Welcome to Living Flyfishing

On this blog I will write about my fishing adventures, my development as a fisherman, fly tying and about the education at the Sportfishing Academy.
"Learning something and becoming better at it as time passes, isn't that a joy? When then people from all around the world, all sharing this interest, get together and become friends, isn't that also a joy?" - Confucius

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Sometimes the best things in life are free...

Recently, I have not posted that many new stories on my blog. However, this does not mean that I did not have anything to write about. Several fishing trips after I was in Mørrum have kept me busy writing for Go-Fishing's blog. Among this, a story about mullet with Joe:

Here they are (the text is in Danish though)

Also I have payed a visit to the Skjern Å in Jutland, western Denmark, with Henrik to fish for salmon. Truthfully, nothing much happened there.

Last weekend, I guess, I was blessed by the goddess of fortune. During a meal at a restaurant on Fyn with my family, where one of the employees also sells self-made fur vests and hats, I bumped into the owner of the products. When she heard that I am flytieing nerd she was very happy to give me her dyed fox tails. And today, she came into the shop and brought three whole bags of more tails, finn racoon fur, and Tibeth lamb.

Tusind tak for det, Lotte!

Wonder how many flies I can tie from that?

The Unknown River

Check out the article about king salmon in Argentina that I translated for Stephan Dombaj for the June edition of the Danish fishing magazine Fisk og Fri.


Cover by Stephan Dombaj

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Why do we do this?

That's a good question that many of my friends who do not fish themselves, have asked me many times. And sometimes it may well be a little difficult to give a convincing answer. Why is it that we fish for salmon, the "fish of a 1000 casts"? A fish that we do not really know why it takes a fly during the migration to its spawning grounds and for which you may have to wait for several years. I can understand that it may seem a little silly to get up at half past five to fish for a fish that is not feeding and in a place where you may need to wait for an hour before it is your turn to fish the pool. I think one reason is that most who have tried this kind of fishing, are infected with the highly contagious and incurable "Salmo salar syndrome". Once infected, the only, however, very short-term relief, you can get, is to go out and fish for salmon!
That was why I headed for Mörrum last weekend to fish with my good friend Erik Hellquist, who has been fortunate to grow up in Mörrum and has also studied at the Sportfiskeakademin. It was the third time I came there and never had the conditions been so good: Good water temperature, and above all lots of fish caught the last while. Apparently, there were others who had heard about the excellent fishing, too. I arrived Thursday afternoon and after beating the world record for quick dressing and preparing your gear, we were out by the river to discover that there were long queues at all the good pools. So it was not so much fishing that night.
The next morning, or actually it was probably more late night, Erik and I stood up to be first at pool 1, but no, there were already five men waiting for their turn. Likewise, it looked at pool 4, so after half an hour we could finally start fishing seriously. But isn't it also sometimes part of the charm to just sit and enjoy and chat with your fellow fishermen? After all, a day is quite long when you get up so early. The first day went by too quickly, though, without anything happening at the end of neither Erik's nor my line. We did get some casting practice, though. On the whole it seemed as if the fisheries worsened a bit after we had come. Isn't that typical? The second and last day we fished on a private stretch upstream of Vittskövle, and there nothing much happened. In fact, we did not see a single fish all day and it can be a little uninspiring to stand and fish, where you do
not really believe that there might be something that wants to take your fly. So the result was that none of us caught any fish.
Still, we had a really nice weekend, and simply standing outside by the river, enjoying nature and seeing a perfect cast turn into a perfect swing across the river, is just wonderful. Then there is also the companionship that is really important to me. Last but not least, the sense of knowing, or perhaps more accurately, not knowing when the next fish will strike is truly addictive. One thing is certain: If you continue long enough, one day you will hook the fish of your life. Many people who do not fish, often forget that it is not just about catching a fish. It is more about feeling the anticipation and expectation while waiting for fish to fall for your fly and the joy when it finally happens. If there was a catch guarantee there would be nothing to look forward to and it would soon become boring - and fishing is all but boring ;-).

