I was visiting Yosemite national park last weekend with my family. It's a great place to visit, though now it's been so dry that the Yosemite water falls looked like there's only someone pissing down from the cliffs :)
If you go there I can recommend the Yosemite View Lodge for accomodation although the prices are pretty steep this time of the year.
Up there I learned that the only natural fish in the rivers there is rainbow trout and that also only up to 1200 meters high. We saw one rainbow trout while we were wading in Merced river to refresh. The 30 cm trout slowly swam as close as 2 meters from us. I have to say it was really beautiful, nothing like the fodder fed fat pigs we are growing in some facilities and ponds in Finland and then putting to certain rivers for fishermen's amusement.
It's too bad I didn't have a chance to go fishing in Yosemite. I felt like the Merced river was calling for me to come and fish it. There were so many great looking places for fishing. I definetly have to try fly fishing in California now that I'm staying here for a little bit longer than usually. If anyone has any recommendations for good rivers, good guides, renting equipment etc. within 50 mile range of San Francisco Bay area please let me know. My email is markook73(at)yahoo.com.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Moving from point A to point B with Honda CR-V
I got my new Honda CR-V Elegance Plus with some add-ons just a week before I went to holidays up north to Utsjoki. It's a 700 km drive from Oulu to Utsjoki, so driving up there, driving around while there, and then driving back to Oulu means something like 1700 km. This is certainly enough to get an idea on whether the car is good or bad :)
Overall I like the new CR-V more than the older model which I had previously. This one behaves more like a regular car instead of an SUV, which is nice. It also is my first car with diesel engine. i really like the torque this engine gives and I wouldn't go back to gasoline engine.
But how does this small SUV perform as a (sport) fisherman's vehicle? Well, it has got quite a lot of room for your gear. It's hard to imagine anyone needing more gear for sport fishing trip than one can pack in CR-V.
Long trips are nice with the diesel engine as you don't need to shift gears too often. The engine ain't too thirsty either, it only drinks 6.5-7 l/100 km. So you'll have more money for fishing licenses and fishing gear...and drinks for the driver (non-alcohol of course).
You really can't go cross country with the CR-V. Although it is 4 wd, it's not meant for driving in the woods. But if there is somewhat decent trail to the river you are going fishing, this SUV can easily take you there. I did drive in some trails during my stay in Utsjoki and I was able to go places where I wouldn't be able to go with a regular car.
My conclusion is that CR-V with diesel engine is pretty much ideal vehicle for someone who does sport fishing as a hobby and needs to use the vehicle also for traveling with family and driving to work. Pretty good compromise. Is it better than other's in the same category, Toyota RAV4, Mitsubishi Outlander etc? I don't know if anyone can give a definite answer to this, but personally I preferred the specs of CR-V.
Overall I like the new CR-V more than the older model which I had previously. This one behaves more like a regular car instead of an SUV, which is nice. It also is my first car with diesel engine. i really like the torque this engine gives and I wouldn't go back to gasoline engine.
But how does this small SUV perform as a (sport) fisherman's vehicle? Well, it has got quite a lot of room for your gear. It's hard to imagine anyone needing more gear for sport fishing trip than one can pack in CR-V.
Long trips are nice with the diesel engine as you don't need to shift gears too often. The engine ain't too thirsty either, it only drinks 6.5-7 l/100 km. So you'll have more money for fishing licenses and fishing gear...and drinks for the driver (non-alcohol of course).
You really can't go cross country with the CR-V. Although it is 4 wd, it's not meant for driving in the woods. But if there is somewhat decent trail to the river you are going fishing, this SUV can easily take you there. I did drive in some trails during my stay in Utsjoki and I was able to go places where I wouldn't be able to go with a regular car.
My conclusion is that CR-V with diesel engine is pretty much ideal vehicle for someone who does sport fishing as a hobby and needs to use the vehicle also for traveling with family and driving to work. Pretty good compromise. Is it better than other's in the same category, Toyota RAV4, Mitsubishi Outlander etc? I don't know if anyone can give a definite answer to this, but personally I preferred the specs of CR-V.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Lessons learned (so far)
This summer I bought my first set of fly fishing gear truly ready for salmon fishing. It is still only one hand 10 feet, 8 AFTM rod and reel and lines suitable for that. I'll report my evaluation on pros and cons of this set later. But the main thing was that I got my first shooting head line and started practicing under arm casting with it. Below is the list of my learnigs related to using shooting heads:
- Shooting heads don't come in the right length out of box but you need to cut them to the right length. The right lenght depends on the rod, your casting skills and the circumstances where you fish, ie. the river size, the strength of the stream and wind
- You can come a long with only one floating shooting head for salmon fishing, but it's not ideal. I think one should have a couple of different length floating shooting heads for different water and weather conditions. In addition one intermediate shooting head would be good in case the water is high. This is enough if you only fish in small or medium size rivers like Vetsijoki and Utsjoki. If you fish in big rivers also, I guess you need to have even more sinking shooting heads.
