Trout 2 - Opax 0

Note to self: Don't use Knapek nymph hooks to fish big brown trout.

Black Zulu Special

Here is a variation of an old classic, the Black Zulu. This fly is tied on heavy wire grubber hook with a bead. Orange yarn is used instead of standard wool tag. It hardly makes a difference; actually this fly works well even without the tag.

I use this fly as a searching pattern. It works for trout, grayling, and white fish.

The 12th Hour

You close your eyes. It’s about 6 am in the morning and you’ve been fishing since 7 pm previous day. At some point you were too tired to fish so you sat eyes blanked at campfire, ate a few sausages with mustard, and drank two beers. Then, while the others went sleeping or left, you continued fishing. And you landed trout. A good one, too.



The river is located between lakes, as most rivers of the region, and has only two sections that are fishable without boat. Runs are short, wide, and extremely strong. But so are its trout: short, stout, and extremely strong. In here, where you live, they are legendary. A lot of fishermen come after these trout but only a few catch them.

You’ve been awake for almost 24 hours. You have been fishing for about 11 hours with only a few small breaks. You have a tent but no sleeping bag. Somehow the idea of driving home to sleep lured its way to your mind and you actually took off your leaking waders, sat behind the wheel and started driving. Driving at this mental stage is not a wise decision; it’s an act of insanity. Your mind paid no attention to such introspection. But, instead of driving home, you drove to the other river section.

You’ve somehow managed to dodge the crowd. First, in the evening, you selected different river section than most of other fishermen, and now in the morning, you were just about to drive home but decided to check the crowded section before you leave and found out that there was only one car left. So, instead of leaving, you sit behind the wheel with your eyes closed. You try to recall all the moments of last hours but memories are fussy. After a minute or two you hear engine starting and the car drives away. You are alone in a great trout stream.

A moment later you are gazing the river from bridge. A pocket water section looks tempting. You tie on John Goddard’s famous caddis dry fly and Lennart Berqvist’s pupa pattern. You figure that the English pattern will be a very attractive indicator and the Swedish pattern would be the choice of a picky trout.

When you get into the water and start casting you notice that you can’t see your indicator fly from roughness of the surface. Sleep deprivation isn’t helping either. But this is what you love so you keep on fishing.

Mind and body become separated. Body is fishing; mind is dreaming and enjoying the ride.

Suddenly you see a flash of light below the surface.

“Hey! That looked like a fish!” your concussions mind says with astonishment.

“No kidding.” subconscious mind would reply if it could talk. While conscious mind is speaking, subconscious mind is acting: right hand raises the rod and left hand pulls the line.

“I’m getting good at this!” says the conscious mind.

“You are getting good at this?” would be the answer.



You get back into the car and start driving home. An hour later you stop the car, close your eyes and fall to sleep.

Caddis Larva

From Life

It's a size 12 olive caddis larva.

From Fly-patterns

The Proof

It's a small stream, so the pool is a miniature version of the ideal pool. It has all the characteristics however: strong current feeds it from upstream run, its bottom drops deep slowing the current and trapping drifting insects into the turbulence. The current gathers again at the tailout where the trout lie.

The pool must be approached carefully, taking cover from bank and trees, and finally casting a streamer to the current. The streamer mimics the dying minnow perfectly, swimming slowly, flashing its side, slowly but surely dying as an easy prey. The animated death sequence becomes prolonged, yet the fly is left untouched.

Same pattern in a different color, the motions repeated but the results remain. Give the pool a rest.

* * *

Later the line is rigged with two nymph patterns and a spilt shot. One of the flies is a flashback caddis larva pattern and the other is more natural and subtle nymph pattern.

The take is so subtle that it is almost unnoticeable. Tighten the line and a trout is on. It is hard to judge its size, and then it splashes water throwing the hook. There is only one person near the pool so it is clear who should be blamed.

New cast and eyes fixed to the end of line drifting through the pool. The motion stops just before it should speed up.

Just before landing the trout it becomes evident which fly has been accepted. And that is the best part.



A fly tied and designed by The Mad Fishicist.

Pheasant Tails. Tied by The Mad Fishicist

These beautiful Pheasant Tail nymph variations are tied by The Mad Fishicist.


With respect and gratitude, thanks TMF.

The springtime sun sets, treading on a mountain pheasant's tail.	Yamadori no o o fumu haru no irihi kana
Yosa Buson

Grub. Tied by Levern Burm

From Fly-patterns

This Grub pattern, as tied by Levern Brum, is looking really tasty. Simple, fast to tie, what more can you ask?

UPDATE (Thanks Vern!):
Hook: Daiichi 1120 or TMC 2487/2457
Rib: Osterich herl
Abdomen: Virtual nymph skin (tan/cream). Can substitute with a latex
glove cut into strips.
Thorax: Buggy black dubbing

We Fish

From Trout

I remember this trout well... Actually, now that I think of it more closely, I don't remember this trout all that well. So I start over.

This was one of the trouts I got that morning. I was nymphing and the nymphing was just as good as it is ever going to get. I was at the river early, action started as it should, and it was good.

I remember one other trout well... It was a bit bigger than this one. Or smaller...

It is -3 ºF / -20 ºC. I miss fishing.