Relaxing a little

Pool 4, no fish on this cast either

Talking about D-loops

Rest In Pieces SAGE FLi

The first fly rod is always something special, you get a really close maybe even sentimental relation it no matter how expensive it was. The memory of your first fish caught on a fly rod is something you will always bear in mind.

I had decided to take today off to fish a little and early this morning, or call it late this night if you prefer that, I got up at 0300h to head to Fyn's southern coastline to fish for seatrout and garfish on poppers. Due to the warm temperatures during this time of the year, we had 27°C yesterday, the only time to catch a seatrout is around dawn and around dusk. Garfish are not so tricky, they will take at any time of the day.

The spot I picked was around Assens and the stretch looked really promising with the important variety of the bottom structure, some stony areas, some with seaweeds and some sandy - over all perfect for seatrout. However, I did not see any of those but I had some strikes by garfish. Unluckily, they are a little difficult to hook.

And then suddenly I heard this "crack" sound. At first I could not believe my eyes but I had definitely broken my rod tip. Somehow I must have managed to break it in a cast. How? I have no idea. It still can't believe it. So frustrating! Getting up at 3 not catching anything and after two hours you break your rod and have to go home. That sucks! I just hope that the warranty will somehow cover it.

R.I.P.

 

Monday, May 14, 2012

Go Fishing

Today was the first day of my internship at Go Fishing in Odense, Denmark. For those of you who don't know the store, let me just tell you this: This is where you find THE seatrout experts in Denmark and the flyfishing and flytying material department is really well-sorted. At first I was maybe a little nervous (but only a little) but that feeling disappeared straight away when I met Henrik, Claus, Jens, Jesper, Joe and Niklas. They welcomed me warmly and I had a truly pleasant first day at the store, so that I am really looking forward to the next four weeks. Okay, and to the splendid seatrout fishing along Fyn's coastline ;-).

The store in Odense
Hmm, what (not) to buy?
 

Sunday, May 6, 2012

There is always something to complain about

Isn't that the sad truth? No matter how satisfied you ought to be with a day of fishing there will always be something that you can grumble about. Just as it is with anything else, I guess.


The last week of school is now over and while I am writing this I am already sitting in Germany. After the last test were completed there was a little time left to fish before going back home and starting our internships. Erik and I thought a nice way of finishing this school year was to go to our small and special lake where we had fished from the belly boat a couple of weeks ago. Only this time we brought a little more equipment as we wanted to camp out at the lake from monday to tuesday. We really fished a lot and paddled several kilometers. I didn't know that I was so out of shape until I had cramps in both my thighs at the same time. Not funny at all when sitting in a belly boat, I can tell you that. However, despite cramps and sun burns and waaay too nice weather Erik and I caught 44 pikes, amongst them my new pb on 75cm end Erik new pb on the fly on 85cm. Apparently, we were extremely lucky with the timing as the fish had just spawned. We saw a lot of eggs in the reeds. A bonus was how aggresive those pikes took the fly, incredible how big a small fish can seem when it strikes. Eventhough the average size during in that lake seems to be rather small, the fights were still amazing.

Overall, we really enjoyed the last days in Forshaga before we go our seperate ways until the beginning of october. Although we got sooo sunburned, the weather was too nice, we only caught 12 pikes the second day ;-). I guess a fisherman can never be satisfied.


"Almost there, Erik"

Two savages
Angel in white
Pike on 85cm a.k.a. "torpedo"





Sunday, April 29, 2012

Emilie's first Pike on the Fly

Yesterday Emilie and I spent the whole out fishing on Klarälven. There is really not so much to write about. We must have hit the period of spawning because we saw some surface activity close to the shore but no pike seemed to have an appetite for a nice looking fly. Well, almost that is: Emilie had borrowed Jon's VISION Big Daddy rod and sure enough the rod lost its virginity to a nice pike on 63cm. After a quick fight I was able to land Emilie's first pike on the fly, but definitely not the last! Congratulations!

First pike for Emilie!