- Once the shooting head is of right length, you can really have long casts quite easily.
- The upper cast is not as light and fun with a shooting head as with WF line if you fish in a very small river where you don't need long casts.
- I don't recommend 10 feet long one hand rod for shooting heads. It is a bit too long making casting pretty hard for your wrist. I did a lot of double handed casting when I needed long casts because I left the shooting head still quite long (and thus heavy) to be able to have longer casts when needed.
- It is best to start learning under arm casting by taking a course or having someone there to guide you. I didn't have anyone to teach me and I didn't have time to take a lesson or course before starting. I have to say it was even dangerous at times. I got the fly to my back and neck couple of times (luckily I had a coat and a hood on) and even hitting me finger couple of times. Once the fly bounced in the back of my head. I'm lucky to survive without fly ripping off my ear or something.
- If you don't have anyone to guide you, search web for help in casting. I found f.ex. these helpful: Caddis expert and Spey video clips.
Other learnings:
- Lohenkalastajan käsikirja is really a good read for any (finnish reading) person interested in salmon fishing.
- Do test your tippet line before starting fishing. It's not fun to loose a nice fish and a good fly because of bad tippet line.
- When the water is high, do use bigger flies than in normal summer water conditions. Take also into account that the colors that normally work in certain river might not be the best when the water is high.
- Always keep a loop of loose line in your hand so you can release it if a salmon catches the fly when the line is straight and tight, as it usually is at the end when the fly and line is almost directly downstream from the fisher. This gives the salmon some time to really bite the fly and get it stuck in its' jaws.
- Shooting heads don't come in the right length out of box but you need to cut them to the right length. The right lenght depends on the rod, your casting skills and the circumstances where you fish, ie. the river size, the strength of the stream and wind
- You can come a long with only one floating shooting head for salmon fishing, but it's not ideal. I think one should have a couple of different length floating shooting heads for different water and weather conditions. In addition one intermediate shooting head would be good in case the water is high. This is enough if you only fish in small or medium size rivers like Vetsijoki and Utsjoki. If you fish in big rivers also, I guess you need to have even more sinking shooting heads.
- Once the shooting head is of right length, you can really have long casts quite easily.
- The upper cast is not as light and fun with a shooting head as with WF line if you fish in a very small river where you don't need long casts.
- I don't recommend 10 feet long one hand rod for shooting heads. It is a bit too long making casting pretty hard for your wrist. I did a lot of double handed casting when I needed long casts because I left the shooting head still quite long (and thus heavy) to be able to have longer casts when needed.
- It is best to start learning under arm casting by taking a course or having someone there to guide you. I didn't have anyone to teach me and I didn't have time to take a lesson or course before starting. I have to say it was even dangerous at times. I got the fly to my back and neck couple of times (luckily I had a coat and a hood on) and even hitting me finger couple of times. Once the fly bounced in the back of my head. I'm lucky to survive without fly ripping off my ear or something.
- If you don't have anyone to guide you, search web for help in casting. I found f.ex. these helpful: Caddis expert and Spey video clips.
Other learnings:
- Lohenkalastajan käsikirja is really a good read for any (finnish reading) person interested in salmon fishing.
- Do test your tippet line before starting fishing. It's not fun to loose a nice fish and a good fly because of bad tippet line.
- When the water is high, do use bigger flies than in normal summer water conditions. Take also into account that the colors that normally work in certain river might not be the best when the water is high.
- Always keep a loop of loose line in your hand so you can release it if a salmon catches the fly when the line is straight and tight, as it usually is at the end when the fly and line is almost directly downstream from the fisher. This gives the salmon some time to really bite the fly and get it stuck in its' jaws.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Concluding my fishing season so far
I arrived Mountain View, California with my wife and daughter on Saturday and I'll be here for the next 5 weeks. This means that the early part of my fishing season has ended and it's time to wrap up how it has been so far.
