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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 Meanwhile the construction and idea was close to brilliant, but a bit outdated in electrical part.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.

It’s been a while since my last post, but it does not mean that I was dead or have forgot about my frequent readers. Winter was the time to focus a bit more on Forum and fly tying two. So where is the result? Not so fast…

SHRUBE fly

Meanwhile it is hard to design a perfect fly! One that is easy to tie, but in same time with great looks and moves,  but most important -- magnetic to fish. Especially when it comes to saltwater shrimps. And I’m not saying, that there are no great patterns arround -- of corse there are, like Pattegrisen and general patterns likes Magnus and Grey frede. But you always may add or change something… In the search of perfection I was always thinking about perfect Shrimp fly on the tube, with the stable movement in the water and all other benefits that one may have out of tiny small plastic piece. Hence I am a salmon fishermen two I do like tube flies – they are very versatile: you can change the hook if needed, add some prepared tails, put a heavier hook and land the trophy with more confidence. After all, another forgotten benefit – you can tie almost translucent flies, that is close to impossible on the hooks.

Unfortunattelly saltwater fly fishermen in my oppinion so far have underrated tubes, by using trusted single hooks. Maybe only those big game boys who are focusing on Salefish and other giants know the true value of tubes… But not here in the Baltics. Ouahhh..,  still it is hard to find established tube patterns. So, after several modifications, here comes the Shrube fly. Why SHRUBE? Because SHRimp and tUBE, and it is shorter than shrimp pattern tied on tube. Ok, you can rather coppy it or change, but always keep in mind that fly must have a certain mass distribution otherwise it will not move as sexy as sea trout loves it? Certainly you can replace Polar Fiber with Spey hackle or CDC with other feathers, never mind! After all presentation matters most! So, i’m leaving today to chase the Swedens silver and who knows.. maybe SHRUBE will do the thing!

I will let you know…

Fresh fish from Klovstein

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!

Beat’s and other things to know

Orkla - upper part

Good thing about Orkla, and I think also about other Norwegian rivers, is that run continues during the whole seasson – from June till the end of the August, so you can expect fresh fish almost all the time! The Orkla runs through the idyllic Orkla-Valley, about 50 km away from Trondheim and pours into the fjord of Trondheim near Orkanger. The salmon usually come up-river to 88 km that means a lot of water for fishing! After the tackle sterilization, Hans introduced me to fishing.

Fishing at Klovsteinholen

In the Norway usually you can not fish entire river, and rivers are divided in to beats or pools -  200 to1000 meters long river stretches that belong to… To somebody! Heh, here starts the trickiest thing. If you are newcommer to this area, and you are not familiar with the river, it can be quite hard to understand where to fish and where to by licences. In general Orkla have a lot of good pools, but only few of them are easaly to access. Lets say these are public pools! Licences for these pools are not so expencive, but usually public water is not so good and you can expect several fishermen fishing with different tackle – fly, spin and even worm that is popular and quite productive there. So in general its of corse worth trying, but there are better places to fish.  Everything changes in so called private beats (pools) whre rools usually are diffrerent. Local farmers are the owners of the river, and they are renting streches to clubs and other organisations who are offering fishing. So the prices are different but in fishing is better in so called private beets. In some placess, like in Hanss beets, flyfishing is the only name of the game and just a few fisherman are fishing in the same time. So if you have a plan to visit Orkla, or any other Norwegian salmon river, besides bying oficiall Norwegian state permit (200 NOK), find out as much as possible where, why and how. Otherwise.., yeh, you know it by your self.

Fishermen in upper Orkla

OK, good news where, that Hans have 7 pools, and because of his reputation and relationship with locals (he is from Switcerland) these  where amongst best ones. I liked the fact that pools where different. Bakka, the lowest one, was about 3 km away from the Fjord and was “tide water” pool,  when Klovsteinholen and Brusholen was in middle or even upper part offering fresh salmon and also holding fish. I will not spend my time characterizing one pool after another, because they are well described in Hans home page, so you can see by yourself and reed more about them here.

I just would like to add that all of them are worth trying – just take a look at the biggest fish landed.

Rooles

General rooles are simple and correct.

Bag Limit: 1 Salmon or Seatrout a day.

If you catch + kill one fish, fishing must be suspended for that day.

Maximum 10 Salmon a season.

Minimum legth for Salmon: 40 cm.

Minimum length for Seatrout: 40 cm.

Maximum 3 hooks/rod. (one treble or one double and one single hook or 3 single hooks.

Sinkinglines maximum rate 3.

After each cast, the fisher moves 2 m farther downstream.

