Spawning pike

Managed to get out this afternoon to chuck some fluff but ended up watching hundreds of pike spawning between Björköby and our place. Here are a few snaps from earlier. Go to the Google maps in the right sidebar and click on the Green dotted marker to see where exactly

Pike on the fly in Alaska

Here's some great top water footage from Alaska. This is the reason why I use Poppers and surface lures so much.For all you Hollywood & Bollywood Blueliners out there that wouldn't find this kind of fishing exhilarating, then you're heads not screwed on right. Blood courses through my veins watching footage like this. Enjoy!

Passion for pike - by Ad Swier

I’ve been meaning to write this review for some time now as its well overdue so here goes All of you from the States and Canada that fly-fish for pike should be familiar with Barry Reynolds and his videos & books but many of you might not have heard of a gentleman called Ad Swier from the Netherlands and his book “Passion for Pike”, which is generally classed by most European pike fly-fisherman as the bible here.

Although there are some,……“Passion for pike” isn’t a book filled with tips & techniques or where to and when to fish for pike or even fly tying tutorials, but more of a mans journey into why Ad loves fly-fishing for this fantastic predator. And that’s what sets this book apart from the rest of the other pike on the fly literature out there. Sure he goes through all the tackle that’s needed from its inception to present day, tells about pike on the fly in other European countries, and writes about his strong feelings for Pike and their conservation but reading this book you truly do get a sense of what its like to target Esox luscious on the fly. This passion is also evident as well through his art, which I might add, grace many of the pages in this book through wonderful prints dotted around it.

Whether you’re a pike on the fly fanatic or just contemplating starting up in the sport and you haven’t read this book yet then I suggest you order it off the internet. Mark my words, It’s a fantastic read. With all the literature in our house I’m constantly asked by Lena, “Your not reading that book again, are you?

I’ll leave you with a small snippet from the book

“Now my Dad always taught me to be silent in Nature. He used to say “ You’re a guest here, so shut up and behave”, He used to recite a variation on something I also heard the other year during a long steep walk in the Comeragh mountains in Ireland. My guide Michael Desmond, then said, quietly: “Take nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints, Kill nothing but time”.

The Dirt Dog

Here's another fly from Richard Strolis that can be modified for Toothy critters. Top tutorial in fact.


The Dirt Dart from Richard Strolis on Vimeo.

Out & About

After pottering around in the Garden all day…………I know, go on say it!…….well a mans got to earn his points wherever he can get them, I say. Anyway I drove a few km’s up the road from my place half way between Björköby & Replot and chucked some fluff around the shallows with the hope that maybe a snot-rocket might be looking for a tasty morsel in the way of one of my flies, but unfortunately for me I hit a blank.

In my defense though, water temps are barely above 3’c and there was plenty of ice still floating about. I did manage to see an Osprey & 2 White tailed eagles flying around, as well as numerous wading birds resting up in the shallows…..so not all was lost.

Go to the Google maps in the side bar to see where I was.Green markers with dots in the middle

Hipwader.com – Rob O’reilly

Rob O’reilly from Hipwader.com sent me these the other day of some of his own fish porn. He mainly fly-fishers for long nose and spotted gar in Southern Ontario which are native to the province's eastern lakes, and are very aggressive when the water warms.

He’s also dabbled in some Pike on the fly as well, as you can see by this fine looking snot-rocket. Rob writes Hipwader.com website which am sure many of you have read from time to time. If you haven’t, it’s a wonderfully produced site crammed with all soughts of information covering all aspects of fly-fishing, from fly tying tutorials to product & tackle reviews to destinations to fish. As he mentions on the homepage that its what you call a “Go to site”.

Anyway Rob thanks for these mate and tight lines

Spawning pike

As I’ve mentioned before, Replot island is part of the Kvarken World natural heritage site and the reasoning behind the given award, was due to it being one of the few places on earth where the land mass is rising 7mm – 9mm per annum. With shallow waters in curtain areas less than a meter deep and a plethora of reed beds lining the shoreline It’s one of the most prolific pike spawning grounds in the world, especially around Panike, found on the North West of the island. Every year thousands upon thousands of pike literally flood into the area to spawn and hundreds of spectators line the shores to watch this truly amazing spectacle. The water literally becomes a mass of writhing male bodies all jostling for the attentions of the females…..sounds like any given Friday night down at the local boozer!Local papers have been running reports that the first pike have started to move in so will be going to have a look for myself this afternoon.

