Fish your fly all the way

Last weekend I had our annual pike fishing trip, more on that misfortune later. I’ve been bringing the video cam along my last few outings trying to catch a little pike fly fishing action. On this little clip you can see me doing a classic mistake, not fishing quite all the way in. On numerous occasions I’ve had Pike take the fly just by my feet and it always pays of to fish the fly right to the shore. You can see here that just as I lift the rod to cast again it looks like the fly gets stuck, well it gets stuck in the mouth of a nice pike. Naturally I didn’t hook it, and my reaction is a little late

Fishing on the 9th of April (Fishing day no 3)

So on monday I managed to get out on my second fishing during Easter. This time I had my entire family with me, all three of them. A good day with fishing, picnic with barbeque, rowin the boat and raising hell. That last part was mostly Wilmer who did because he was not entirely happy being out all day

We managed to catch one pike once more, but it is still way too cold in the water only three degrees celcius in the shallow bays. So hopefully warmer weather will come in soon making it warmer in the water which will give more pikes to come in.

No photos this time, will do better next time!

Fishing 5th of April (Fishing day #2)

So this past thursday I got out on Pmy second ike fishing this spring. The warm and sunny weather we’ve had earlier had changed to cold and clear weather these past twp weeks. With freezing degrees in night and not more than 3-4 degrees celcius during the day it was still very cold in the water. This particular day I was also met by strong southwestern winds. Kinda bad conditions.

I had a blast anyway, fishing for about three hours and also going on the boat for the first time this season. Still not a working engine on but it is also kinda nice to row the boat in a slow manner, most spots are reachable by rowing anyway. The bright and sunny weather combined with cold waters with almost no vegetation on the bottom yet mad the fishing hard. I did in the end manage to land a coupikes, not more than a couple of kilos. And I also had a follower that looked very strange, almost sea trout shaped….

Fishing premier!

Oh how I had waited! I missed out on the late autumn fishing in October and November due to much other comitements and then winter came hard and the ice has been covering my bays ever since January. But now it was finally time to get out again, and fishing premier for me (as you know) means fly fishing for pike! A couple of hours, a quick float tube transport to the closest island and fishing from land like it often is for me.

The wind was medium hard from nothrwest and it was very cold in the water still, very cold! Very few spots had any weeds on the bottom and the water itself was very clear. The hard winds made it hard to fish some spots but my normal favorite spot delivered as it almost always do! First cast at that spot gave me contact with fish directly and the cast after it was hooked, and the first fish of 2012 was landed! I managed to hook and land another one shortly after and had a couple of more following. The other side of the island gave nothing but I was still very pleased as I went back home after two hours, it was on now for real!

Fishing 2011-09-16

So for the second consecutive friday I managed to get out of work by lunch and do a couple of hours of fishing in the afternoon and for the second time in a row I had a lot of contact with fish. I was only out for a relatively short time but in retrospective a whole lot of things happened!

My last meeting for the day at work I glanced out the window and judge by my surprise when a majestic sea eagle came soaring by outside with a flock of seagulls circulating it. A clear sign that I needed to get out of work and go fish instead, so I did!

I took a phone meeting in the car on my way down there and only stopped on the hourly drive to drive trough McDonalds for some burgers to go. Once I got down I suited off and put waders on and walked the familiar way trough the woods down to the small channel that I need to paddle across with the float tube to reach the island where I do most fishing: “The pub”. I am gonna save the story of the name of that island for another post.

I went down the gravel road, stepped off it into the woods, past trough the rocks, the swamp and then as I came up on the cliffs leading down to the channel I suddenly see a majestic deer standing 20 meters in front of me almost down by the water. I stop and we both freeze for a second just looking at each other when the deer suddenly chickens out and runs off into the trees.

I got such a good feeling from this encounter. All of a sudden one of the worst work weeks in a long time is blown away from my mind, my mood is on top and I feel genuinely good! It was like mother nature herself decided to give me a gentle push towards focusing of the right thing. Privileged is a word that comes to mind. I am privileged, I have this fantastic nature at my doorstep, I have two fantastic sons and a family who are healthy and loves me. I have an interest that I will live for the rest of my life. I am privileged.

Inflate float tube, fins on, pack on the back. Paddle.