Never move in to the river in front of a fellow fisher – allways start behind him.

The last two I would like to introduce to our salmon fisherman – especially to spin fishermen! And also even more important thing – peopple here follow these rooles more like we do in our country…

Fishing

Lucky me!

At the arrival day – august 14, Hans met mee with the nice silver bar around 10 punds in his car –  so fish where there in the river waiting for our turn! Those who think that salmon fishing  here or in Norway is easy thing, and you will have one take after another, most propobly have never fished here. Salmon fishing is lot more than swinging your line ower the perspective spot – you will learn it fast here! I know quite a lot of stories about fishless trips, so you better get preparred. On the other hand, almost in all beats salmon was showing time after time, so everything was in fishermans hands.  If you would like to rely only on luck, that of corse is important part of the salmon fishing, then following things may be not interesting for you. For me luck is relevant, but it is only a part. In August when the water is lower and bit warmer around 14 degrees your presentation skills are highly important. You have to change the angles and speeds in order to get the most exciting swing, that will provoke the heavy take on the other end of the line. Now floating line is more less only thing you need, so it’s the best time for learning. Some times you can go deeper with polyleeder, and usually sinking lines are not needed.

Blasmo - on the move!

My suggestion to begginers: give it a try at August you will learn lot more than in early June when your sinking line is swinging your fly in uncontroled manner (uncontroled for begginers…). And here I would say is a lot to learn from Hans – he know the pools, tactics and how, when and on what fly! He also showed some important things to me – so thanks again.

Hans with the nice fresh fish!

Hans is familiar with atlantic salmon for about 30 years, and during last 20 he is bussy in his Salmon Fishing scool in Orkla.  His experience is worth to consider, and it is not just a few weeks anually, but lot more. For me it means something… Besides that Hans is a great caster who really master and understands Underhand technique. So, after fishing for one week in Orkla, when I gathered my experience and things I understood from others I came to following suggestions, that helped me and I think was also important part of Hans tactics (he landed more than others that week):

1.    Present your fly in a manner that is not too slow  – let say fast enough for the fish just to see it, not more! Or almost forget about takes.

2.    Move, move, move! Its no use to make a lot of casts from one point – fish will take most likely on first propper swing, and you will rather disturb the fish by casting rather than provoke them. You would say well known, ok, but frequently forgotten truth!

3.    Present your fly gently, in a quiet manner, and try to be constant with presentation. May be we miss the take during that one bad cast.

4.    Take a rest and give a rest to the pool – it will recharge you and fish. I had never a take when I was pushing hard with my fishing…

My biggest one!

5.    Change and think if you have no success – flies, go deeper with line or leader, increase the speed of presentation and so on! There are days without any takes for everyone, don’t panic stay calm.

6.    Be out when its cloudy and rainy – for me these where the best days when I landed my biggest fish. Also, I must admit, that Hans landed his biggest fish at sunny days (evening and morning accordingly).

7.    Have a plan, belief and never, never, never give up!

I had a days without fish or with a small grilse, and so? It‘s salmon fishing! Now it is easy to say, but at that time every morning when I had a breakfest, I looked at 14 kilos Hans salmon that was hanging in dinning room and I knew by the hart – my time will come… So again never never give up! At that morning, almost it was the last day, i wake up at 5:30 was calm and relaxed. I new that this is the day …

Happy man!

Flies

I know that a lot of peoople think that fly is key factor in salmon fishing – its important but not as much as the way how you fish with it. Anyway, one week is not enough to say these are the best ones, but I believe that flies from Hans page are correct ones, so take a look here. No doubt – in low water conditions in generall smaller flies can be better, but also I can not ignore the fact that a big black creatures where deaddly too. In general Sunray shadow, Blue Norseman,  Phatagorva, Green gighlander, different shrimps, micro tubes and bombers are most popular here, but also we should not forget about suns of the gun, general practiotioners and, jeh, so on! As Hans like to say – some like spagettty, but some cutlet.

Tackle

My Opti setup, Polset pool and Blue Norsman

During the whole trip i was fishing with 12.4 8wt LOOP Opti Rod and Runner reel on it. For me it was perfect, but usually rods between 13-14 ft are most popular at late season and low water conditions. Please notice, that during the June 14-15 ft rods would suit better, because distances increase and also sinking lines are  important tools at this time. Also bring some polyleaders with you and good monofilament in between 0.37 and 0.50. Not so much, is not it?

Recommended Links

Here are the links that I think can be helpful if you are about to visit Norway and Orkla in particular next year. Also it is quite possible that I will have a courses there next summer – so stay tuned, I will put some info later! So here are the links:

Hans page

Orklaguide

Jurij Shumakof experience at Gavla

*Big Salmon Fly fishing in Orkla!

