Heading north

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It’s been a very intense day but we are finally on the road towards Tornio where we are going to spend the night. Me and Fredrik arrived in Helsinki in the morning and after picking up Tapani and the instruments we continued to the Halti headquarters to get our outdoor equipment. The huge tent has been tested and I can assure it’s the coolest jazz-band-tour-tent ever (we could almost have a concert there)! So the clothes, tents and sleeping bags are now filling the car together with fly rods, double bass and a rhodes electric piano. We didn’t quite manage to keep the schedule but we should make it to the gig tomorrow in Narvik (1068 kilometers to go…).

Fredrik’s working on the shopping list and we are soon stopping by in Jyväskylä (my and Tapani’s old home hoods) to get some food and stuff. The film crew is a few hours after us but they’ll probably catch us up there.

A long drive such as this might seem boring but actually the life in the bandwagon is full of exciting activities:

  • Rigging the fishing equipment
  • Eat & dring & drive
  • Rehearsing with melodica, percussion and a mini-guitar
  • keeping the driver from sleeping
  • tying flies
  • do some arm wrestling
  • wrestling
  • enjoying the silence when Håvard’s not around 😉

The battery’s running out so I’ll concentrate on coffee drinking again.

Some pics from my test fishing in Upper Itchen

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Really looking forward to starting the tour now!

As the guys said earlier, I have been test fishing for about a month now, covering lots of exciting, new spots in Northern Norway and Sweden. And I’m very happy to report that I’ve stumbled upon quite a few hidden pearls… These pics are all from a fantastic little river (almost a creek, really) called “*********”.

Although it is located well above the arctic circle, it looks a bit like the famous chalk streams in Southern England – Itchen, Avon, Test – where the noble art of fly fishing was pioneered and developed by guys like Halford, Marryat, Skues, Sawyer and Kite (my heroes).

This wonderful little river, with its strong population of surprisingly big, wild brown trout (the biggest caught during my test fishing was 1,8 kg,  and way bigger fish have been caught by others recently),  is a well kept secret, known only to a few die-hard anglers.

Let’s just call it Upper Itchen for now;)

Fishing the Upper Itchen

Fishing the Upper Itchen

The test fishing there has been consistently strong, and last friday the mayfly hatches were really starting to move along, and the fish were feeding heavily on newly hatched duns.These pictures were shot by R. B. on one of my first test fishing trips in early June, and the fish fell to small, black dry flies. The river looks even more appealing now – summer has come to the north during the last few days and brought sparkling green vegetation with lots of flowers along the banks – and, more importantly, lots of big mayflies! I’ll add some more recent photos soon.

Nice trout from Upper Itchen

Nice trout from Upper Itchen

Big fish rising in Upper Itchen

Big fish rising in Upper Itchen

A typical trout from the Upper Itchen. Beautiful!

A typical trout from the Upper Itchen. Beautiful!

Into a good one!

Into a good one

Trying a parachute cast for a difficult fish

Trying a parachute cast for a difficult fish

I can’t wait to get going!

Joona and Fredrik have come up with a couple of cool tunes, so now I’m practising my butt off, trying to get prepped for the first gig.

See ya soon –

Håvard

Waiting for the jazzwagon…

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Just got back to Helsinki from the Netherlands where I saw my girlfriend for the last time before uptaking the potentially hazardous jazz’n flyfishing venture. The jazzmobile with Joona and Fred should pick me up at approximetly 15 hours! I’ll have my knives ready!

I hope the big pimped car has a fly-tying table since it’s going to be 1000’s of kilometers of driving.

Looks like it’s finally happening!

Off we go…

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…still no underwear but instead a nice cup of coffee and 2000 lonely flies. Oh, I forgot to mention the 45 pounds backpack, my cymbals and the laptop. I wonder what Håvard and Tapani is doing right now. Håvard is probably practising in front of the mirror while Tap is doing his daily dose of push-ups. See you soon, guys!!

On the road – at last!

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The tour has finally started! I’m sitting on a train from Gothenburg towards Stockholm and further to Uppsala, where I’ll pick up the tour wagon. The car has been pimped to match the classy J&FF look! Pictures will be posted shortly…

After serious packing and unpacking I managed to fit my gear in three bags yesterday. Gig clothes, fishing clothes, fishing gear, a couple of thousand flies and fly tying equipment, music, cables… Not to mention all the fishing gear and outdoor stuff + instruments that we’ll pick up in Helsinki tomorrow. All of it SHOULD fit in the car!

Fredrik will soon join me on the train and we will take the ferry to Finland tonight to meet the rest of the gang tomorrow morning. Håvard, excited as he is, couldn’t wait until now: he’s been test fishing up north for about a month. This guy must be the most eager fishing-nerd I’ve ever met! But I can assure he’s in good company!

Okay..time for a second cup morning coffee now! Cheers

Forum opened

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Jazz & Fly Fishing forum is still a little bit in the middle of transition.

We encourage people to write there and challenge each other and the Tight Lines Quartet guys to reply to most strangiest questions.  We will note the most peculiar forum user!

Pre-tour, Blog opening

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THE JAZZ & FLY FISHING TOUR IS ABOUT TO START.
The blogging on this page is about to start.

We wish all readers and forum user a good summer, ether your with us on tour or in the web.

Quick tasting from the preparations of J&FF team, Tight Lines Quartet guys.

Best regards and see you on the road!
-Jazz & Fly Fishing TEAM

Begin forwarded message:
From: Fredrik Hamrå
Date: June 18, 2009 9:34:12 PM GMT+03:00
To: J&FF
Cc: Håvard Stubø, Tapani Toivanen, Joona Toivanen
Subject: RE: EDELL: Jazz & Fly Fishing GearList FULL

I already left Gothenburg and didn’t bring underwear… shit. I won’t probably have the time to buy any until monday. Can I borrow from anybody of you, guys?

> CC: stuboe; toivasentapani; toivanenjoona
> From: J&FF TEAM
> Subject: Re: Jazz & Fly Fishing GearList FULL
> Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:26:24 +0300
> To: fredrikhamra@hotmail.com
>
> There is no underlayer coming from Helsinki.
>
> Try to manage also with your own suitcases for personal stuff.
>
> Lets then leave stuff to helsinki at my place if u pack too much from sweden.
>