Gone fishing for...

 

 

 

February 2012

 

 

 

I traveled the long winding Carratera Austral through thick ancestral forests of the Patagonia highlands. I crossed fjords, rivers and streams. I endured the endless miles of beat up dirt track road. Miles after miles of four-wheel driving in third gear uphill. I finally arrived in my Shangri-la. Villa O'Higgins. The land of rainbows. I was there with my friends the fishing Frier family.

 

With us we carried feverish dreams of silent summer days spent sightfishing for huge trout. The weather gods from the Andes mountais had decided to welcome us with something else. We arrived at our favorite fishing destination in the whole world and were greeted with storms and sideways rain. 

 

 

We got onto the water most days, but some days we simply had to hunker down in our hut and weather it out. Some of the destinations our fantastic friend and guide Alejandro Barrientos Guinao had planned were simply out of bounds because of the shrieking winds howling through the mountain passes.

 

We had to settle for something else. 

 

 

Luckily, we had brought two bellyboats. They really saved our trip. We could get onto some fantastic mountain lakes that were protected from the howling winds. Fishing streamers and sinking lines is always an option. 

 

 

But we also had days with a bit of sun, and less wind where we could fish big foam dries cast towards the reeds and rocks.

 

 

It is simply exhilarating to fish from a float tube. We were fortunate enough to get onto some fantastic lakes. Our friend made it possible for us to fish some private lakes in the area. One lake, owned by a mr. Savajo, sat beautifully beneath the majestic Andes mountains in the Rio Mayor pass. It's water was exceptionally clear, with a greenish tinge. You could see the bottom almost everywhere, even though the lakes must have been more than ten metres deep. Underneath us, we could sometimes spot big browns cruising around. Heart stoppingly exciting!

 

 

We lured a few of these big browns on wet and dry flies. and were impressed every single time by their uncanny power and stamina.

 

Fortunately we had other options apart from the float tubes. We could fish the outlet of the huge Lago Cisnes, and the lake shores. A fantastic lake holding large browns and rainbows and even a few chinook salmon (no we didn't see any). We harvested a fair amount of fish on days that were difficult due to the foul weather.

 

 

As the weeks progressed, the weather god better, and we could travel to a place that still haunts me. A vast, beautiful, crisp mountain lake. We fished the shore of this lake, and caught rainbows by stalking them in the shallows.

 

 

 

The huge sea-monsters lurking in the deeper waters evaded us, but I saw one rainbow chasing my wooly bugger which really scared me. When I say ten pounds at least, you probably won't believe me, but right after it happened, I turned, in shock, to Alejandro and explained that the biggest trout I have ever seen in Patagonia had just refused my fly. He just shugged, and ensured me that "mas grande" - they get a lot bigger in that lake. Phew!!! Thaty's definitely on my list in the future...

 

What we did in Villa O'Higgins simply could not be done without the help of our friend Alejandro. if you plan to go, don't hesitate to contact me, and I'll help you get in contact with him. He is currently taking an education as tourism manager in Temuco, but travels to his home town every summer to be in charge of tourist events. 

 

we rounded off by chasing more rainbows in rio Cochrane. Tough fishing, but spectacular scenery.

 

 

 

So, I hear you ask - did you use the flies you tied for the trip and bragged about in here? 

You bet! The dragonfly patterns especially were valuable tools for us, because most days were streamer-chuggin' weather. the Skin dragon proved to be a real killer as predicted. The foam beetles were in use, of course and, interestingly, the bigger they were, the better. But the mice - we didn't see them.

 

 

Thanks for following - see the pics above and a few more in the Exploring Patagonia photo gallery

 

 

December 2011

 

 

 

This january I'm going to Patagonia, Chile. 

I'll therefore use some space in this blog to write a bit about how I prepare for a three week fishing trip to trout paradise.

 

This is how some of my fly boxes look right now. 

 

Scroll down this page, and I'll give you a few patterns and the thought behind them and the fishing in Chilean Patagonia

 

  

 

 

 

 

When fishing in Patagonia, you'll need a handful of streamers. As mentioned further down, dragonfly patterns are essential in the fly box. The Skin Dragon pattern is on the complicated side, of what you need, really. Most days, fish will hammer the good old Wooly Bugger in black and olive, si I'll be bringin' lots of those. 

But there are some indigenous species of minnows down there as well, so it can be a good idea to bring some allround imitations of fish as well.

 

This one is made from a single strip of skin, some dub, legs, hackle and a conehead. let's Call it the 

 

 

 

It's a fine allround imitations of baitfish. But if you need to fish deeper, perhaps with a sinking line as well, you might want to try something with a heavier head. 

