Some days are better than others. It´s a fact.
And this July day somewhere on Nordkalotten was better than most.
With huge hatches of all kinds of insects and big, rising fish all over the place,
this is the stuff that winter dreams are made of.
Music: “Kivran!” (H. Stubø)
Performed by Jazz & Fly Fishing
4th of July 2010: After spending the better part of last summer chasing us four bandmembers around with a camera, it seemed only fair that our producer, Petzi, should make the first cast on this beautiful wilderness river up north. After all, Petzi is a passionate fly fisherman, and it must have been very difficult to go to all these fantastic fishing spots all over Scandinavia without being able to make a single cast.
Despite having an insane amount of well-meant advice and comments thrown at him by four fish-crazy musicians, Petzi somehow managed to keep cool and catch the beautiful trout that was rising on the neck (the fish later became a tasty dinner in the able hands of Fredrik, our master chef). Kudos.
As for myself, I have to admit that this is some of the worst backseat driving I´ve ever heard. I really didn´t know that I sounded this annoying. I´m going to put some duct tape over my mouth and leave it there. Seriously.
The last couple of weeks, I’ve made several 2-3 days expeditions into undiscovered country up north. Some successful, and some not-so-successful.
On one of these trips I stumbled upon a real treasure: a series of beautiful, small lakes, all connected by a little stream. They turned out to be filled with my favourite species – the arctic char. And big ones, too…
This area lies far from the nearest road in a pretty remote area, and there were no traces of humans to be found anywhere.
The fishing in these clearwater lakes for arctic char is usually very tricky, but since there was lots of caddis around, and even a decent hatch of the gigantic Phryganea Grandis caddis, we had a hell of a lot of fun. We hooked and landed several big arctic char, and kept a couple for dinner. These fish were super strong fighters, and one of the big ones did several high jumps in the air during the fight. Since these fish are some of the brightest coloured fish I’ve ever caught, it was an amazing sight (if only I had a camera rolling…)!
The flies that worked best was the magical Ismopuppa and the Streaking Caddis on a longshank #6 (!) hook.
Another expedition coming up tomorrow…
Cheerio,
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:
Tapani and I just came back from the legendary Ransarån. Terje Storsten, a great bass player/fly fisherman came with us on the trip. The objective of our little expedition was to hunt for the ultimate Nordic trophy fish – the big arctic char.
Ransarån offers excellent fishing for good-sized brown trout and arctic char, but what really sets it apart is the sight fishing conditions. To be able to see the fish in the water while you´re fishing for it makes things very exciting…
PS! Tapani filmed a lot with his Canon DSLR camera and hi-fi audio system on the trip, so you can expect some really cinematic stuff from Ransarån soon…
Finland here we come! Uusikadulla!!! Rajakala!!! Hevonk****!!!
I was over at Vigelandsparken again yesterday, trying to hook up with more urban trout.
Out of nowhere, Norwegian fly fishing legends Lars Lenth and Lars Nilssen, known from various books, articles and TV-shows, showed up with their fly rods and camera ready…
The result of our joint efforts can be seen on their exciting new blog at www.larsoglars.no.
Check it out!
Today it is friday. What are the latest news?
1. Håvard is broke but happy. He found real happiness when he became the gear machine. He is also gonna get some more Norwegian oil money pretty soon, that’s for sure.
2. Earlier this week I promised to arrange a nice little competition. Have I done that? Yes and no… since I want everything to be perfect I don’t dare to start up the competition. There is to much pressure in the air. I’ve been looking for prizes all over my apartment, can’t find anything but trash and garbage. It is very strange. That is why I (as a boss over the whole competition) choose to delay the whole happening. T.b.c!
3. Joona is desperate. After many fishing days he still haven’t caught “the big one”. I say: Hang in there, brother, stay away from the alcoholic comfort-evenings. Sooner or later it’s going to bite over your fly… (but not this year)
4. Tapani is happy because… (nice cliffhanger)
5. I’m sorry.
Searching for prizes...
The following e-mails were exchanged between Joona and me today:
—————————————————————————-
Subject: Videogear!
Sent: Tue, 20 April, 2010 17:17:52
From: Håvard Stubø
To: Joona Toivanen, Tapani Toivanen, Fredrik Hamrå
I have now ordered the following gear:
- Portable travel harddisk – La Cie rugged 500 GB (Petzi style)
- Canon Wideangle lens (screws on to the front of the camera)
- Monster battery for the camera
- Canon DM-100 external microphone with “dead cat” windscreen (supposed to be really good)
- Headphones
- 4 16 GB SDHC memorycards
- Ortlieb waterproof camera bag (all this gear (hopefully) fits in it)
- Extra RAM for the iMac
- 2 big external harddisks for the iMac
- New OS for the iMac with the latest version of iMovie
I already have this:
- Canon HF S10 Videocamera
- A lightweight stand for the camera
- Pro Zigma polarizing filter (adjustable)
I am now officially broke!
We´re getting there, guys!
Håvard
—————————————————————————-
Subject: Re: Videogear!
Sent: Tue, 20 April, 2010 18:27:44
From: Joona Toivanen
To: Håvard Stubø, Tapani Toivanen, Fredrik Hamrå
Man, this is not enough. You can hardly do anything with this.
Joona
—————————————————————————-
God damn it! I really thought I had everything covered, and now it turns out I have to order lots more expensive stuff.
And I´m broke, too…
In Norwegian, we would call Joona a “jævla gledesdreper”.
I don´t know what it is in English. Try google translator for chrissakes.
Stay away from me, Lucifer!
Driving, driving, driving. It’s a long way from Northern Norway to Middle Finland.
As usual, we were jamming a lot in the car, and today the repertoire consisted of rock classics like ”Smoke on the Water”, ”Enter Sandman”, ”Back in Black” etc. Fredrik´s singing is fantastic. He is very skilled at coming up with alternative lyrics for the tunes, and although most of the lyrics are about the usual topics – you know – the genitalia and so on, he always manages to come up with new, funny combinations.
The conditions for fly fishing were perfect today, like they always are when you have to leave. Typical… However, we managed escape the film crew and squeeze in 20 minutes of fishing in one of my secret lakes.
Immediate success! A stunningly beautiful, big trout took my dryfly after 10 minutes. I´m in 7th heaven now!
In the middle of the night, Tapani and Fredrik decided to go fishing for salmon in the Torneälven close to Haparanda. They caught a small pike.
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