Last week I had a fish strike on the first cast, a long cast just over a weed bed, it was not gonna happen today though. The wind was still from north west but way harder today, and from where I want to cast it came straight from my right. Not ultimate when you have bigg ass flies with 4/0 hooks flying around your head. I gave it a try but I had to go further down the island, as I do I slip and fall quite badly on my hip on the slippery cliffs!

I limp on and also swap from the blu zonker fly I tied earlier this week because I wanted a lighter fly to cast in the wind so I put on the firely one I tied last night. So new spot and new fly and wouldn’t you know I got a strike directly! I just saw as it hit the fly about 6-7 meters out from me and I thought I had it hooked but after a couple of seconds it dropped off, damm! Quickly out again but nothing, and ten more cast but noting more. At this point I start to think that it might have been my only chance of today.

I loose confidence in the red/yellow fly and dish deep down the box to try and find a white/green fly, my most successful color and finally find one! First cast out and about 10 meters out a vicious strike to the fly but once again I manage to miss the hooking. Quick cast again to the same spot, full concentration retrieve and just as I thought I had missed it, only about 4 meters from the shore where I was standing it struck again this time so hard I almost dropped the rod because I was just about to life the fly to recast. Needles to say I missed to hook that one too.

But the annoying thing is that over the next 20 minutes I miss two more strikes, and I am by now getting frustrated and confused. What is also frustrated is that it seems most strikes has been from the same pike, and by now it is a little careful. With every cast I do it follows the fly in but won’t bite anymore. I try to change fly but with no success.

I decide to leave this spot for a while and cross over to the other side of the island to try and see if that lagoon is better today than last week. But with the same winds this lagoon is almost completely sheltered and way too calm for the pikes liking. I do give it 20 minutes or so before deciding to go back to the other side again. I stop on a spot a little further in this lagoon, I still want the pikes on the other spot to rest up good. Now I am sorry to say that the trend was steady, first cast out and BAM! A solid strike but not even close to hooking it up! Argh!!!

I make ten more casts at this area and just as I was going to reel up and move I see a pike standing in the weeds about 6-7 meters out from me. I try and cast the fly a couple meters behind it and slowly retrieve it while it sinks down to the correct depth. Just as it pasts the pike he swims away from me, obviously startled from the fly. I lift up with the plan to cast the fly in his general direction just to hook up the branches behind me instead. Not my day today.

It takes me a minute to untangle everything, and once I am done I standing there considering if I should go back to the first spot or do one more cast here, at this point I am not very confident any more. I am in a “what’s the point” mood. But I decide to give it a shoot. Which was great. Because after six missed strikes I get a strike and I finally manage to hook it properly.

A strong one but not too big, so I pretty soon get it to shore and land it. Wise after last weeks try to take photo I put some more effort into it and manage to catch myself and the pike on the same photo this time!

Suddenly I feel much better, and I feel that I am rewarded for not giving up after so many missed fishes. But just to make sure I am not too happy I miss one more strike before going home.

Another great day, another fantastic start to the weekend!

Fishing tomorrow – new rods to try

This week two rods arrived for me to try! One nine weigth and one eight weight, one high profile and one (regarded by some) not as high profile. I am excited to try both out.

The one that some might regard as a rod that is not high profile (someone called it a beginners rod) is a Temple Fork Outfitter rod, a Jim Teeny special 9″ 9 weight 4 pieces. It looks to be a real stick of a nine weight and I have good feeling for pike fly fishing with it. I’ve heard a lot of good things about the TFO rods and just because it is a cheaper rod than many more famous brands doesn’t necessary mean it is a bad rod.

The other one is a Orvis Access Tip Flex 11″ 8 weight 4 pieces, a real classy rod but in a (for me) very odd length. I have however been wanting to try a longer rod for float tube fishing and depending on how the feel is in this one I might use if for coastal sea trout fishing solely, but if it will be able to handle good size flies I might use it for pike fishing too. Never the less it has a look and feel of a real classy rod and the reaction from people on Facebook and other places are that it is a fantastic rod so I am stocked to try it! Unfortunately I don’t have a reel set up with an eight weight yet so tomorrow I am gonna try it with the nine weight line, you never know some rods are perfect for over classing the line.

This week has been rough in many senses and I am very glad that I am gonna be able to go out for a couple of hours fishing tomorrow again. I had plans to tie much more flies than I did (one pike fly and one SGTBFY baitfish) and I really had the fly tying mood in but it might just be good to hold it back a few days more so that I really enjoy it again. Fly tying seem to come in waves for me these days and if I am not in the mood I just can’t be convinced to sit down and tie.