Fishing in Utsjoki river was ok although the water was really high the whole time. I gained a lot of experience but managed to catch also something. The best thing is I broke my own fly salmon record, ie. I caught my biggest salmon ever by fly fishing. The record is still not that impressive, about 3.5 kg, but still it's my record.
In the end I managed to go fishing in Vetsijoki river only once although it is my favorite river. I didn't catch anything but instead lost a very good fly as a salmon about the same size as my new record broke the tippet line.
This summer I also went to fish in Vesterelva river in Norway for the first time ever. It is quite a nice salmon river and I'm certainly going to go fish there also in the future. But that has to be after the first week of July as I heard that the salmon really starts to get into that river in big numbers from the second week of July onwards.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Lost a good fly to a salmon
I had an interesting fishing night last night. I was fly fishing salmon in Vetsijoki river. I didn't catch any due to combination of bad luck, bad equipment and maybe a pinch of incompetence :)
First couple of salmons that I had contact with last night didn't stick in the fly for more than a few seconds. The same problem with both of those, the line was almost directly towards down stream when they caught and I didn't have a loose loop in my hand that I could have released when I felt the fish there. This usually leads to fish not sticking tightly to the hook.
Couple of hours later a third salmon bit the fly...again the same fly, red butt. It was a bit like this: http://www.sorro.com/red_butt_sorro.php3. but it was bigger and had some flashabou in it. This time the salmon was tightly hooked. It gave a good fight for it's size (seemed like a bit over 3 kg) as it used the very strong stream in the rapid for it's benefit. At times I had to keep the salmon pretty tight as I had to stop it from getting into a very fierce rapid 15 meters downstream from where I was. Finally the fish got tired and I got it close to me but I didn't have a net or a striking hook with which to get it up and the water was too deep where I was to go to water and lift it up by hands. I started to look for a place to get the fish up and there was a nice place 10 meters downstream but I couldn't see any suitable size stones there for knocking out the fish as it was all one rock. So I looked around me and saw a perfect stone there. I leaned down and picked up the stone thinking next to walk the fish down to the place where I can get it up. But just when I got up the salmon took the last spring they always do and went to the strong stream in the middle of the rapid...and snap the tippet broke off.
The line I used for tippet was no good and the rod was in pretty bad angle when the fish made it's final spring, so the tippet couldn't take it. I must confess that I cursed pretty strongly when this happened. It is bad enough to loose a salmon when it's that close but I also lost a very very good fly. I still feel like crying just to think about it.
Oh well, that salmon was not mine and the life goes on. Today I have to go shopping for better tippet line and need to try to find a couple of good big salmon flies as I have now lost both of the bigger flies I had caught salmon with. I have plenty of good size 10 and 12 flies but now there's so much water it's better to use bigger flies than normally in these smaller rivers I like to fish in. Next winter I'll start practicing fly tying. I'll write about my experiences in learning that then.
First couple of salmons that I had contact with last night didn't stick in the fly for more than a few seconds. The same problem with both of those, the line was almost directly towards down stream when they caught and I didn't have a loose loop in my hand that I could have released when I felt the fish there. This usually leads to fish not sticking tightly to the hook.
Couple of hours later a third salmon bit the fly...again the same fly, red butt. It was a bit like this: http://www.sorro.com/red_butt_sorro.php3. but it was bigger and had some flashabou in it. This time the salmon was tightly hooked. It gave a good fight for it's size (seemed like a bit over 3 kg) as it used the very strong stream in the rapid for it's benefit. At times I had to keep the salmon pretty tight as I had to stop it from getting into a very fierce rapid 15 meters downstream from where I was. Finally the fish got tired and I got it close to me but I didn't have a net or a striking hook with which to get it up and the water was too deep where I was to go to water and lift it up by hands. I started to look for a place to get the fish up and there was a nice place 10 meters downstream but I couldn't see any suitable size stones there for knocking out the fish as it was all one rock. So I looked around me and saw a perfect stone there. I leaned down and picked up the stone thinking next to walk the fish down to the place where I can get it up. But just when I got up the salmon took the last spring they always do and went to the strong stream in the middle of the rapid...and snap the tippet broke off.
The line I used for tippet was no good and the rod was in pretty bad angle when the fish made it's final spring, so the tippet couldn't take it. I must confess that I cursed pretty strongly when this happened. It is bad enough to loose a salmon when it's that close but I also lost a very very good fly. I still feel like crying just to think about it.
