I've been so busy over the last week especially since Balticpikeflies.com opened. I had no idea that I would get so many orders for flies so soon,so If your waiting for your order then please bare with me. Sure its nice to be in a position where I can say to people they have been placed in a cue but I also like to get my orders out still with the same quality and standard you'd expect.I'm not prepared to rush an order so I can just get the next one on the go.
This is an Olive Banger tied with some black bucktail for body and have used some olive Ostrich hurl for the main wing/tail and some olive Marabou hairline for the head.
This is an all orange banger and has been catching me a good few fish at the start of this season. Was particularly effective down in Merikarvia last week when Rowland was over as well as the pink white banger. Orange seems to be one of those colours I can count on over here when the chips are down.
Anyway I have some cool things to be posting over the next month with regards to materials,spinner attractors, flies,catch & release, reviews, products websites,Reels.......so stay tuned.
Some more Mirror Image baitfish patterns I've been using the last few days with varying success. Am sure with warmer weather they will bag me more than I've been getting. They look fantastic under the water and have a real fishy action. The top two are tied with Steelhead silver and a small sprig or olive raccoon for the underchin.While the bottom 2 are Steelhead silver with a sprig or yellow Raccon for the chin.
Another two chaps I was glad to have met during the tournament were Steve Gait & David Smith from the UK. Like most they found the going tough the first couple of days and battled to improve their score for the tournament but came into their own once things became a lot more relaxed with both bettering their own PB's.Steve in fact broke his pb 5 times in 3 days
While David here bettered his with nice fish.Thanks for coming out lads I truly enjoyed your friendship and having you here.
No 50 so far for the season. I'ts been a period of ups n downs for me these last 2 weeks. By this time last season I had doubled this tally but with the winter we've just had and temps dropping drastically since last week it feels like I've had to grind every pike out. I've tried different flies,rigs,retrieves and even added small spinner blades to my leaders for extra attractors yet the pike seem reluctant to snaffle my fluff.Most have been hooked in the front of the lower or upper jaw depending on which way the hook is facing, which says to me they are still in post winter mode. Things can only get better though.
Im a bit late with this but I suppose better late than never.Anyway the next instalment from the boys at Sleeping in the dirt featured last week and its the absolute bollocks. click the image to visit 'Road trip'.
Sorry for the lack of posts again this last week but I've been extremely busy..... or should I say very privalaged to have been fishing with another true gentleman within the world of pike fly-fishing Rowland Frazier the last couple of days. It hasn't been easy this last week here on Replot and locating pike has been extremely hard. Pike seem to be in that post spawn funk they go through coupled with that weve had some adverse and often difficult weather conditions to contend with.Saying that though we've picked up 5 or 6 in the 85 to 89 cm (35inch) bracket and we still have 2 more days of fishing to go.
This is something I'm seriously looking into. I spend a lot of time wading here on the island and using this technique from rocky points would expand my target area considerably. My only downfall is getting to grips with rigging up a skaggit line for my 2 handed rod. If anyone knows how to construct one please get hold of me to share some ideas. Sure they rely on current to be able to load the line but am sure with a decent wind behind you it would work in the same principle.
This is a combination of Olive ostrich hurl silver FFF Flash black bucktail a couple of green grizzly microbarbs and some plum arctic fox for under the chin.
Think I'm going to fish with this tomorrow with Rowland from the States.Fishing was slow today and only several small jacks were caught and released. Pike are in that post spawn funk here around the island but with favourable moon phases in place things are going to change.
Mike Green....What can I say except I am truly happy to have me this true gentelman of the sport. I had the pleasure of skippering him for one of the days during the tournament and how quickly the day went. He was partnered by Guy Eldridge and between them they outfished all of the young guns. Watching him chuck fluff was sheer poetry in motion. He didn't get into any big ones during his time over here but was chuffed with this 75cm pike none the less. Mike Thanks for the great stories and polishing of the whiskey me old son! Looking forward to having you back next year with family n friends.
Harmen-Jan here with a modest pike of around 70cm. This is another chap I'd been looking forward to skippering and between him and Erik they boated 25 fish for the day. all around the 75 - 85cm bracket. I know next year they will be well up for returning with a different game plan and hopefully some smaller flies than the monster 45 cm ones they brandished in their boxes. They did their sponsors proud.Thanks for the laughs and great times Harmen-Jan.
Sander van der Wal....another fantastic fly fisherman and couldn't be more relaxed if you asked him. Between himself and Henk-Jan I spent a fantastic few hours that will go down in my books as a ripper of a session. Caught pikes were celebrated with large swigs from a Captain morgans bottle and discussions about a specific hook most Dutch pike fly fisherman swear by........its shit!
