Huge trout – incredible!

Here’s a sneak peek for one of the upcoming blogs. Håvard caught this huge trout on one of our recent trips. Stay tuned, we’ll tell all about it later!

Super size trout

This Is What Happens…

…when our tours last too long. No further comments.

The Tables Have Turned

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.

Short Report

Hi!

I just came back from Vadsø/Varangerfestivalen, where I had the great honour and privilege to play with the legendary Polish trumpetplayer Tomasz Stanko and his quintet.

I was substituting for the band’s regular guitarplayer, and it was so much fun! Tomasz’ compositions are really fascinating, totally open but still structured. Beautiful pieces.
The interplay of the group was very strong, and it was a true joy for me to play with those cats.

Some pics:

PS! Leaving for this summer’s last Lapland adventure on saturday. One week in the wild, hunting for big browntrout. Can’t wait (I’m bringing a (better) camera)!

Fly Fishing – an Improviser’s Game

In interviews, we’ve often said that improvisation is one of the common denominators between fly fishing and jazz. In fly fishing as in jazz, you have to be able to adjust quickly to the ever-changing conditions and deal with unexpected challenges.

A recent example: Three days ago,  I went up to my cabin in the mountains with my little family.  Before we left, my mother-in-law had made a delicious dinner, and I must admit I ate a bit too much. Slightly intoxicated by the huge amount of food in my stomach, I managed to forget my hip-pack with all the flyboxes, leaders, tippets, etc. To make matters worse, the fish were really active up there, feeding on a good caddis hatch. Good-sized trout were jumping in the air, feasting on emerging caddis pupas.

I had no flies at all, just the rod, line and reel. What to do?

First, I did a thorough search of the cabin. No luck. The closest thing to fishing flies was my nephew’s bait hooks, size 12.

Hmmm. The hooks were about the right size… But no tying materials anywhere. If not… the carpet!

Badabing! I tied a couple of flies on the baithooks, just winding some loose threads from the carpet on to the hook shank.

Did it work? Yes it did. It really worked! Actually, I doubt that I would have caught any more fish with my “real” flies.

Now, what can we learn from this story?

Well, at least two things:

1. Don’t eat too much. It’s bad for you.

2. Trout aren’t always too picky when it comes to flies, as long as the general shape and size is OK. The way you present the fly to the fish is also very important.

Picture gallery from the north

Here are some pictures from one of the recent Jazz and Fly Fishing trips. Let’s start with the introduction:

Magical Summer Days in Lapland

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…

Fly Fishing in the Nuclear Zone

Håvard goes fishing in a secret area in Northern Norway known as “The Zone”. For years, the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad and the Norwegian government have been conducting secret weapons tests in the area, wiping out all animal life except the aquatic insects and the fish. As a consequence, the fish grow to enormous size. But if you want to experience this bonanza, you have to be prepared to pay the ultimate price…

Back in town

We came home two days ago. It feels kind of strange to be in a city again after the latest adventure. Since it never gets dark up there, we hardly got any sleep at all. Instead we had this strange and fantastic flow of fishing, filming, eating and laughing.

Some weird things happened, more about that will be showed later in the blog. Did we get any fish? Yes, we did. Did we loose any fish? Yes we did. Joona will tell you more about that. Here are some pics from the trip. Soon we’ll put up both beautiful and ugly movies, just wait and see! /Fredrik

Håvard casting

Alone on the mountain

Take a closer look!

Nice trout

Håvard enjoys something

Magic light of northern Scandinavia

Magic light 2

On the meny

At the fire place

Why is Tap smiling?

Our producer made some casts...

Tapani was very happy.

Beautiful Norway

Extreme arctic fishing ahead!

Hi

I’m just finishing my packing for the expedition we are going to make with the JFF team. The destination is far up north, about as far as you can get in Europe. Tomorrow I will travel to Kiruna in northern Sweden where I’ll catch up with the other guys. Then we drive further up north to a secret destination that might be revealed later. What I can tell you is that no jazz band has ever fished there before.

We are expecting to encounter big trout and arctic char on this trip. We know for sure that where we are heading there’s fish up to 5 kilos, and trout between 2 and 3 kilos are not rare. But if they are easy to catch, that’s another thing. There’s also the riskt that the northern wind can spoil the trip. Heavy winds from the North Pole can make fly fishing difficult at times. In the northernmost parts of Scandinavia there are hadly any trees to stop the wind either.So this trip is like gambling, we put all in and might get home empty-handed, or we might hit the jackpot.

We will of course be filming the action and the films will be published on this site. Be patient – for some reason we like to spend more time fishing than editing movies right now. As soon as we get back we’ll start working on the video footage!