Blog from Eco-Rapids #2
Here are some more photos from the Finnish tour. There were taken at Eco-Rapids by our guide Antti Härkönen, who is of course a fly fisherman, but also very much into music. He sings in a heavy metal band but after meeting us he’s totally into jazz and is considering going into modal jazz growl-scatting.
Thanks for the beautiful pics and good guiding Antti!
Cheerio,
Here’s a quick photoblog from the Ransarån trip, which happened already two weeks ago. We made the trip with Håvard, Terje and myself aiming to catch some beautiful trout and of course, the arctic char.
Besides fishing, it was a very good opportunity to try out the capabilities of the new video gear that we had gotten. I attempted to shoot a short fishing movie with Håvard as the protagonist. It was a bit hard to make it look like he was the only one there, since he’s always talking… But I think I got a few good cinematic seconds here and there. Stay tuned, it will be posted here soon!
As a learning opportunity, the sight fishing there was excellent. We got one full night of incredible sight fishing. I didn’t catch anything, but had something like 15 opportunities on big cruising fish on around 1,5 to 2,5 kg range. Both trout and the arctic char. Håvard got the nice 1,45 kg arctic char in the end. Just looking at those beautiful fish is the best thing!
Here’s the photos from both the stills that we took, and the captures from the upcoming short film:
Blog from Eco-Rapids #1
Greetings from the JFF mini tour in Finland! We started off with a gig in Helsinki, it was nice to be together again! We also saw some of the TV documentary for the first time and I can tell you it was special. Soon a year has gone since the TV-tour last summer and seeing all the places and happenings brought back the memories.
The gig was a lot of fun, we wrapped up and headed straight north towards Eco-Rapids in northeastern Finland. We have spent the last few days there fishing in a rapid called Kynäkoski and a smaller river Syväjoki, check out the pictures!
Tonight we have some very special fishing in Jyväskylä in Central Finland, and in the evening it’s time for the documentary and the gig again. We’ll be posting some videos and stuff soon, so stay tuned!
Tapani and I just came back from the legendary Ransarån. Terje Storsten, a great bass player/fly fisherman came with us on the trip. The objective of our little expedition was to hunt for the ultimate Nordic trophy fish – the big arctic char.
Ransarån offers excellent fishing for good-sized brown trout and arctic char, but what really sets it apart is the sight fishing conditions. To be able to see the fish in the water while you´re fishing for it makes things very exciting…
PS! Tapani filmed a lot with his Canon DSLR camera and hi-fi audio system on the trip, so you can expect some really cinematic stuff from Ransarån soon…
Finland here we come! Uusikadulla!!! Rajakala!!! Hevonk****!!!
It’s time for a tour in Finland now! In a couple of days we’ll be off for some gigs and fishing, and the producers will reveal first glimpses of the JFF television documentary series. We haven’t seen any of it, so it’s pretty exciting. Will we be making fools of ourselves in front of the audience that we will play for? That’s very exciting…
We’ll start off with a gig and a documentary preview in Helsinki and then head for a fishing spot called Eco-Rapids in North-Eastern Finland. The place known for the ecological values in fishing regulations in the area. Despite rather strong fishing pressure the waters and the fish population are kept as natural as possible. We will be visiting some of the many rivers and lakes in the area. Our aim is to catch one of the big trout that swim in those waters. Trout over 60 centimeters is not a rarity there…
After a couple of days of fishing we’ll have another gig in Jyväskylä in Central Finland, again with the documentary as starters. It’s so nice to be on tour again!
Here are some gig details for all of you who want to pay a visit!
Saturday 12.6.2010 19–23 @ Kapsäkki, Hämeentie 68, Helsinki
19:00 TV-documentary preview
21:00 Jazz & Fly Fishing band
Tickets 10 eur from www.lippu.fi and at the venue
Thursday 17.6.2010 19.30 – 23.30 @ Poppari, Puistokatu 2-4, Jyväskylä
19:30 TV-documentary preview
21:30 Jazz & Fly Fishing band
Tickets 7/5 eur at the venue
May 30th: Finally back at the Upper Itchen!
