Photo Essay: A Lovely But Frusterating Fishing Trip
Hello friends!
Last Tuesday my familiy (spouse + 2 children) took a trip down to Småland (500 km south of Stockholm where we live) to my parents in law - the childrens grandma and grandpa. Not working until Friday night, suddenly I got all the time in the world to do whatever I wanna do. So, last night I (with all this sweet time to do whatever I wanna do) oscillated between the TV and the Computer while thinking "What to do? What to do?". Suddenly it was 03:00 at night and I hadn't done anything (els but what I usually do when I don't have the time to do whatever I wanna do.) Are ya with me! Haha! So, when I got to bed I desided that the following morning I'm gonna go fishing. That's an hobby that I havn't been practising all that much after my first boy was born.
When fishing, I prefer being out early - preferably before sunrise. So, I set my cellphone alarm to 04:00 - really, who needs more than 1 hour of sleep a day? So at 04:20 I was cruising my car on my way to Sandasjön, a small Rainbow trout "put-and-take" lake 20 minutes drive from home. As expected, I was the first angler out and I strolled straight down to the other end of the lake to my favorite spot. It's a very small "cape" from where I can stand, or as preferable sit to keep a low profile, and fish in a 200 degree angle, totally free from bushes and and branches to get the fly line entangled to.
Here is a 6 frame Pano (just flimsely done) of the cape: [Larger Version]
And here I am at the peak of the cape, pulling out some line and gettig prepared. Then I always sit down and wait for rise, gone are the days of throwing throwing throwing blindlessly. And there I sat, silent, deadly focused, patiently waiting til 08:30 without a single rise as far as my eyes could see. *Bummer*
No fishes; no rise, no signs of Rainbows what so ever - fine, I can deal whit that. I've since long "matured" in my relation to my hobby and what's it all about. In my youth, the ONLY thing that mattered was how many fishes you could catch. No matter what the surrounding looked like, what the weather was like; raining, storming, if it was cold, to darn hot, if I was tired, hungry - I just kept it up, throwing throwing throwing. Today I'm far more selective (some may call it easy-going) and only go fishing when the weather is fine, I only go flyfishing when it's not blowing (to hard) and I primarely throw on rises, seldomly cast blindlessly. I don't run from spot to spot or scurry to the other end of the lake if I see a rise, I just pick a nice place and sit down and wait til the fish come to me. I drink my coffiee, eat my sandwishes, enjoy the silence and beauty of the nature. If I catch a fish or two, I consider it a bonus. (A great one of course!)
:
While drinking my first cup of coffiee, I watched the sun rise and beam through the reer, chasing the early morning mist away.
Suddenly I heard snattering voices on my left, "Hey guys, think that dude has something yummi in his bag". I turned around, then in a blink of an eye the voices was converted into a kwack-kwack-kwack-sound. Weird! Although they did their best to look irresistible cute and pretended to be genuinely curious about me, I knew they where only after my sandwishes. Sorry ducklings, I had already eatin' them all up.
Then at about 09:00 it begun breezing rather briskely. My coffiee thermos was empty, and my sandwishes was all eaten, and I was a little tired. So I desided to "fish my way" down the lake to the other end, then wrap it up and go home. When I got halfway down, the wind was still brisk, so I swopped to my spinfishing gear and gave it a go. On the second throw - STRIKE! The fight lasted for ca 3-4 minutes, and just as I was about to land it, the fish got loose. Dang! DIS-AAAP-POINTED!!!
) And this was just the beginnig of the madness - in a matter of ca 20 minutes I had faild to hook twice and "lost the battle" 5 times. WHAT was the problem? The hooks were intact and razor sharp and... bah, I just don't get it!?
What am I doing wrong:
I put the spinfishing gear aside and challenged the wind with my flyfishing rod. There was a few rise every now and then, so I tried a rather big dry fly. First throw SPLASH! Missed it! Kept fishing dry for a while, but no, no more rise. Changed to leaded nymph, thew it out, put the rod on the ground and went for something to drink in my backpack. Then I saw in the corner of my eye the line move - I grabbed the rod and... missed it. Felt it go bang-bang then it was gone. Boy, was I beginning to feel a little cursed! By now I was very tired, very hungry and gosh how thirsty I was. But this was getting personal - gone was the "mature" fisherman. I was not going to go home empty handed, no way! Not today! I was gonna catch a fish, I was gonna clean it by the lake and eat it for supper! Be it I'd have to stay all night! Period!
Then finaly, a few hours later, the nymph did the job and I hooked and landed a Rainbow. Not a very big one, ca 2-3 pounds, but still. When landed, I grabbed the fish to give him a little friendly kiss a la Rex Hunt? Yibbady yibbady! Hell no, I aimed straight for the neck for a deadly bite: (Just kidding!)
And of course, the classic composition:
And this is the little bugger that fooled the Rainbow. I simply call it "Fathead". Once I was very interested and knew the names of every fly, read books about entomology and tied hundreds and hundres of different flyes, convinced that you needed every single one of them. Today I'm convinced that presentation is 90% and I managed with about 10 different flyes. What do ya recon?
