Happy New Fishing Year!

Not many days left of the 2012 fishing season now and some fishing trips for the next season is already planed. This season have had it's good and bad days but overall I'm quite pleased. The sea trout fishing in my home river Ljungan was realy bad all season. The Salmon season was better for me with some nice fishes over 22lbs even that I had health problems in June.

Now it's time to fill up the fly boxes again and there will be some new interesting patterns to try out next season. Have been tying all synthetic flies in diffrent styles that hopefuly will catch some nice chromers for me all through next season.

So now I would like to wish all my blog readers a Happy New Fishing Year!

Från Fluga till Antispinn 2012

On Saturday 8/12 it's time for the one day Fly fishing fair "Från Fluga till Antispinn" at Møller Bil in Uppsala Sweden 11:00-16:00

The Swedish Vision/Fly Dressing Team will be there and show some of the news for 2013.

Also there will be many fly tyers in da house showing there techics! Nicke B, Emma and my self will be there from the Fly Dressing team.

Welcome!

A nice day by the river!

The 21th of November and +8c in the air so it was a perfect day for fishing Sea trouts! I meet my buddie Marcus at the river around 8:00 and we tackled up our rods and started to fish. Not much happend trough the day until Marcus hooked up with a nice 2,5kg sea trout that gave him a nice fight! It was Marcus first ever Sea trout in River Ljungan but it won't be his last I got a feeling abouth! When the sun set behind there threes we decided to call it for the day. It was a great day anyway even if not the fishing were at it's best but when the weather is so good it's just nice to be out and meet friends on the river bank before the winter realy kicks in here!

Storm & Sea trouts!

On wednesday I got up early to go down to Ljusne again for some Sea trout fishing. When I looked out my bedroom window the threes was realy shaking in the strong winds so for a moment I was thinking abouth going back to bed again. After a cup of coffe I decided to go down to Ljusne anyway so I took my Vision Cult 13,8 #9 that works great in windy conditions and left my single hand skagit rig at home. Normaly I use both the 13,4 #7 Siks and Cult when fishing in Ljusne but also the 11,6 #7 GT Four and the 12,6 #6 Cult I use there and all loaded with Vision Ace Skagit heads.

After an 1.5 hour drive I pull in to the gas station and bought a dayticket and 2 minutes later I was down on the parking lot to Ljusne Fiskeklubbs beats. I jumped into my vaders and could start to fish right away in the middle pool called Goudes. The wind was now realy nasty but with the fown stream c-spey I got out the line in the water. Started to fish with the 13,4 Siks with a Bacon Roll Squidtruder on my leader and had one offer right away but nothing more. It was realy cold in the wind so after a cup of coffe in the fishing hut I waded out again.
Got one smaller Sea trout around 1kg right away in great that was released then I had to go to the hut again for some more coffe. Changed rod to the 13,8 with a heavier tip and had a fish right away but it came off. Two casts later I had a bite on the Bacon Roll cascade so I checked the fly and hook before trying again and bang... a better fish had taken the fly and after a nice fight I could return a 2kg bar of silver!
Waded out again and caught a smaller fish right away. By now my fingerwas realy cold so I had some more coffe to warm up my frozen body. Was sitting in the hut before I waded out in the river again and lost two right away and one of them feelt to be a bigger fish. Continued down pool and hooked up with 2 Sea trouts around 1kg then the fishing got slower with just some pulls on my flies.

After a shorter lunch break the light seams diffrent so i changed pattern from the orange/black BR to the Purple BT Intruder shrimp on the 13,4 Siks and caught two smaller Sea trouts right away. Now it was getting colder in the air and the sun started to go down but I decided to fish on for an hour before calling it the day. I had tied on a Smör-Saari tube on my 13,8 Cult and went in the water again. I fished down the pool but did not even have the smallest pull so when I had just two or three casts before I was at the end of the pool I had realy good offer but did not hook up. Took two more steps down and did another cast and fish on!
Feelt right away it was a heavier fish that was a real fighter and gave my a good fight. It was a colored fish around 3kg in great condition that I could take some pictures of before releasing it back into the river!

