One Magical Day

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

How To Remove a Hook From a Human Body

Here´s a trick every angler should know: how to remove a barbed hook without any tools at all. It´s swift and painless!

While casting for a big, rising seatrout in the middle of the subarctic summer night, Tapani was unforunate enough to hook himself in the nose with a big fly. Luckily, I have done this procedure several times (even on myself once), and knew the super trick – otherwise there would have been a lot more blood involved…

Czech it out:

This Is What Happens…

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

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.

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…

News from Russia

Hello from Russia (with love)! My own Håvard Stubø Quartet has been touring in the Ukraine and Russia for some days now. It’s been great, Russia is really somehing else – big and ugly and scary and beautiful and very, very exciting, filled with incredibly friendly and open people. Hopefully we can do a tour in Russia and/or the Ukraine with JFF some time soon. We have made some plans, so let’s see what happens. Here are some random pics from the tour:

Restless in Ransarån

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****!!!

Spring in the Upper Itchen

May 30th: Finally back at the Upper Itchen!
As you can see from the video, the ice and snow has just melted, and the colours of the landscape are still very dull. The ground around the river is still frozen, so the water isn´t too warm…
But sure enough, once the wind dies down, the feathermidges start hatching and the trout starts rising. I caught several good fish on this first real dry fly day of the season.

Two days later, I was joined by my cousin Dagfinn, and Erlend Welde from the excellent Norwegian blog www.utras.net. The weather was even colder than the first day, and the action was much slower. We still managed to force a decent number of fish to take our buzzers and hatching midges, but the average size of the fish was a little bit smaller than the first day.
Great fun!

Some pictures:

Next stop: Ransarån!