2011 has come and gone. Here is a short recap of the year and not only fishing but basically the whole years major events in a nut shell. 2011 started with me changing my job and before starting at a new firm I went to Fiji for some well-earned vacation. It was my first time really sight fishing and of course saltwater fishing. My catches were small but I saw some huge fish and the excitement of seeing  a big fish following my fly made the trip unforgettable. I can admit right away that I’m totally hooked on saltwater fishing now. This I would have never believed as I have always loved Fishing in the rivers of Russia, Norway and Finland. I thought that was all I needed from fishing but it was just one side of the coin. It needs to be balanced with warm waters and really strong fish and much less mosquitos.

After Fiji the fishing was set aside for a while as the paintball Finnish championship tournaments started. Our team played awesome this year and we earned our first ever Finnish championship with a solid play performance through the season.

We also did a small trip with Miksu and Saku to Teno in Finnish Lapland and that trip came to be our best ever salmon fly fishing trip. Everybody got something even though it seemed impossible to catch anything in that huge river. I still have to say that Teno is not my favorite Salmon river. I like smaller rivers and in 2012 the search for the perfect river continues.

In the start of Septemb

er I began my Pike fly fishing season and tried to continue where I left of in the spring when I caught the biggest pike yet. The season was long and many nice fish were caught but the 10 kg fish from spring still was the biggest I managed to catch. Don’t get me wrong 10kg Pike is a big fish and not everybody gets one, but there were a couple of possibly bigger fish to be had. Oh well maybe next year.

As I’m writing this it’s finally  time to say good bye to 2011 autumn pike season as the first snow is slowly raining from the sky and my mind is of course wondering what will this new year bring? I have already started planning for a saltwater trip for this spring and hopefully I can make it happen. I’ll let you know more as the plan develops.

Tight lines for everybody in 2012.

-Janne-

 

PS. Check out Fishare to see some of the biggest Pikes from 2011 caught by our users and admins.

I really hope winter does not cut this season short because it's getting hot on the water. Me and two friends of mine went Pike hunting last weekend at the southern part of Finland and boy did we have a great time. On Friday we searched through all the good maps we could find on Internet and applied all our fishing knowledge to the locations…granted that's not saying much but we did end up with two good looking spots. We hadn't been fishing these spots before so there was a little bit of uncertainty if the Pikes would be there but we decided to go for it.

On Saturday we headed to the first spot near the town Tammisaari and fished this small bay the whole day. It was a pike fishermans dream spot and the big fish were there but we could only catch the smaller ones but still some decent fish. My friend Miksu had the biggest fish of the day hooked but could not land that monster…it would have been over 100cm for sure. We did manage to land some 30 fish that day so it was a great day. Best Flies were Pumu which is a Black and Red slinky streamer and Black/Green/Silver slinky streamer. Almost all the Pikes were caught on these two flies. I'll get you photos of these flies later.

On Sunday we switched to Inkoo's great waters where we found promising looking waters. These waters proved themselves as soon as we started fishing with me landing my first pike after just one cast. The same flies that worked in Tammisaari were the best flies here also. With those two flies we hooked at least 100 Pikes and were able to land maybe 50 overall. We had some close calls with some real monsters but as usual the bigger boys were not to be landed by us. The biggest of the Sunday trip was 6,5kg which was a nice hard fighting northern Pike.

As for the wish I told you about in the beginning of the text. Our hunt for the Big boys might be cut short quite soon as there will be a cold front coming later this week. Keep your fingers crossed for us and keep following our blog for the Big boy hunt.

Where to fish in the summer of 2010? Our initial idea was to spend two weeks fishing in the northern rivers of Norway. All that changed when I found a great deal offering amazing fishing in Russia. A week from that, I booked a trip for me and my friend.

On August 9th me and my good friend Miksu arrived to Inari after a week of fishing in Finnmark. It was time to start our voyage to mother Russia in search of the ultimate trout fishing in the world. Our destination was Varzinas subsidiary Penka and the newly established tent camp in the middle of nowhere.

We met four other finish anglers who would give us a ride to Lovozero where all of us would jump in to a chopper. The trip from Ivalo to Lovozero wasn’t that pleasant as the roads were in terrible condition but we made through the customs and the long drive on the bumpy roads of northern Russia.