As you can see from the video, the ice and snow has just melted, and the colours of the landscape are still very dull. The ground around the river is still frozen, so the water isn´t too warm…
But sure enough, once the wind dies down, the feathermidges start hatching and the trout starts rising. I caught several good fish on this first real dry fly day of the season.
Two days later, I was joined by my cousin Dagfinn, and Erlend Welde from the excellent Norwegian blog www.utras.net. The weather was even colder than the first day, and the action was much slower. We still managed to force a decent number of fish to take our buzzers and hatching midges, but the average size of the fish was a little bit smaller than the first day.
Great fun!
Some pictures:
Next stop: Ransarån!
Maybe the biggest problem on our tours is the amount of gear. Four guys + the producer carry a hell lot of gear. It would be enough with just the fishing equipment, but add the music stuff and the film gear. Rods, reels, lines, cables, power adapters, vests, clothes, computers, fly boxes, floatants, pliers, waders, guitars, music sheets, cameras, tripods, sunglasses, deodorants… in one car!
Here’s the solution to all trouble with all JFF gear: Color coding. I bought 416 colored dots for each and every one of us. We can mark everything with our own favorite colors. We must! I will make you to!!!! Since I am the mother of all dots I hereby choose red. Everything marked with red is mine. Hands off!
Multicolor
The weather was excellent when me and Fredrik decided to go for sea trout fishing after a long break. Light wind from the west and good conditions in the water. A couple of hours of fishing in the evening, and Fredrik’s sinking line and a big shrimp imitation were what the trout liked. He landed two beautiful trout and all I got was a couple of takes and a big wave behing my muddler minnow. When the sun went down the big beautiful full moon rose up, and the lighted up the path to the car. I just love night fishing!
As a fly fisherman and musician I have to stay in shape. As a matter of fact, I believe it is more like this: as a human creature I/we have to stay in shape. Our modern lifestyle will otherwise transform us into cheese doodles!
Anyway, me and Joona ran the half marathon in Gothenburg last week, it is actually the worlds biggest half mara, 58.000 people this year! During the early spring I have been running in cold weather. I like to run in cold weather! On the mara-day, it was suddenly 26 degrees. Help! Guess I was nervous, maybe forgot to drink enough water, I don´t know.
At 13:39 the gun was fired and I began to run. I felt strong and hold up a good tempo. Nice! Perhaps I was aiming a little high. “Must not let anybody pass me, must not”… After 8 km I noticed that my brain didn’t work. But I still had my legs! After 9 km my right leg suddenly started to live its own life. Ignore! At 9.5 km the brain was gone, guess the sun melt it away. Then it happened – I crashed. What more to say. To my defense I can tell you that I wasn’t alone. 1407 people – mainly young, fit and stupid guys also collapsed. I somehow made it to the gig, pretty beaten. adios.
/Gone fishing.
I’m now slowly recovering from last Saturday’s running. As I told earlier me and Fredrik ran the Göteborgsvarvet, world’s biggest half marathon competition.
The day was very hot and sunny, the temperature was around 25-26 degrees celsius during the whole run. It was the first warm day this year and many of the runners had not been prepared for such warmth and the need of water. Around 1400 runners had to interrupt and 80 of them needed hospital care. It was scary to run and see people lying on the ground every now and then, totally passed out. Luckily the spectators and the medicals were all over the track and everyone got the help they needed.
Halfway done I realized I can’t make it to my time goal. I concentrated on drinking a lot of water and keeping an easy tempo. I wanted to to get to the finish line, not to the hospital. And I made it, just under two hours. My legs have been really sore, and so have my shoulders that got a very big dose of sunlight.
But what happened to Fredrik – did you make it to the gig?
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