Atlantics in Quebec

anyone of you guys experienced the east coast of Canada for Atlantics??? i know Klaus Frimor will be on the Bonaventure around June, which is the best time to go. I think it is an great fishery especially early season with spey rods..... remember, no weighted lines or flies.... all dry line
i am trying to organize a outing for next season. interested???

Pike time

                                                  Photo: Niklas Brännström

Here in the north part of Sweden the rivers runs high and dirty at the moment. The warm weather the past two weeks has rapidly meltet lots of snow. The shallow water near the Baltic sea has been warmed up and today we measured 14.6 celsius deegres in a Pike spawning area. Lots of Pikes were moving around and was putting up a great fight due to the warm water. I was using Opti Power line 8 with the new Opti Booster shooting head (float) attached to Opti running line 0.032 and - what a great combo. This outfit is now my favorite for the Pike. 

"A new flyfishing season has finally started."

Flyfishing in Thailand

                                               Photo :   Kevin Was

Im back from Thailand and a couple of weeks holliday. This was ment to be a family trip without flyfishing but I smuggled a Opti Power line 8 in my bag. On Internet i had found a place just outside Krabi that it was able to fish. I contacted the owner Stuart Gillham and he told me it was possible to flyfish catfish and other specis that´s swimming in the lake.
The first fish that striked whent out in a powerful run. Was no way of stopping this fish. It ended with a destroyd flyreel and leaderbreak. With a new flyreel I got in to two new fish wich ended with leaderbreak.
-My good what strong fish but perhaps the weight of them was to much to handle with 0.50mm monofil leader. Anyhow i finally caught a nize sized Black Pacu wich is a sort of vegetarian Pirana. What kind of fish I lost we never know but they were big!!!
The Opti Power was great ! It cast very nice and has a lot of fighting power. A great travel rod.

Opti Runner and Speedrunner

I have to admit that when I first laid eyes on the Speedrunner I was a little skeptical. I mean it was so different that I didn't know what to make of it. If nothing else the reel certainly was unique looking, what with the crazy large diameter, funky inset handle, V shaped spool and shiny blue finish, not to mention the large silver L making up the back frame. I just wasn't sure I could see myself stepping into my favourite Steelhead flow with one. Yet somehow I was drawn to the reel and eventually came to match it up with a 8124 Opti rod. The Speedrunner paired with the Opti and it's young sibling the Runner, paired with a 6120 GASS have been my go to Steelhead set ups for this past year. Despite their light weight the Opti reels have stood up to some heavy fish. The inset handles sacrifice a little torque in exchange for speedy pick up but are well up to task on heavy fish provided one pumps the rod properly. Talk about a sweet reel to fish, the large arbor combined with the silky smooth drag is pure butter and the V shaped spool piles the backing on nice and neat.

Pike + kids = new fly fishermen!

Referring to Pers previous post "Why not pike" I can affirm that pike becomes more and more a very popular fish to catch with a fly rod, here in Sweden. That fact gave me the idea to make a three days long fly fishing course for young people. The first day they created their own fly patterns, the second day I gave them basic education in fly casting, and finally the third day we went fishing! The course was successful and a few new fly fishermen were born!

Black & Silver

The fly Black & Silver has a given place in my flybox. Through the years i have caught a lot of both salmon and seatrout on this pattern. I tie it from size 10 up to big tubefiles. Its quite easy to tie. I think the red butt and the red head in contrast to the black ving and silver body its whats make this fly so good. It is a alround pattern that works good both as a day ore night pattern.   

Kids Today....

Here in Canada there is a sense that kids are not fishing as much as they used to, probably due to the various electronic entertainment distractions so popular with the youth of today. I remember being 12 years old and racing home after school to grab my fly rod and ripping down the dyke to the river mouth to chase sea run Cutthroat Trout.

The two youngsters in the photo, aged 10 and 11 are from Australia. They visit Whistler each year and do a couple of days of guided flyfishing. It is neat to see their skills improve with each visit. They are becoming anglers of the highest regard. They both tie their own flies, cast great(even double hauling), understand proper angling ettiquite and most importantly have respect for the fish. They are pictured here with a beauty Bull Trout that the oldest one caught this past January in the Cheakamus River near Whistler. A nice fish no doubt, but what makes it really special is when they caught it. On this particular trip the older folks, including their hard core fishing uncle had decided to pack it in after lunch. Fair enough, it was one of those days where the snow is so wet that you get soaked and then frozen by the cold wind. The boys had looked forward to this trip so there was no stopping them. When the old folks went back to the hotel hot tub the kids fished on. Not long after the parents departure young Harrison latched onto this beauty, the look on the boys' faces says it all!