found a while ago, most of you have probably heard of it before: PikeTrek
Pike Trek has all kinds of cool stuff for pike fly fishermen. They have nice 3D eyes in big enough sizes for pike flies and they are a lot cheaper than those you can usually find in a 20pcs sheet.
They have many nice products that give you a different approach to fly tying, but my favourite is abolutely their Body Fibre. It seems to be 100% the same stuff as the H2O's branded "Slinky Fibre", but their fibers are a lot longer, the package has about two times the amount of material and it is still a lot cheaper. But there is one thing that makes this superior; The colors are something totally different than those dull, translucent colors of H2O. They are bright as hell and also have a lot of natural colors!
What is a bit confusing, they are also selling some "Slinky" fiber, which is totally different from the slinky we have used to. So if you like to buy that real slinky-like stuff, buy the Body Fibre.
These following shops mostly sell synthetic fibers, which I also prefer over most of the natural materials. Ok, good bucktail, rabbit strips and other soft fur, saddle hackle etc. are unbeatable when it comes to liveliness and action, but the availability of good quality bucktail is poor and those soft furs have a tendency to carry a lot of water.
Also, the synthetic flies usually last very long, I've never had to replace any synthetic flies because they were bit to pieces, although many of my flies have caught dozens of fish. Main reason for me to dump a fly is because the hook has gone out of shape due to some serious rock contact.
But those natural materials are the best way to go, if the fishing seems to be difficult and the synthetic flies don't work. That's when you most probably will score with the traditional stuff.
So about the shops:
The Fly Tyers Dungeon has all kinds of synthetic fibers and dubbings for sale at a great price. The most interesting stuff for a pike fisherman are probable the products Kongo Hair and Water Silk.
Kongo Hair is a nice polypropylene fiber that does not absorb water and has some nice colors. It's great for tying a bit smaller baitfish imitations or EP-baitfish-style patterns. I like it best when applied on the surface of slinky-bodied baitfish patterns. It can create nice, smooth profiles and a has lot of cool colors. Very inexpensive as one package has a lot of this stuff.
 |
| Some darker Kongo Hair |
 |
| Some brighter Kongo Hair |
 |
| Water Silk |
Pike Trek has all kinds of cool stuff for pike fly fishermen. They have nice 3D eyes in big enough sizes for pike flies and they are a lot cheaper than those you can usually find in a 20pcs sheet.
They have many nice products that give you a different approach to fly tying, but my favourite is abolutely their Body Fibre. It seems to be 100% the same stuff as the H2O's branded "Slinky Fibre", but their fibers are a lot longer, the package has about two times the amount of material and it is still a lot cheaper. But there is one thing that makes this superior; The colors are something totally different than those dull, translucent colors of H2O. They are bright as hell and also have a lot of natural colors!
What is a bit confusing, they are also selling some "Slinky" fiber, which is totally different from the slinky we have used to. So if you like to buy that real slinky-like stuff, buy the Body Fibre.
 |
| Red body Fibre |
 |
| Yellowish Chartreuse |
Friday, February 11, 2011
Something new, something old
This winter has been the worst ever in terms of fly fishing lunacy. Now, as the sun has started to shine more regularly and the days are longer, I REALLY would like to go outside, testing some newly bought stuff, but those freezing temperatures are a no-no for casting fly rods and lines. Don't wanna break them on the first go!
As I earlier wrote about a Colton Torrent fly reel, I actually liked it so much that I had to get myself another one, with a spare spool of course. While the Colton Fly company had a holiday sale, I also HAD to get myself a new rod. I ended up purchasing a 9' 9wt Colton Tradewinds, a blue color version which has its blank made of some funky carbon fiber. And did I mention, it was a bargain....
Although I haven't really cast it yet, I have to say that this stick is a beast. Yeah, it is a saltwater rod, but it still has a surprisingly strong punch and some serious backbone for a 9wt. I'd say that this rod could easily cast 11wt lines. It doesn't feel like a particularly fast or a tip-action rod when feeling it by hand but oh boy, when you start bending it... This bugger will be my weapon of choice for the fast sinking lines, which are always a bit tricky to pick up. I will give my review about this rod as soon as there is open waters!
But now I need to get a nice line for the rod. I'm waiting to get my hands on Vision's new Big Daddy line in Sink3. Hopefully I can try it out somewhere before buying, but I'm pretty confident that they know their stuff. Just need to find the correct grain window for the rod, as it feels underclassed.