Nice autumn addition...

Lovely dinning room at Aunemo and and Hans 14 kg

That is what its all about!

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! Various types of caddis flies during the day, when water warms up to 13 Celsius, and some black streamers for night (water cools down to 7), is just what you need to be successful! Trout are not so choosy as graylings are. Down in the valley with right fly and proper presentation you can land one lady after another, but if you are not precise with your choice -- prepare to blank! Thats the graylings -- fly matters here!

As always, also in this trip, we had up and downs, but in general all was even better than one can expect… To tell long story short I added these  videos.  I hope you can enjoy at least some part of what we experienced this year!

Race with the trout:

Trip retrospective:

Tight lines,

RR

Typical Latvian

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.

Kristaps on the move

And if you know the spots where to go you can find several such a places in a same day. During the May and June I landed and released four  trout from one particular spot, and these where above average size. So what does it tells? At least that there are some trout left, so lets hope that next year it will be even better!

This one is fat...

A bit of flies, rise and techniques… Mohican mayfly is well known and established pattern in this game, but during the last years I have found that slight modifications from old Oli originals, are necessary, to improve the fishability of this fly. First I’m using microfibets instead of deer hair in the tail part – fibbets are translucent and not so bulky as deer hair. Also I replace deer hair in the wing part with polyyarn or more often CDC – that is best dry fly wing material for me. And finally more important, for the big flies, I’m not using capes for hackle anymore. I think than natural mayfly legs are much thicker than cape feather can imitate, and more important,  it does not give enough stability support for your fly. Instead of capes I brush and make a legs from deer hair – it looks much more realistic and gives more support to your lovely mayfly. I hope I will find a time and give the illustration how to tie such a fly in the near future!

Feeding lie

Many of us tend to think, that trout rise is aggressive  an noisy. Yeehhh, there is such a happy moments, but more often you can detect the rise only just by a little movement on the water. And usually its not so obvious! That’s the reason why I’m working more with my eyes than fly rod most of the times. At the very beginning of dryfly season, in the May, water was a bit muddy in our rivers, but in the same time there was a plenty of mayflies around. What does it means for the trout? It means – adaptation… During this period mainly I found trout rising in a shallow water or very close (5-10 cm) to bank. There is some logic‘s behind such a behaviour, because water was too muddy for usual feeding lies and trout addapted accordingly. In one of the pictures (feeding lie) you will see the particular trout feeding lie on the other side of the river just 20cm next to the bank. Isnt it adaptation? So, we must be cautious…

So full with may flies - almost like cod!

Last but not the least… I was trying to full one nice browny with already approved fly, but even  after 10 perfect dead drifts she (I noticed sex a bit later…) refused to take. Then I changed a tactics and presented my mayfly with pendulum parachute – uuuupppppssss, the fish was on! After just one cast… It seems that it was not possible for trout to abandon such a landing of  a hudge „mayfly aircraft“. To make long story short I must say that actually presentation produced the take, not only the fly! And few days later same technique produced another trout. And you not what? These are the most breath taking moments we all are after, when trout atacts your fly immediately after the presentation. So, you better be prepared!

Here its only catch and release!

What a fibers

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!

Afro Silky fro Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal is specializing in selling wig and all other types of artificial hair. All shop just for this purpose – for us it means fly tying! It was full with different colored artificial hair, that mainly was not useful for tying, but there where also some hidden treasure! Afro Silky Kanekalon was just like Kinky fiber and similar to other well known saltwater fly tying synthetics! And the price… It was 50 times less than normally you have it in your shop. For 4 euro you can get one pack that includes at least 30 typical fly tying packages. And the length of fibers are more than enough – around 1 meter. So, it should be enough even for the creasiest ideas. So we picked up all 6 useful colors and made at home 6 equal sets.  4 euro each.  Not bad, for perfect material that is usefull for almost any pike fly. Now it has been already tested – just as good as all originals! So, if you visit Stockholm, don’t miss the chance to get to Taj Mahal – it is 500 meters from central cinema and market place, up the hill on the quiet pedestrian street.

and there is a lot..

At work

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.