When I was 16, I bought this Orvis Ultra Fine #2, with a Orvis C.F.O. III reel and it was love at first feel. We've been unseparated partners ever since. It's so delicate - and light, if you put it in the water, it floats. I know because once when I was out fishing, I was gonna move a few meters. I threw the line out behind the boat, put the rod on the flooring and begun rowing. Then suddenly a fish striked, "thump-thump-splash" and the rod flew into the water. *Thrilling*
Happy with my catch, I desided to wrap up and call it the day! But before I left, I had a little surprise in store for the nasty Rainbows - here comes the BOOOOMB! Gee, that was so nice! It was a darn hot day today - I look like a tomato!)
So, what did I do with the fish? Did I actually have it for supper? Yepp, sure did! First I cut out fillets and picked the small bones. It was a little tricky, because although cauth only approx. 1,5 hours before, the heat had made the meat very, how to say, tender? Almost a little cooked. It almost fell out of the skinn by itself.
Then I sliced the fish in chunks, put it in a soup plate with some water and salt'n'pepper and boiled for ca 3 minutes at full effect in the micro.
I heated some Thai Soup (smooth), put the fish in, some sliced tomatos, cucumber and topped with a little basil. (I took what I had at home!)
It was delicious! Yummi!
Voilà:
Regards / Matty
Last Tuesday my familiy (spouse + 2 children) took a trip down to Småland (500 km south of Stockholm where we live) to my parents in law - the childrens grandma and grandpa. Not working until Friday night, suddenly I got all the time in the world to do whatever I wanna do. So, last night I (with all this sweet time to do whatever I wanna do) oscillated between the TV and the Computer while thinking "What to do? What to do?". Suddenly it was 03:00 at night and I hadn't done anything (els but what I usually do when I don't have the time to do whatever I wanna do.) Are ya with me! Haha! So, when I got to bed I desided that the following morning I'm gonna go fishing. That's an hobby that I havn't been practising all that much after my first boy was born.
When fishing, I prefer being out early - preferably before sunrise. So, I set my cellphone alarm to 04:00 - really, who needs more than 1 hour of sleep a day? So at 04:20 I was cruising my car on my way to Sandasjön, a small Rainbow trout "put-and-take" lake 20 minutes drive from home. As expected, I was the first angler out and I strolled straight down to the other end of the lake to my favorite spot. It's a very small "cape" from where I can stand, or as preferable sit to keep a low profile, and fish in a 200 degree angle, totally free from bushes and and branches to get the fly line entangled to.
Here is a 6 frame Pano (just flimsely done) of the cape: [Larger Version]
![[Larger Version]](http://elfving73.smugmug.com/photos/79953931-O.jpg){kind=link}
And here I am at the peak of the cape, pulling out some line and gettig prepared. Then I always sit down and wait for rise, gone are the days of throwing throwing throwing blindlessly. And there I sat, silent, deadly focused, patiently waiting til 08:30 without a single rise as far as my eyes could see. *Bummer*
No fishes; no rise, no signs of Rainbows what so ever - fine, I can deal whit that. I've since long "matured" in my relation to my hobby and what's it all about. In my youth, the ONLY thing that mattered was how many fishes you could catch. No matter what the surrounding looked like, what the weather was like; raining, storming, if it was cold, to darn hot, if I was tired, hungry - I just kept it up, throwing throwing throwing. Today I'm far more selective (some may call it easy-going) and only go fishing when the weather is fine, I only go flyfishing when it's not blowing (to hard) and I primarely throw on rises, seldomly cast blindlessly. I don't run from spot to spot or scurry to the other end of the lake if I see a rise, I just pick a nice place and sit down and wait til the fish come to me. I drink my coffiee, eat my sandwishes, enjoy the silence and beauty of the nature. If I catch a fish or two, I consider it a bonus. (A great one of course!)
:While drinking my first cup of coffiee, I watched the sun rise and beam through the reer, chasing the early morning mist away.
Suddenly I heard snattering voices on my left, "Hey guys, think that dude has something yummi in his bag". I turned around, then in a blink of an eye the voices was converted into a kwack-kwack-kwack-sound. Weird! Although they did their best to look irresistible cute and pretended to be genuinely curious about me, I knew they where only after my sandwishes. Sorry ducklings, I had already eatin' them all up.
Then at about 09:00 it begun breezing rather briskely. My coffiee thermos was empty, and my sandwishes was all eaten, and I was a little tired. So I desided to "fish my way" down the lake to the other end, then wrap it up and go home. When I got halfway down, the wind was still brisk, so I swopped to my spinfishing gear and gave it a go. On the second throw - STRIKE! The fight lasted for ca 3-4 minutes, and just as I was about to land it, the fish got loose. Dang! DIS-AAAP-POINTED!!!
