I finally got around to buying a new camera! I ended up buying the Canon HF S10. Naturally, it cost a lot more than I had planned to spend, but it looks like a very good video camera so far. Since I am now armed with a decent camera, there´ll be more behind-the-scenes Jazzcam vids coming up.
NB! All Jazzcam videos are amateur videos made by us bandmembers. These videos are meant for this blog only.
Even though I’ve been living here in Copenhagen for about three months, I’ve yet to discover it’s fly fishing possibilities. I’ve heard rumours of big seatrout and I’m dying to find out if there is some nearby. Winter time is supposed to be the time for gathering the information and planning the trips…
…but there’s just a couple of obstacles:
There’s still ice on most places, so I cannot go and see for myself
I don’t know any fly fishers that either live here or have experience of fly fishing near Copenhagen (If you are reading this and identify yourself as one, please drop me a note!).
All my gear is still in Finland.
I would really need a personal interpreter for searching all that information on the internet since my Danish skills are still on a beginner’s level (At least the fisherman jargon).
To get out from the dark and get at least some information, I watched the dvd “Havsöringens hemligheter” (The seatrouts sectrets), which is about fly fishing seatrout in Denmark.
According to the dvd (you can see a clip here) there is searout everywhere!!! They have underwater cameras showing big schools of fish streaming the coastline. And stretching my Danish skills to the extreme (and a bit of google translator), I was able to find this Danish fishing blog, which proves at least that the pike is here.
As you can see by clicking the “jazzcam” tab above, the quality of the band´s own behind-the-scenes videos leaves something to be desired…
Well, that´s about to change. The last few days, I´ve spent most of the nights online, trying to find a camcorder which suits my budget and ambitions – and what a jungle it is out there!
There seems to be thousands of more or less similar camera models on the market, and all the manufacturers are of course claiming to have the best mumbo-jumbo technology that makes all other cameras obsolete. Searching for camera test videos on youtube or vimeo doesn´t help much either – these videos all feature some geek packing up the camera from the box and then filming some totally useless crap in his backyard. Not helpful.
This is how I look now, after spending way too much time trying to figure out which camera to buy:
To make matters even worse, all the technical camera stuff is totally jibberish to me. It´s all about strange letter combinations and lots of random numbers. And then there´s all the extra stuff you need – lots of weird, shockingly expensive little gizmos – not to mention a brand new computer to deal with the ridiculuos amounts of data that the camcorder spews out. I´m slowly but surely realizing that I´m entering a whole new world of pain.
The good news is that when I´ve worked my way through this personal hell, there will be brand new jazzcam video clips of the band playing and fly fishing popping up like mayflies from the Upper Itchen. Joona has recently invested in a new sports camera which shoots in HD, and Fred has his trusty Nikon D90, so if we can just figure out how to upload videos to youtube, we´re pretty much good to go…
The band´s own jazzcam video clips will of course always be total amateur stuff shown only on this blog, but I´m a strong believer in learning-by-doing, so if you bear with us for a while, some half-decent stuff might appear eventually. You never know. Stay tuned!
U.K is an interesting country. Maybe I should say England (sounds more royal?). I have been here for about a week now, playing with a traditional jazz band at trashy pubs and less trashy concert halls. The band I´m touring with plays old jazz – the average age on the audience is quite high, lets say… 93 years. That makes the gigs not too wild. Everybody in the audience is sitting with a pint in the hand and a big nostalgic smile all over the face. Some did not smile when I think about it. After the first set the nice old fellows in the audience tend to wake up a little; it is then time for the big raffle! The leader of the raffle, very often a big guy around the age of 87, takes place behind a microphone while I play a roll on the snare drum. Then he screams out the magic number of the evening and the roll gets louder. Suddenly a happy winner will rise and the battle is over. The price is very often some biscuits or a bottle of wine. After that we continue to play again. It is a challenge to play traditional jazz in a simple and groovy way for a modern cat. I have to say that the listeners here are very nice and polite!
Of course I brought a fly rod on the tour. Of course the guys in the band never stop the car and let me fish. The members of this band are more like… normal jazz musicians. It still feels nice to drive around all over England knowing that the rod is just under my seat. Today we drove up to Edinburgh, Scotland. Aaaaaahhh, what a trip! The landscape is really beautiful up here, it’s a shame that I forgot the monster camera at home!
So… no pictures this time! Instead you can take a look at this clip showing guys who play jazz in a really swingy way! Back in the good old days this was the pop music. People went out every night and danced! Who knows, maybe some people in this clip are the same guys that were listening and dancing to us in U.K. Jazz keeps you young!
Except for Fredrik´s Santa Claus pics (check out the “Stupid Stuff” gallery), we haven´t really had any horror on this blog. So here´ssome really scary stuff for you:
As most of you probably know, the rise of the salmon farming industry has been a disaster for wild salmon populations worldwide. Sea-lice, genetic pollution and various diseases – these serious problems have all spread from farmed salmon to wild fish, bringing many wild salmon populations to the very brink of extinction.
