If you think jazz and fly fishing is a strange combination (that you dig for some reason), you should see this: The Fiddle and Creel, a blog about bluegrass and fly fishing! Described with their own words: Life at the intersection of Bluegrass and Fly Fishing.
Early in the morning, while the other guys were fast asleep, I snuck out of the tipi.
In the arctic mountain lake just outside our tipi, there was a huge mayfly hatch going, and a large brown trout was having an early morning feast. It took my fly on the very first cast, and I started shouting like a madman, trying to wake the other guys so we could get it on film. Our producer, Petzi, grabbed my camcorder and shot this little piece, toothbrush in mouth. I guess you can tell that he had just woken up from the way he handles the camera…
The trout turned out to be the one of the longest dry fly trout I´ve ever caught, but it certainly wasn´t one of the heaviest…
A real Monkey Wrench Trout!
A couple of days ago we had a very slow day. Me and a bunch of friends hired two boats and brought food, some wine, rods and a lot of other stuff. I made some cast, got one perch, lost it (a bird stole the fish) and spend the rest of the day with my friends. The nature is very beautiful at the moment, I took some pictures of what it looks like in Gothenburg right now. Since this is a blog about fly fishing and playing jazz, I better stop now. By the way, summer is not far away; let’s celebrate!
Since we have had so much hard time finding the trout lately, I thought it would be a good idea to remind ourselves what it looks like.
Here’s one from Bardu, Norway.
Music by Jazz & Fly Fishing.
I´ve always wanted to try a proper splitcane flyrod. Sure, I´ve tried some of my father´s old ones from the sixties, but they weren´t very good. Massproduced, worn-out rods that are heavy, slow and wobbly.
The rods I had the pleasure of casting today couldn´t have been more different. It´s not easy to describe how it feels to cast with a really good splitcane fly rod, but it somehow feels alive in your hand. It´s an organic thing, much like a really good musical instrument. They have so much character and personality, and modern splitcane rods are light, precise and responsive.
Try it!
I´m sold, anyway.
Master cane builder Vidar Steimler had brought lots of delightful rods, and gave interesting lectures on various subjects such as different rod tapers and how to distinguish between good and bad craftsmanship.
Sigfred Mittet had also brought some really interesting rods. I had the pleasure of casting one of his square-built rods, and it had a very fast action, faster than I would have thought possible. Geir Rud was there with his wonderfully crafted rods, and Tore Halle´s research on bamboo joints looked very promising.
Living legend Kenneth Boström (the inventor of the ingenious fly pattern Rackelhanan, among many other things) was there, too, and he demonstrated his highly unusual Rackelhanan rods, which are two thirds carbon and one third splitcane(!). He also demonstrated some mean curve-casting skills. I bet he has some serious Shadow Casts up his sleave, too;)
Big thanks to OOFF (Oslo Fly Fisher´s Association) and Nordisk Fiskeutstyr for arranging this gathering.
And on a personal note, I would like to thank Vidar Steimler for giving me a junior rod for my son for free(!). We´re starting the training tomorrow!
On Easter Monday, inspired by Tapanis recent seatrout disaster, I decided to try some seatrout fishing myself. I figured I couldn´t do much worse. And I didn´t!
Since I spent this easter holiday in Narvik, way north of the arctic circle, my expectations were low. The fjord water is still really cold up there in April, so most seatrout will still be very close to freshwater.
However, I do have this special place where I´ve caught a couple of nice easter seatrout before.
The problem up north is a kind of luxury problem. The marine environment in many fjords is so rich that it can be really difficult to catch seatrout sometimes. Some fjords are just packed with other species of fish, like pollock, haddock, misc. flatfish, catfish, coalfish and cod. And the problem when you´re fishing for seatrout is always the coalfish, or småsei, as we say in Norwegian. The seatrout might be there, and it might want to take the fly, but it just isn´t going to happen when the seatrout is outnumbered a million to one by the small to medium-sized coalfish (I´m not even exaggerating. Go see for yourself).
Now, I don´t want you to get the wrong idea. I´m not a fascist. The coalfish is a nice, streamlined creature, it makes tremendous eating, and the larger ones fight really fiercely. It´s just not what I was hunting for, that´s all. And there´s very little sport in fishing for it when there´s literally millions of them around. It´s just too easy.
After trying to avoid the coalfish without success for a couple of hours, I decided to see if I could catch ten fish on ten casts as a “grand finale”. I asked my friend Roger (who took some of these photos) if he thought I could do it. He said “Yes”. I caught ten coalfish in ten casts, we packed up and left.
Where is trout?
Most nations have their own weird traditions:
The Finns have their sauna. As often as they can, the Finns will gather in a red hot torture chamber together with their family and friends. Once inside the the sauna, they start beating eachother with sticks while pouring down way too much vodka, only interupted by ice bathing and the occasional fight/intercourse. Many of them die.
The Swedes have their strange, deeply pagan midsummer rituals called “Mittsommar”. In late June every year, the Swedes gather in the thousands to eat rotten, toxic herring, drink way too much booze and dance like monkeys around an alien-looking pole, chanting heathen songs with creepy voices. Many of them die.
But when it comes to weird traditions, we Norwegians take the grand prize.
Since we live in a country that is frozen rock solid like eleven months a year, you would think that the first sign of spring would send us all rushing down towards the ocean, trying to squeeze as much warmth as possible out of the pale spring sun.
