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

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:

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…

Finnish Nonsense

Blog from Eco-Rapids #3

Hellau!

I´m back from Russia. Here are some interesting videos from our tour in Finland in early June.

The first one was made by Fredrik, who stole my camera and made this epic masterpiece entiteled Karja while I was searching desperately for the camera, thinking I´d forgotten it somewhere along the road:

The second film, What´s Up with the Lainen?, deals with the mythical Finnish word “lainen”.

Fredrik and I have been asking Finns about the meaning of this word for more than a year now, and we still haven´t gotten any good explanation for it. Poor Tapani is the victim this time:

Soon, we´ll go fishing together again! First, we´ll fish a mystical river somewhere on Nordkalotten for a couple of days, and then we´ll move into undiscovered country for a real expedition.

Stay tuned – lots more videos and stuff coming up!

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:

Picture gallery from the tour

Blog from Eco-Rapids #2

Here are some more photos from the Finnish tour. There were taken at Eco-Rapids by our guide Antti Härkönen, who is of course a fly fisherman, but also very much into music. He sings in a heavy metal band but after meeting us he’s totally into jazz and is considering going into modal jazz growl-scatting.

Thanks for the beautiful pics and good guiding Antti!