Mainstream caddis pupa pattern: Viagra Caddis

From Fly-patterns

This is a Viagra Caddis pupa as tied by Levern Burm. I see this fly as a sample of today's mainstream fly tying. If I look at today's fly fishing magazines I see many patterns like this. And there is nothing wrong with that. It is good looking fly that has lot of qualities of good fly patterns -- Bead: to get attention, Right shape: to be accepted.

Snapshot of time

From Life

Sometimes a memory of certain moment is so clear and vivid that you can feel it. Three or four years ago great-big-grand-mother-of-a-trout stopped the drift of my gold ripped hare’s ear nymph. She broke my leader five seconds later but I can still feel it.

Colors of the Fall

Kuusamo is a region in eastern Finland less than hundred kilometers south of the Arctic Circle. It has lot of wild life as this moose that crossed the road just before us when we were heading towards Kiutaköngäs. Luckily the road was bad and we were doing only 50 km/h (31 mph) so I had no problem stopping the car before this magnificent animal. It was big and had a very good rack, but we were too slow with the camera.

Kiutaköngäs is name of about hundred meter rapids/falls stretch of Oulankajoki. This river goes all the way down across the border to Lake Paanajärvi in Russia. Below is a picture of Pikkuköngäs (“Small Falls”) just above the Kiutaköngäs.



The Brown Trout of Paanajärvi is possibly most known trout variant in Finland. Paanajärvi Trout are big (2 to 5 kg or 4 to 11 lbs are most common) and jump thru Kiutaköngäs Falls to spawn in the upper stretches of Oulankajoki. Paanajärvi Trout is fished in rivers Oulankajoki, Kitkajoki and Kuusinkijoki. These fisheries are very popular and a subculture of Trout Fishing is formed to Kuusamo around these rivers and Paanäjärvi Trout.





Secret spot?

We had a week of family vacation, but Thursday afternoon was my time off – a time to go fishing. I had grayling in mind, and I had been planning to go to a small stream. I found out that I had done my homework poorly. When I talked to the manager of the fishery, he informed me that all streams in his region were closed until next summer. I had knew beforehand that the great rivers of Kuusamo (Oulankajoki, Kitkajoki and Kuusinkijoki) were closed but I was under impression that some of the small ones would be open for fishing.

After initial disapointment I crafted a plan B and headed towards Poussujoki. It is small upper fork of great Iijoki river system. Iijoki is flowing from Kuusamo to Gulf of Botnia, some 340 kilometers (211 miles) southwest.

Thursday morning was very cold. There was ice at the shores of small lakes. At midday my thermometer showed +5 degrees Celsius (41 F) for air temperature and the water was +7 degrees Celsius (44 F). There was no visible bug/fish activity to speak of, so it was a day for nymphing.



In the course of afternoon, I managed to land three graylings and failed to set the hook for about same number of other fish. All of the graylings were small, around 25 cm or 10 inches, and all of them accepted Red Tag pattern. It was not what I whould call a good day if you count the fish and the coldness, but I enjoyed every secod of it.



Friday morning we left Kuusamo and drove back home. There had been first snowfall south of Kuusamo and the land was covered in snow. It was really beatiful sign of coming winter.



Back home, about 400 km (250 mi) south of Kuusamo, the leaves are still more green than yellow. It is like a step back in time.

Right now I am busy checking the other blogs. It looks that Wyatt from Flytimes is in Yellowstone. Can’t wait to see the pictures from there!

Red Tag

We are going to Kuusamo after two weeks and I tied few grayling patterns just in case. One of the most famous grayling patterns of the world is the Red Tag.

Here is a variation of Red Tag by Finnish master fly-tier Veli Autti. This variation creates more caddis pupa shape for the fly and adds some weight.

Red Tag (variation by Veli Autti)
Thread: Brown
Hook: Grubber size 10, (here size 12 heavy wire grubber hook).
Tail: Fl. orange red wool (here fl. orange antron yarn).
Body: Peacock herl over lead wire, almost reverse tapered; caddis style.
Hackle: Partridge (here mottled grey Hen). Cut fibers from top.
Head: Working thread, this fly has a real head, so it is bit over-sized by mainstream fly tying standards.

Lead it deep

This morning I had chance to do some fly fishing with my cousin Niko. He is my regular fly fishing partner, but this was only the second time in this season that he was able to go fishing. This is because Niko - as well as his friend and our mutual fishing partner Mika - are building houses for their families. They both also have small children so with the building project, family and work, they just are running out of fishing time.

We had some nice conversations, but did not do very well in the actual fishing part. There was some mayfly and caddis fly activity, but only few raising fish. My start was good however as I pulled first grayling in first or second cast from spot where I usually get my first fish. Grayling was small, only about 25 cm or 10 inches. It accepted #14 Superpupa with green body - a fly pattern which is showing some promise. But after this first fish, I did not manage to hook any fish for few hours. Time was running out - we had a work day ahead of us. I was fishing under the bridge and decided to add few split shots to my rig of bead head nymph with a streamer dropper. I changed my technique from downstream swing to nymphing. I didn’t add any strike indicator but fished with a short tight line. With tight line technique I keep my stick not high - as in high stick nymphing - but very near the water surface.

After few minutes of serious fly fishing I felt a strong fish and to my surprise it was not a trout but a grayling. It took another few minutes before it was in my net. This grayling was about 38 cm or 15 inches. It happens at times that even I stop banging my head to the wall and do something right for a change.

Don’t I just look Good with my fit-over Polaroid’s?