As I earlier wrote about a Colton Torrent fly reel, I actually liked it so much that I had to get myself another one, with a spare spool of course. While the Colton Fly company had a holiday sale, I also HAD to get myself a new rod. I ended up purchasing a 9' 9wt Colton Tradewinds, a blue color version which has its blank made of some funky carbon fiber. And did I mention, it was a bargain....
 |
| Colton Tradewinds in UD Blue |
But now I need to get a nice line for the rod. I'm waiting to get my hands on Vision's new Big Daddy line in Sink3. Hopefully I can try it out somewhere before buying, but I'm pretty confident that they know their stuff. Just need to find the correct grain window for the rod, as it feels underclassed.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Quiet times
So it's been a long time since my previous posting in here. It has also been rather quiet on the fishing front on my behalf.
To be perfectly honest, I'm slowly waking up from the hibernation. I started experimenting with some EP fiber-like material and it seems to be excellent for tying smallish baitfish patterns. The fibers are very inexpensive (as a cheapskate I am), they shed water so the flies remain very lightweight and easy to cast. I will tell more about these patterns when I have some pictures taken.
I'm also waiting for some new tackle to arrive. I bought myself a one more reel and a spare spool for the pike adventures and a new saltwater rod. I will make a review for the rod as soon I have it in my hands. So the tackle madness has begun, just three and a half months to go...
I also have a few more things to try this season. While checking my fly boxes, I realized I've been chucking only very bright colored flies. White body with shocking fluorescent contrasts, full fluorescent bodies with black stripes etc.. I don't know why I haven't used the darker colors, as I used to do back in the days, when I fished with lures. This season I will use a lot of brown and olive colors, as well as black. One more thing to test is the smaller baitfish patterns. Every autumn I love spotting the big mamas hitting schools of small baitfish on the nearby river. It seems that they don't always prefer bigger prey, as those baitfish are only in the 70-120 mm range.
Last autumn I tried an 80 mm pattern after I couldn't get any strikes with bigger flies (120-200 mm is my usual size). I managed to hook a few small jacks and had a chance to hold a 5-6kg fish for a while. Luckily it got off the hook before my fluorocarbon leader had a chance to get snapped. One bite from a bigger pike is enough to destroy a thick mono or fluorocarbon, even if it seems to work ok with smaller jacks. Never use fluorocarbon or mono leaders for bigger fish!!
To be perfectly honest, I'm slowly waking up from the hibernation. I started experimenting with some EP fiber-like material and it seems to be excellent for tying smallish baitfish patterns. The fibers are very inexpensive (as a cheapskate I am), they shed water so the flies remain very lightweight and easy to cast. I will tell more about these patterns when I have some pictures taken.
I'm also waiting for some new tackle to arrive. I bought myself a one more reel and a spare spool for the pike adventures and a new saltwater rod. I will make a review for the rod as soon I have it in my hands. So the tackle madness has begun, just three and a half months to go...
I also have a few more things to try this season. While checking my fly boxes, I realized I've been chucking only very bright colored flies. White body with shocking fluorescent contrasts, full fluorescent bodies with black stripes etc.. I don't know why I haven't used the darker colors, as I used to do back in the days, when I fished with lures. This season I will use a lot of brown and olive colors, as well as black. One more thing to test is the smaller baitfish patterns. Every autumn I love spotting the big mamas hitting schools of small baitfish on the nearby river. It seems that they don't always prefer bigger prey, as those baitfish are only in the 70-120 mm range.
Last autumn I tried an 80 mm pattern after I couldn't get any strikes with bigger flies (120-200 mm is my usual size). I managed to hook a few small jacks and had a chance to hold a 5-6kg fish for a while. Luckily it got off the hook before my fluorocarbon leader had a chance to get snapped. One bite from a bigger pike is enough to destroy a thick mono or fluorocarbon, even if it seems to work ok with smaller jacks. Never use fluorocarbon or mono leaders for bigger fish!!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Cabin fever
So it's been a while since my previous blogging event. To be honest, I have suffered from some degree of cabin fever. It's been just a bit over a fucking month since I had a chance to chuck some fluff and I'm already going nuts! And still there is four months to go before I can even dream of open waters.
I have tried to cure this fever by tying different flies, mostly small leeches and nymphs for grayling and rainbows, leaving the pike flies as the last hope if the sickness gets really bad....