But no. Every easter, in a desperate attempt to get as much winter as possible, millions of us Norwegians ski for hours in violent blizzards to reach our small, primitive cabins with no electricity or running water, high up in the mountains. Many of us die. When/if we make it there alive, the cabins first have to be excavated from tons of snow and then heated for several days before they become inhabitable. We Norwegians think that this is cozy.
Well, there are some upsides to this weird behaviour, too. One of them is the combination of cross country skiing and ice fishing. When the weather is decent, nothing beats the freedom of skiing above the tree line. Everything is white and beautiful, and with skis on your feet you can dance freely around on this winter wonderland, covering great distances without much of an effort. And there are lots of exciting mountains lakes to try. Sadly, they are all covered with 1 1/2 meters of ice, but what can you do? Ice fishing beats the hell out of no fishing at all. And it´s a good way of exploring the potential of new, unfished waters before the real fishing season starts.
Here are some pics from my easter vacation up north. Enjoy!
I live in Copenhagen. Last years’ first fishing trip was on Good Friday with my girlfriend Johanna, and my bass player friend Joel. It was a nice and we caught some cod on a spinning rod, so I thought it could be nice to make it an annual event to go fishing on easter, and maybe even start a new tradition.
PART 1 – THE PLAN
By now, Joel had also gotten into fly fishing, so this time we would be fly fishing for trout instead of spinning fishing for cod. Even though I have tried many times, I had not ever caught a seatrout except for one of 2.2kg in a Norwegian salmon river Repparfjordelva. My coastal fly fishing experiences have always drawn a zero-result. I knew that Denmark is supposed to be one of the best places to catch the big seatrout, but for that we needed to get out of Copenhagen so the plan was to rent a car for that day. I made a waterproof plan with some second hand knowledge of where the trout should be, and how to catch it. Also there was some limitations since we only had one day. Here’s how I made the plan:
Forecast for Denmark on 22.04.2011
Google Maps' Streetview shows access to seatrout paradise and a nearby toilet
The satellite of Rågeleje beach. The darker areas would be hot for seatrout.
4.1kg
PART 2 – THE FISHING
Everything had gone almost according to plan and we were ready at the beach at 11:30, and everything was looking good. The turquoise water, slight sidewind breeze, high tide – we had all the parameters.
Joel Fishing - The place looked good - maybe too good?
Me and Joel were going with waders and fly fishing while Johanna was fishing with the spinning rod. We didn’t feel anything. We saw nothing. Still it felt very promising. The place was very beautiful and the weather was good, so we moved along the coastline and had lunch.
We met some Danish fishermen, who used to fish there for years. I asked: “Have you caught anything?” “-No, I haven’t… I think the best time was in the morning or then in the evening. I don’t think anything is going to happen at mid day.”
Okay, maybe we were too late then. But surely there must be some fish active later in the day. or the evening. At least the weather was perfect.
We met some other local fishermen and I asked: “Did you catch?” They replied: “Well… Not this time. The weather is too good. Too much sunshine. Too little wind.”
It seemed like every time I was fishing for seatrout, there was something wrong. Maybe it was the bad planning, or really ugly weather, or too cold or too warm, or just wrong place. But this time I had the feeling that maybe the conditions were just too good.
So the rest of the day was business as usual, lot’s of casting practice and no fish.
And once again the only question I had in mind was: Where is trout?
Well. It was good times anyways, and having fished for seatrout for dozens of hours without catching, I didn’t expect much either. It was fun to try out my father’s old Takumar lenses. I had the 105mm f/2.8 and the 35mm f/3.5. Nice and sharp lenses – I must say, and very good manual focus rings.
If you have gotten some seatrout, and know how to find one, and even catch one. Please help! If you have some advice, what went wrong this time, and what we should have done differently, please tell me!
For me, the seatrout remains a myth, and I will continue to investigate. I will have to build up my confidence with something that I know I can catch, like the arctic char, or the brown trout. Please submit your advice in the comments below, or by email to address jazznflyfishing@gmail.com.
Maybe trout is there?
Joel wondering - Where is trout?
Johanna lifting the imaginary 2,5kg by the tail
Trout paradise?
This video is basically seatrout fishing in a nutshell. Between thousands of casts you do something else, and this is a short film about that.
We all have seen the fantastic, beautiful casts, and all the fat trout followed by faces of happy fishermen. This time we’re skipping all that and show the dark side of fishing. Face it. This has happened to everybody. We’re just saying it out loud.
The music is by a band called Kauhukakara, from their album “Taistelu Pahoja Kelloja Vastaan” (Battle Against the Evil Clocks). The tune is called “Keskiajan Kauhuelokuva” (Medieval Horror Movie). www.kauhukakara.com
The movie is filmed with iPhone 4 and the 8mm app.
I’ve been very busy the last weeks. Very very busy. It felt like every minute and second was booked up, I don´t really like that style of living. Yesterday I finally had some time of my own. I packed the bag with the usual sea trout gear, grabbed the bike and went 20 km south. Finally some peace. After a while I found them, the trout. Since I was in a very “fishy” mood, there are no pics of the fish, instead you can take a look on the bike setup.
Take a look at the flies below, they are really effective if you fish them the right way. The water is getting warmer witch means that it is a good idea to attach a shrimp in the end of the leader. This shrimp, the nature colored one, works very well when it is flat calm water and the fish is easily spooked. Try it…
One last thing – I strongly recommend you to go by bike when fishing, it feels so much better than driving the car or going by bus. Now I really have to sleep. See you very soon! /F
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