Click on the map to see a large version. Enlarge it then click & drag until you find the red rectangular area marked.Or go to my Google maps fishing report in the sidebar.Its the green marker with the dot in the middle.

On the fly

Dave Lindsey from Pike & Predator fly-fishing flies has asked me to put this up on the wall.

Hi all, I’m working on a new web project about fly caught fish. What I’m looking for are photos of any kind of fish caught on any kind of fly gear. It doesn’t matter how big or small , fresh water saltwater doesn’t matter. They can be of tiny trout to marlin, tuna, pike, walleye sockeye, from the USA to Australia as long as its fly caught that’s all that matters. If you have any pictures please mail them to projectonthefly@live.co.uk

hope you’ll all be able to help out. Here is the website link so you have an idea whats involved "ON THE FLY"

Please note that there is no money to be made at all from this project, but what I will do is give full credit for the images sent.

Thanks in advance

Dave

Triggerfish steerable lure

How many times have you arrived at a spot and thought......bugger !!! if only I had a lure or a fly I could steer around all these obstacles? Well check out this top water lure from "Triggerfish". Not only can you steer it around obstacles but it gives you some fantastic top water action.


So good are these lures that they have sold out and are waiting for new shipment to arrive at the end of this month. Check out the website by clicking the link above

Topwater fishing with Triggerfish, the steerable lure from Ian Scott on Vimeo.

Swimtrue custom flies- by Graham Coombes

If you’ve never heard of Graham Coombes and Swimtrue Custom Flies then maybe you should stop by his website and have a look at the fantastic flies he’s tying. Graham has been involved with fly-tying and fly-fishing for over 18 years now. Originally from Australia he moved to Canada 6 yrs ago and has been busy developing flies which combine a swimming action with a traditional look and feel primarily for targeting Pike, Musky and Bass. Its amazing I have been fly-fishing for pike for 15 yrs and have only in the last 2 days come across Grahams work and to be truthful I’m very impressed with the quality of the flies he is tying.

His specialty are flies that swim which makes tying them very time consuming, with attention to detail absolutely crucial his main objective is to keep the quality and performance of his flies to a standard you’d expect from a custom fly tyer. He also states that his patterns will work over a varied range of retrieval speeds, making them a great choice for many situations. He says he takes great care and pride in every fly he ties while striving to push the boundaries of fly tying with style. If you need proof that his flies catch big fish then check out this 52” Musky caught by Nick Pujic.

Personally I think you’ll be seeing a lot more from Graham here on PikeFFArticles in the months to come. Anyway why not stop buy his website and have a good look around.

Click on any of the images or links and they will take you straight to his website.

Tight arse Stripping baskets

So you can imagine how happy I was when I arrived home last week to find Dingo our dog had mullard my stripping basket, and used it – by the looks of it, to strengthen his jaws. Thoughts of swinging him around by his bollocks came to mind but decided on a more subtle approach and just gave him one of Lena’s new flip flops to play with. If you do a lot of wading or walking along canals, polders, lake or reservoir shorelines like I do, then a stripping basket is a must have accessory…..well for me it is!

Well I couldn’t be bothered to order a new one from northernflies.com especially when they want to rape me of Є49,95, and as I’m the ultimate tight arse pike fly-fisherman
I’ve decided to make my own one . So I drove down to the local hardware store yesterday and bought a basket Є1.65, 6 x 120 mm wall plugs Є0,80 & a clip strap Є1,20 all for the total sum of Є3,65


Some slight modifications like a rod holder (2 grooves cut into either side lined with electrical cable split and glued into place) and some holes drilled into the bottom to allow for drainage and there you have it. You’ll have to agree it doesn’t look half bad and I’ve saved myself a cracking Є46,30 in the process.

Here’s a handy DIY video for you to follow if you’re also a tight arse like myself.


Or you could go for this cheaper Russian home made contraption....the choice is yours.

Friday Pin up......After 12 beers!

26 yr old people person Gwendalin, works as a tour rep in Munich during the summer months and says that, although she’s not to happy with the companies uniform, the hours are flexible and the pay isn’t half bad either. Her hobbies are building & flying model airplanes and says she’s not too shabby in the kitchen as well. So if any of you are in Munich on holiday, especially during the beer festival this summer, keep your eyes peeled for spunky Gwendalin, as I’m sure after several tankers she’ll look top notch.