I've come up with this realistic baitfish pattern. I'm absolutely sure that loads of folks out there have come up with the same thing. I'ts a pretty regular upside down rabbit strip pattern. But just for the fun of it, why don't we call this one

 

 

 

 

 

Hook: Scierra Trout/salmon 4

Body: Rabbit skin strip and dubbing under. prick the hook through the skin bwfore mounting the hook in the vice

Fins: small feathers, pheasant, grouse, whatever

Eyes: Dumbbell eyes

Head: Deer/moose or the like

 

 

Some allround impressionistic nymph/streamer patterns that look invitingly "buggish" is a must have. 

 

Such as this simple no name bug made on a size 6 hook with olive dub, hackle, rubber legs and a tungsten head. Simple, really

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flyfishing i Patagonian, Chile is quite varied. lakes especially, hold some of the largest resident brown trout anywhere. Fishing small lakes and ponds is truly fishing for the adventurous spirit. You never know if the small blue dot on google earth will hold mammoth browns or rainbows. If you prefer to fish like we do, with only the help from our local friends, setting out to explore little blue dots is sometimes a risky affair. The risk is, of course, that the lake is devoid of fish for some reason. But it is not just a walk in the park to get to the most inaccessible lakes in the area we are fishing. But it's an adventure...

 

If you attempt to dig golden browns in this manner, you need to quickly cover the water. You want to find out if there are any trout in the lake you've reached. There is no better way to do this than by throwing large terrestial patterns along the reeds. There are loads of great hopper, beetle, and critter patterns out there. i don't think the details are that important. Lots of foam, lots of legs, a whisp of elk hair, and you're rolling. But size matters! resident chilean anglers regularly chuck pattern that will almost scare you. I've come up with my own version. 

 

The beetle these guys is chasing, is a regular size 8 foam beetle....

 

 

Any kind of surface fishing will get my blood roling faster. And nothing gets it boiling like fishing with really large dries for really large trout or salmon. This time I'm carrying some of the larges dry flies I've ever tied. Mice...

 

Hook: Tiemco stinger hook

Tail: Skin

Mouse: Deer hair tied in on top of hook in gradially shorter stacks.

Any questions? Go figure yourself...

 

Oh, that's a neat trick to get some attention i hear you say, well hang on. There's a finer point to the madness. It appears that large parts of Chile have been hit by a massive rodent plague this year. The reason for that is blooming bamboo. "He's really off his hinges now", I hear you think, but it's true. Every twelve years, the giant bamboo they have in northern patagonia and the Aysen region gets in bloom. The consequential production of bamboo seeds then triggers an explosion in the mouse population. 

 

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, seeing my mouse fly disappear in the jaws of a massive trout is something that can really keep me awake in the night. And I presume that by the time we get to the Cochrane area, where the plague has been bad, the local trout will readily recognize a swimming mouse. On the other hand, the rodent invasion has apparently been so bad, that local authorities warn people not to camp outside. As far as I get it, these mice carry some kind of nasty virus, that you won't like...

 

But boy, those trout must grow fast on a diet like that...

 

Check out the Patagonia Journal for more info. Skip to page 22

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 2011

 

This one decided to grab a white Slayer...okay, I can see how thsi self-timer photo marathon-lunker-parade is becoming tedious to you fly guys ot there...I promise to stop soon and turn to something like a flytying blog. Hang on...I just need to show you this 4,5 kilo fish. A beautiful hen fish. Got another, slightly smaller. Lost two and boated a pike. Not bad for a day when the zander were extremely cautious...

 

 

Wow! Taking a self-portrait alone, in a boat, without a tripod is really, really hard!

 

But I did my very best with this 6 kilo fish. The biggest in a trio of fish I managed to lure on the fantastic Slayer jig...

 

 

 

November 2011

 

How to catch lunker zander like this:

 

 

A 5,7 kg. warrior that inhaled a small Savage cannibal Jig on a 5 gram head, november 2011

 

 

figure out where the zander are and present the right bait to them. Okay, I may have lost quite a few readers already. Zander are migrating towards hard bottom right now. They generally move a lot, but at this time it's easier to find them, because they no longer hunt in midwater.

If you fish relatively clear water, like me, I recommend that you try a very lifelike shad jig. I picked a bag of Savage Gear Cannibal jigs. Small beauties! They look exactly like a small roach and with a 5 gram jig head, you can really mimick the real McCoy.