Instead of pesimistic spin fishermen, who have not cought anything during the last days, four guys, who where drifting in pontoon boats, landed some moderete size sea trout, during the day time. So we where after to land some silvery fish too! Located in the well known spot, actually last years most productive one, we started fishing with best hopes!  First casts are always most excitatory – you are styripping your line in with the feeling that take is around the corner! One strip then another! But this time it was not so… During the next two hours, that we had, I lost only one fish. After the genttle take my leader came apart in a few seconds, and unfortunattely without any fight.  I hooked this sea trout on a dark orange eyed sandeel with the moderate strip speed. After strike, fish made few turns on the surface and was gone. That’s it – my 8 lb 3X Varivas fluorocarbon apparently was not strong enough, and what was even more interesting, I can not say that fight was tought? So, quite a mystery I supposed at that time, and was quite uppset, because it was the only take that we had at that evening.  Even more it is allways bad if you loose the fish because of the tackle! Mikus measured water tempereture – with the on shore wind it was around 4.5 degrees, that was so not too bad for beggining. Few weeks erlier we where not shure about the ice – this year it was quite cold in our reagion. So, these news where prommising.

Thats the place!

Next morning started brilliantly in the terms of  feeling – small lasy waves, light breeze from the sea and… When I just approached my spot I recognized nice seatrout tale on the surface. I decided that it just have arrived, and made a cast in between the fish and the bank. First strip then another one – hands where waiting while hurt was beating faster and faster… I was fishing with rag worm at that time, and either the fish was away, ore my slimshape wormy was not impressive enough. After the second cast even closer to the shore, I checked some deeper spots, but again with out any luck! F..k! This was the chance, and I missed it! During the next two hours I have not seen anything except, one fish, that passed next to my knees. All other guys also blanked except Mikus, who landed  45 cm Kelt, on pinky Grey Frede, that was fished on intermediate line. At least something. After the lunch we proceeded in the same manner, withut changing the location. Around 18:00 I finally had a take. Yes, I even shouted, but… Same story than yesterday’s evening. Second take and second time my leader came a part. I was… Hm, I don’t know how to express this without a bunch of damn words. Anyway – it was my mistake, because I have not checked the leader. After this second incident I emediattelly changed my leader to 1x 12 ft with 12 lbs test. This one was strong enough for almost any fish we can expect here! Keep on working – saltwater fly fishing in Baltics sometimes is like a hard work, when you need hundreds of casts for just a one take. But not this time! Casting was useless and we had no takes during the following hours and apparently fishing was not at its best! Ok, you can always be more or less succesifull, but even if locals „who know the things“ fail it meens sometning. Mikus told us that that temperature decreesed to 2.5 degrees, what was a result of the wind change. Here are the true example how big influence wind has on sea trouting – especially in the cold spring days. Apparently that’s thrue – wind meens a lot!

Still searching!

Mmmmmm… Its serious… I mean waves! Next morning on shore wind provided good weather for surfing! I even had no chance to reach the nearest stones from where we where fishing day before, and, even more, they where within easy reach yeasterday! Apparently water was a bit colored too. Two hours of fishing with out any takes and even any sign of fish led us to decition – we should move on and check the closer coastal line! Just to look for another spots and to learn this area better. At the evening, when it was allready quite dark, we where trying our luck in the perspective spot full with large boulders in sothtern part of our reagion. Wind was down a bit so we faced not so strong waves and it was possible to settle down on the large boulders closer to the shore. Meanwhile wind still was unpleasant for casting, and because of that, Ansis, a newcommer to our team, moved a bit north to the spot where he was able to cast over the right shoulder. The place was perfect for fishing too – large quiet pools in between big boulders was hiding apparently some deeper holes. After half an hour another newcommer, Eriks, a great gentlmen by the way , brought some fast food for us, so it was time for a break befor finnal battle. Ansis – who was still in the water, refused to come out and Eriks told that he’s enough… Hmmm, it was quite a surprice, because we had nothing during the day time. Only after an hour we realised that Ansis was showning that he is standing to deep to get out fast, and that’s actuaslly the only reasson why we finished his burger too.  „He will have a fish“ , I stated. By the way Ansis was quite ill at that time: high temperature, strong cough cured with the Latvian balsam, strong cigarettes and temperature killing Coldrex was his halmarks during the whole trip. When we where comming back for last half an hour to the sea, I recognized that Ansis forgot his landing net on the bank! „It will be tricky“, I thought at that time. And it was not log after…

86 and Ansis

Heyyyyyyy! Heeeyyyyy! Youhoooooo! I turned around and recognizd, that his rod had a deep bend and I was shure that fish is above average. Kristaps, who was standing closer, immediattelly jumped off his boulder and was in the rush to help Ansis with his monster of the dark. Yep, it was not easy to see anything at that time at all! I only recognize that Kristaps was down to elbow in the water, and it took some 10 minutes to land this sea trout. To me honest not to land, but to squeeze in betwwen landing net and chest – yest, the fish was much larger than Kristaps landing net! First sea trout for Ansis and 86 cm – isn‘t bad, even if it is a kelt. If I remember correctly it was arround 4 kilos! Such a long salmo trutta should weight around 7 or even 8 kilos before spawning. It is interesting, that Ansis had a shrimp pattern on the other end of the line, while we where fishing with sand eels at that time. Also the retriewe was slower, and who knows, may be this was the kee to success. One can always say that it is luck, but in this case Ansis was pushing hard, and sooner ore later it shoud pay off.

