That's old saying in Finland, not sure if you are familiar with this. It refers to the typical, harsh and dramatic depiction of nature in Russian films. And wind on those is very strong, cutting or chilling. If you think about you can even hear it fi-uuuuuu.
Last weekend we handled our reindeers at farm and drove Satu's reindeers to little north and enjoy summer, calfing is just behind corner, well in one month. They got gps devices so it gives us peace of mind.
Weather has been mostly sunny and warm and we have been having two ice fishing day during week, not huge success yet some decent perch to cook. It has been little slower life, except Wednesday.
Details >
If you read these regularly, you'll maybe have noticed that I strongly prefer deer hair for my topwater bass bugs. I'm absolutely convinced it's the best choice for most freshwater situations.
Details >
If anyone asks “how's the fishing going in the Bahamas”, my initial response is “it's very very windy!” however it is also amazing. Besides catching the fish, there's lots of ospreys pretty much on every flat we go to (they seem as common here as red kites in Oxfordshire), plus rays, a few of which I have nearly stood on before they have startled and fled away. The one positive about the strong winds is that they keep you cool in this heat, a downside is that besides making the casting tricky, the constant waves can drag your fly line before you've started to strip the fly, sometimes causing the hook to snag something on the bottom. I've had this a few times where the snag has such a hold of the fly that I can't move it and I've just had to frustratingly watch the bones move around where the fly is – where I could have got a take, or if not, could have recast a few times to improve the chances of catching one of them. On these occasions I pray that the bone may dig up the snagged fly, however this has only happened on one occasion that I remember.
Details >
Paul messaged me the other day to say a cyclone was coming in. I confirmed that yes, one was indeed on the way. His response was not concern for life or property, but encouragement to go and try for 200 feet in the wind. There is nothing quite like a challenge from Paul to get me out there on a stormy day.
Staying motivated is important. With casting, there comes a point where improvement stops being accidental and starts requiring actual work. Someone I used to train with in another sport had a rule: don't practice the 80% you can already do, practice the 20% you are not so good at. That's where the gains are. So I appreciated the message. It was well timed.This is not a story of training that 20%, but at least the weather conditions are difficult and mastery of this represents improvements.
Details >
In my opinion AI is total bollocks!!! Anyone who has tried to navigate the complete incompetence of AI virtual “assistants” will know what I’m talking about. It is so incredibly frustrating. Is this really the future that everyone wants? We can’t talk to a real person now, but instead a completely useless AI bot? Who is that helping exactly? It’s certainly not helping me – the customer.
Vast amounts of money are being spent on this display of incompetence. Why not instead invest this money in real people? In society, health and education. Jobs are being taken away from people, who were actually quite capable at doing this work, and instead being given to annoyingly stupid systems that don’t work!!
Details >
My visits to New York are always nostalgic. I lived here for thirty-five years and will again someday. My days are filled with a greater variety and number of activities than I enjoy in LA, mostly curated by Jackie, who has ants in her pants and doesn’t value naps. Many of her friends are active in migrant Asian community’s political and cultural organizations. The museum exhibitions and cultural events we go to are often eye-opening. Some shine a new light on my past experiences.
Details >
So last week I mentioned my eye. It seems good now and I don’t have to run around with blurred vision any more.
But it caused a bit of a problem when I attended a small competition during the easter. Wounded eye and I couldn’t use contact lenses, so I was not able to wear sun glasses. And this isn’t the first time for this happening. So I should probably get a pair of prescription sun glasses. What’s the best allround lens colour for a fly fishing competition?
Details >
Warm weather is still here. Snow and ice circumstances are similar than normally two weeks from now. Good thing is that it is clear weather or at least not raining anything.
We are still hoping to have ice fishing group end of this month. There is small change that it will happen as this week we have had some cold nights around - 7 celsius and even days have been barely zero or just above in sun. Wind has been helping also so spring has been slowing down.
Details >
This week's fly is Bob Popovics' siliclone. Like so much of what sprang from his mind it’s deadly. In my opinion it’s probably the best mullet imitation ever devised and unlikely to be superseded.
Details >
We've had a two consecutive days off from fishing this week, both due to a weather system that brought 40kph winds, thunderstorms, torrential tropical rain and wall to wall heavy cloud cover. It must be tough for people who are on a week long fishing break knowing that a third of their fishing time has been lost due to the conditions, however Tracy and I can be a bit more relaxed about it given the length of our stay. In fact, I think it's fair to say that we both needed a rest as we'd been hitting the flats pretty hard, spurred on by some great fishing.
Details >
It's early autumn now, as is the way of New Zealand, and in Auckland the ever-present wind is here to greet me. I launched early and went looking for fish, not sure what target species would show.
Classic harbour fishing. Boats on the move, a tanker sliding past, the Waiheke ferry thumping through. Not quite what you picture when you think fly fishing, but that's part of the appeal. Auckland is busy, noisy and working, and the fish are there anyway. Plus it's close and doesn't involve a big drive. Although I must admit I'm starting to feel the pull of winter trout fishing — with the right timing it can be productive in the limited open waters around the country, and the boat might come in handy for a few of those adventures. That's for another day.
Details >
It’s Sunday at the time of writing this. Yesterday night I had my weekly in-boat endurance bike ride. Indoor riding I find harder than outdoors. But indoor-riding, when it’s 32->28C and 80->98% humidity, is an absolute kiler. I have two small fans that blow warm hunid air at me as I ride. 5hrs and 150 virtual KM. There is absolutely no way I could run a marathon after this. It’s far harder than 180KM outdoors. Still that’s why I do it! It makes the outdoor 180KM Ironman ride seem like a pleasant training ride in the park.
Details >
So after practicing in the park with the 20’ leader for a few days, I had a chance Sunday, to see what it would take to fish it in the river and to find out how the carp like it.
Details >
This week started out a bit odd. During the Sunday my right eye was itching and irritated. I don’t really know when it started I just noticed that I had scratched so much on the eye lid that it was starting to get irritated. So I figured it was best to actively avoid touching the eye any more. Come Monday and it didn’t feel quite all right but didn’t think much about it. When I checked the eye in the evening I saw that there were a lot of blood vessels visible in they eye and when I asked Minna to have a look she thought it was some small injury in the eye.
Details >
As we know in English you have these silent letters as many other languages. I don't know who come up this idea, but for Finnish person this is stupid. In English you write letters on paper and then you just don't say all of them. In Finnish you say all the letters you write. We are equal even to letters. At least we don't waste paper for nothing.
I have been tying flies this week, it is slowly coming together. Some are still ugly as hell and some even start look pretty decent. All of them will catch a fish, or will they? I saw few interesting comments when dropping rabbit hole in tying.
Details >
This week, I'm giving you another saltwater fly; the polar fiber minnow. It's a pattern that's been kicking around for a few decades but maybe isn't as popular as it should be.
Details >
Last week I mentioned the interesting feature of our hire car's entertainment system in that it shows music videos on the screen in the middle of the centre console whilst I'm driving – I'm pretty sure that would be illegal back in the UK, driving without due care and attention and all that. I've also been struggling with another supposedly simple bit of technology this week – the action camera. It's Tracy's idea that we both wear these, mainly because we tend to separate when we're on the flats and therefore have no record for prosperity of some of the catches we made (or perhaps she didn't believe my stories of the monster bonefish that I'd caught and wanted proof!).
Details >
