Salmon and Norway are too things that really stick togeather quite strong, and for me its not about farmed fish that can destroy the whole thing in the near future, but about wild ones. This year I had a chance to visit our EFFA Master instructor Hans Spinler at Orkla in middle of the August – week 33. Of course, as one may suggest it was hard to refuse! In general, Trondheim area, where Orkla enters the fjord, is well known for salmon fishermen since around 1830, when gentlmen from Great Britan came here to catch fish of the liftime! Still you can find reports about 200 fish in 20 days and so on if you are keen salmon fishing historian. Impressive… However, it was not yesterday – times have changed, but, yep, still Norvegian rivers in this area such as Orkla, Gavla, Namsen (enters different fjord) and also Verdal, are amongst the best world wide and have a plenty of fish to catch. First three mentioned rivers are in top 5 during the last years in Norway. But what is more important – its not about the numbers, but about the size – annually there are reports about fish ower 45 lb and 20lb fish are quite freequently landed. In Orkla, The largest salmon caught and registered weighed 25 kg, so – it is worth to try!
Just back from what seems to be one of the Europe’s least impacted areas – Lapland. It does not matter, if its Norway, Sweden or even Suomi – if there is some wilderness left in old world thats definitely there! Mountains, valleys, rivers and lakes, crystal clear water and specimen fish are just what all fly fisherman are dreaming about. This time our trip was focused on, yet for us undiscovered mountain area, where trout was the name of the game. Then after, we moved down to valley to catch some grayling too. In the mountains, it is all about how lucky you are with weather and how carefully and cautiously you are with fishing. Trouting in this areas is like hunting – some times you have just one or two casts – not more. These trouts are hard to find and easy to scare – thats why this type of fishing is what i like the most! Read the rest of this entry »
Its getting better and better! During the last 3 years our trout stream population have increased in numbers, at least in rivers where I love to fish. Of course, there are no scientific evidence and these are only my observations, but if you constantly land more trout than year before with the same fishing techniques and tactics, this is the only logical explanation one can give. And the best time to judge how many trout are in the particular river stretch is during the mayfly time! One, two or , wow, even more fish in the same corner quietly picking up mayflies in a drift, is just what a dryfly fishermen can dream about.
I always wonder why fly tying materials are so pricey!? Ok, ok, ok, I can understand the price for all the genetic capes, jungle cocks and other natural materials, but why the f..k the synthetics are 10 times more expensive as it should be? Also it is well known that many fly tying products are not specially designed for this purpose, but are waste or by products from some industry! Also there is too many people involved in packaging, selling and marketing, so finally our flies also get quite pricey. What we can do here, someone may ask? Just take a chance and visit all the funny craft shops that are dedicated for women! Recently, when we came back from seatrout fishing, we discovered such a shop in the Stockholms city center!
Yepp, bit late, but its better now than never. Here is the report from our seatrout trip! You can never know… Last year we where bit late, so we have planed our seatrout trip few weeks earlier this year. It is allways hard to predict when to come, because weather can change pretty fast. In the best case we expected that whater will be arround 6 degrees at arrival and will warm up constantly during the trip. From the wery begginig, actually it was friday’s evening, things seemed pretty good.
Its all about temperature… And higher is better, because its spring after all. Last weekend I was exploring some Northern Latvian trout streams, with the aim not only to land some fish, but also to experiment with some new trout flies I have tied specially for this season. As you might remember last week was quite hot and dry, by this waking waters from a long winter sleep and definitely this was the time to get in a waders. Quite a lot of options at the moment one may suggest: chub, asp, sea trout and salmon kelts in Salaca, as well as some trout in our tiny rivers. And also pike season is around the corner! But this time for me it was all about the trout and tiny streams.During the snowy winter time I have tied some flies for the spring and besides all time classics (Woollys and Mudlers) I prepared some new stuff to experiment with. So, this was the moment these flies where waiting for.
You are always striping inside? No… Hm in this case you are in a trouble, especially if you are wading deep! While for double handers as well as for dry or nymph fishing i’m not using striping basket, it is one of the essentials while fishing pike, seatrout or any other creatures that request striping of fly line. Quite many years ago, when I started to use these baskets I was quite convinced that it should have as many holes as possible, and it should be not too big. Actually know, its bit opposite -- I’m using only baskets that have no holes at all, and are big enough to catch and hold all fly line that comes in. Holes are not necessary at all, because if you are are wading deep, basket will be filled with water and your floating running line will simply swim out during the first cast. Another advantage of no hole basket is that you can use it as wading support, or float, when wading tricky coastal areas or getting to another river bank.It is quite important to have rubber belt on your basket, because it allows to adjust the position with out changing the belt size. It is quite handy if you are wading and fishing in spots with different depths. Especially during the late autumn, winter and spring, when water temperatures are low, it is not right time to adjust something that is completely wet.
