Project FishRun

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Now this is a really creative way to fight for salmon: a sport event for the fish. We wanted to spread the word, so read on:

Fishrun – first fish sport event at the mighty river Kymi in Finland has begun! Formula1 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen among supporting celebrities!

Project FishRun aims to increase awareness about the near distinct stocks of native salmon, and to involve companies in funding the vital research and restoration programs on salmon rivers.

The project is based on a scientific research program, in which radio transmitters are mounted on the fish to find out where and how they move during their migration up to the river to spawn. Project FishRun views the this as a sports event. Companies can sponsor and name their own Grand Prix start of six salmon racing gallantly upstream – and people get a new sport to cheer, play or bet for.

Project FishRun events provide entertaining way to learn about problems of the fishstocks, and to raise wider attention about the subject. People can cheer their favorite fish and companies can help to save the salmon from distinction while using the Grand Prix races for their own marketing and PR.

One of the GP’s is a celebrity invitational race where Finland’s top celebs compete with their own salmon each racing up the river. This ensures maximal exposure in Finnish press and TV. The celebrity race is organized by Finland’s most famous fly fisherman and all time top grossing film actor (Lapland Odyssey, Frozen Land etc) Jasper Pääkkönen who actively speaks and writes about the depleting salmon and trout stocks and the politics behind managing Finland’s fisheries. Other celebrities include Finland’s #1 selling artist and songwriter Chisu, the hosts of prime time talk show Mikko & Heikki, actor and comedian Kari Hietalahti and last but certainly not least Formula 1 world champion Kimi Räikkönen. “I’m proud to say every celebrity I asked to take part in the race said yes without a moment of hesitation and with great enthusiasm. There is a lot of concern for our migrating fish stocks and I’m happy to see Kimi, Chisu and the others supporting FishRun GP.”

The first FishRun event has now started on Kymijoki, Finland. Support our mission, help us to save the fish and heal the rivers!

You can support the the research program in collecting the funds it needs by:
– Downloading FishRun iPhone application (in finnish only – sorry) from App Store
– Sharing the news in Facebook and other social medias and speaking for the fish
– Asking your employer or your favorite brand to take part in our event.

Cold nights and red hot chars

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Right now it might seem like an eternity to next summer, so it might be a good idea to refresh some memories from last summer!

Stay tuned, there’s new stuff coming up soon: Håvard is working on new videoblogs, Fredrik tries to save the world by flyfishing, Joona will tell more about the solo piano project, and Tapani – what happened to Tapani?

Buzz

Chilly

Watercolor char

Fridge

Fin

Parrot

HDR in the land of Sauna

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Howdy!

It’s good to hear Håvard’s still catching trout up north despite the disappearing daylight and descending temperatures. I haven’t unfortunately had too many fishing opportunities lately, but there’s some other nice stuff going on:

Last weekend I went to our summer cottage in Central Finland. I installed the software called Magic Lantern to my Canon DLSR and played around with that for a couple of days. It’s a sort of hack that allows the camera user to access lots of  functions that don’t exist in the regular camera menus. I did some experimenting with HDR photography in the beautiful autumn light, and also when warming the sauna. HDR pictures are made by combining several exposures of the same frame to a single shot, boosting the images dynamic range. You get more details out of shadows and highlights, and the result is more “flat” image with less contrast. Doing this with pictures feels a little bit like adding compressors to music. The result can be quite nice when used carefully, but it’s very easy to overdo and end up with cheesy results when you turn the knobs too far (but that can be fun too!). I also went to the woods and found humongous amounts of trumpet chantarelles. Good recepies anyone?

I’m also working on several music projects – at the moment I’m on my way back home from Stockholm where I recorded some newly written Finnish childrens’ music for the Swedish Radio. The next weeks there are some jazz gigs coming up and in between I’m working on a solo piano album, which is very exciting and inspiring, but also a little bit scary to be honest. More about that later!

I missed the end of the sea trout season in Gothenburg, so now it’s a 6 month wait until next time. But the lakes are fishable until the ice comes so there is definitely some more fishing to come soon!

And some autumn pictures to finish with. Some in HDR, some more regular shots. Tight lines! /J

Fall Mayfly Extravaganza!

