Past week

Its been yet another blinding weeks fly-fishing for me here on the Island. Our birding clients left on Thursday so have been chucking fluff like a man possessed for the last 4 days. 17 fish in total caught and numerous lost.

Last night myself & Lena decided to take our dog down to Replot harbor for a run around 23h00 and off course I took my rod with for a few chucks. Third cast in and this is what it produced.

Go to the Google maps in the sidebar to see where they were caught (Green & Blue markers with the dots in or click the image to visit a bigger map

Vision's Mycket Bra

You know I don’t do enough proper tackle reviews here on PikeFFArticls so I thought I’d do one on Vision’s Mycket Bra. I bought this chest pack just under 3 yrs ago from a fly-fishing fair and its probably the best buy I have made with regards to fly fishing gear….ever.

The front pack has two large zippered pockets which I’m able to keep two boxes of assorted flies in, as well as a pair of sharp scissors, Fishing licenses, Camera, smokes, lighter, spare batteries, traces, leaders, Trace wire, hook sharpener. In front of those there is a handy zippered mesh pocket with 4 x tippet pockets where I also have some super glue and maybe a snack bar of some kind as well as my mobile phone.

The rear zippered pocket is ample but I would’ve liked to have seen a slightly larger compartment around another liter or so. Saying that in hindsight I still manage to have a water bottle and my wind breaker jacket plus a couple of energy bars for the session. From the picture it does look like it sits too high but to be honest I’ve found it extremely comfortable positioned between the shoulder blades. There is a handy D ring for clipping on your landing net, which is something us Snotrocketliners have no need for. And lastly there is a handy elastic mesh pouch at the bottom where I usually have a selection of Perch flies and small mouse imitations in a box.

Its compact and light and one can adjust the height of the pack to suite your needs. Best of all with the whole thing being centralized you get true freedom of movement and Casting becomes a pleasure. There are D rings on both shoulder pads where one can hook things from as well. Two snap straps connect it together with front and back and is easy to take off or spin around to get at the back pocket (see image next to the clip pliers) Lastly they come in either Green or Bone colour not that should matter.

If your somebody who uses a vest, and is looking for an up grade or just someone who is looking for that perfect piece of equipment, then look no more and get yourself one of these Mycket Bra’s from Vision. It will be the best money you will spend with regards to your fly-fishing ever.

Lastly, I am in now way sponsored by Vision or have been asked by them to write this review.

Friday Pin up after 12 beers!

23 yr old Beryl hails from Hobart in Tasmania……..I know, its hard to believe she’s from Tasmania. She started smoking from an early age due to the pressures of living in a caravan with her 4 brothers and 5 sisters, and learned to run faster than her father by the age of six. She works as a nursery school teacher at the “Jungle Jim” day care center and says that after a long hard week of having to put up with the constant screaming, wining & crying from the kids, she likes nothing better than to let her hair down with a couple of bottles of uncle Kens home made moonshine.

Baltic pike tours & Flies

A long time in the making due to other website design commitments, respectively our outdoors activities networks website “Leisurepath” and our other main project “ Paddlefinland”, “Baltic pike tours” website officially opened to the public today. For the last 3 years I’ve had Wilderness predator fly-fishing tours” up and running but since our move to the Baltic last year we decided on a whole new look & rename revolved around a brand which encapsulates Pike on the fly here on the west coast of Finland. Lena has worked tirelessly on it & is full of interesting info about the area we are based in, as well as travel tips, Prices, and a stunning gallery which depicts wonderfully Finland and the Kvarken world natural heritage site. Although the name has changed to “Baltic pike tours” We’ve brought with us the same Quality, Dedication and above all Service our past clients have experienced.

Click Banner to visit the site

Baltic Pike flies was born about primarily to supply Baltic pike tours clients with a range of patterns while they were on one of our tours but due to the increased interest in the sport here in Finland, I have been supplying several fly shops for a few years now with a range of tried and tested patterns that can be fished at all depths on river, lakes and also the Baltic sea

Baltic pike flies brand is not just a logo, it’s a commitment to supply some of the best and more importantly, uniquely designed tied flies available on the market today. There isn’t one pattern which is massed produced in some dingy sweat shop, Instead they’re tied with the quality you’d expect from a professional pike fly-fisherman & guide.