Last but not the least is cones. With out them in a basket, your runner will tangle quite frequent, so you better install them in one or other way. There is quite a lot of possibilities to do that, and a some good info you can find in this article from GFF. I must admit, that during the last years I have tried almost all of them and finally came to the concept that can be seen in this particular video, where you can see my new basket. Main advantage of removable cone board is that during the travel you can detach, and it and put it in safe place. I have destryed and bended many cones or other type line separators, while putting all the things in my duffle for travel purposes, so it is worth to think about it when designing your new perfect stripping basket!
Finally, it is all about fish so you can also add some attitude on your basket -- at least you will remember how does fish look if you are blank…
But, wee will succeed… During the following days, together with my friends, we will chase sea trouts somewhere in sweden, and i will be back with photos and stories as soon as i’l be back.
During the last few month my tying activities was more less focused on sea trout flies. After the two weeks I will be chasing these magnificent fish somewhere in Sweden, so I have prepared a bit of flies for this trip. In spite of the fact that i believe in retrieve rather than fly, it is always fun to experiment. Seatrout during the early spring tend to focus on bigger prey like small fish, rag warms, etc., so even big fantasy flies sometimes excels in this season. So it is time experiment a bit and tie few different patterns, because you can never know what to expect in the spring, especially in the Sea. On the other hand someone may admit, that usually we fish with the one fly mainly, and there is no need to carry around tons of fly boxes. Yes, if I’m landing one fish after another there is no need to change a fly – thats for sure. But if not? Or suddenly during the day waves become bigger, or opposite – you see some fish feeding in shallow quiet water, where heavy flies are worst to put on? Yes then you take out your fly box and realize that all Grey fredes are with heavy eyes, and shrimps are overloaded with led. “Oh dear, I should also tie lighter flies!” an old English gentlemen would suggest. Fisherman from our country would not be so tedious with expressions in same situation, but there will be no difference what the fishing is concerned. So more flies gives more possibility to adapt -main key to success almost anywhere.
So this season i have tied same flies i was using last year in a different weight ranges and color combinations. Main patterns to play with are still sand eels, grey fredes, rag worms, woollys and different shrimps. While tying techniques remains simple, material and color combinations are endless. I have found 3 favorite materials for epoxy sand eels, that still have a lot of movement, but does not bend around the hook while casting. So these are kinky fiber, buck tail and vide variety of hen and other hackle feathers. My eels are not as small as usual, but when it will be necessary I will not hesitate to shorten synthetic tails, what basically is one of the advantages that synthetics like kinky fiber have over natural materials. You can not shorten natural tails like buck tail or hen feathers with out loosing the movement in water and without affecting fly shape. You will also find a few flies inspired from one of the best scandinavian fly fishing page globalflyfisher where people who loves sea and specially sea trout share their experience.
I have already prepared article for the next week where I will share my experience how to create a perfect striping basket – some tips may be new for you, so,
See you next week.
RR
While still sharing the oppinion: “Thats not the fly, its the driver!” during the last week i have started to load my fly boxes with different Seatrout flies. Season is too close, so boxes should be loaded. This year, in between all other patterns i have focused on saltwater shrimp tying -- quite a funny flies, that can produce a decent takes and strong memories. In general i think that classic Magnus and Grey frede patterns mimics also some invertebrates from baltic sea two, but however, sometimes we are fooling the fish (actually our selves) with precise imitations. Yes, this times it is shrimps. The main problem when tying the shrimps on a bit bigger hook is the size of the hackle you can get to properly palmer the flies body. Of course everyone likes these long shrimp legs -- hopefully seatrout too, but how can we tie such a fly? Easiest and one of the best ways is to use spey hackle feathers, but if there are not as much colors around as you would like to use. Or, maybe you need a bit softer material? Then -- BRUSH IT!
Yes, with the brushes you can use a lot of different materials for legs, starting from bucktail, marabou, synthetic stuff and even squirrel tail. I have added here few patterns from my tying bench, and i’m pretty confident that these should do the thing. Especially I like flies with softer materials like marabou, turkey and so on, but in case of opposite, i have prepared some bucktailed and squirrled shrimpo. Share and enjoy.
In these days when eggs are hatching deep below the ice in our beautiful Baltic salmon Rivers, our minds can not rest in peace, because our friends are endangered around the globe. Geir Kjensmo, Chairman of Norwegian Salmon Association just send me a video, that illustrate unbelievable threat that comes from Salmon Farms. You must see the whole film Farm Salmon Exposed (all parts) -- to know better how does these monsters (farms) impact our friends. Is there a way to fight with them? Yes, and it is simple: BOYCOTT FARMED SALMON, because fish farms destroys wild fish. All Salmon that you can by in Baltic states comes from Norway farms, and now these are active in both sides of Atlantic Ocean, by this destroying wild fish populations even in Canada. Producers of the film have gathered unimpeachable evidence of this important fact, and you can find articles about this problems in major scientific journals such as Nature. Hopefully we don’t have such a big problems in Baltic Sea, where our salmon unfortunately have high dioxin levels. If you are responsible fly fisherman spend a while and watch a film -- we are part of this whole story…
