#fishingetc

Helsinki Spey Clave Demo and Mikael Frödin’s Masterclass Traditional spring demo at Helsinki Spey Clave and this year the guys had arranged a free Masterclass presentation by Mikael Frödin for the customers. Micke also tied some salmonflies today at the shop before we headed out to test some new rods and lines. Håkan Norling was there with a good selection of Guideline rods like the new LXi T-Pacs and the shop had their demos of C.F. Burkheimer rods and some Scott Tidals as well. Fun gettogether all in all and nice to see Håkan and Micke again and hear what’s going on in the world of salmon fishing. I value those guys knowledge pretty highly and could listen to the fishing stories they have forever.

British Fly Fair International 2015 Just went through the set of photos from UK where I attended the BFFI 2015. It was my first time at this legendary show and really enjoyed catching up with good old friends and plenty of new ones. I was seated in the "viking row" with Swedish and Norwegian tyers and liked the dry flies they were tying. I have been neglecting my dry fly boxes for too long. And I thought I used small flies in general when fishing for trout when tying most on #14-18 hooks, these guys were using anything from #20-32! Maybe I have to change my fly selection next time I'm fishing in Sweden or Norway. The best thing about these shows is that you come back home more motivated than ever. It's a privilege to get to see talented tyers at work and to get to brainstorm with them afterwards. If only there was enough time to execute all the ideas. Big thank you to Steve and Bridgette for giving me the chance to participate in this event. And to everyone I saw at the show, hope we will meet again soon.

The Classic Salmon and Sea Trout Fly Compendium - Grewcock & Carne This massive book that features basically all published and some unpublished classic salmon flies compiled by Barry Grewcock with the help of Dave Carne was published this summer as a limited edition on a pre-order only basis. It's mostly a pattern reference book and I'm happy to announce that Barry has decided to offer a stripped down working copy of the book to the public. The new book is named "The Fly Dresser's Guide to Classic Salmon and Sea Trout Flies" and it features all of the patterns without the photos featured in the compendium. The first printing will be available in the end of November and you can order it directly from Barry by sending an e-mail to [email protected] You can see sample of the new book here

Damnation screening in Helsinki and a seminar at the parliament about the future of our rivers An exhausting but still very motivational day at the Finnish parliament listening to politicians and scientists about the future use of our rivers and hydropower as a "green" source of energy. We have many local struggles with hydropower and dams which I'm not going to dig in to at this blog but in short there has been talk about opening our free flowing rivers to building of new dams which is pretty absurd in a flat country like Finland which on top of that already has damned almost all of it's rivers and destroyed many internationally remarkable salmon and trout populations. We also had the pleasure of having Matt Stoecker, co-producer of Damnation, explaining why USA is breaching dams instead of building them . People really should stop referring to hydro as a green source of energy because it just isn't. It blocks migration of fish, reservations take over large pieces of land, other parts of the rivers occasionally dry up, they have big methane emissions which is far more effective greenhouse gas than CO2 etc. After the seminar we went on to a screening of Damnation document with Matt having a q&a afterwards. Really enjoyed the movie and listening to a guy who is enthusiastic about what he does and well educated on the matter.

Deerhair divers for Pike Pike season is fully starting here as the waters keep getting cooler and the big pikes come to the more shallow parts of the water. From time to time I try to use poppers and divers to attract pike because while maybe not the most effective way to catch pike it sure is the most fun. Nothing beats the excitement of tracking your fly on the surface and waiting for the water to explode underneath it. As I get back to tying more I will try to do a step by step of these muddlers but for now enjoy couple cool shots from last fall. Can't wait to get back on the water. Pink & Black Diver Tail/Wing: Long black and pink hackle feathers mixed in with some fl. pink Bucktail and peacock black Krinkle Mirror Flash Head: Pink and black Deerhair tied with the muddler technique and cut to shape with a razor blade. I usually put couple 3d eyes to the sides and reinforce the area over and around the eyes and in front of the fly with UV-resin or better yet epoxy. This makes the fly last much longer although you sometimes still get unlucky and can trash the fly after couple fish. You can see the reinforcement in the close-up photo.