Paying your dues

We all have to pay our fishing licenses, its a part of life. If you don’t then you shouldn’t be fishing. We have two separate annual licenses here in Finland. The 1^st being the Fishing management fee which sets you back all of Є20,00 p/annum or Є6,00 p/wk and the 2^nd is the Provincial lure fishing fee which costs Є29,00 p/annum or Є7,00 per week, which to be honest is very reasonable to say the least. Angling with a hook and line and ice-fishing is free all year round & also Lure & fly –fishing is free for those under the age of 18 yrs of age.

So for the last four years here, I’ve stumped out quite willingly for my annual subscriptions while I lived in Kuru. On top of that I occasionally would have to buy a day license for fishing on either privately owned waters or stocked lakes (this charge varied between Є6 – Є8 per day …..which in hindsight it isn’t worth banging on about but now since moving here to Replot I have cause for concern.

3 weeks ago while in a meeting with the Ostrobothnian fishing association I learned that although I am free to fish along all of the shoreline of Replot island, the island is divided into separate fishing right zones……and Replot island has no fewer than 13 separate zones…….And so a separate license needs to acquired before being able to fish in each of these areas…………….Hang on a minute rewind that back! 13 you say! ………I don’t know about you but that’s taking the piss……..innit!

Apparently these rights were set up from what seems the begging of time (Neanderthal if you ask me) and were put in place to stop outsiders coming into the area and depleting the local communities fish stocks……Okay fare dinkem, but tell me this, If I only practice catch & release within these zones and don’t take out any fish from their areas why should I have to pay their zonal fishing fees….Granted they aren’t charging exorbitant prices for them, but It looks like I’m gunna need six zonal licenses on top of the Є 49,00 I already pay, and that could be anywhere in the region Є120,00……..I don’t Fekin think so, me old sunshine!

What makes me sick though is that these land owners show scant regard for pike and think nothing of it in throwing them along there shorelines purely because they think the species is typically rubbish vermin. Yet want to charge me for practicing catch & release…go figure! Many of them wouldn’t believe me if I told them I was practicing catch & release and would probably get a stoning from them if one saw me slipping a pike back into the water…………….Ignorant twats. Old men with equally old and outdated views and morals.

Click on the map and it will take you to a larger map on my Picasa albums. Click enlarge - then left click and scroll around where you will be able to see all the different fishing areas so you’ll have a greater understanding what I am talking about.....

Vision in Flyfishing gear

Today you get a short tackle review, some pike on the fly porn and a 20 min pike fishing film from the Baltic here to watch at the end. As I now live in Finland, I feel I need to mention what I think are quality products that are produced here in this country, especially with regards to fly-fishing equipment. Vision in flyfishing equipments headquarters are based in Kellokoski. I’ve been using a few of their products now for a few years since moving here, namely the Mycket Bra, Radipor waders and wading jacket and I have been very impressed with the overall quality. Having a zip on the front of your waders is a god sent….believe you me. Although I very rarely use the side and inside pockets they do have their uses, especially if you change your wire tippet as much as I do over a day, then they are great for keeping spares in without having to rummage though your chest pack all the time.

To be honest I haven’t used their rods yet but they do have a range of equipment for us pike on the fly angler. Their GT four SW Medium fast looks particularly good and
They write that “It turns your damp pike fly like a leaf in the wind. The T-35 carbon allows more action all the way from the butt, so heavier flies and lines in a blizzard are just a piece of cake for this rod. For calmer days we have expanded this collection with a new lighter 7 class nine footer”.

Vision Big mama fly lines
Made to deliver your super size fly through a hurricane. The short front taper loads your gun right away with a tight loop, the long rear taper allows you to force the package anywhere you want it.

Vision Pike wire leader: 30 lb
Vision Pike leader is made from their Wireline tippet material and tapered heavy duty monofilament leader. They are attached with tippet ring. This makes it easy to change the wire tippet when needed. The overall length of the leader is 7 feet. Includes one extra tippet ring.


