Latest addition to equipment

I just had to buy myself another boat. My previous boat was way too slow and clumsy for any longer trips, so I spotted this one for sale. Fortunately this boat was so close to me, it only took me a few minutes to go check it out. The boat seemed to be in a very nice condition, it had 4-stroke engine and it was rather fairly priced. I offered to buy the boat if it works ok on the testdrive and it did. And there it is now.

The boat is Yamarin 490 Big Ride, a finnish built fiberglass boat. It has a side console, which is a compromise, as I'd prefer a narrow center console. If it ever becomes a problem, I can always change the console, as it is just fixed in place by some screws.

The boat is 4.90m long and 2.10m wide, which is why I like this boat. It is ~30cm wider than most comparable boats, meaning that it is much more stable and has much more room inside. It has a deep V-hull for rougher seas and it has a 50hp yamaha 4-stroke engine.

Mud from my dirty boots.

As always, she needs some equipping, tuning and fixing before she is ready for battle. Engine needs new oils, new spark plugs, possibly new camshaft belt and water pump impeller. The battery needs to be replaced and some of the old wirings need to be removed. Then she should be good to go.

Season opener

Finally, the first trip of the year targeting pike!

We pushed the boat to water, started the engine and took heading to big mama's feeding grounds. Weather was very warm and sunny, yet some moderate winds were blowing from the open seas. Water was very low and many shallow banks were totally dry now. Water was murky in many places and a lot of dead water plants and other stuff was floating on the surface.

Well I didn't have much expectations for the season opener and the beginning was very relaxed, not a single fish was seen in the first few places. Suddenly, we saw a lonely pike swimming slowly by the shallow reef. It didn't take long before I got a good strike. A fat mama nailed my fly and fought like a maniac, until Sami took a grap of it and removed the fly from its mouth. This lady decided to kick herself back to freedom before I got a change to take a photo. She was no giant but she was fat as hell, weighing in about 5 kg range. A great start!

The standard size

Then we started to see pikes, a lot of them. They had a great interest on flies but they only followed the fly until the side of the boat. We saw easily 20-30 pikes and bagged 5-6 of them in total, I only bagged two. Most of the pikes were distinctively small compared to the usual size here, we just saw a few big bangers. I think it means that the big mamas are still spawning (my first fish hadn't spawn yet).

The weather was awesome. Powerful sunshine, warm enough weather and a nice fresh breeze from the sea. Despite this warm weather, we still got some ice floating around and the outer islands have huge piles of ice on their outer edges. It will take weeks to melt away.

Poorly visible ice

And yes, I managed to burn my face in the sun....

Technical problems

I've been suffering from technical problems lately ie. my internet connection keeps disconnecting all the time. Sometimes it stays totally offline for hours. It's been like that for two weeks now and my ISP seems to be unable to fix it because the problem is most probably in the cable itself.

Another technical problem has been the lack of spare time. For the last three weeks, I've been doing long days at work and haven't had time to do any blogging at the office. On the other hand though, I've managed to gather myself a good 1.5 weeks of extra holiday. Hopefully it will be the full 2 weeks before the mid summer, meaning a total of 6 full weeks of continuous summer holiday!!

That's it for the bad news and now, the good news: Spring is finally here and all the remaining ice is melting away quickly! Yesterday I had a little sightseeing by the sea and the local river delta. By the sea, the shallow bays had lost there icy covers, just some lonely pieces of ice were floating around. The open sea was still under ice but its disappearance seemed to be just a matter of days.

The river has lost its ice a long time ago and I did some hiking in the bushes to find a little pond, invisible from the surrounding roads. After a while, I got to the pond that had a shallow water passage to the river delta. At the very same moment, I managed to scare off a dozen ducks, who left the place with horrible noise and splashing water. After a few minutes, I saw what I came there for: A couple of small pikes circling in the shallow water, possibly getting ready to spawn. Well, it's pretty early for that and it will probably take a few weeks before the spawning starts in the full scale. A good start anyway!

Now I need hurry up and get my tackle sorted out and fill all the fly boxes. It just feels unreal, after those five months of despair it starts all over again....

Easing the pain....

Finally, the weather forecasts are telling good news. For the next week, temperatures should stay above zero even by night which is the key factor in making the ice melt. And no, this is no April Fool's tricks!!

Just to maintain my (partial) sanity while being kept away from the water for five long months, I've tried to keep myself busy by tying flies and testing new equipment.

I tested my latest fly rod, Colton Tradewinds #9 9', which proved to be just what I expected. It's a powerful casting machine, capable of casting heavy lines with ease and produces high line speeds when necessary.

To compare it to my favourite rod, Five Rivers FT #9 9', Colton has a stiffer tip section and and it is more front heavy, making it a bit more heavy to do powerful casting strokes. I'd say that Colton could be regarded as a #10 rod, where the FT is a #9 fast-action rod. Colton is a saltwater rod with great ability to lift heavy sinking lines and re-cast them with longer overhangs. FT can throw almost any line because of the fast, but sensitive tip. The blank is very light and the rod feels like casting a #7 weight rod.

Where the FT shines in soft power delivery, light castability and yet very high line speeds, the Colton is a brute. You can and should use a little more force and all the force goes to the kinetic energy of the line. It will also help when casting big flies in windy conditions, with a cost of an extra effort. We'll see how it performs in one month or so.

Little snacks

Some random smaller baitfish patterns, nothing special to tell about these. I tied these just for killing some time.

Chartreuse/White baitfish, 80 mm

Green/Chrtreuse baitfish, 80 mm

Olive perch, 75 mm

Basic baitfish imitation, 75 mm

Testing with tubes

I did a little practice in tying with tubes. There are some minor issues that I need to concentrate on when tying on tubes but I think I got a hang of it. Here's a couple of Fatheads tied on L-sized Eumer tube. It seems that one needs to use more material when tying on a tube but still the fly has a tendency to lose some of its profile. Practicing for a couple of hours will help me with this.....

Tubular Fatheaded brothers

Brothers from the side

Family portrait of Fathead cousins

Fly Porn

Some Fatheads. Fatheads are tied much like Huchbacks, but the materials are spread more evenly around the hook shank. Also the fibers are tied even more fluffy, so the head of the fly will be bulkier and will push more water. This will hopefully create a strong, sliding zig-zag motion.

The body of the fly is made from PikeTrek's body fibre. Slinky fibre could be used as well. Head of the fly is made from fluorescent Water Silk, but craft fur etc. is suitable also.

Emergency colored Fathead

Profile of the Fathead is fat.

Flaming hedgehog.