This summer we made an amazing trip to Ukkohalla area’s Eco Rapids in Kainuu, Finland. We were fishing there in some of the beautiful rivers an streams such as the Kynäkosket area and the Syväjoki. Did we catch? Yes we did.
Driving all the way from Helsinki was quite long in just one day, but we have grown used to driving. Really, being on the road is a big part of our lives as fishing jazz musicians. Trying to find the best remote untouched fishing bonanzas and then going for a gig a thousand kilometers apart is what we do. As you can see in the video below, many times frustration and anxiety builds up as you approach the fishing location.
What combines jazz & fly fishing? Well, what combines jazz & oil wrestling?! It was a very hot day in Helsinki, Finland (+30C) when we went to see this remarkable event. I was surprised to find out that many of the contestants, spectators, the commentator and even the accordeonist were renowned jazz musicians. Thanks for all the people who made this happen!
Since we’re going away now for some ten days fishing in the norwegian tundra, we decided to give you a special treat: A very exclusive fly fishing short movie titled Slow Walking Water.
Håvard Stubø from JFF goes for the big trout of Ransarån in swedish lapland. The movie tries to capture the mood and soundscape of the journey.
This was my first attempt to shoot a short film, and it was basically just a field test for the equipment (Canon 550d/T2i, Beyerdynamic MC 930 pair, JuicedLink, Edirol). I had to be quite heavy with the directing since Håvard was talking all the time and he is supposed to be the only one there in the film…
The soundtrack was done in Copenhagen with a great norwegian guitar player, Magnus Wiik. He first came up with the theme in solo and I built the rest of the sounds and instruments later on top of it.
So there you have it. Fly fishing short movie. No real plot for this time, only mood from the beautiful river.
Here’s a quick photoblog from the Ransarån trip, which happened already two weeks ago. We made the trip with Håvard, Terje and myself aiming to catch some beautiful trout and of course, the arctic char.
Besides fishing, it was a very good opportunity to try out the capabilities of the new video gear that we had gotten. I attempted to shoot a short fishing movie with Håvard as the protagonist. It was a bit hard to make it look like he was the only one there, since he’s always talking… But I think I got a few good cinematic seconds here and there. Stay tuned, it will be posted here soon!
As a learning opportunity, the sight fishing there was excellent. We got one full night of incredible sight fishing. I didn’t catch anything, but had something like 15 opportunities on big cruising fish on around 1,5 to 2,5 kg range. Both trout and the arctic char. Håvard got the nice 1,45 kg arctic char in the end. Just looking at those beautiful fish is the best thing!
Here’s the photos from both the stills that we took, and the captures from the upcoming short film:
The Jazz & Fly Fishing team has been working hard to make the most out of the JFF-web experience, and now the time has come to reveal our new site! We hope you like it! (Please submit any feedback about it via the comment link below the post.)
In addition to our brand new site, we want to give you a sneak preview of the upcoming album! Check the Music-page to listen or download the track.
Like Joona, Fredrik and Håvard, I too have been complaining here many times about how the winter is too long, ice is too thick and how I have my fly fishing gear back in Finland etc… About stuff that prevents us from going fishing.
Well, yesterday on Good Friday I got a call from a friend of mine – a great bass player called Joel. He asked if I would like to go fishing with him. I knew that we were talking about fishing with spinning rods but I still couldn’t resist the offer. It had been too long time since the last time I was fishing.
As we met at the gas station to buy some groceries, it turned out that he only had one fishing rod – and even worse – only one spoon with him. We would have to manage with that.
I had a feeling this would not be an ordinary kind of fishing trip.
Joel, my guide for this trip
When we biked to the place, it turned out that my guide’s secret spot was just next to a powerplant in an abandoned shipyard. I got the shivers as we moved further. This looks like the place Håvard’s monster cod must live in – I remember thinking at that time…
Strange place for cod fishing
I was a bit sceptical at this point
When we arrived, the sea looked so beautiful. I almost forgot that just behind my back was a huge wind turbine flapping it’s wings. Joel took the first cast with his primitive gear. Sometimes fly fishing can get a bit serious I though to my self. It was nice to relax, I had no pressure of catching fish at least. It would be impossible to catch with this gear and only one spoon…
But then it happened! Joel shouted: “I have it!” And there it was. The cod! The big torsk was bending his rod to the limit as he was fighting it. And in the next moment it was gone. Next cast and another torsk was on! This time he got it up after the fight. And the next cast was mine. And there it was again – my turn to fight the torsk! We were having fun without fly fishing – I couldn’t believe it. And with only one lucky spoon!
Here is a short and shaky video clip from my cell phone:
While Håvard, Joona and Fredrik are gearing up for the start of the fishing season, I’m left gritting my teeth with all my fishing stuff, flies, rods and reels left behind in Finland. (As I mentioned earlier, I had no space left in my luggage when moving to Copenhagen because of the double bass…) For the time being I have had no options to go and get them, and it looks like it may well be may before it happens… Lot’s of jazz and no fly fishing is still ok I keep telling myself…
Instead of fishing, I’ve been going to jam sessions. The importance of jam sessions cannot be undermined for jazz musicians. The roots of this social phenomenon were formed already before and during the bepop era, in 1940’s. Usually there is a set presented by the house band followed by performances of freely formed groups of jazz musicians involving professional and amateur jazz cats alike. The music is improvised on the spot usually on top of the themes and structures of well known jazz standards.
Jam sessions keep musicians always on their toes since no group and session are the same. For the audience it is usually easy to point out, who is making music and who is not. Many times there can be 7 saxophone players waiting to get to show off their soloing skills and the poor bass player has to comp for the whole session since there is almost allways fewer bass players than saxophonists or piano players.
Of course, when this monday I went to Copenhagen’s Blågårds Apotek to get rid of my fishing angst and get to play some good jazz, there were not one or two other, but an armada of alltogether 7 (!) bass players waiting for their turn. I had my chance for two tunes, which was great fun after all.
These great photos from last monday’s session are courtesy of Michael Bauer and they are published under creative commons sa-3.0 license.
Even though I’ve been living here in Copenhagen for about three months, I’ve yet to discover it’s fly fishing possibilities. I’ve heard rumours of big seatrout and I’m dying to find out if there is some nearby. Winter time is supposed to be the time for gathering the information and planning the trips…
…but there’s just a couple of obstacles:
There’s still ice on most places, so I cannot go and see for myself
I don’t know any fly fishers that either live here or have experience of fly fishing near Copenhagen (If you are reading this and identify yourself as one, please drop me a note!).
All my gear is still in Finland.
I would really need a personal interpreter for searching all that information on the internet since my Danish skills are still on a beginner’s level (At least the fisherman jargon).
To get out from the dark and get at least some information, I watched the dvd “Havsöringens hemligheter” (The seatrouts sectrets), which is about fly fishing seatrout in Denmark.
According to the dvd (you can see a clip here) there is searout everywhere!!! They have underwater cameras showing big schools of fish streaming the coastline. And stretching my Danish skills to the extreme (and a bit of google translator), I was able to find this Danish fishing blog, which proves at least that the pike is here.
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