Now, something way scarier has come along: farmed cod. We´re talking serious Frankenstein cod, too:
Monster
Frankenstein cod
Most likely, these horrible creatures are the result of selective breeding to improve the growth rate of the fish. There has been attempts to stop these images from being published, but with increasing numbers of escaped “Frankenstein cod” being caught by fishermen, containing this scandal has become impossible.
The really bad news is that they recently caught several of these freak fish in Lofoten – the main spawning grounds of the arctic cod population – in the middle of the spawning season. And most likely, these monsters-on-the-run are not sterile, either.
The cod is one of the most important food resources in the world, and an economic cornerstone for Norway, Iceland (tough luck for them at the moment, or what?), Russia and many other North Atlantic countries. Nobody knows what will be the outcome of this mad experiment, but this makes me scared and very angry.
Why do the Norwegian authorities let this happen? Why do they allow the fish farmers to gamble with this unique, totally renewable resource?
We’ve been contacted by people all over the world who share our passions of music and fishing! We are not alone! Check out this for instance: jazz saxophone player Dylan Rose’s blog and site “Skate the Fly”. Great reading!
One of the main reasons why fly fishing is such a fascinating and time-consuming activity (some would claim it´s a life style), is that it´s not just about catching fish. Actually, there are several distinct spin-off hobbies within fly fishing:
Some people get really into entomology. They study the creatures that fish feed on, and spend more time searching the water bed for bugs than they actually do fishing. This sub-hobby often makes them experts in Latin as well.
Fly tying is a winter activity for most flyfishers, but tying flies becomes a sport in itself for some. Many compete in tying the neatest and most original flies. Despite the fact that the millions of existing fly patterns work just fine, new patterns and variations are invented every day.
Others get into photography, and end up dragging truck-loads of cameras and lenses around, hunting for that one magical shot.
Allthough many release a lot of their catch, the art of outdoor cooking is as important as the fishing for many, especially for those who like to camp out in the wild.
And the gear… Fly fishing gear is an endless source of debate among flyfishers. Some take it to the next level and become collectors, filling their houses with gear they´re never gonna use. They spend night and day on ebay, searching for the next “bargain”.
Hiking, canoeing, the study of geography, meteorology and even geology are examples of other popular spin-off hobbies.
But the fly cast itself is perhaps the most popular spin-off activity. The fly cast is a strange thing – it really is a quite impractical way of introducing a bait to a fish. The spinning rod is arguably a much more rational tool.
The fly cast has a lot in common with the golf swing – it isn´t difficult to make it happen, but you never fully master it. Lots of people spend more time casting than fishing, and some fly casters barely fish at all – they spend all their time on lawns, fields or casting ponds, trying to achieve the perfect zen-cast – the one that never stops flying and disappears into the horizon. And competitions in fly casting are held in all corners of the world.
Well, here are some very nerdy yet fascinating videos for you. The first one is recorded with a high-speed camera, and the caster is the Norwegian legend Sven Kalmar (courtesy of SuperRattus´ youtube channel – lots more there):
This one is by the Norway-based Swede Mikael Blomberg, who is one of Scandinavia´s best fly casters. It´s from one of his daily practice sessions on the snow. Enjoy :
This shrimp fly has created a huge buzz among the seatrout fishermen in Denmark and Sweden. It’s a kind of a trendy fly that the fashion-conscious big seatrout are drooling for. Of course we are following the latest trends and I’ve tied a couple of these pink pigs. I will try them and report the results as soon as the season starts here in the west coast of Sweden.
Here are the ingredients of the Pattegrisen (as seen on the great sea trout fishing film by Niels Vestergaard, Sea Trout Secrets #4. You can see the detailed tying instructions on the film, too. Strongly recommended!):
Hook: saltwater hook
Thread: pink
weight: lead wire on the underside of the hook
butt: teal
back hackle: Whiting spey hackle, salmon pink
“antennas”: sand colored ultrahair
eyes: shrimp eyes (burned and colored 0.35-0.40 mm nylon line)
Check out the latest number of Flugfiske i Norden (“Fly fishing in the Nordic”, available in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark)! There’s a big article about our tour last summer (in Swedish).
If you didn’t yet have the chance to see this amazing documentary of Belize, now is the time to check it out. If not for the important message then for the amazing tropical fishing footage.
Belize is a country in Central America with rapidly growing tourist industry. The film is portraying two fly fishing guides, Abbie Marin and Lincoln Westby as they chase the Tarpon and the Permit in the flats. They are perhaps the ones that have to deal with the impact of rapid development on the nature the most. Here’s how Lincoln expresses his thoughts about the changes around the fishing business:
Beginning of my life, it was all about killing fish.
Then it turned around to this stage where you’re thinking more about saving them.
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