Until now, I have only needed to use intermediate fly lines when fishing for pike as my current fishing areas are mostly very shallow. For the season 2011, I think I will head to new waters with deeper banks. I have fished there for perch a long time ago and I know there are some huge pike swimming around. But the truth is, it will be challenging to find them from the deeper banks and the pike density is a lot lower than in the shallow shores. Those outer archipelago pikes have a distinct coloring and they usually are in a great shape as there is a plenty of greasy herring swimming by.
This means that I need to get some fast sinking fly lines for the next season and at least one new fly outfit. Usually I have just one rod-reel combo ready, but when fishing bot shallow and deeper banks, I need at least two sets with different lines. It's just so damn difficult to decide, which rod and reel should I get. From the reels, I love my Colton Torrent, most probably I'll get me another one with a spare spool. But for a rod, it's a lot more difficult thing. Currently my favourite rod is built by myself on a Dan Craft's Five River FT blank. It's a joy to cast, very fast action and still very forgiving. I can get great linespeeds and I can cast hours and hours with it. Absolutely a marvelous blank able to cast a variety of line weights, from #7 to #11. The problem is, that I'm getting lazy and I'd like to buy my next rod. Possibly I'll try some true fast action saltwater rod this time.
I have tried to cure this fever by tying different flies, mostly small leeches and nymphs for grayling and rainbows, leaving the pike flies as the last hope if the sickness gets really bad....
Until now, I have only needed to use intermediate fly lines when fishing for pike as my current fishing areas are mostly very shallow. For the season 2011, I think I will head to new waters with deeper banks. I have fished there for perch a long time ago and I know there are some huge pike swimming around. But the truth is, it will be challenging to find them from the deeper banks and the pike density is a lot lower than in the shallow shores. Those outer archipelago pikes have a distinct coloring and they usually are in a great shape as there is a plenty of greasy herring swimming by.
This means that I need to get some fast sinking fly lines for the next season and at least one new fly outfit. Usually I have just one rod-reel combo ready, but when fishing bot shallow and deeper banks, I need at least two sets with different lines. It's just so damn difficult to decide, which rod and reel should I get. From the reels, I love my Colton Torrent, most probably I'll get me another one with a spare spool. But for a rod, it's a lot more difficult thing. Currently my favourite rod is built by myself on a Dan Craft's Five River FT blank. It's a joy to cast, very fast action and still very forgiving. I can get great linespeeds and I can cast hours and hours with it. Absolutely a marvelous blank able to cast a variety of line weights, from #7 to #11. The problem is, that I'm getting lazy and I'd like to buy my next rod. Possibly I'll try some true fast action saltwater rod this time.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Climate change????
There it is again, colder than ever before. Winter, I mean. I don't recall any other year that the winter has come this hard and this early. The temperature has been below -15'c for the whole weekend now and there's been people ice fishing already, and it's not even December yet!!
Last winter was very cold as I have stated here before. Ice cover was thick and it took ages to even start melting as the spring came so late. It felt like the nature was a bit upset after the winter and the fishing wasn't so good anymore.
Now we are possibly having something worse. The climate sure has changed for these few years but do we have enough data to do any reliable statistics? Could this be just normal variation in weather?
Another well documented period of time in finnish history with similar weather conditions was between 1939 and 1941. Summer 1939 was known to have been very hot and long. The following winter 1939-1940 was one of the coldest and hardest of the century for the finns, not just for the weather. Summer 1940 was hot and dry, so dry that all the farming suffered and the harvest was bad. Winter 1940-1941 was dry and very cold and the following summer 1941 was very hot and dry. The dryness continued until the summer/autumn of 1942 and caused severe problems with the nation's food supplies as the stocks had been depleted during the winter war in 1939-1940. Short time of peace from April 1940 to June 1941 still couldn't solve the problem and during the first winter of continuation war in 1941-1942, starvation seemed to be imminent.
The winter 1941-1942 was rather warm and rainy, so was summer 1942. Water and temperature levels normalized. So why all this blabber about old stuff? Just an example that these weather anomalies have been around forever. Some summers are hot and some winters are cold and vice versa. With this geographic location, the weather could change a lot depending on where the wind blows from etc..
There could be a few cold winters but nothing to really worry about at this point. Just keeping my fingers crossed that I can go fishing early in the spring....
