well done...

Few weeks ago I have received a nice fly tying accessory from Daylight – fly tying lamp with true daylight spectrum. The main reason for purchase was to have convenient on the go solution that is possible to use in a car or in a small camp, where usually you do not have enough lite for fly  tying. When I have received it I was a bit disappointed – a large electrical hardware was able to produce only a tiny light that was just more than nothing. The spectrum was good but the brightness – uhhh, certainly for twilight tiers. Meanwhile the construction and idea was close to brilliant, but a bit outdated in electrical part. So, I thought it would be nice to convert it according to todays technologies. Light emitting diodes know as LED’s was the name of the game.

Another part of the whole story was to build a device that you can attach directly to 12 V DC in a car. So after the design of whole system  The most difficult part of conversion was the lamps inner space – it was not easy to pack 21 leds’ and 7 resistors inside the dome firmly without the risk of short circuit. Somehow it came out well and you can now see the result.

..on the workbench

LED array

what's inside

From off to on

Those of you, who are not familiar with electrical circuits can check how to build your own system here.

Finnaly loaded

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

Here are the flies:

My soldiers

Feather sand eal

Pinky pig shrimp

Orange frede

Classic sand eel - kinky version

Albino sand eel, also kinky

Pinky Frede

Chartreuse frede

Classical Grey frede

Green sand eel

1. Everyone from all countries can participate, just send me a link to your Catc&Release video in Youtube or if you have not uploaded it yet send video directly to my email -- see contacts page.

2. I will display this video under the Video pages in between already existing movies.
(Check out the new entry from Ernestas)

3. There will be 3 categories awarded in 31.december 2010- Biggest fish, Best video and Thats  crazy.

4. Prizes are from LOOP see bellow, so come on and join us:

#1 Biggest fish

Superb Loop Opti rod

#2 Best video

LOOP C&R net

#3 Thats  crazy

I`m bussy - will decide later...

]]> http://www.reinisrutkis.lv/2010/01/cr-contest-rules/feed/ 0 http://www.reinisrutkis.lv/2009/05/fly-fishing-days-lithuania/ http://www.reinisrutkis.lv/2009/05/fly-fishing-days-lithuania/#comments Thu, 21 May 2009 12:24:01 +0000 Reinis http://www.reinisrutkis.lv/?p=290

Uwe Rieder

There are good days bad days and since this year Fly Fishing Days in Lithuania. This is rather a fly fishing festival not a competition. During the both days there will be fly casting demonstrations and lessons from EFFA master instructor Uwe Rieder (www.pro-guides.com), so do not hesitate to participate in casting clinics.This is nice chance to fix some casting faults. For those who are focused more on tying than fishing, there will be also some tying corner indoors to share your experiences. So bring your own tying stuff too. You can come with your families – organisers promise that assistants will take care of your children and if it will be necessary also will help to find your way back to tent or lodge.

Event will be held at June 6-7 in the river valley SVENTOJI next to the coast of lake Pastys in camp side “Pastys” You can find map here.
Event price:
The guest fee 5 €. (With your tent)
Guest-house fee 15 €. / 1 pers.
P. S.: Number of rooms are limited.

For more information ask here or try to connect Eugenijus directly: eugenijus#salmolita.lt
See you there,
RR

This spring is a birthday of new fly fishing festival and championship in Latvia. Few years ago few enthusiasts from organization “Mes Zivim” started to stock grayling, trout and rainbows  in the river Ogre with the aim to establish licensed fishing for these species in long term perspective. Lets say, sustainable development. Now river has its own grayling population and pretty good chance to land some big one too. To help organization continue efforts in this river and also to promote this scenic part of Ogre, at the May 16, fly fishing championship and festival, will be held at Mengene.

Map

Rules are as always – one rod with maximum two fly`s and of course barbless hooks are the  must for anyone who are out in the river. Also you must have a landing net and general state licenze – so called Makskeresanas karte. I hope organisators will provide it. To be honest we can expect some spin fishermen also at that time in the river, but they will fish in different parts, and hopefully will not disturb our activity`s. Usually there are nice persons, and just a few steps away from fly fishing.

Prices for participants are aprox 10 Euro for guests and 30 Euro for participants. During the day, there will be  casting pool as well as casting clinics from me, Egils and Guntars.  For more information call V. Rozentāls  +371 29159593 .  I hope i will see some friends from Lithuania and Estonia – Ogre is worth to see at that time, and you can come with the family if you like.