Oh well, that salmon was not mine and the life goes on. Today I have to go shopping for better tippet line and need to try to find a couple of good big salmon flies as I have now lost both of the bigger flies I had caught salmon with. I have plenty of good size 10 and 12 flies but now there's so much water it's better to use bigger flies than normally in these smaller rivers I like to fish in. Next winter I'll start practicing fly tying. I'll write about my experiences in learning that then.
Monday, July 2, 2007
Finnish salmon rivers
Man they have a lot of salmon rivers in Norway as in Finland we have only 5 of them (if you don't count the tributary rivers). And actually only 3 of those give enough salmon to really talk about. Those are Teno, Näätämö and Tornionjoki rivers. Simojoki river has been getting better and I think they do catch fair amount of salmon from Kymijoki river also. Kiiminkijoki you can't really call a salmon river, but every year some salmon is caught. Oulujoki river used to be a very good salmon river before they build it for power production during 1940's to 1960's. Now it produces 2700 GWh. A few years back they build fish ladder so salmon can go past the first dam in Oulu. I've read that now there have been some salmon babies swimming in Oulujoki river above the first dam. I truly hope they build the fish ladder also to the next dam above and salmon starts to really come back to this river because I live in Oulu.
Fishing in Vesterelva
I was fishing with my brother in law in Vesterelva in Norway on Friday evening and Saturday. I've heard a lot of good about the river, the river is full of salmon and they bite your bate (actually only fly allowed) more eagerly than in most of the rivers. So our hope were high when we headed there. First negative surprise was the cost of fishing license for Vesterelva. We had to first buy the Norway's national fishing license which was 275 NOK for a year (we were told you can't get the license for a shorter period). And then we bought the 24 hour license for the river which was 300 NOK. So all together we paid 575 NOK each for a day's license...I think it's something like 65 €. I know there are lot more expensive rivers even in Norway, but this is more expensive than for example the licenses for Teno river and I think it's quite a lot for a small river like Vesterelva.
The next disappointment was that we didn't catch anything. It was a new river for both of us, so we didn't know where to focus our fishing efforts. Also we heard from the local fishing guard that there hasn't been a lot of salmon in the river this summer. Also some fishing tourists that had been fishing there for years confirmed this. Maybe it's because the water is very high and cold? Oh well...I'll go there again next summer as the river is anyhow very beautiful and in the end we were shown the places where to focus our fishing to be effective.
The next disappointment was that we didn't catch anything. It was a new river for both of us, so we didn't know where to focus our fishing efforts. Also we heard from the local fishing guard that there hasn't been a lot of salmon in the river this summer. Also some fishing tourists that had been fishing there for years confirmed this. Maybe it's because the water is very high and cold? Oh well...I'll go there again next summer as the river is anyhow very beautiful and in the end we were shown the places where to focus our fishing to be effective.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Thoughts on C&R fishing
I've been thinking the ideology behind Catch and Release fishing for quite long. Earlier this week I caught a 3.5 kg salmon with fly. It was so beautiful and gave a good fight and then I killed it. Later during the night when I was in the bed trying to sleep I started to think about the fish I had caught and I felt kind of sad for it.
I thought that what if I had released it? But in the end I realized that it doesn't honor the fish, but it's more like teasing and hassling with them for nothing. It's better to fish for food and honor the life of the fish by killing it fast and making sure that the meet doesn't go wasted by taking it to cold pretty fast. And I thank mother nature every time it offers me something.
Don't take this wrong though. I do understand the thinking behind C&R fishing when it is important to make sure the fish population in a certain river f. ex. is not endangered. And I don't condemn people who do C&R also in "normal" river. But you'll never see me doing C&R anywhere. If catch and kill is not permitted in some river, I won't fish there.
I thought that what if I had released it? But in the end I realized that it doesn't honor the fish, but it's more like teasing and hassling with them for nothing. It's better to fish for food and honor the life of the fish by killing it fast and making sure that the meet doesn't go wasted by taking it to cold pretty fast. And I thank mother nature every time it offers me something.
Don't take this wrong though. I do understand the thinking behind C&R fishing when it is important to make sure the fish population in a certain river f. ex. is not endangered. And I don't condemn people who do C&R also in "normal" river. But you'll never see me doing C&R anywhere. If catch and kill is not permitted in some river, I won't fish there.
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