Kristaps and his 1st!

During the last day weather was a bit better so where the results. At the morning Ansis landed another one, yet bit smaller, but still beautifull kelt (you can watch how he releases it in video part), and during the afternoon I had a fish on for few minutes, but lost it and finally Kristaps landed his first sea trout in the sea! Congrats – he deserved it also because he helped a lot with landing yesterday!

Of course, after all, this was not the trip we where dreeming about in terms of fish landed, especially for me, but I know that 2 local groups blanked during the same week in the Danmark. And there where goood fishermen with the best local guides… So, maybe, and most propobblly, low water temperature was the reason for such a low fish activity, but anyway we had a lot of fun and some experience two.  My conclusions from this trip:

1. I will never use thinner tippet as 2x or 1x for spring seatrouting.
2. We should not miss a chance if we have one.
3. Never give up!

We will be back!

Delights...

First bow

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.

Saturday still was quite hot, with the few clouds and a light wind breezes. Water temperature in the Pededze was around five degrees at the morning, that was promising, as well as the level. It is not wise to wake up early and start fishing as soon as possible, because water temperature at he morning is low and it increase during the day time hopefully will boost the trouts activity. This is opposite to what you can expect in the summer, when its too hot during the day time.

I started to fish in the Pededze and already in the first corner my bright colored wooly produced some nice fish that escaped after few moves. Not too bad for the beginning! I moved on downstream, but without any success in following hour… Hm, there should be something wrong! And it not the fly, or tactics either – I have changed speeds and angles of the swing as, but with out any success. May be water in the Pededze still was little to cold for high fishing and nasty takes. Virgulica, a small tributary definitely was a bit warmer, because it is smaller and during the hot days warms up faster.

Another bow

Virgulīca is like an alpine creek – only 2 to 5 meters in width it is fast and rocky with bushy banks and lot of sheltering lies for trout. Already in the first spot descent fish attacked my bugger but with out any success. I moved on a little and had another take – this time successful! Nice, average size char was fighting the current with my fly in its mouth. Then another one and after a while Golden trout. F..k, what is this, some one may wonder. Yep, there is hatchery around the corner, so all these beauties has escaped some while ago I suppose. More surprisingly this spot produced another fish during the next minutes, so apparently it was an evidence that trout is seeking for the warmer water, and has entered the Virgulica recently. I reached first pool upstream from Pededze, that definitely was first stopping point for the entering fish. Nice cast under the bush, my fly swigged deep in a black water, and…  Yes – h e a v y   s l o w l y take! Its all about the scale in the small streams. It is nothing special to land a kilo + fish in big river or in the lake, but to see such a creature in small stream is something special. This time it was nice rainbow mail with the ugly sight and behavior – truly nice fish. But, historically, these ones where hatchery breaded, and as a fishermen I am always after wild ones. So, brownies was the name of the game this time! I changed from ugly colored buggers to my newly designed flies. Under the overhanging bush, deep in the dark current, where all types of food are passing by, is the spot that is just what decent trout is looking for. First I checked lie in the front of the big boulder, but without any success.

Almost there...

Then I swinged  my fly deep under the bush and, yes, finally I had what I was after. Nice browny showed his orange dots on the surface and after a while I admired him in my landing net! Wild and fully recovered after spawning he reflected all the beauty you can get out of cold small stream in early spring. During the following hours I landed few more fish: nice rainbow over 1kilo, and few more brownies up to 38 cm in the upper part of Virgulica. What a beautiful day!

At the evening water temperature reached 8.1 degrees , in comparison to 6 degrees at the morning. Amazing! Next morning clouds covered the sky and strong northern winds brought colder weather here! Unfortunately water was colder too – 6 degrees during the day time, with out any significant increase! Fishing was of coarse not so good as day before, but, surprisingly, brownies was less effected by the temperature than others – I caught 5 browns and only two chars, without seeing any bow or something else. Environmental hardiness of these brownies sometimes is just unbeatable!

I ll be back with sea report after a while!

Greetings.

Only C&R

A bit smaller yet beautiful brownie

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.

Get ready -- season is comming!