In Lovorezo we set up our tent in front of the deteriorating airport gate and went to sleep excitedly waiting for the chopper ride to the river. The next morning started in a poor note as the weather was no good for helicopter flying. We did try to get to the river but the sea mist was so bad that even when we arrived to our campsite we could not land because the pilot was not able to see the landing spot. And let me tell that in between the mountains you really do hope the pilot can see where he is flying and landing. So after three hours of pointless flying around we were forced to return to the airport and wait until the next day to try the flight again. This of course was poor news to a couple on the passengers who were suffering with a bad case of flight fear.

Wednesday morning begun with the same poor weather as there was only a little bit less mist. We waited the whole day for the flight that never came and were forced to spend one more night in Lovozero.

Thursday morning saw the mist finally clearing a bit and mid day we were able to backup the heli again and fly to our camp site. The flight fear of our two friends was not in any way diminished by the comment from our guide who in monotone voice stated “Welcome to the flight to hell in the middle of nowhere”. But this time the weather gave in when we got closer to the river and the flight went smoothly. We landed next to a beautiful mountain lake which was one the three bigger lakes which provide their waters to river Penka. As you can imagine after almost two days of waiting the tents rose fairly quickly and after some lunch we were of to the almost unfished river Penka. 

I was writing an article about my fishing in AItutaki and came across this nice chart regarding sizing of a bonefish by using the length.

In the spring of 2011 I got the chance to go Fiji for some well earned relaxing and Saltwater Fly fishing with my girlfriend. We took a flight from Helsinki, Finland to London to Seoul and on to Fiji. There we met with my good friend Miksu who had been travelling around the pacific and Fly fishing in some of the most beautiful places in the world. Before the trip we had talked about going around Fiji and trying our luck with the fly in various places but fate had another plan for us. Our first destination was Mamanucas an island group known for the party resorts and backpackers. Well as you might guess we didn´t really get any good fishing there so we decided to move north to our second location which was a small secluded Island right of the beach of RakiRaki. Here is where fate got our plans mixed up but in a really good way. We missed our Island boat because of dark and had to find a place to stay and the only choice near us was a remote resort called VoliVoli. We planned to stay for the night there and then get to the island early in the morning but when morning came and saw the whole ocean open in front of our eyes we knew that we had to stay for a little longer. As it turned out the owners son Nick happened to be a very keen angler and he took us GT hunting on the reefs and Skipjack trolling. For a first time warm salt water Fly caster like me it was a dream come true to get to cast at the schools of Skip Jacks and furiously hunting GT´s. My first real catch was a hard fighting Skip Jack which left me in love with saltwater fishing forever. Miksu and Nick got all the big fish but the experience was so awesome that I could never complain. Here are some of the photos from our trip. Thanks Nick for everything and hopefully we get go fishing again.

For the rest of our Catch photos go to http://apps.facebook.com/fishare and see mine and Miksus photos.

So, the decision has been made. Within the near future this blog will not be my personal one, but an shared one between the few of mine fishing buddies.

Phew. It has been a crazy few weeks. Myself, my girlfriend and our dog got a info that we would get a nice new apartment from Lauttasaari.
Thus I have been preparing and moving and renovating and decorating our new place. I cannot say that I would not have enjoyed this, our new place kicks ass.

Now I am writing a list of all the things I need to take with me when we are heading up north tomorrow. I need to find all my cold weather gear etc.
Pack my fly tying bag ( I have tied 4 flies for this trip...) and so on. But it will be a sweet sweet trip. I will be fishing with our “NZ” team, even the main man Johannes is coming to fish with us.

So 11 days of salmon fishing, good friends and good food. Whats not to like!

I will keep you posted!

So I just purchased 4 licesces to Lakselv to chase some silvery atlantic salmons in August.
We are heading to the Porsanger fjord on the 10th of August and coming back on the 21st or so.
This should give us around 10 days to wander around the awesome salmon rivers in that region, Lakselva, Borselva and Stabburselva. Another major plus is that our friend Johannes from NZ is coming to fish with us.How sweet is that!

You do meet awesome people when fishing!

Photo © Leena Salonen

Fished 6 days at the great Teno River in northern Finland. Did not catch anything huge, but landed few grilses.
While there i was testing a new 6 pcs. 15ft vision travel salmon rod. And i must say it was awesome!
I came back to southern Finland to handle some Business but i am yearning to go back up north. Need to wait few weeks...

Now i am heading to our HQ to finalize some issues so hopefully we would get our project released in near future. Stay tuned!

Here's a pic of saku and his grilse