During copius quantities of rum and whiskey on Saturday evening I offered to take Sander & Henk-Jan out for one last session before they left at 10h00 the next day for the airport and what a 3 hour session we had. To be truthful I was surprised they looked as fresh as they did when we got to the boat jetty. A 15min boat trip to a spot they had been fishing the day before turned out to be one of the best 3 hour sessions of Pike fly fishing I have ever experienced in my life. Pike were literally breaching themselves out of the water in front of the boat as we arrived. The anchor was dropped and for the next 2 hours all hell broke loose. 8 fish were caught all above 85cm with this one being 106cm and we lost another 4 or 5 close to the boat as well......Video footage of me loosing one big mother fucker to a dodgy hook.....I'm sure will feature on the Dutch fours blog in the next couple of weeks.
A truly memorable fishing session that will live with me for ever. Cheers for the ride Sander & Henk-Jan it was emotional!
With the coldest winter here in Finland for 70 yrs, conditions just weren't ideal to say the least.Pike were three weeks late into spawning due to colder water conditions which made the fishing extremely hard and more to the point frustrating at times. The fishing grounds were teaming with pike but were reluctant to take fly and any fish caught were nearly all post spawn. Never the less there was a real buzz within the teams and some decent fish started getting pulled out.
Henk-Jan with a 98cm
Pierre-Luc with a 78cm
Henk-Jan with a 96cm & Sander Van der Wal with an 88cm. This was probably the best 2 hours fishing of the whole week and I'll write something about it for tomorrow.
David Smith with the 1st or 2 pike over 100 cm. This one was 106cm
Benoit Brumiller with a 90 cm
David Smith with his 2nd at 103cm
Erik Hakkert with an 80cm Me with a small Jack of around 70cm
Due to a problem with the Internet wireless at the lodge we were unable to update the daily standings and catch progress. Anyway Finland had sent a strong team which left the others playing catch up the remaining two days. With pike either spawning or in post spawn blues getting pike to take flies became increasingly frustrating for the teams. With weather conditions changing daily.....so did the tactics. The Dutch four changed their approach from using their long bunny streamers to shorter 100mm schlapen baitfish patterns while the English team kept plodding on with their typically British bulldog never say die approach.After 3 grueling days 1st place went to Team Vision (Tuomas Rytkonen & Saku Pylvainen) from Finland with a total length of 1449 cm 2nd place went to Team England (Mike Smith & Guy Eldridge) with a total length of 1162 cm 3rd place went to the Dutch four (Harmen-Jan Platvoet & Erik Hakkert) with a total length of 1062 cm A total of 127 pike were caught during the tournament and over 421 were caught for the whole week. 8 PB's were broken as well
Sorry for the lack of posts over the last week but not only has it been extremely busy down in Merikarvia with the tournament but the internet wireless connection was terrible at the lodge so making daily updates became impossible.Over the next few days I'll report on the event and the last weeks fishing as images get sent from all the contestants.
As promised though, I said Balticpikeflies.com would open on the 17th May for business which I'm happy to announce the shop is now open for business. I know there has been a lot of you that have already opened accounts and have been waiting patiently for this day but we wanted to get it right from the get go.
Day one of the tournament and its been a tough couple of days fishing, yet has produced a few good sized fish.Conditions haven't been easy in that there is not a hell of visibility due to murky waters and the pike are either spawning or just finished.
Today saw the Dutch take an early lead with a few 80 cm fish and some smaller jacks.
While the day goes to the Fins with Tuomas Rutknonen bagging the 1st of 2 fish over 100 cm with this one at 102cm. And this one at 112 cm 10 minutes before the clock rang for the end of the 1st days fishing
Finland lead with England second and the Dutch 3rd. I'll write a more extensive report tomorrow as I'll have more time to spend on the internet.
During yesterdays practice day I managed to chuck some fluff for a few hours with the Pikesaber and managed this 6.2kg pike and my 1st pike of the season. Chucking large wads of fluff was a real struggle in the wind and I battled with this girl far longer than I should have. I found the rod extremely soft and just couldn't give it the welly I would have liked. At times I became quite frustrated because the loop to loop connections from my fly line to my shooting head just wouldn't pass through the top 3 eyes and literally gave up trying to cast into the wind when the situation arose.
Not an easy pike to fish for in a small rubber inflatable I can tell you.