Buy now I had landed 8 Sea Trouts and lost at least 5 fishes so I was very pleased with my day! But decided to fish the pool one more time before going home. After 10-15 casts I was in to a nice fish so I started to get back to the bank and started to reel in the fish it made a run and came off... Went in the water again but had no more contact with any fish this day. I packed my stuff in the car and went home to take a long hot shower as I was chilled to the bone buy this time.

Nice to fish again!

Yesterday I did my first Sea trout fishing after I smashed my finger in the car door and it was fun even that it was crowded in Ljusne.

Picked up my good friend and fishing buddie Pelle around 07:45 and went to get are daytickets at the local gas station. There were many fishermens at the short fishable part of River Ljusnan on Ljusne Sportfiskeklubbs water.

We tackled up our rods and my choice for the day was Cult and Siks 13,4 7 with diffrent sink tips on the end of my skagit heads. Pelle had some fish on the on the first session and I had no contact so we changed pool and I list a bigger fish and had a couple of offers on my fly.
We then fished the upper pool and Pelle had a real good strike on his fly but nothing more from that pool. Just before lunchtime the wind changed and the fishing got slow but later in the afternoon the fishing picked up again and I had at least 5-6 fishes hitting the fly before I finaly caught a small Sea trout with some teeth marks from a seal. We fished on for an hour before we put down our rods and went to eat some hotdogs insted!

Even that Ljusne not is the nicest place to fish and there were many fishermens in the pools did I have a nice day. My finger started to hurt a bit in the afternoon but its just three weeks ago since my doctor stiched it back in one piece again!

5 rainy days on River Lainio

Was going to fish the last days of the season in Norway and River Gaula but in short notice I changed my plans to go up to the most northern parts of Sweden insted to fish the River Lainio with my good friends Pelle, Kalle and Greven. After a 10 hour drive I arrived in Kiruna and then we packed are tackle and other gear and said goodbye to civilasation for 5 days. We put up our base camp at the river bank and the master chef Kalle made some dinner for us and we had a drink our two before we went to sleep.

Kalle and I woke up early and started fishing upstream the camp. I had some nice size graylings and Kalle caught the first salmon for the trip. After breakfast Pelle and I caught our first Salmons on our rods. The weather was terrible with rain and hurricane winds but we did are best to get the flies out in the river. In the afternoon we decided to break up camp and move to another place. We drifted in our boats for some hours until we got to the place were we would put up our camp but then it was already dark and after a late dinner we crawled in are sleepingbags.

The next morning it still was raining and the river had rise a few cm so the fishing was a bit slow but we all had contact with fish and I got my biggest fish on trip.

So It continues with rain, fishing and top class food all trough the trip.

The last day the weather got worse and after paddling 10 hours in hurricane winds and rain we finaly meet up with are driver Putte and he had a cooler filled with ice cold beer ready for us. At the pick up point.

We all had a couple of Salmons and lost some fish as well. Greven that never had fished with spey rods for salmon did a great job learning to cast in difficult conditions and hooked up his first ever salmon, a 10kg fish!

I had a realy great time and thanks to my fishing buddies that made this trip a memory for life!

The Django Tube

The Django is what you can say a updated version of the Swedish fly pattern "Den Vanlige" (in english "The usual") that are a real killer fly in River Byske and many other rivers to. In the "original pattern theres a gold body, yellow, orange, fiery brown wing and a blue hackle but I have just borrowed the wing and hackle colors for The Django.

Pattern recipie:

Tube: Fl Blue Eumer Tubing

Body: First 1/2 Just the Fl Blue tube or Salt water Mirage Flash. Second 1/2 I use either Copper Dubbing, Copper Crystal Chenille or just a Copper Cone head (to add some weight to the fly)

Under Wing: Yellow and Hot Orange Bucktail tied in forward and then folded backwards. 2 strands of Copper Flashabou.

Over Wing: Fiery Brown Fox tied in forward and folded backward.

Hackle: First a Hot Orange Soft Hackle tied in After the Under wing. Second a Blue Soft Hackle tied in as a collar after the fox hair.

Sides: Two Yellow/Orange Barred Rubber Legs tied in on each side

Cheeks: JC

Head: Copper Eumer Monster Cone or a Eumer Copper Cone.