 

 

 

Fish you lure like, it's a living thing. Or well, almost, because, it helps if your jig can imitate a prey that is about to give up and die... When I cast the jig towards this fish, I had a strong belief in my presentation. it was almost as if I could feel the huge zander slowly creeping up behind the jig. I tried hard to envision how the little jig swam erratically over the hard bottom. I let the jig fall to the bottom occasionally, like a roach exhausted and frantically trying to outswim the predator slowly chasing it.

Big zanders like this one are not easily fooled. There's a reason why they grow big. That's why the Cannibal Shad was just the right choise. There were lots of small roach in the area I fish. I wanted to fish my lure like a small wounded roach about to give up. I let the jig rest on the hard stony bottom for a while, and then slowly lifted the jig off the boyyom. Whe that jig came to life again, the predator sucked in the jig, and I struck will all my might. The take was spectacular, and I could feel the big fish chew down on the soft jig. Which leads us to:

 

Your wowen line should be a top-notch brand. I usually use Fireline, but for this occasion I changed to the new Spiderwire Fluoro braid. A wowen line that actually sinks: This great line enabled me to fish the small jig on a light head - stage one. Which in turn allowed me to fish the jig extremely slow, which, I'm sure, was the right medicine for the big fish  and it gave me absolutely direct contact to the bait, enabling me to set the hook with full force. A vital detail, because big zander have a mouth like armour.

 

But all of this is of no use if your rod is like a piece of spaghetti. which is:

 

use a specialist rod for your spin fishing. Do not settle for less. There are great rods out there with distinct tip action and great strenght, which is vital if you wish to fish jigs. I currently use a Savage grear 8' jig rod. It's not perfect, but darn close. It has enough balls to set a hook on a long line with conviction. 

 

 

There - simple really...Once you get the equation right.

 

If you ask me how to make perfect self-portrait photography in a rocking boat, with a fish that has to be released quickly, well, that's quite another, and more difficult subject...

 

By the way. you can enjoy some new zander shots in this folder

 

 

 

October 2011

 

Here we go again. A quick night-stint with my friend Stefan paid off. We weren't really expecting anything, beause the zander normally arrive much later in the season at this particular spot. Granted, the fish was no giant, but I really hope this means that the zander in my local lakes are getting back in numbers like we used to see it. The coming season is going to be exciting...

 

Oh, and of course the beautiful fish took the devastatingly efficient "Crawdad Husky Jerk"

 

 

 

September 2011

 

Bo frier and I had a great day last weekend. The weather was unseasonably hot and quiet, and only a few ripples stirred the glossy surface of the fjord we chose to fish. We aimed to collide with the massive influx of fat fjord-trouts cruising around on the shallows. We've fished for them before, and when you get it right, it's simply spectacular fishing. You often see the fish chasing the fly, and you spook quite a few stubborn trout hiding in the weed-bushes in knee-deep water. it's a challenge to tempt the finicky pre-spawners, and more often than not, you only get pulls and twitiches on your line. Bo is quite in his element with this kind of salty fishing, and he quickly connected with a couple of beautiful brown searuns. We had a handful of smallish fish as well as the half-metre fish Bo fooled. But somehow the larger fish managed to pull and bite our flies without hanging on to the steely points. I was getting more and more frustrated, as fish after fish shot out from underneath my fly rod, as I tried to stalk through the shallows, and the bites I had resulted in nothing. The fish were everywhere around us in the shallows, and they weren't scared easily, but hard to fool.

 Exasperated, I tried the largest and ugliest fly in my box: A well-chewed up orange shrimp fly. I'm not sure wether the orange colour was intended in the actual fly tying process or wether it was a bi-product of the rust process itself. At any rate the hook point was well rusted, but I thought, what the hell, it's the only orange fly you've got, so you've got to give it go haven't you? 

Of course you know, being wiser than I, and less desperate as you sit there with a mug of coffee, smugly enjoying my mistakes, that I should have tested the fly properly. And yes, of course a good sized brown attacked the fly with ferocity, and broke the hook point off. Punishment.

I chewed a bit on my bitter lesson. I considered stealing a fly from Bo's box, but that was tricky. I thought about begging one. But anyone knows, that a fly given to you fair and square will catch far less trout than one stolen from a mate's box. A dillemma indeed. But then I remembered reading an article by my old guru Jens Bursell about release tackle flies. Something to do with a load of small gizmo bits and pieces and a very small treble. well, I didn't have all the rig rings, float stops, silicone tubing stuff and whatnot, but I had some very small trebles. So I tied one onto a loop, and simply tied the leader onto the fly with a couple of boy scout knots, and I was ready for revenge.

 

Once we found the shoal of tricky seatrout the rest was easy. The fish were still extremely cautious, and wary, like autumn trout are. But this time, the force of the treble was with me, and within minutes I was ahead with two good size trout and lost a third one. Very convincing, I have to say. I just have to try the small trebles again for autumn trout. 