Click the Baltic pike flies banner to visit the fly shop

Thank you so much Lena for all your hard work in getting this project completed. Your a star.

Svedjehamn

Since arriving here on Replot I’ve been itching to fish up on the north part of the island, so I left early Monday morning and headed to Svedjehamn fishing harbor (Pictured above) parked the car up, grabbed my kit and took the Björkö-Panike Hiking trail. Most of the first 2km around the harbor is a restricted fishing area but to be honest I was just happy doing a bit of birding . In a 3 hour hike I managed to spot or hear 53 different species of birds which included Crane, White tailed eagle, Slovenian grebes, Pied fly catcher, Redshank, Curlew….well you get my drift. In hindsight I should have left my rod behind as the trail is just stunning to say the least.

Anyway, once I was out of the restricted zone I waded out for an hour and chucked a few flies around. I cant tell you how many pike I spotted warming themselves up in the morning sun. There haven’t been many times in my long pike fly-fishing career where I can actually site fish for this species but this was one of them. In just an hour I caught 5 jacks and must have watched at least 20 or so follow my fly in close before spotting me and darting off again.

As I’ve mentioned before Its always a palaver setting up a camera onto its timer, then getting into position before the 10 second red flashing light goes out so I don’t usually bother. I try to unhook the fish without even having to take it out the water but just for remembrance of a truly stunning mornings hike I snapped this one. Oh and I didn’t see a single sole the whole morning!

Go to my Google maps in the right column or Click Here to go to a bigger version and go to the red markers with the dots on them. The harbor has several images in a separate album.

Weekly fly - The Dahlberg diver

I featured a few months back a video tutorial regarding the Dahlberg diver, well Here is a different tutorial tied by Ken Bohannon which I've found very interesting.

Into the Wild

The great thing about Finland is there are vast expanses of wilderness to be fished in, and Replot Island is no different. So I’ve decided in a few weeks to pack my backpack with all the necessary essentials and bugger off for a few days into one of the uninhabited areas of the island and do a field trip once my clients have left.

I’ve earmarked the 12th 13th & 14th of June on the calendar and with my USB modem attached to my laptop, will be writing twice daily feeds through PikeFFArtiles and on Twitter so you can follow me as I fish the area. Each day will be marked on the Google map in the sidebar with images and fish porn also from that day….if any?

Pike on the fly doesn’t get any better than this for me. Traveling on foot, camping out in an unknown wilderness area, armed with an assortment of flies with the knowledge that not a single snot rocket would have ever encountered a fly chucked in front of their snouts…literally virgin waters for me to explore and fish on.

The rectangular area I’ve marked is where I’ll be heading for. Lena’s going to drop me off on the Friday at the canal (marked) I’ll be chucking fluff along its east bank, slowly making my way inland to the sea, where I’ll spend the next 2 days wading the coastline in search of piking nirvana. Total distance covered…..maybe 10 – 12km. (Click the images and they will take you to a more detailed map which you can enlarge and click and drag around) The thin red line will be my route.

Just to keep your interests going I’m going to throw in a couple of Baltic pike flies tied by me for the person who guesses the (A) closest weight to the biggest pike I catch over the weekend and also a couple of flies to the person who guesses correctly (B)how many pike in total I will catch also over the whole weekend. Submit your answers in the comments section for this post or through the contact form and leave your email address. One correct entry for each question will be randomly selected (by a number generator) to receive a couple of free flies.

Using Carrots

1st we had the Floater, now we have the ultimate tight arse top tip from the tight arse top tip country in the world Russia. Who needs expensive lures when you can use vegetables instead. Check out this tight arse Russian and how he goes about catching pike. We could all learn from something from this chap! youv'e got to love bio degradable fishing.