If you’ve never heard of Vision products before and need proof that there equipment can stand up to the rigors of catching big pike on the fly, then here we are. Former lure fisherman Roni Selen is now a pike fishing enthusiast and part of the Vision World team. When he’s not working as a fisheries official or writing articles as a freelance fishing journalist he just loves to chuck big flies into heavy wind in nasty weather, 'cause he says that’s when the big ones are biting.


“Big Pike Fly Challenge 2008”
Click the hyphenated “here” to watch some fantastic pike on the fly footage from last years vision pike on the fly competition held in Stockholm’s Archipelago.
Click the medium version for your P.C’s

I am in now way sponsored or have I been asked to endorse any of these products from Vision. I just find their products worthy of a feature on this blog.

The "legy" Deceiver by Németh “nini” István

Found this the other day and thought it was a great video tutorial. Here is Németh “nini” István I think from Hungary, showing us how to tie The "Légy" Deceiver. Although in Hungarian it is extremely easy to follow and well produced & edited.

Pike fly from rummutt on Vimeo.

Big Baltic Pike

Seeing the majority of you will be going to work at some stage today, I thought I’d brighten it up with some more monster pike that have been caught around here in the Baltic this winter & spring.

A big thank you goes out to Janne who features in a lot of these Images. He writes his own fishing blog from Sweden called “Team Örebroarn “ and was gracious enough to let me use these images of him proudly showing us some of his own pike porn. The site is in Swedish but it does have Google translate anyway. If you’d like to see more images then go to his flickr page.

Don’t get me wrong Canadian & North American Pike are big but I have to say that Baltic pike are up there with the best. The one thing I can say about Baltic Pike and that is they fight harder than their freshwater cousins. You really do know when you have one on the business end of your line.

8,7kg - 107cm

8.7kg
103cm - 8.5kg

7kg

17.2kg

6.4kg
9,1kg

9,72kg

Marabou articulated muddler - by Richard Strollis

Here is Richard Strollis giving a fantastic video tying tutorial on the classic Muddler pattern. Generally used for trout this is what I call a cross over fly, which can be adapted to Pike fly-fishing with the use of bigger hooks and slightly longer materials tied in. One can also vary the colour scheme with this fly as well. The second video is basically Richard showing us how to create more volume to the fly by adding on an articulation to the Muddler fly.

The Marabou Muddler from Richard Strolis on Vimeo.

Articulated Muddler from Richard Strolis on Vimeo.

Wipe & Clean

On a more lighter note for this Saturday morning. A Danish ad agency has put these stickers over toilet paper dispensers around Copenhagen to simulate pulling toilet paper out of a butthole. Now if there's a single person out there that reads this blog and doesn't find this funny then maybe you got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning

Muskie on the fly - by Robert S Tomes

Wild river press has just released “Muskie on the fly” – by Robert s Tomes. Although I have never fished for this species I know many of you in the states have. If its anything like “Mastering Pike on the fly” – by Barry Reynolds then it’s a definite must for all you muskie on the fly fanatics.

This is what Barry had to say about it.

“At long last—a book that deals with this exciting
and often overlooked game fish. Guru Tomes knows
how to tackle this legendary fish of 10,000 casts
and now he shares his secrets with us. Muskie on
the Fly will shorten your learning curve. Whether
you chase muskies with a fly or conventional gear,
this book is a must!”

B a r r y R e y n o l d s

Friday Pin up......After 12 beers!

22 yr old Melanie comes from Cardiff in Wales and works for a traveling circus as a trapeze artist. She says life’s tough on the road, having to live out of a caravan & her suitcase, but wouldn’t change it for the world. Her hobbies are…..(when she’s not swinging upside down 40 ft from the ground) going to the pictures with her friends and Shopping but more than anything she would love to settle down and start a family…..any takers?

Readers fish porn

Ken sent me this of his cousin Gary from last weekends fishing trip with nice 10lb Fly caught pike………….Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice!
Thanks Ken..

If any off you out there have similar pike on the fly porn you'd like to share,then get hold of me through the contact form & I will e-mail you right back

2 for the price of 1

Saw this the other day and couldn’t believe my eyes. Some believe that the photograph depicts a genuine conjoined twin fish while others believe that the image shows a smaller pike with its head thrust through the gill of the larger pike….I’ll leave that question open for you to decide.

Dying rabbit fur

When I lived in London it was all too easy for me to walk into a fly tackle shop and buy the materials I needed to tie my flies, and to be perfectly honest my ignorance and above all laziness allowed these shop owners to literally rape me of my hard earned cash with sometimes extortionately over priced marked up products.

