Salmon season 2017

Hi and happy New-year

As the year has changed and the wait and preparations for the next salmon season have begun, it’s a good time to look back at the season 2017.

Season 2017 for me was definitely defined by one thing, High water conditions.

The Mighty Skoltefossen

My trip to Neiden began as so many times before, at Midsummer. Normally at this time the spring flood has already passed and the river tends to be in “normal” summer water conditions(flow<60m³/s), but as it happened  this year the spring was around 2-3 weeks late and the flood was still on (flow 136m³/s) and the water was very cold(6,6°C)when we arrived.

Korbiniva at arrival, this caused some dissbelief (flow 136m³/s)

During the 2 weeks I spent there the conditions started to improve as the water level dropped to normal high water conditions (>70m³/s) and the temperature began to rise to around 10 °C.

Korbiniva at departure(flow 70m³/s)

As the conditions improved so did the fishing and the second week of my trip happened to be the best week of the season

The biggest down side of the high water conditions on Neiden is that most of my favorite fishing spots were unfishable, for an example Lillefossen.

But nonetheless the trip to Neiden was catch vise one of my all-time best.

The Fly-Fishing Zone (flow 70m³/s)

Skolefossen at High tide, no rapids here

Upper part of Krokfossen, caught the 94cm fish here

Panorama, Korbiniva

Panorama, upper part of Krokfossen

Panorama, upper part of Lillefossen

 2017 I also decided to start learning salmon fishing in the river Kymi, and what better way to do so than to take part in the annual Finnish championship of salmon fly-fishing. The idea was to be able to fish the river with people that are far more experienced on that river.

Ruhavuolle fly-fishing zone

The Beach

So during the later part of September I made a couple of trips to the River (the other being the competition), which got me one grilse and one 73cm long fish (which actually happened to be the only qualifying fish in the competition, talk about luck )

Where could they be (competition day 1.)

The weather was nice (Competition day 2)

The boat trolling in the picture lost a huge(10-15Kg) salmon shortly after 

Also in Kymi the Water level was high, at least according to the other people I talked to at the river       

My salmon season 2017 in numbers:

-2 Rivers

-17 days of fishing

-24 salmon caught, 6 Multi Sea Winter fish + 18 grilse

-Best flies: Blue Charm, Sarvijaakko

-Most used lines: 65´ Airflo floating spey line, Guideline connect S2+4-5tip

Biggest of the Year (96cm)

Getting Ready to go

94cm Silver from Krokfossen

Strong 84cm

First one from Kymi

Off he goes

Competition Fish

Fast measurements

Thank you

Pictures from Neiden

Hi, it´s been a while

As the salmon season has once again opened up north, with a late spring and cold weather I hear, my mind  once again starts to travel to the river Neiden, where my annual salmon fishing trip  once again shall take me . While planning for the trip this year, I happened to look at some photos from the last years trip and decided to share some of them whit you.

The Flyfishing zone

A couple of Grilse for food

71cm from Korpiniva

Release

Upper neck of Krokfossen

82cm from The upper neck of Krokfossen

Ready to go

Middle-pool of Pikkukoski (lower)

Middle-pool of Pikkukoski (upper)

78cm from neck of Pikkukoski

Unnamed Fly

The Rock-pool at Pikkukoski 

The Rock-pool at Pikkukoski 

The Rock-pool at Pikkukoski 

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.

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