Through the blog of Mat Trevor (http://www.411number3.net/), which by the way is excellent reading (put it up on my blogg roll too) I found a new band that blew me away; The Stanfields. I’ve been listening to their fantastic debut album all week. Give them a listen!

Fishing 2011-09-09

So these past two days has not been too good. I came down with something with fever and general fatigue and after I got home from work yesterday I kinda just slept until lunch today. Then as I got upstairs into the kitchen I thought to myself “I wonder if I were to feel better if I got to go fish”?

Well, to make a long story short; I did!

I got out only for a couple of hours later in the afternoon, at least the fever seemed to have settled down and I was able to do the walk trough the forest with the float tube to my home waters for the first time since May. I was kinda exhausted and sweaty once I got there but when I got down in the cool water I suddenly felt much better and the paddle out to my favorite island was pure pleasure.

You might remember that I broke my rod in the top of the butt last time I was out so I had managed to borrow an eight weight rod from a co worker a couple of weeks ago but after having postponed a couple of planned fishing days I was finally gonna get a chance to try it. Some rods you can easily use a line in one weight higher and some you can’t. This rod was closer to “you can’t”. I think the main problem is that the line is a GuideLine PIKE DC line especially designed for pike fly fishing and this CDS Rod was all top action and nothing else, it was not a good combo. But I managed to find a good technique to get decent casts going after a while.

On the very first cast thought something striked my fly so hard I almost lost the rod. I was so not prepared for it so by the time I got hold of every thing again and tried to do a strike back nothing was on. Dammed!!! Oh well, with a bit of luck it might strike again. So quickly out with the fly again, slightly too much to the left from where the previous cast landed, and it proved to result in nothing. Another try that landed almost exactly where the first one touched base and after just a couple of retrieves it struck again! It was a slightly bigger pike, and it fought fantastically, and the top action of the rod made it a dream to fight fish with but after a minute or two I could land it and say that it was somewhere around 4 and a half kilo, season best actually!

I had further contact with pike during the two hour I fished and I also landed a couple of smaller ones too, it was far better than I had thought it would be so early in the fall. But the water temp was probably much lower than I thought it be, I didn’t have anything with me to measure it with but it couldn’t be many degrees over 10-11 degrees from the feel of it.

Oh, and I tried to take some kind of trophy shoot of that first one, it was after all the season best. But sometimes you don’t quite get it right. A quick remote shot from the camera but all I got was a slightly unsharp shot of myself and the back of the pike. Oh well, it was not spectacular in size and better that it got the chance to swim back instead of me trying to fiddle with it too long just for a photo.

 

Beware of the teeth!!!

Photo – the pool

I know, this is a recent photo, and you have seen it in my reports and photo albums from my July trip. But I think this is one of the most beautiful pools I have ever fished, period. And I was very lucky to have good conditions to take photos of it also, but it is almost painful looking at it. I am longing to get back.

Photo – a long time ago

A long time ago I wasn’t very experienced with fly fishing. I am not sure I am nowadays either, but probably a little less inexperienced.

That day, a long time ago I went out on an early April morning to fly fish for pike. I had two of my best friends with me, Surpuppan and the Bear foot.

And when we got out there, a long time ago, we ended up in the middle of a blizzard, but caught a whole lot of nice sized pike. We were pleased.

A you know what, a long time ago I hooked into something that I thought was another pike, but it turned out to be something silvery instead.

That day I was happy, like every other day that I get to fish, but maybe I was a little extra happy that day. Because that day in the blizzard, a long time ago now, I caught a nine pound sea run trout on a big Pike fly.

Photo – the early worm

You desperately search for more clothes as you crawl out of the sleeping bag. The chill from the night is still everywhere in the tent and in your bones. You open up the inner door to the tent to reach for your field kitchen, just to let even colder air into the tent. With shivering hands you set fire to the kitchen and then feel how the warmth gets back in your body as you aggressively devour a big set of bacon and scrambled eggs while wrapped up in the sleeping bag. You finish off with a cup of coffee. So strong  that the spoon would remain standing if you ever would dream about actually taking sugar in it.

Now you are ready to get out and put on the waders. Now you feel the call from the fish.

As you get out of your tent you are met by this view. Life is good.