 

The treble on the picture is just loosely put in the mouth of the fish for you to see it, they were simply buried both times. Not stylish, I know, but I bet you get the point...

 

 

 

 

 

August 2011

 

Okay, I think I owe you a report of my Canada adventure....

 

This summer I spent the last ten days of july chasing atlantic salmon in the clear rivers on the Gaspé peninsula. I went with my friend Henrik Mortensen. We had ten days of fishing. The first half on our own, and the last days on a lodge. The idea was that I would use half my time taking pictures for Henrik, and the other half fishing.

 

We had rented a cabin, and the plan was to fish the Bonaventure river on our own the first days. A great plan, under normal circumstances. But alas! There's nothing like normal circumstances these days. The Bonaventure was high and extremely cold for the time of year. That's bad news, if you plan to fish day ticket water on your own, because it makes access to the pools extremely difficult. The fish were there, though, in huge numbers, but we struggled to find decent pools to fish because we couldn't cross the river anywhere. We looked with envy on the guys in canoes, they could skip up and down the river and find fish anywhere.

 

On top of that we had a massive downpour after five days or so. We had actually managed to cross the river and found a large pod of salmon holding in a nice pool, but once we had crossed, a massive downpour started. I have never been in a thunderstorm like it. We could actually see the river rise in front of us, so we gave up and crossed the river and jumped in the car. That proved to be a good decision, because later on we learned that the river had risen from almost 40 cubic metres to a roaring 110 in an hour. if we hadn't crossed, we would have spent the night on the wrong side of the bank. 

 

That's how things went the first half of our ten days. Our luck changed dramatically, though,  when we booked into the fantastic Camp Bonaventure. We now had access to some of their private water, and what's more important, their canoes. Camp Bonaventure has access to the three gorgeous rivers grand Cascapedia, Petite Cascapedia and The Bonaventure, of course. it is a magical place to stay. The accomodation is luxurious and the staff and guides are exceptional. The camp manager is Glenn LeGrand. Read about him in Topher Brownes Atlantic Salmon Magic. Topher's description of Glenn, is hard to top - you better read it yourself. if you haven't already ordered the book, I really can't see why you call yourself a serious salmon angler;-)

 

 

Our luck finally turned, and we both landed fish. Only one of the fish I caught was caught on a wet fly, the rest on dries. That's what you come to Canadas east coast for. Fishing with bombers for huge atlantic salmon.

We were lucky enough to go with the living legend Mario Poirier. Mario is, for lack of better words, an incredible guide. He is literally raised on the banks of "The Bonnie". He can maneuver a Sharpes canoe like it's an extension of his body, and his ability to spot fish is uncanny. If you pay attention, and sail along with his great sense of humour, you can really increase your learning curve as a salmon angler dramatically. He lives and breathes for bomber fishing. And I can understand why. it is simply an amazing experience to cast dries to a fish you can see right there in the crystal clear water. At one point on our trip, we counted 18 fish that I could actually cover with less line through the guides than a shooting head. 18! A couple of those were 12-15 kilo fish. Incredible. At one point we fished to a fish well over four feet in length. It rose to the bomber, but didn't take it. As Mario says: The big ones rarely make mistakes on wet flies, but if they do make a mistake, it involves a bomber.

 

The bombers we used were mostly medium sized bombers in brown, green and especially baby blue. the Labatt Bleu. Fishing ghe bomber is an art in itself. You have to do incredibly precise casts, time and again. it is a fascinating game. Anyone claiming that fishing bombers from a canoe with a guide is easy has never actually tried it himself! 

 

We also fished hitch flies and had some great moments. I can assure you that when a 15 kilo fish pushes away the hitch fly with it's nose, it is hard to keep your hands from shaking. I managed to catch such a moment with the camera, but you'll have to wait for those images, because they will be used in future projects henrik is brewing on...

 

The following pictures are therefore guide photos.

 

A big thank you to Glenn, the guides and the staff. And a huge thank you to Henrik.

 

 

 

 

August 2011

 

Chasing Silver in the dark...

 

It's time for me to chase those lovely silver bullets in the rivers. Vi have so many opportunities for seatrout fishing in rivers and streams. I have chosen to focus on local waters. This has turned out to be a good idea. The first two trips to the beautiful Lilleåen have given me a fine seatrout each time. The recipe is simple: toss a light synthetic tube fly that will draw a wake across stream, and wait for great things to happen. It is a heart-stopping experience when you suddenly hear a splash in the night, and the flyline goes electric in your hands. What a thrill. 

