Fishing for pike 3.12.2015

Hi
Some weeks back I went out to find some pike with a friend of mine. So I taught to share some of the feelings and pics of  the day, with you.

The day started heavily overcast and windy (wind speeds around 10-12m/s). the sea level was +60cm in the morning and due to climb still higher in the day so, the plan was to fish in areas that I had had successes in high water condition before.

The first spot we tried was a bay located in a strait between two islands, a place that quite often hold some better sized fish. Here the wind was so hard that I, being in charge of maneuvering the boat choose to fish whit a jerk bait as my friend chose the fly. we fished the bay without much success as the only contact was a bite from a small pike to my red and black Pig Jerk. so after this we decided that we would try out a couple of a bit more sheltered bays closer to the mainland so that I too could fish with the fly.

So after a short drive we were at another bay that is located in between two points of the mainland stretching deep into the mainland itself. we started fishing deep in the bay in an area that on normal water conditions only has around 0.1-1m of water, but as the sea level was high the place seemed as a decent place to try out.  we fished in the shallows with my friend getting a smaller pike and a heavy take myself having no contacts, until just as we were about to switch into another location my friend had another heavy take some 10m from the boat. he realized immediately that it was a decent fish, and after some minutes of fighting it the beast showed itself for the first time, and we saw that it was better than descent, it was big. a short while later he managed to get the fish beside the boat so that I could land it on the drier side of the rail.

A quick unhooking and measurement later the 105cm long beast was released into its own element.

After this we continued to fish the same bay for some time more, but without further success so we decided to move on to the next bay on the other side of one of the points.

At the next bay we decided to start by fishing the outer edge of the reeds, a place we had a good time on an earlier trip to the same area. though we combed the area thoroughly we didn't have any luck on the area (only one take, which I managed to screw up as I was in the middle of untangling my running line) and decided to go deeper into the bay, right into the small "canals" in the reeds. after fishing sometime in the more narrow canals we came to a wider section of free water with around 1 meter of water. from the beginning we had a good feeling of the palace and combed it thoroughly until my friend had yet another heavy take, resulting in an short fight during which the fish tried several time to swim under the boat. even so my friend kept the fish hooked until it was ready to bee landed. after unhooking, measurements and a quick pic the 98cm land beautifully colored (seemed as she had had some sort of infection which had cured) lady was released back to her own domain.

After the release we continued to fish in the shallows of the bay for a while further but, didn't find any more hungry fish. so as the daylight was slowly beginning to fade we decided to try out yet another shallow bay closer to the harbor.

So a short while later we arrived to the last bay of that day and started to fish, we decided to ignore the deeper waters on the outer rim of the reeds and went straight into the shallow canals in the reeds, as this tactic had given us the best result so far in the day. we both decided to fish whit flies and so the hunt for yet another water wolf began. we arrived to a wider part of the canals whit around the same depth as the places where we had caught the earlier fishes, and I decided to change one of my favorite flies (the "Shiny Roach") into the game. some 10 or so casts later I had a violent take as the pike hit the white fly just a couple of strips after it had landed. The fight was short and brutal as the pike tried to swim under the boat on four different occasions and in the surrounding reed for just as many times. but after a short while I was able to get the beast beside the boat so my friend could safely land it to bee unhooked and measured. The tape showed a length of 104 cm which was a new fly-fishing record for me.

After the unhooking, measurement and a quick pic the mean eyed beast  was returned into its own element without further delay

As the fish was released the light started to fade more and more and we decided to fish for a while more in the shallows before returning to the harbor. my friend caught one more pike around 70-80cm which managed to snag the line in the bow mount engine, but still staying hooked, and I lost one smaller one which managed to get into the reeds and unhook itself. 

As the light kept fading we decided that 5 pikes with the combined length of +4 meters ought to be enough for one short December day of fishing, and returned to the harbor.

Trying out some new bait

Hi

This time I´m going to write about some new bait I have bought during the autumn.

A couple of months ago I heard about the new Savagear 3D Roach Jerkster which I found quite interesting whit it´s "modular" weight system. This means the ability to either increase or decrease the sink rate and the noise of the lure on the go, by adding or removing steel/glass balls inside one of the chambers inside the lure. Another thing that caught my attention was the fact that the lure is based (has required some modification to get the action) on a 3D scan of a real roach which is one of the main food sources of pike in the regions I fish in.

So I went and bought (It is nicely priced being just above 10€) one of these to give it a try. I have fished whit it on a couple of trips now, and it seems to be working just fine. I really like the ability to fish varying depths (around 0,5-3 m) whit the same lure and the action (basic side to side whit decent slide) is also to my liking.
The lure is quite easy to use, and works well whit both reel retrieval and with the rod jerking style of fishing. 
Although I have only one color for the time being, the lure has given me a decent amount of fish (mostly around 1-3 kg). It has never been the best lure of the day, but has mostly done a decent job none the less.