Spearfishing for pike

Why use a fly-rod when you can use a spear gun instead.Check out this video of Andrea Pettinti spearfishing for Pike. Actually he has a great website with other video footage of fish he has targeted around the globe. Different strokes for different blokes, I suppose.Click the the linked name to visit his site.

Luccio 11 kg from andrea pettiti on Vimeo.

Dyckers

The great thing about growing up in South Africa was that I learned Afrikaans. Old world Dutch compared to the new world Dutch which is spoken in The Netherlands today. Sure there are differences but there are also a lot of similarities which has allowed me to tap into the Pike on the fly scene over there as well as in Germany.

I lived in the Netherlands for nine months in 95 in a place called Hertogenbosh near Castle Ammerzoden - Kasteel Ammersoyen close to the Maas river and is where I 1^st learned about pike on the fly. Dykes/Canals form an integral part of the Dutch waterways in the Netherlands and is where a lot of fly-fishing for pike is done. Anyway most of you in fact will not have heard of a Dutch website called “DYKERS” run by a chap called Edwin Kerssies, shortly translated means Canaler’s, although the website is more about the passion of fly-fishing and doesn’t just focus on Pike but other species like Carp, Asp & even Trout.Its crammed full of interesting stuff from video footage, films, Fly shop featuring a large range Enrico Puglisi flies & also a top blog, which unfortunately is only in Dutch.

Anyway click the logo to visit this wonderfully presented site. Go to the (Nieuws & Media tab) to watch a few short films or click movies down the right sidebar in the (Catagorieën) column. I particularly liked the “Dykers Movie” and reminds me so much of my time in the Netherlands starting up in the sport.

Dank u wel! Edwin, Fantastisch website

Friday Pin up after 12 beers!

Today's Friday pin up is Erina also Miss Afghanistan, and is PikeFFArticles 1st real pin up in the true sense of the words. Speaking to her on the phone last week, she says that since the demise of Bin Ladens Taliban regime, women have had a lot more freedom which has enabled her to let her hair down a lot more…..no shit! She presently works as a lingerie model but says she is finding it increasingly hard to get work at the moment. With Epping forest hanging from her crotch & armpits, I’m not feckin surprised!

Fly porn

Here are a few more flies I have been tying for the new Baltic pike flies up and coming Catalog opener,in a few days. All these are presently being supplied to shops here in Finland. Click the images to go to a larger version.

Zonker paddle streamer 120mm

Small black Baitfish 100mm

Wig hair streamer (Black) 200mm

Herring baitfish pattern 180mm
Wig hair streamer 200mm (Orange)

Baitfish pattern 180mm

When the fishings shit!

You know I haven't half laid some cable in my time, but I've never chucked it out in search of mike the pike. Here's the perfect lure for those days when the fishing is truly SHIT! I found these the other day "The Floater", The number 2 lure ,that's number 1........it says on the packaging! perfect for imitating "Browns and Crappies".

Click the image to go to sewerlure.com's website

15,35 kg fly caught pike

Here is Truls Svendsen with his prized catch. The 13yr old caught this in Norway quite recently and is believed to be the biggest fly caught pike in the country......Well you may as well give up now lad cause you ain't gunna do that again......All I can say is I'm dribblin!

If you can read Norwegian then click the image to read the story.

Weekly pike fly

Here's Brian Grensteen with another video tutorial. You have to love the simplicity of this guys flies. Have had a number of you asking whats the name of the chenille he is using on his flies so I have sent him an email and he'll let me know soon.

PikeFly 2 from Brian Grensteen on Vimeo.

Privileged times

You know I feel very privileged to now live the lifestyle I do. It was only 4 and a half years ago I was stuck in a dead end job working 12 hour days, 7 days a week as a building maintenance engineer at a bank in London. Sure the money was great, but I never got to spend it and I certainly didn’t have a life. For all you people stuck in a rut, either sitting behind some desk or working at a factory I feel for you….I do.

