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Autumn fishing

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It’s autumn again and we are already far into October, but these days can give some crystal clear days when everything is perfect to go out fishing. It has been a busy autumn for my part with traveling and work, so not so many trips out to fish in the Oslo fjord. But I started on a new job last wednesday, and with that I had some vacation days before leaving my old job so I I tied up some seatrout flies and the weather went into picture-perfect mode for two days!

If you have read this blog before you will see that this is a place I have visited before, and that is true, this place is easy accessible, you need waders to get out there and along the shore you can strike gold on a good day. I tie up a lot of flies for my box, and part of going out like this is also to get the new flies into the water to see how they behave. Even if people say that this and that fly is best I like to see how they react and behave before I make up my mind about them (and go back to make adjustments). Here is the lipstick shrimp variation I tied up the other day, I want to get a little bit of lead in the front part to get it to walk a bit different, but that will be for the next trip out here.
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So I had some food, rigged up my Guideline LPXe #6 and started fishing along the shore, it didn’t take more than 3 casts before a cod followed all the way up to the shore and nibbled the shrimp, but it turned aournd just 1 meter out, a close encounter!  I quickly realized that a big flock of small bait fish went back and forth along the shore, and with it came the hunting fish. I tied up a rusty magnus and started casting in and  just outside the big flock to see if something would hit it, but I only got two-three nibbles. So I sat down and paused a bit, these days are good for just sitting down to relax and look at the sea. I kept the rusty magnus on and threw out again, and at one point a fish came up a meter behind my fly, I could see the fin, and it aggressively attacked the fly, but did not take…

Not the best picture, but this is how it looked when the flock came along the shore:

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The seatrout was very jumpy (quite literally) this day: several times I saw seatrout jumping up, one cleared the watesrwith 50cm+,. They also hunted the baitfish all the way in to the shore: you would see a couple of small rings in the surface, then suddenly hundred of small fish would rush in the surface past you, making a wooshing sound as it went past, and you saw the fish hunting them, all the way in to shore and a couple of the small fish went ashore! Then it went silent…. until it happened again 30 minutes later.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe evenings was great though: had picture-perfect conditions for fishing, but sat down and looked at this view quite a few times.

Not the worst of places to be a monday evening!

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At one point a huge rushing sound came right above me and a huge flock of crows was flying past me, I have never had a “The Birds” moment like this before, I got the camera up a bit too late to get a good picture, but if you click on this one an see all the black dots above the building: birds! (and there was even more to the right of the picture)

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Even though the seatrout was out and around it didn’t want to hook properly this time, but I did catch a couple of this with the spaykutling that I have made a set of.

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The Big Hole Demon got a chance to swim as well, but didn’t get any hits. This one I need to varnish or layer with bugbond on the body so that it keeps longer.

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The second-to-last throw and I got this one (also on a spaykutling), It has been a long time since I’ve seen such a fat/round fish! It must have been full of small fish that it had been hunting along the shore.

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Fishing in the wind

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Headed out today after work to hit one of the islands just outside Oslo, I had some new flies to test out and the ferry out there was only 20minutes. The forecast said slow wind and a nice afternoon, but as I approached the waterfront and took the ferry it was apparent that the wind was not slow… Got out to the island and found this place where I could stand and get some line out in the water, but the wind was picking more and more up and the line kept going everywhere….

As you do when things don’t go your way: get some food and boil up some coffee to see if things change!

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Things didn’t change though. I have recently purchased a new rod (Zpey 13.3 #8) for salmon fishing, but haven’t had the chance to test it out, so to get some practice I got it out and started testing it out for the first time. I have never cast spey before so it was a bit akward, but I got a half-way snap-t and a line that went in the right direction, so more on the rod and how that behaves later

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No fish today, but with scenery like this 20min from Oslo it is good to just get out there and brew a cup of coffee and go home while the sun sets.

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Exploring New Waters

The days are getting shorter as we go towards winter again here in Norway, but the autumn is a great time for fishing and photo hunting in the forest around Oslo. Yesterday I was out the door early to combine a photo-shoot with exploring 3 smaller lakes that I haven’t fished in before.

The rivers and 100m from the river into the lakes are no-fishing areas now in the spawning season between the 15.september and 15.november, but it is good to see running water before it freezes up soon

dryfly.me.2013.10.07.new_waters_1The autumn colours are great, photo-hunting on a day like this gives you lots of opportunities

dryfly.me.2013.10.07.new_waters_2That crispy and clear air on a day like this:

dryfly.me.2013.10.07.new_waters_3Didn’t do any fishing here, but this is your typical small lake that you will find in the forest surrounding Oslo:

dryfly.me.2013.10.07.new_waters_4The first lake I fished in, it was dead-quiet in the air and the sun was shining: the perfect moment except for the total lack of fish…. Nothing at all came up to the surface, so after a good wait and a coffee I started testing out different patterns along the ridge of the lake and out into towards the middle. Still nothing!

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A lot of these smaller lakes are slowly growing in from the edges: you end up balancing on logs to get out where you can cast ( the floating bog here can be devious! )

dryfly.me.2013.10.07.new_waters_6Still no fish, so I headed to the second lake, same result here, but the coffee was good, and I enjoyed fishing in nothing but a t-shirt ( which can be rare at this point of the year around here! )

dryfly.me.2013.10.07.new_waters_7Final place I tested out:

dryfly.me.2013.10.07.new_waters_8So: no fish this time, not even the sight of a small one out where you can never reach it! The conditions was great, but it was one of those days you just have to enjoy the weather, the fresh air and the 20km walk in solitude. I now have 3 more lakes to target for fishing when the 2014 season begins.