So in short I think Savagear has once again managed to create a decent lure that is still affordable

Another interesting new bait from Savagear is the 3D Roach Shine Glider which I intend to write about in the future (still in the middle of testing)  

My Pikefly (Slinky Deceiver)

Hi
Its been a while since my last post and as it is, fall is approaching fast, and so is the prime time for pike fishing. So I thought to write about my favorite Pike fly.

So what makes a good pike fly? I think that there are a few things to think of when you tie a pike fly. The number 1 thing is of course, that it must catch fish preferably in a wide variety of situations. This means that it has to be big enough, have a good silhouette and if possible create some "noise" bellow the surface. The second thing to think about is that you should be able to cast the fly effortless for the whole day, this means that the fly must be both light enough for the fly line to turn over and at the same time heavy enough not to overcome its own drag in the air. Last but not least I think about the ease of tying and durability of the fly, because as most of you know the Pike has an impressive set of teeth and tend to treat flies quite harshly.

So with this in mind I have in the course of a couple of years developed a baitfish-pattern that is working quite well for me. The pattern works decently year around in the areas where I fish, is easy enough to cast with a 8 weight rod, endures a lot of fish (mostly over 30 fish) before becoming unusable and is easy enough to tie (takes about 15 min to tie). It is a crossbreed of some of the best known Pike flies in Finland, the Hollow Deceiver and the Slinky Tube(both articles in finnish). This is why I´ve decided to call it Slinky Deceiver. The reason I use Slinky fibre and other H2O products (such as Mirror Image and Deadly Dazzle) is that they are readily available in shops in my region, but any other long enough synthetic material ought to work as well

Recipe: Slinky Deceiver

Tube: 2/4 mm vinyl tube + 4mm silicon tube
Thread: Kevlar
Tail: 3 Pairs of Schlappen+Slinky fibre+Flash(optional)
Body: Slinky fibre/Deadly Dazzle+flash(optional)
Throat: Slinky fibre/Deadly Dazzle
Wing: Slinky fibre
Head: Hot-glue
Eyes: 3D-Eyes

Tying the Slinky Deceiver:

Combine the tube and the hook holder with superglue

Add some lead

Tie in the Schlappen

Tie some Slinky Fibre on top of the Schlappen about in the middle of the fibers and secure with superglue

Double the fibers back on top of themselves

Add and double the flash (Secure with superglue)

Halve the next batch of fibres as shown bellow

Tie in the halved fibres so that about 3 cm(1 inch) of the batch is pointing back (Remember the superglue)

Double the batch back

Add another batch in the same manner (Optional:Tie flash on top of the first batch)

Halve and tie in the throat (About half back and half front)(Remember glue)

Tie in the top wing (do not halve)(Remember glue)

Double both top wing and throat back and finish the thread

Use a cable tie to keep the fibers in wanted position while you make the head

Add some hot-glue and attach the eyes

Cut off the excess tube and make the final form to the head by heating the glue with a lighter and forming it with MOIST fingers (otherwise the glue will stick on your fingers and in worst case cause burns)

Color the head after it has cooled down with some markers 

and the fly is ready for action

 The color above is called Jeppan 
(my adaptation of a like named Buster Jerk color)

So this is how to tie my favorite pike fly, in future articles i might return to this pattern to give away some other color combinations that I have had success with

Neiden Norway 22.6-5.7

Sorry for the delay. After the trip i have been quite busy, and this is why the update has been delayed. but anyway here it comes

Greetings from the beautiful country of Norway. This years salmon fishing trip took me, as so many times before, to the river Neiden in the north-eastern part of Norway, around 40 km from the town of Kirkenes. The River starts from the Finnish lake Iijärvi as "Näätämö" and runs down to the arctic ocean in the Neidenfjord, switching name to Neiden at the Norwegian border. The river is around 100 Km and runs for the most parts on the Finnish side of the border, only the last 20 Km or so being on Norwegian soil. So as said before this text is about the Norwegian part of the river.

This year the conditions were a bit tricky for fly fishing as water levels were higher than anyone I met had ever seen this time of year. This could be expected though as the weather forecasts had shown a lot of rain in the area during weeks before the trip, and as it were also during the trip (2-days without rain during the 2-week trip, yay). Water temperatures were good though, varying between 11-14 degrees Celsius, rising to 14 in the first couple of days and then dropping rapidly to around 11 and staying there the rest of the trip. The weather varied between 11-14 celsius and rain showers and 11-14 celsius and constant rain, with a few sunny moments in between for the rest of the trip.