This is what the tournament is about........Catch,photo, release! As I mentioned there will be a more in depth report tomorrow.
This is one fly I'm really looking forward to using.Orange for some reason is one of those colours that did surprisingly well for me last season. This tied with Hot orange mirror image with black trim for a lateral line and some black raccoon for under its chin.
On another note it has come to my attention that a "supposed prominent" pike fly fisherman in the UK has been slagging of my flies to people as well as through some of the forums stating that they are shit and fall apart after using them only once. Not only have I never sold this chap any of my flies but he has never used them in his life. All I have to say is things always have a funny way of turning round and biting you back and will be the downfall of this fella......nuff said!
One of the reasons I've been pining for the ice to melt is because I've been itching to get out and test the new Pikesaber which was sent to me towards the end of last year. It comes highly recommended & It's been approved by the Pike fly fishing association...So its got to be good!
Anyway since the ice started melting I've been out testing every day for a couple of hours in all manner of conditions with an array of different fly lines, reels and off course flies. I haven't caught anything on it yet but Pike are 2 weeks later with their spawning than last year. I'll be taking it down to Merikarvia next week for the teams to try out to get their opinions on it and whether I share similar views. I've started a review which will eventually be in PDF form as it will be too long to put on the blog. This rod deserves a proper testing and you the punters deserve a proper review.
So bare with me for another month or so and I'll have one ready for you.
With the pike fly tournament nearly upon us and the new Baltic pike flies shop complete here is the latest installment in the Baltic pike flies collection "Issue 4". Best viewed in full screen mode! Balticpikeflies.com will be officially opened on Monday 17 May, once I'm back from Merikarvia.
More baitfish hybrid patterns for the summer months. These two variations are tied with mirror image. A material I'm slowly coming to enjoy more & more. Its probably one of the best materials on the market for tying this kind of fly,purely because of the extra movement it gives off when under the water. I tied this same pattern with slinky fiber and was able to show the differences in quality between the two in the test pool in Helsinki.
This fly is best used with an intermediate line using short sharp strips with decent pauses in between. For pike flies I've found that to get the best out of the material tie your flies around 160mm long. If you pinch the material up wards when sticking on your eyes it raises the profile of the fly slightly thus giving a little more surface area to allow for better movement.This is a Herring hybrid pattern.
As you've probably noticed I like to combine different materials on my flies. By adding a small sprig of raccoon fur for the under belly/chin I'm hoping to give a little more movement to the fly. Not much but maybe just enough to entice a pike into taking the fly. This one is more of a Rainbow trout pattern.
Since moving here to Replot I've had to change my tactics slightly especially If I'm spending a day wading. I'm generally fishing in water depths between 60cm and a meter & a half. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy fishing from a boat, but I'm more happier waist deep in water. It does have it's downfalls in that your not able to get as much distance with each cast, but on a whole there is something about playing a fish half submerged in water.
Anyway I have been tying some poppers that I can use with one of my slow sinking intermediate lines in shallow water conditions. Getting the the right mix of materials so as to balance the popper so it just stays just below the surface of the water has been challenging. I was given some foam popper heads a couple of months back to try out and at 40mm long I had to use some long shanked 6/0 hooks from Fulling mill,which I wasn't to thrilled about. With this one I painted glue over the popper head then sprinkled fine green glitter over it.stuck a couple of eyes on and then Bug-bonded over that. The main body is a mix of white bucktail, Chartreuse goat hair. Strands of light green flashaboy with a red UV polar chenille collar.
I used red fine glitter with this head and used the same process. The body is a combination of large Hot orange grizzly saddles,White Icelandic sheep hair.Some strands of holographic Xmas tinsel followed by Black UV polar chenille collar.
I've been so busy over the last week especially since Balticpikeflies.com opened. I had no idea that I would get so many orders for flies so soon,so If your waiting for your order then please bare with me. Sure its nice to be in a position where I can say to people they have been placed in a cue but I also like to get my orders out still with the same quality and standard you'd expect.I'm not prepared to rush an order so I can just get the next one on the go.
This is an Olive Banger tied with some black bucktail for body and have used some olive Ostrich hurl for the main wing/tail and some olive Marabou hairline for the head.
This is an all orange banger and has been catching me a good few fish at the start of this season. Was particularly effective down in Merikarvia last week when Rowland was over as well as the pink white banger. Orange seems to be one of those colours I can count on over here when the chips are down. 
Anyway I have some cool things to be posting over the next month with regards to materials,spinner attractors, flies,catch & release, reviews, products websites,Reels.......so stay tuned.