) And this was just the beginnig of the madness - in a matter of ca 20 minutes I had faild to hook twice and "lost the battle" 5 times. WHAT was the problem? The hooks were intact and razor sharp and... bah, I just don't get it!?What am I doing wrong:
I put the spinfishing gear aside and challenged the wind with my flyfishing rod. There was a few rise every now and then, so I tried a rather big dry fly. First throw SPLASH! Missed it! Kept fishing dry for a while, but no, no more rise. Changed to leaded nymph, thew it out, put the rod on the ground and went for something to drink in my backpack. Then I saw in the corner of my eye the line move - I grabbed the rod and... missed it. Felt it go bang-bang then it was gone. Boy, was I beginning to feel a little cursed! By now I was very tired, very hungry and gosh how thirsty I was. But this was getting personal - gone was the "mature" fisherman. I was not going to go home empty handed, no way! Not today! I was gonna catch a fish, I was gonna clean it by the lake and eat it for supper! Be it I'd have to stay all night! Period!
Then finaly, a few hours later, the nymph did the job and I hooked and landed a Rainbow. Not a very big one, ca 2-3 pounds, but still. When landed, I grabbed the fish to give him a little friendly kiss a la Rex Hunt? Yibbady yibbady! Hell no, I aimed straight for the neck for a deadly bite: (Just kidding!)
And of course, the classic composition:
And this is the little bugger that fooled the Rainbow. I simply call it "Fathead". Once I was very interested and knew the names of every fly, read books about entomology and tied hundreds and hundres of different flyes, convinced that you needed every single one of them. Today I'm convinced that presentation is 90% and I managed with about 10 different flyes. What do ya recon?
When I was 16, I bought this Orvis Ultra Fine #2, with a Orvis C.F.O. III reel and it was love at first feel. We've been unseparated partners ever since. It's so delicate - and light, if you put it in the water, it floats. I know because once when I was out fishing, I was gonna move a few meters. I threw the line out behind the boat, put the rod on the flooring and begun rowing. Then suddenly a fish striked, "thump-thump-splash" and the rod flew into the water. *Thrilling*
Happy with my catch, I desided to wrap up and call it the day! But before I left, I had a little surprise in store for the nasty Rainbows - here comes the BOOOOMB! Gee, that was so nice! It was a darn hot day today - I look like a tomato!
)So, what did I do with the fish? Did I actually have it for supper? Yepp, sure did! First I cut out fillets and picked the small bones. It was a little tricky, because although cauth only approx. 1,5 hours before, the heat had made the meat very, how to say, tender? Almost a little cooked. It almost fell out of the skinn by itself.
Then I sliced the fish in chunks, put it in a soup plate with some water and salt'n'pepper and boiled for ca 3 minutes at full effect in the micro.
I heated some Thai Soup (smooth), put the fish in, some sliced tomatos, cucumber and topped with a little basil. (I took what I had at home!)
It was delicious! Yummi!
Voilà:
Regards / Matty
0
Comments
Excellent tale and lovely shots!
Really enjoyed it.
Raz
approximation to the complete truth..."
-- Richard Feynman (1918-1988)
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You stink!
I'm jealous, that's a great day you had
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Very well done series
peace.
johno~
~Mother Teresa
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Matty,
this is sooooo great!
Lovely story, very nice pictures!
Thank you so much for taking this time and sharing!
One question: how on Earth did you time your "bomb" shot?
This one is hard to cacth even when you do it yourself at high drive speed, and you did it on timer..
Cheers!
and DANG that fish soup looks scrumptious!
I just love how you process your shots and get seemingly perfect exposures and lovely colors.
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
what gorgeous scenery, love the fog and the mist, the synchronized swimming ducklings, the fish... then the food preparation shots? And that soup presentation? Out of this world. Thanks for sharing.
http://www.twitter.com/deegolden
You've come a long way since your "Sausage Artica"* ice fishing days.
Your posts are always fun, technically excellent, thought provoking, and
most of all a boost to my spirit.
Thanks,
-Frank
* "Sausage Artica" also known as the "weiner fish"
Presented in this old post (but photos are no longer linked):
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1009&message=7897689
That looks delish! Waxy, next plane to Stockholm for soup and sandwiches
Thanx for all enthusiastic and sweet comments! I'm a little short of time, so I hope you don't mind me thanking you all in one reply. You know, ever since I begun with photography, everything I do has gotten an extra dimension. I mean for example, if I'm out fishing and I don't get any fish, or if the wheather turns bad etc. I can amuse myself by snapping away documenting my day. That way, I always come home with "something".
Regards / Matty
Awesome as always...but i was kinda surprise by the reference to Rex Hunt.
Do you guys get him over there ?
Cheers,
David
SmugMug API Developer
My Photos
Yepp! Haha! Every day at 17:00 at the Discovery Channel. Funny ol' dude, that Rex! The fishing itself is rather, well, sorta the same over and over, but it's till nice to watch, and I enjoy Rex mocking "Bushy" all the time! Haha! One hell of a mustach huh?
Matty
Sam
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
Great story and even better pictures.