I also tie this fly in a Zonker version and then I just change the fox hair againts a Fiery Brown Zonker Stripe.

Skagit Girl

A short video when my 12 year old daughter Angelica doing a C-Spey with here Vision Cult 12,6 #6 rod. Bubblan the Ghillie dog is also pleased with her little masters casting.

2 days in River Lögde

My Daughter Angelica and I stuffed our car with fishing gear and went for a two hour drive north up to River Lögde. The fishing there have been realy good but we arrived with the warm weather and the river temp was up to19c.
We fished on late thursday evening and on friday we went to the beach insted of fishing. Started fishing again on friday evening around 21:00 and saw some fish but no bites, just moquito bites. On saturday morning we packed our car and went home.

Midsummer Salmon Fishing

Some pics from River Ljungan In June!

Skagit for Sea trout

Had my first fresh Sea trout for this season in my home river Ljungan on the 8th of april. It took on a Bucktail Willie Gunn tied on a Eumer Tear Drop Tube. You will see the fly in the end of the film. Had been fishing since for and recording with my GoPro camera so when I was going to land the fish the camera shut it self down because of low power. Did try to start it again but I only got some short clips when realeasing the fish and of the fly before it shut it self again. The fish was around 70cm and it gave me a hell of a fight and was airbourne 5-6 times so it was a real nice fight. I had my Vision Siks 13,4 7wt rod with a ACE Skagit 490gr T-14 12,5F and the water temp was 6,4C. After releasing the fish a sat down and had a cup of coffe and changed the leader. Put on the same fly again and out in the river and got a good take at the same spot as the first one but after 30sec the fish came off and then I changed fly but no more fish contact.

Squidtruders... Realy Kinky Rubber Flies

I have been mixing some diffrent style of flies like MAD Dragons, diffrent Intruders and Scott Howells Squidros to ended up with the Squidtruder. It took me awhile to get the flies to look and swim as I wanted them to do but after some times test fishing they was swimming just the way I wanted them to do. I have fished them hard in many Swedish Rivers like Ljungan, Lainio and Mörrum last season and they realy deliverd and both the Salmons and Sea trouts loved them. I tie the Squidtruders on both Waddington shanks and Plastic tubes and both versions catch fish. On the Tube version I use Eumer Monster Cones to get some extra movment and volym to the fly. I fish these flies mainly on the swing but also let them free drift sometimes.

You can convert many of your own favorite patters to this kind of flies. Lets say I will do a version of EM Silver I will use a yellow butt, green hair and green Sili Legs. Then Silver Dubbing followed buy orange hair and orange Sili Legs and the a blue hackle. Or else its fun just to use the colours you like and mix the together to something that you believe the fish will bite.


How to tie this babies:

Waddington Shank 20-25mm

Tube: Eumer Plastic in Large/Small Combo in the colour you prefer.

Butt: Chenille or Cactus Chenille in the colour you want.

When tying on Waddington:
Then tie in a loop of braid or other suiteble line to put the trailer hook on.

First Wing/Hackle: A bunch of Fox Hair in the colour you want spun in a dubbing loop. Take 7-10 Sili Legs and fold the on the middle and cut them in two equal bunches. Tie in the first bunch on top then rotate the vice and tie in the second bunch. Trim the ends with a scissor.

Body: Make a dubbing loop and put the dubbing material in the colour you want in the loop and spin the tread. Wound the ready loop around the shank or tube but besure to leave enough room for the second Wing/Hackle and the real eye dumb shell.

Second Wing/Hackle: Do just the same as the first and use what colours you like.

Dumb shell eyes: Tie in the eyes under the shank if using waddinton. Leave them out on the tubes and use a Monster Cone insted.

Antennas: 2 Barred Rubber Legs tied in on the middle on the side of the shank so they end around 30-40mm infront of the fly.

Hackle: Use a Soft hackle or Schlappen and tie it in as a collar over the rubber legs to you reach the eyes. Secure the tread with a drop Super glue.

Now the Waddington is ready and if you tie them on Tube you put on JC feathers on each side after the hackle and secure the tread with a drop of Super Glue and slide on a Monster Cone.

