Free Swag!!

Its always great recieving unexpected free swag in the post.These two stunning beasts were sent by Terry Edelmann from "Fish heads flies n lore" which is fast becoming one of my favourite fly fishing sites to visit. Nice one Terry,cheers for these.They will definitely get given a good hammering in the Autumn. Must say though they aren't for the novice caster and weight a ton but thats how I like em. I've called em Terry's Bio hazard rodents and I'm just digging the foam heads with whiskers. These are sure going to push a lot of water. Your article is nearing completion mate and will be with you over the weekend.

Baitfish fry

Waters are warming up here which has braught the larger shoals of baitfish closer to shore and as I mentioned towards the end of last season I would spend the summer months fishing with much smaller flies than previous years through July and August. It's been interesting to note that inside the stomachs of the pike I've taken home for the table the last couple of weeks many have been filled with either tiny roach,sticklebacks and perch fry no longer than 2" inches in length. So I've downsized on my flies considerably as well. This fly is no longer than 3 inches, tied with some bucktail,craft fur and some dazzle grey flash caught me this fish last week.

Which in someways goes a long way to showing that these fish do change their eating habits here around the island no matter what size they are. I suppose its far more beneficial to gorge themselves twice a day by darting into large shoals of fry than targeting one larger fish every two days. Whether small fry are more nutritious with higher fat content than a larger prey sauce is a question I need answering. The sheer abundance of these slow moving shoals probably makes them an extremely easy food source, so it looks like the decission to use extremely small flies here during July & August is the way to approach pike on the fly here around the island.

Pike on the fly in Canada

Streamer time

Saw this the other day and thought it would be a nice addition to the video fly tying section on PFFA.

Catch/photo/release

Catch: This 96cm gave us a good run around the boat this morning

Photo: Caught with a weighted jigging fly over a deep drop off.

Revive & release: Always great to see them go back healthy and strong.

Back to the depths to rest.

Snotrocket madness!

Guiding has taken up 16 hrs of my day for the last month or so so sorry for the lack of posts recently. My fingers are swollen from yanking up the anchor rope so many times,have panda eyes from wearing the polaroids and I need a shave. Fishing has been consistant with yesterday giving us a 2 hrs session that only comes around once a month. 7 fish over 85cm the largest 97cm. 19 clients and 1572 pike caught so far this spring. Have some awesome film footage as well from the last couple of weeks. Anyway just bare with me over the next couple of weeks I'll try and post as much as I can.

pike on the fly in Canada

Fly Fishing for Pike - Saskatchewan, Canada from Jason Jacoby on Vimeo.

Why is it always the anonymous ones who leave a snotty comment on my blog about correct handling of fish. Many guides and pike anglers around the world, me included chin grip these fish and all go back to fight another day. I can only sumise that the the fella has nothing better to do than to dis blokes who catch and fish more than he does.Either that or he has to put up with a wife who has a face like a yaks arse and an arse like a yaks face.......I suppose this world has its fare share of tossers!!!!

Coming soon!...Chasing salties on the fly

Chasing Salties from Simon Graham on Vimeo.

Here's a short clip from a new film I'm working on called "Chasing Salties" on the fly around Replot island. Filled with fish porn,underwater pike and Baltic pike fly footage.

Pike on the fly in Serbia

Sauna conditions

Were in the throws of a major heatwave here on the island with temps soaring above 30'c and so the conditions have'nt been ideal this week for our clients. Saying that though, they've fished hard and have managed to catch some nice snotrockets.Even though I know this fact, its been great to hear them say that they are the hardest fighting pike they've had on the end of there lines.This can be attributed to them being on the constant move in search of the shoals of Herring and perch around the island Jeffrey,Gilles, Yamn & Leonard....It's been fantastic guiding you guys and I look forward to seeing you again lads.

Jacks back!

When the temps are this high, its time to go out in search of small Jacks sculking in the shallow bays. They give a good account of themselves and the fishing is very visual. This greedy little bugger snaffled a flash fly half its length.

Spring stats

Spring stats

72 days fished so far
385 fish caught before 12h00
9 blanks
357 after 12h00
412 caught on sunny or partly sunny days
281 on cloudy rainy days
136 caught on the west of the island
156 caught in the north of the island
92 caught in the centre of the island
77 caught in the east of the island
431 caught using a floating line
311 caught with an intermediate line
4 fish caught with the first cast of the session
516 caught while out wading or fishing from rocks
226 caught from boat
106 caught below 65 cm
139 caught between 65 cm - 70 cm
166 caught between 70 cm - 75 cm
177 caught between 75 cm – 80 cm
126 caught between 80 cm – 85cm
22 caught between 85 cm – 90 cm
6 caught between 90 cm – 95 cm
Largest 95cm
Smallest 21cm

Flies

124 Chartreuse; Chartreuse/white; chartreuse/black
135 Orange; Orange-black; Orange/white
141 Pink/black; Pink-white
118 Black; black/white; black/red; black/blue; black/yellow
52 Blue; blue/white
68 Flash variations
37 Red-white

Synthetic baitfish patterns

29 Perch patterns
14 Herring patterns
24 Bream patterns

In the press

Have a fantastic article written about fishing here around Replot island in this months French fishing magazine "Planete Carnassiers".....stoked!

This is fly

Its that time of the month again for the next instalment of "This is Fly" . Check out the great article on fly fishing for Tigerfish in Tanzania.

Pike on the fly in Hungary

Our brotha from another motha over at Soulful-flyin has been out and about snotrocketlining.Pop by the blog,its well worth the visit purely for the photography.