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Hatch/Rise

Autumn vs Håvard: 2-2!
I had a great fishing session today together with my friend Erlend Welde from Utras.net.
We bumped into a huge mayfly hatch – for hours, great clusters of mayfly duns came pouring down the river.
Autumn really is underrated. And this time I got some good video material too, so a video with autumn dry fly fishing is coming up soon. Another screenshot:

Autumn Beauty

Skål!

H.

Autumn vs Håvard: 2-1

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Truttico

Yep!

I´ve been away playing for the last ten days, and haven´t fished at all.
Back up north again, I went fishing for some ours today together with my friend Vegard Stormo.
It was a beautiful autumn day with crisp, clear air and stunning colors, and we had a memorable session with several good fish coming to the net, including the cracking brownie above.

Typical for autumn, the action was really sporadical: sparse, unpredictable hatches, and tricky fishing. So I didn´t really get any good shots on video today.

Going fishing again tomorrow on another good spot – hope to get catch some good scenes. New report coming tomorrow evening. A couple of shots from today:

Till then –

H.

Autumn, Pop Music and Fly fishing

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Maybe you red my last blog a while ago (alone in the wilderness). If you think that it is totally made up, you’re wrong. I actually spend almost a week on my own in the wilderness. The problem is that I didn’t catch anything to brag about. The biggest fish – an arctic char, didn’t weight more than 500 gram. Maximum 500 gram. What choice did I have? I had to create a story. Perhaps it was a little bit.. too much.

Anyway, what is happening right now? Well, a lot of things are happening with JFF but most of it is not official yet. I know that Tapani and Håvard are working with mountains of video clips and that Joona and I have our as—s full of similar tasks. The JFF-machine is moving forward towards exiting places and goals.

At the same time, the every-day-life is moving on. I have been working my ass of the last month and it seems like I cant rest until christmas. On the other hand I’m working with interesting things it is is usually fun most of the time. An ordinary week for me right now looks like this:

Monday: Breakfast at 8:00, running in the forrest, check the mail and pay bills, lunch, composing, practicing, rehearse, dinner, sleep at 23:00

Tuesday: Breakfast at 7:00, teach, practice, jam, dinner, sleep at 24:00

Wednesday: Breakfast at 9:00, run in the forrest, tie some flies, compose, practice, teach, jam, dinner, sleep at 23:00

Thursday: Breakfast at 7:00, teach, practice, rehearse, dinner, sleep at 23:00

Friday: Breakfast at 9:00, run in the forrest, Jam, lunch, compose, practice, rehearse, gig, sleep the day after.

Saturday: Breakfast at 12:00, fish until it gets dark, gig, sleep at..

Sunday: Breakfast at 10:00, run around the forrest, practice, tie some flies, rehearse, gig, sleep at 23:00..

.. And so the wheel is spinning. During the summer the schedule looks completely different. Then it is more like this:

Fish, fish, fish, gig, fish, jam, fish, dinner, and so on. But now it is autumn and autumn is similar with work when it comes to me. And believe me, it takes a lot of time and planning being a musician. But – it is worth it!

I’m right now working on my very first album. Of course I’ve been playing drums on several albums and records before, but this time it is only my original tunes and it is not jazz, believe it or not. It is a pop album. Would love to hear some response from you guys when you get the chance to listen to the first mix. It will take a couple of month since I will try to play all the instruments my self. It will be pretty exiting and scary!

On friday I will give the fat sea trout a last visit this season. After that I have to wait until april. Wish me luck, I’ll need it. Or, I mean, do not wish me luck!

All the best/ Fredrik

One last cast..

 

 

Autumn vs Håvard: 2-0

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Six Swans

Went fishing/filming today. Yr.no, the fabulous Norwegian online weather service, reported sunny weather and no wind (again). This time, they got part of right at least: The day was sunny and strikingly beautiful, but unfortunately also way too windy for the trout to engage in any serious surface activity. Sound familiar? Well, that´s fly fishing for you.

After hours of searching, I found a sheltered spot where a good-sized trout was taking the occasional bug from the surface. I blew it. My strike was way too fast. Still an amateur after all these years… Fortunately, I did manage to get some really nice mood shots. Autumn is beautiful.

I´m not giving up. No retreat, no surrender!

Some screenshots from today:

H.

 

 

 

Autumn vs Håvard: 1-0

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Hi!
I´ve started working on a new short film about autumn fly fishing above the arctic circle, and my plan was to go filming today. The forecast said sunny weather and no wind. Yeah right. This is what we got:

9/11 2012

I will not give in. Yes, I know that resistance is futile, and that autumn and winter will win in the end, but I won´t quit before I have some good scenes on tape, even with a forecast as grim as this one:

Crap

 

To be continued…

Responsibility!