With clients arriving in a week, I’ve been looking for an area where I can take them for a days fishing other than being on a boat and I’ve found it at Söderuddens found on the west of the island. I’d heard from our neighbor, that the area was teaming with pike and so I spent around 3 hours a day up there last week wading and chucking fluff, and they weren’t wrong. In total 46 pike were caught and I lost around half that close to shore. Water depth varies from around 1 meter to 3 meters and was crystal clear. I lost count how many fish I watched come out from behind cover to scoff down my flies.

I spotted 33 different species of birds including Osprey, White tailed eagle, Sparrow hawk, Falcon, Cranes and a pair of Smew’s which took me by surprise as they are mainly found in the East of Finland. Best of all I saw just 3 people the whole week who passed me in their boats.

Go to the Google map in the sidebar to see where I was. Zoom in on the pink dotted markers for a better look or you can go to a bigger version by clicking the picture.

Gurglebug divers

Have been tying a few surface lures over the last few days. All range in size between 100m - 200mm long and have varied some with weed guards and some rubber legs of the sides of them. One can use these as poppers but I like to fish them on an intermediate line letting the line sink a few seconds before I start my retrieval. Depending on how deep your fishing, the foam head, although having a plate at the back of the head allowing the bug to dive, it will start to float back to the surface giving the fly a wicked action through the water column,especially the eel/salamander bugs tied with Zonker strips. They might look like Bass flies but having to downsize the images hasn't done them much justice.

Fluff chucked pike from around the globe

Here's some footage from Alaska for an easy Sunday mornings viewing. Don't know whether its the best battle ever with a pike, and am sure he could have fought it a lot harder, but still nice to see It was released back from whence it came

Snotrocketliners

Pike, Muskie & Tiger Muskie, all get given such bad press, for either invading new waters or depleting existing stocks of Blueliner fish, yet they have as much right being there, and form an integral part of these waterways ecosystems as any other bloody species. With the exception of Browlining, Pike & Muskie on the fly is the fastest growing form of fishing in the Northern hemisphere at present.

Fly-fishing equipment manufacturers are coming around to the fact that there’s an ever expanding market for specific Pike/Muskie lines, shooting heads & specialized rods, and so more money is being used in the development of improving specific tackle to target these species. One only has to look at the new innovations of pike flies and their designs, to know that the sport is on the up. Pike on the fly is just as enjoyable as any other form of fly-fishing and will cost you a hell of a lot less to pursue than say Trout and Salmon fly-fishing & with the slow demise of these Hollywood blueliner fish due to numerous factors, ie: Norwegian fish farming or the over damming of major waterways there’ll eventually be more & more people either taking up Brownlining or Snotrocketlining in the future.

For all you snotrocketliners that do target any of the above mentioned species (Pike, Muskie, Tiger Muskie, Amur pike & Pickerel) on the fly and have your own blog or website and are dedicated to the well being of these magnificent species either through their conservation or just correct catch & release policies, then feel free to cut and paste this image into your sidebar.

A big thank you goes out to Lena for designing the logo....Cheers Hon!

Stroli sculpi

Here is another tutorial from Richard Strolis tying a Sculpin pattern. Sure not traditionally a pike fly but by extending the tail it would be perfect for Snotrockets.

Stroli Sculpin from Richard Strolis on Vimeo.

Rowland Frasier part (III)

As you can see Rowland gets around the world quite a bit fishing.Here are just a few images He has sent me from his trips to the Amazon, Lake Misaw and other exotic fishing destinations.

Esox custom flies

As you can see the old boy is no mug in front of a fly tying stand either. Every one of the pike from yesterdays post were caught on these flies especially the long tailed streamers. He says he’s always creating new flies and has 3 or 4 new ones that he’ll be testing this summer in Canada……One he says is really unique. I’ve heard murmurings through the grape vines that a new book on Pike flies is being penned as you read by well known Dutch Pike author & Fly-fisherman, and am sure you will see one or two of Rowland’s creations featured on its pages in the future.


He does sell his flies under “Esox custom Flies”, unfortunately he doesn’t have a website well not that I’ve been able to find, but I’m sure you can email him with an enquiry or an order once he gets back from New Zealand in a few weeks fly-fishing for trout.


Rowland Frasier
Email: pikefly@aol.com