Last winter was very cold as I have stated here before. Ice cover was thick and it took ages to even start melting as the spring came so late. It felt like the nature was a bit upset after the winter and the fishing wasn't so good anymore.
Now we are possibly having something worse. The climate sure has changed for these few years but do we have enough data to do any reliable statistics? Could this be just normal variation in weather?
Another well documented period of time in finnish history with similar weather conditions was between 1939 and 1941. Summer 1939 was known to have been very hot and long. The following winter 1939-1940 was one of the coldest and hardest of the century for the finns, not just for the weather. Summer 1940 was hot and dry, so dry that all the farming suffered and the harvest was bad. Winter 1940-1941 was dry and very cold and the following summer 1941 was very hot and dry. The dryness continued until the summer/autumn of 1942 and caused severe problems with the nation's food supplies as the stocks had been depleted during the winter war in 1939-1940. Short time of peace from April 1940 to June 1941 still couldn't solve the problem and during the first winter of continuation war in 1941-1942, starvation seemed to be imminent.
The winter 1941-1942 was rather warm and rainy, so was summer 1942. Water and temperature levels normalized. So why all this blabber about old stuff? Just an example that these weather anomalies have been around forever. Some summers are hot and some winters are cold and vice versa. With this geographic location, the weather could change a lot depending on where the wind blows from etc..
There could be a few cold winters but nothing to really worry about at this point. Just keeping my fingers crossed that I can go fishing early in the spring....
Monday, November 8, 2010
Beginning of the end
I've had a few trips to seaside since my previous post. The worst possible conditions are making this soon ending season a nightmare for me.
Last winter was the coldest for 70 years and all the water was covered with a thick layer of ice. Winter was also very long and the spring very short, it turned in to a summer almost instantly. Summer was also one of the hottest summers ever and the water temperatures were way too high for fishing pike. Water vegetation became an issue ruining most of the best pike fishing period in the early autumn.
I'll have to admit that this year made me a much humbler fisherman, last year I thought I knew something about fishing for pike but now, back to the drawing board once again with empty thoughts.
Officially I will end my season on the next weekend as we're having our annual fishing trip to south-west coast. No need to make myself more embarrassed, it's time to start concentrating on the next season. New season, new tricks in my sleeve. Possibly a new, bigger boat, new fishing waters, new pikes. New flies, new tactics, that's my solution. Of course, if the winter gives me a chance, I'd still go fishing, but officially I'd say "that's it" at this point.
A few more fishing trip reports will appear on this blog this year and then I will mostly concentrate on fly patterns, hooks, tying materials, tackle, boats etc.
I have also some ideas for targeting other species than pike and seatrout. This season it seemed that the perch population has grown again as it had mysteriously disappeared a few years ago. We had a change to land a few good sized perches together with some zanders. Zander population has gone weak both in numbers and size. I remember from about ten years ago, we could easily catch a dozen 50+ cm zanders on one night. Now it's difficult to catch even one small bugger. Sad but true.
Last winter was the coldest for 70 years and all the water was covered with a thick layer of ice. Winter was also very long and the spring very short, it turned in to a summer almost instantly. Summer was also one of the hottest summers ever and the water temperatures were way too high for fishing pike. Water vegetation became an issue ruining most of the best pike fishing period in the early autumn.
I'll have to admit that this year made me a much humbler fisherman, last year I thought I knew something about fishing for pike but now, back to the drawing board once again with empty thoughts.
Officially I will end my season on the next weekend as we're having our annual fishing trip to south-west coast. No need to make myself more embarrassed, it's time to start concentrating on the next season. New season, new tricks in my sleeve. Possibly a new, bigger boat, new fishing waters, new pikes. New flies, new tactics, that's my solution. Of course, if the winter gives me a chance, I'd still go fishing, but officially I'd say "that's it" at this point.
A few more fishing trip reports will appear on this blog this year and then I will mostly concentrate on fly patterns, hooks, tying materials, tackle, boats etc.
I have also some ideas for targeting other species than pike and seatrout. This season it seemed that the perch population has grown again as it had mysteriously disappeared a few years ago. We had a change to land a few good sized perches together with some zanders. Zander population has gone weak both in numbers and size. I remember from about ten years ago, we could easily catch a dozen 50+ cm zanders on one night. Now it's difficult to catch even one small bugger. Sad but true.
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