See you there and any questions are welcome!

Classic Salmon flies

Back again. This time from Kolding Flyfestival. I was there together with friends from deaddrift.org nice beer and rod casters from Lithuania.

Some years ago together with Egils we passed fly casting exams here, so for me this festival has an historical background also. 24 hours of traveling in one direction was worth to see how fly fishing is developing in Scandinavia.  This is one of the biggest fly fishing festivals in Northern Europe, so it is a must to see what happens there.

News are following.

Tackle. Festival was as big as always, but this time almost each company had casting pool outdoors for testing purposes. Of course Scandinavians was represented with all companies, and there was also some Americans there.

With Christer during casting

Main Hit what was marketed this season was so called switch rods. Small double handlers or longer single handlers with extended fighting grip. These rods are designed to handle mainly river conditions but will perform equally well in other types of fishing. If you are using 11 ft single handed rod for streamer fishing in rivers it may be to heavy to handle it with one hand, so you can grab it with two and switch the line on stream. Yeah, these rods are not designed for lot of false casting, but to reposition the fly on stream with one or too false casts or just with single move if you are performing some water casts (switch or roll). In spite of fact that it will take some time to get used to these rods, first impression was so/so.  I think that i would like to use such a rod in some cases, but generally i would choose in between real single or double handler. Let`s wait and see.

I spend some ours to test new Zpey rods, and while the blanks was quite nice, i did not find the purpose for Z handle. This was my second and last attempt – if i used it us described, rod stop was too low to form tight loops.  Even more – i did not recognize anyone who was using the rod as this is promoted – even casters from Zpey did not. So they say – redefining flyfishing – i would say – not so fast..

In general best tackle was from Scandinavia,  as well as a casting. In this show it was easily noticeable that average casting level is higher in this part of the world, and i was happy to see that we do belong to this level.  Also in this event i met Christer Sjöberg from LOOP, and I`m from now working with them. LOOP tackle was always on the cutting edge of fly tackle design worldwide, so i`m happy to be with them.

New 2hander

Also there was one interesting rod from Norway, made by unknown freak. These double handlers feature moving upper grip that facilitates double haul action while casting with both hands on the grip. Upper hand moves up and down with the grip – looks are funny, yet hard to say if effective. I was casting much better  with this rod in the usual way,  so i cannot say that it was effective for me, but again, lets wait and see.

Fly tying was on its glance with a lot of well known tyers working in the central part of hall. What can be  new in fly tying? Everything and nothing in same time – no doubt there was lot of nice fly`s tied, but in this time I was more focusing on Salmon fly`s. There was a plenty of tyers to see, and more less scandinavian tubes where dominating. Also this festival is the perfect place to update your material collection.

Mikael Frodin

Mikael Frödin, as WW recognized tube fly dresser was showing his techniques. Hence i have very similar thoughts about Atlantic salmon fly`s I was lucky to talk about different details on this subject with him. For instance i was always wondering why it is necessary to dress  tubes body with complicated materials?  It is covered then with hackle, so it is covered from view and to be more precise – for scandi tubes 90% of looks are from wing. Mikael had similar opinion, but he told that he likes dressed tubes , because it serves some more contrast and colors on the fly. His fly`s are accurate but quite simple as one can see – of course because these are designed for fishing. Wings are quite thin, because light must penetrate wing and play a little with flash. He uses flash almost on every wing he ties. I like the way his fly`s are tied, and i think they behave  like a live.

Another story is about PRO tubefly system.

Morten and Pro tubes

Scandinavian tube system designed by Morten Bundgaard is like a Lego for salmon fishermen. There are also some items similar to Frödins F.I.T.S system, but it is lot more of the components available than any other tube fly supplier has. There are discs –  plastic and  rubber, unique shape cones up to magnificent size, Pro bulet tube system and even superb Propellers, that can be mounted on your tippet directly to achieve vibration on stream. Pro tubefly system now is represented by Destinata for eastern Europe, so components will be available soon in Internet and shops too. Tomorrow i will post an article about this system, so do not miss it.

Finally I would like to thank dead drifters from Lithuania for funny time – they are not only beer lovers, but they can also handle a fly rod. More pictures about show on the deaddrift.org.

See you back soon.

RR