25 Apr 2013

Top water pike flies

I don't often tie from books, of course i do take inspiration but this time i did tie a true topwater classic.
The Dahlberg Diver.
Two colours, yellowish and white.
Two different sizes.

It was a while since i cut any kinds of muddler heads but i'm fond of the second one, the white one.
The purple wing is purely cosmetic.


24 Apr 2013

Here's one i really enjoyed.
Diverse species, diverse fishing, a bit of humor.
Nice!



23 Apr 2013

First fish of the year!

So, i went out fishing this weekend.
Big surprise.

I hooked and landed the first fish of the year, a smaller pike, just above 1 kilo i'd say.
Didn't weigh it.

It was a textbook spring pike.
The fish stood at a dropoff, attacked the fly after a few strips but missed.
I presented it in the same place again, stripped home a few times and BAM!
I set the hook and smiled but it wasn't that much of a fight, the water is still cold, in fact the ice is still clinging to the bays and covers the lakes even thicker.

Short fight, small male in waiting for spawning.

But the season has started!

The culprit. Not the biggest pike i've caught, about 45 cm long.
But few things beat the feeling of the first hook up of the year!
 

18 Apr 2013

Spring is comming

It's been warm the last week and almost all the snow is gone.
Some rain and heavy wind should probably make short work with the ice.
I went to a small river some days ago and it was a proper spring flood, brown raging water!
It'll settle down soon and hopefully the water will rise.

In the meantime i've gotten some new materials for my tying.
Grizzly saddle and epoxy eyes from Taimen.

Here's some new stuff!

Pike fly with trailing feathers and rubber legs.

Spent Danica.
This is a work in progress using deerhair for boyancy and for wings.

For this project i shape the hooks to really look like a dying drake.
Fierce orange EHC with rubber legs.
One of my best grayling flies is the Orange Attacker (pic in the post) and i thought "what the hell, might as well try one as a dry.
You can clearly see the grayling taking an interest!


7 Apr 2013

New stuff from the vice.

Todays fly tying consisted of big nymphs and larvae.
And a Caddis dryfly as well.

Got really into crocheted bodies and made these three glowbug caddis larvae and then went on to crochet the body on the dry as well.
It was a fun technique that i plan on keep using and develop my skill in!

Glowbugs

Big caddis with crocheted body.

The days collection.

Simple but nice.

The East Dalecarlia River.




The Indian Fly.


So. I finaly went down for a try at the pike.
Took the bike a fair distance to a shallow bay i spotted from the train the other day and then looked up on the net.
Got there and realised that it was dry.
And covered with ice as well..
As with all my pike spots.

I've come to realise there's a bit of a problem if you will with my part of the river.
It's deep and hard to get down in to, nothing new there.

The seasonal changes, backed by hydroplants way up the river on the other side of lake Siljan  means that in the early spring the river is really low.
That means the shallow bays of the river are all dried out.
Wich in turn means no vegetation that draws the pike in for spawning.

The main flow of the river is basicly a loose mud bottom and that combined with a strong current means little to no vegetation there either.
Some big rocks and a lot of sunken timber means a fairly good ground for rainbow trout though.

My theory is that the pike will probably not spawn at my usual spots this year but go spawn in the lake.

A sad aspect of the low river is that you can see tons and tons of shoppingcarts and old bikes along with remnants of the timber rafting times lying on the bottom.
Makes me sad to see all the things people just dump in the water thinking it'll just vanish magically...

Anyhow, the pike spots are probably good in the summer when the vegetation is back and i'm not here anymore.
For now there's no pike fishing to be done.
Hopefully the water will keep warming up to at least give me some good rainbow fishing before i move on to new waters and new adventures!
There was a tiny hatch two days ago of some small mayfly but not nearly enough to get the fish up from the depths.

Lets hope for spring!

3 Apr 2013

A day of diverse tying

I've done a couple of diffrent flies today as well as a floating tip for my skagit setup.

First of some bushy Monster Caddis.
The are actually better looking in real life,on the photo they look a bit sloppy but still, i like them either way.
On the other hand, first try ever at this fly so i'd say it's still allright.
Tied on tubes.


Then a scaledown of an old pike-fly that i realised is to small for pike but might prove good for seatrout or steelhead if i ever get to fish for them.
I downsized it and added eyes to fit my normal 2hand fishing as well.



Lastly, a pike one.
Nothing fancy really, just got carried away with tying.