The upper part of "Korbiniva"

The salmon run this year was about a week to a week and a half later than usually, as the grilse started to run only in the last 2 days of the trip.This meant fishing for big fish, mostly in the areas down of the bridge, the first week and most part of the second week. The biggest fish caught in the time I was at the river was a huge Salmon of 18,2 Kilos(over 40 lbs), caught in the "Korbiniva" area. The fish even caught the attention of the Finnish press as the Finnish newspaper Iltalehti wrote an article about it (the Finnish article can be found Here).

Most of the fish caught during the time I was at the river, were caught either in the crowded fly fishing zone (300 m of river below the bridge), or by fishermen trolling with wobblers (neither of which I fancy)

Some guys trolling

Even though the conditions were tricky for fly fishing in other parts of the river, I managed in the two weeks to hook some fine fish, landing two (the bigger one being a 97 cm long beauty, fresh from the ocean), loosing one around 80cm and having some really steady takes.

Releasing the bigger one

I mainly fished with floating and moderately sinking lines and flies varying from 3-10 cm. Most of the bites coming on floating line and a number 4 size (around 5-6 cm) flies, but also sinking lines and  bigger tube flies (up to 10 cm) gave good results (conditions considered). Fly patterns that worked well this year were for instance "Sarvijaakko", White Heckled Green&Silver and my own "Hopeanharmaa"

"Hopeanharmaa" The recipe will follow in an other post

This year I also added a fishing day on the arctic ocean to the trip. We hired a guide to take us out on the ocean by boat, to fish after Cod, Pollock, Atlantic Wolffish etc. On the trip we caught 4 different species of fish plus Kingkrab an saw some amazing vistas and had a totally fantastic time, so money well spent. Here´s some pics from the ocean

In the middle of a huge Pollock school

Some Porpoises hunting in the Pollock school

Snow on the Varanger peninsula

A Steep descent

King of birds

Here´s some additional photos from the river

 The neck of "Grytfossen"

Where could they be (photo taken around 2 a clock in the "night")

"Korbiniva" with the fly fishing zone in the back

Time to go fishing

Hi all
It´s time for my annual salmon fishing trip. This year the trip will take me, as so many times before, to the river Neiden in Norway. Neiden is a very special river for me, because it is where I´ve leaned to fish for salmon and also the river on which I´ve caught my first salmon ever. That´s why this years trip is special for me, cause I have been away from there almost 3 years now.

I will write more about the trip after I come back, but for now here is some older photos from the river

The mighty Skolttefossen

Neiden bridge and below it the fly fishing zone

Korbiniva a good early season fishing spot

The calm between Veinesfossen and Grytfossen seen from the road

"Sarvijaakko" One of my favorite flies for atlantic salmon

As my annual salmon fishing trip approaches, which I´ll write about after the trip, I want to share one of my favorite salmon flies with you

The "Sarvijaakko" is a very popular fly among Finnish salmon fishermen, fishing in northern Norway or the Kola Peninsula in Russia. Due to it´s popularity it might also be one of the most modified flies Finnish fishermen use, as most of them will have a own version of the fly. I myself have probably caught close to a hundred Atlantic-Salmon with this fly and its different versions.
   The original pattern is said to be a crossbreed of the "Uppo-Bomber" fly and a March brown, and was developed by a famous Finnish salmon fisherman Kari "Kalle" Pylvänäinen.
   The name "Sarvijaakko" actually means Timberman beetle, but instead of mimicking that, the fly has gotten its name of the two "horns" in it´s tail(Horn in Finnish is "Sarvi" and Jaakko is just a Finnish name)

The recipe for the  original fly stands as below:
Hook: Size 10 single salmon
Thread: brown
Tag: Pearl Flashabou
Tail: Brown Nutria + 2 stripped brown grizzly hackles
Ribbing: Fl.green floss and oval gold (side by side)
Body: Hares ear 
Hackle: Brown Grizzly cock
Wing: Brown Nutria
Head: Brown thread

My own version of this fly differs from the original by a few small things. Firstly I have left out the stripped hackles, mainly because I don't think they bring any real added value to the fly. The second change I´ve made is that instead of the original green floss in the ribbing, I use Chartreuse yarn. The original fly has a body of  Hare´s ear, while I use the soft bottom fur from the Nutria fur used in the tail and wing. The last change I´ve made is that i have switched the brown grizzly hackle to a brown badger one.

My version:
Hook: Size 2-10 (Mustad 3582BR)
Thread: Black/Brown
Tag: Pearl Flashabou
Tail: Brown Nutria
Rib: Chartreuse yarn + Oval gold
Body: Nutria dubbing
Wing: Brown Nutria
Hackle: Brown Badger cock 



I hope that you will find this simple little fly, as good as i do, and may it give you as many fine memories as it has given me