Now the fly is ready to catch fish!

This kind of flies have become realy popular here in Sweden now and much because of the last years Skagit Boom that have made it possible to fish them the right way so you don't need to chuck and duck!

Sea trout Fishing in River Indal

At 18:00 I picked up my fishing buddie Robin "Åre" Wretström for some Sea trout fishing in Bergeforsen River Indal.
The fishing is devided in 3 beats just below a Hydro plant just a couple of kilometers from the sea. We got are rod tickets and Robin showed me the hotspots in the pool that we were going to fish and we tackled up are Vision Siks and Cult rods with Ace Skagit T-14 tipp and tied are first choice of flies and started to fish. Robin is a very good fly tyer and his Rubber Leg Bugs works realy well in Bergeforsen so I tied some copies of his pattern earlier in the week that I was keen to try. After a couple of hours with out any fish contact I had two pulls on my fly but that was it. So we desided to take a break to and warm our self in the fishing hut and wait for the sunrise to fish the last hours of are tickets that ended at 07:00 in the morning. At 04:00 the light came back and with -1c it was not easy to change tippet and fly and also the wind had picked up so I can say it was a wee bit cold. Fished one pool again and then we went up to fish another pool were Robin have had great sucsses somedays earlier in the week. Did some casts but snagged the fly and lost it so I changed to small orange rubber legged bug and two cast later I had the first fish on! It ws a small but gave me a fun fight anyway and after awhile I could C&R a fresh from the sea fish around 2lbs. We changed place and 5min later Robin had a fish on but it came of. Them changed pool again but had no more fish contact so at 06:30 we called it for the day. Even if it was cold, bad wind not the best fishing we had a great time by the river.

River Mörrum

Had to great days in River Mörrum with Fly Dressing/Vision boys! We caught around 15 kelts and a clam on a fly. Heres some pics from the trip!

Bauer on the Kings chair

Bergman at work

Bauer is ready for some action

Brunch in the sun

Fish on

06:30

06.00

110cm Kelt

Peter is playing fish

The King

Back in Bucktail... with a twist!

Abouth 15years ago my cat by the name of Orvis pied in my box with Bucktail and I had to trow them away. Bye that time it was all Fox and Temple Dog hair in my flies so I did not bother to buy any new bucktails until two years ago when I wanted some other material than polar bear for building up the wings on my flies. So I'm back in bucktail again. After see Niklaus Bauers stuning Pike flies that he ties with a reversed to get a big translusent fly with lots of movement and with a foundation for all the soft flash material I started the tie in my bucktail pointing forward and the folded back. This technic will give you a light but big fly and that swimms a whole lot diffrent the big bulky fox or TD hair wings that are popular here in scandinavia. The soft fox or TD hair in use with thinner flash materials have tendencie to snug up in the hook and on the leader and you end up loosing half the wing trying to untangle the fly. The Bucktail do not tangle as easy and using with flash materials like Flashabou and Crystal Flash you still got a fly with great volym even in hard curent that won't tangle up so easy. The trick to get a good bucktail flies is of course to buy good quality soft curly summer hair and not the stiff and hard winter hair and not over dress the flies. If you use to much hair the fibers will lock it self and the fly will get stiff, bulky and not swimm as i should. After you tied some flies you will get the right "swung" on them and now you will have a realy good fly that swimms great and will catch you fish. I also tie my bucktails with the Monster Cones from Eumer that add more movment and volym to the fly. So why not try some bucktail flies this season and i don't think you will be disapointed.

Home, Sweet Home River!

-4,3c and the coffe is in the flask and two pairs of long johns are on! Have been waiting from late december last year to start the season in my home river Ljungan. The water temp is just 1,4c so the fish are not moving so much but me and my fishing buddie Mattias K tried some classic spring pools but no fish! We had a nice time anyway in the sun and will try again tomorrow with new flies and fresh coffe!

The Swedish Sport Fishing Fair 2012

The Vision/Eumer/Fly Dressing Team had a great weekend at the fair in Kista. It was fun to meet and greet with fishing friends and other fly fisher! A big thanks also to the students from Älvdalen, Pastorn, Åre och Tobbe that did a very good work in the monter!