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Would you release the meter-long pike you just caught? How about a big seatrout? Do you only fish for species that have a steady population and can take the fishing? If you answered yes, you are probably a Responsible Fisherman.

Those are the opening lines in the press release of the newly opened Finnish fishing project “Vastuullinen Vapaa-ajankalastaja” (Responsible Fisherman). The project aims for educating fishermen in fishing etics and good sportsmanship, how to take care of and sustain nature and its resources. When to catch and release and when take a fish for dinner. How to release a fish, and what to think of when choosing your gear to avoid unnecessary harm for the fish. The site is packed with information for various types of fishing (only in Finnish at the moment). The project is based on European Inland Fisherier Advisory Commission’s Code of Practice for Recreational Fisheries (wow!).

We are happy to be co-operating with the Finnish Federation for Recreational Fishing in this project, and our music will be heard on their videos and public appeareances. Our own words on fishing etics and catch and release can be read here.

Happy fishing, and tight lines!

Day 3, 4, 5 and 6

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11:00 Finally! A river! A river? The lady at the hotel never mentioned any river when I asked her about the map and my planned route. Let’s take care of that problem after some water. I basically fell down to the ground, dropped the back pack and slid down to the water’s edge. After a couple of liters of the cold water I stopped drinking and rested on the ground for a while. My energy came back. Then I looked out over the river. “I shall cross it” I said to my self and started to look for a good place to cross the water. I walked along the river upstream for a while. I have to say it didn’t look too good. Just when I was about to turn and walk downstream again, something hard hit me in the side. I froze to ice when I realized that I..

 

.. yes, isn´t that a hell of a cliffhanger, wouldn’t you say? What happened after that moment. Do you really want to know? Do you have the guts to find out? Think before you read the text below, it might change your life! Or not. Lets see.. if something happens to you this week that will change your life, it must be because you red this text, right? Well, just you wait and see! Alright, where were we.. oh yes, right here..


..hit me in the side. I froze to ice when I realized that I.. suddenly became an ice cream, now isn’t that strange? It was one of these very creamy french homemade ice creams and I could smell pure vanilla when I was walking in the sun. Since I by then was an ice cream, I didn’t understand much, the brain was very cold you see. But what could I do? I knew that I had to continue the walk otherwise I was fried. Nobody likes fried ice cream. After a while I found a good place to cross the river and since the water was very cold I didn’t melt away.

 

15:00 When I arrived to the magic area where I was supposed to put up the tent I tried to eat a small piece from my self. It was kind of hard in the beginning but after some minutes I got into it. After about one hour my feet were gone and later during the day i ate my left leg.

 

Day 3, 07:34 Woke up outside the tent. Was very hungry and started almost immediately to eat from my ice-cream body. When the sunset came, all that was left from me was the head. Fell a sleep, totally helpless when thousands of mosquitos attacked me.

 

Day 4, 11:06 The rain was falling on my poor head. Tried to drink in order to survive the melting sun that was supposed to show up this day. The sun never came.

 

Day 5, 09:00 Man, I was really hungry at this time. You see, it is not easy to eat when you only have your head. Then I realized that I was surrounded by mosquitos. Revenge! Finally! After a couple of hours, at mosquito number 230136 , I stopped to count them but continued to eat. When the nightfall came the fish started to rise. Big and heavy rises all over the lake. The head went to sleep.

 

Day 6, 08:00 Time to go home. actually I only had four hours to get to the small buss station 18 kilometers away. But how was I going to move my self. If you knew what it feels like to be only a head made of ice-cream you would understand my trouble. Suddenly a strong wind from east moved my sweet head. I fell into the lake and started to drift. After a while I learned how to swim backwards by shooting air with my mouth. Don’t ask where the air came from, it worked any how. I swam through huge lakes and small rivers. Man, huge char and trout were passing me many times. When I reached the bay close to the buss station, a friendly old man asked me if I needed help. I told him that I was i a terrible hurry so he took me under his arm and ran towards the buss.

All of this isn’t true as you might guess! I didn’t eat that many mosquitos as I said, it was more like 200 or so. Sometimes it sounds better with a little lie! Thanks for reading this almost true story. Now I’ll go and grab a beer, cheers! /Fredrik

Melting suns