Okay, I have to agree that curtain products are hard to reproduce, especially when we talk about synthetics, and we all know every pike fly-fisherman needs them to tie his flies, and so, are unavoidable when having to fork out large sums of money for them. When it comes to natural products though, for example furs & feathers one can get far more creative with them & have a more hands on approach to producing these products yourself.

Since moving to Finland I have done just that, and become so much more self sufficient with regards to being more inventive with my fly materials. I’m lucky to have enough contacts here now that provide me with furs and feathers all year round….well especially during the hunting season over here. With the credit crunch hitting all of us in some way or another…me included, I’m now constantly looking for ways to help me from having to stick my hands into my ever deepening pockets.

Probably the most popular natural product that all pike fly-fisherman use on their flies is rabbit fur zonker strips, for tying in those Bunny bugs we all feel need to be in our fly box arsenal. Being a tight arse is nothing to be ashamed off, yet motivating oneself to get off that lazy arse into gear, is! You could save yourself hundreds of Euros/Dollars per year if you’re willing enough to put that little bit of effort in. I mean how many times per week do you find yourself sitting in front of the box with your hand slid just under your belt watching some crap re run you’ve seen before……when actually you could be doing something more productive with your time?. I promise you this, that you’ll get an even greater buzz….I know I do, when the effort that was put into producing these materials myself has caught a pike.

Anyway rabbit fur is one product that is easy for me to acquire here. All it takes is one phone call and the next week I have fresh fur, which with a bit of effort can be cured and used in bundle loads. I understand many of you aren’t as fortunate to have this luxury on tap, but one can still buy whole ready cured and treated rabbit fur form suppliers if you shop around. Once you have the fur, you’ll need to dye it and these tight arse top tip video's will show you how easy it is to do. I have four rabbit pelts in the barn which will be dyed Purple, Black, Olive & Blue and once they are done and I’ve cut them into strips I’ll have made a total saving of around Є420,00. I don’t know about you but that’s a shit loada money….mate!

Pike & Predator flies

Dave (Mcfluffchucker) Lindsey has just uploaded new pike flies for sale. Why not drop by and have a look around at Pikeandpredatorfishingflies

New Perch flies (II)

Found these old flies lying around the other day and decided to bulk them up a bit more with some Tinsel flash, Super stretch floss, Flashabou dubbing and some FFF Flash and will use them now for perch flies. Wont be able to use them until late spring, early summer, but I'd rather have them and not need them, than need them and not have them.

Readers fish porn

Today’s fish porn comes from another PikeFFArticles reader Bill Henry. He says he fishes for pike every summer about 30 minutes from mid town New York City & It’s the best kept secret in fly fishing.
He uses an 8 wt rod with a Franco Vivarelli gold star reel, orvis 9I line and big flies! and he says he never uses wire but a fluorocarbon shock tippet (60- 80 lbs) only.
Thanks for these Bill and nice to meet you mate.

If any of you have any pike on the fly fish porn you would like to share with us here on PikeFFArticles then get hold of me through the contact form and I will email you right back. Send a short description of where you fish and what tackle you use as well.

If it looks like a shit hole where he's fishing then you wouldn't be wrong. Have just been sent this video footage of the same place .

Cobwebs dusted

Woke up yesterday morning with a hangover from hell from the previous nights family gathering. Copious quantities of alcohol and good food made getting out of bed nigh impossible but I was determined to dust off the cobwebs once and for all with a short session before breakfast. The water is still way too cold for me to be positive about catching any pike……..maybe in a week or so conditions will improve enough, although pike here still have the spawning period to contend with - (Well that’s what I was telling myself)

Anyway Lena & I headed back to Söderudden where I nearly sank Pasi’s boat last week and fished from the bank. I cant tell you how fantastic it felt to have a rod in my hand again, and to hear the distinctive sound of the fly line zipping past me back & forth with each chuck. The water was surprisingly crystal clear which made the fly extremely visible as I slowly retrieved it back with each strip. Unfortunately the wind got up and a snagged line halted any more fishing but on the whole it was positive session for all the right reasons....

Go to the Google map in the sidebar to check out where I was fishing.The Pink marker with the dot in the middle on the west of the island is the last place fished.