 

The fly I use? The same one as on the front cover of the latest issue of Sportsfiskeren, where Jakob Sørensen and I have an in-depth article about night fishing for seatrout.

 

 

 

August 2011

 

First of all. Thank you for stopping by to all you faithful blog readers.

 

 

I am now back in business after a long and lovely summer holiday. Lots of fishing has been on the programme. A ten day trip to Canada for some atlantic salmon fishing for example. More about that in a future article here, when the photos are ready for you.

 

In the meantime I can tell you that I finally managed to get back some self respect from Storåen after a disastrous last season.

This weekend the lovely river decided to lavish me with presents.

I had time for two short stints saturday and sunday. The first day, I landed three seatrout up to 64 centimetres. Beautiful, plump trout from the fiord covered in lovely spots

 

 

It's great to see that the trout are back in decent numbers. And this is daytime fishing, mind you! You can follow tha line and see the pull and experience the thrill. 

 

But that is not all...As I trundles along happy with the seatrout succes, I stopped to tie on a little "Tiny Bruno". Always a favorite in brownish water, when a salmon rolled just upstream and under a large willow tree. A hadn't covered the fish, because it took a long cast underneath the branches, a risky endeavour, but I thought, what the heck. Two cast was all it took. The line was stopped, and a brutal tug-of-war was on. I won, and a lovely grilse of 70something was released. Fresh and silvery. A fine fish.

 

The day after, I went to have a look at the same strech, and almost immediately hooked a small seatrout. Ten metres later I had a hard pull, and some headshake, but then the salmon dropped off. I was sure it was a salmon, because the spot literally screamed salmon run. The weird thing was, that I was not the least disappointed, because somehow I had the idea that there were more fish in that run. And sure enough, two casts later, as I gently stripped the fly across, it was whacked and the line pulled tight! The fish wasn't in a hurry, and neither was I. But it took a while, before I caught a glimpse of it. At first sight, I thought I had hooked a massive trout, but as it turned out, it was a deep and muscular male salmon with beautiful colours matching the harvest season. Wow! I just love these late summer fish. Let's call it a fine 80 centimetre fish, just to be overly conservative...

 

 

All fish except one took a Tiny Bruno tube. The last one took an Uldsokken on a single hook. Tied to fluorcarbon, sinking leader, floating line running up to an 11 foot Zpey Z1 switch

 

 

 

 

June 2011

 

Tuff fishing - but a major breakthrough

 

 

BUT.... When we started out real early the next morning, a front moved in. Zander simply hate changes in the barometric pressure, they turn off and stay inactive for some time. We tried everything and every likely spot and all the bananas on the echo sounder, but all to no avail. We had to throw in the towel, and Olaf, who had been fishing with us, went back to the rented house to get a good kip. But Stefan and I were not in the mood to give up. We had borrowed Gert Mikkelsen's fantastic fishing machine - the SQC 17 footer. So we reckoned, we might as well keep on fishing. And so we did. It proved to be a good decision. 

 

The breakthrough...came, when we tied to spot some fish in the deeper areas of the lake. We spotted a few fish on the sounder in the mid-water over 12-16 metres. We reckoned that these fish were more active than the fish on the bottom. I had head about the success Swedish anglers have had with targeting the pelagic summer zander, so I tried to steer the boat really slowly over the "bananas" I saw on the front sounder of the boat. It was extremely difficult fishing: I had to maneuver the boat so that the second I saw the fish ticking in on the sounder, I released the Fireball and, if I was lucky, I could follow the bait on the way down. It took a little getting used to. But after a few tries, I managed to hit a fish spot on. I could see the fireball all the way down to a good looking orange stripe on the screen. I stopped the bait a bit above the stripe, and immediately, I could see the fish rise fast and the image of bait and fish sort of collided. Wham! It took the bait! A rod-splitting fight began. The fish responded with deep, heavy headshakes, and I was seriusly glad that I had just changed to a fresh 0.08 Spro Snyper line. After a few more lunges towards the bottom, the great looking four kilo plus female surfaced. Whoa! 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at this: You can follow the fish on the screen and the reaction. This fish rose a bit to inspect the bait, and just nicked it, but didn't stay on...Look at how the fish simply disapperas from the sceen because it is spooked...It is apparently important not to drop the bait right on their noses. The best reactions come, when you let the bait hang a metre above the fish. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 2011

 

Yes! The zander season is finally here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Byt the way....Speaking of Fireballs...Check out the article in this issue of Sportsfiskeren

 

 

 

 

May 2011

 

Spring season. So many things to do - so little time...