Almost there...

I have 12 hours for departure to Varzuga. If I only could describe my feelings at the moment. I bet every fisherman, who has been waiting for some trip whole winter, knows what I'm feeling right now. This unbearable anticipation is killing me. All I can think are those wild silvery sea-run springers pulling my line furiously and my reel screaming because of that.

I have had varzuga.com open whole time on my computer and I've been hitting f5 button repeatedly. Unfortunately Roxton clients have had quite poor week at the lower camp and they are thinking to refund the money for all their ten quests there. The river is very high, water is colored and fish are just not taking the flies. Nevertheless they are saying that river is now settling down and catches should increase every day. Hopefully on Sunday (my first fishing day there) river has settled and water cleared out so much that fish starts to rise on the fly. Hopefully...

I have three cameras with me (GoPro, waterproof compact camera and dslr) so I bet there will be lots of footage to share after the week. I'm thinking to film some sort of video blog and when I'm bored and want think of the trip I'll edit it.

Didn't find any descent pic to this post so here's Intruder-like-pattern tied on MA-tube fly.

Check this out!

Great tying vid from Timo Kontio. One of the coolest and realistic looking caddis flies I've seen. Check it out!

Tubes with cones

And some more tubes. These I think will get some time on trout stream also. At least that gold bodied tube looks very working thing for trout.

Got the base idea for this from Juri Shumakov. You can check his flies for Kola here!

For this one I've got the idea from guys working in Kuusamon Tärppi. This is quite radical variant from that though but still..

Most of you might (hopefully) recognize this. It is supposed to be Thunder and Lightning.

And finally this is the one that just might work for big browns also.

Tube flies taking over

Some more tube flies going to swim in the other side of the border.

Willie Gunn tied on rather long tube.

This one is also trying to be like a WG, there's only pink tube and rib is copper tinsel.

Snaelda. Pretty funny looking fly and I actually laughed my ass off when I first saw this. Still there's that fishy feeling in this.

A bit more traditional fly, Sunray Shadow.

Fever!

Yep, I am very sick. I can't sleep, I can't eat, I can't think anything else than the trip to Russia in two weeks. I literally roll around the bed about two hours almost every night and think all those great fish out there. And it does not help me that I have had some problems with my visa. It's not even sure that I can get one because there was some problems with the office that handles that thing. So I'm total nerve wrack at the moment.

Yeah and the other thing that bothers me all the time is that do I have enough flies and do I have right kind of flies for the trip. I have tried to solve that problem by tying as much flies as possible. I have just little over 100 flies tied on hook and about the same amount tied on tubes. Here I'm gonna post some recent tube flies I've tied. Have pretty good feeling about them. Hope you enjoy!

Flamethrower (copied from Henry Giles who fished Varzuga last year. Check his blog here) For this I have great expectations.

Francis. I'm also hoping quite a lot from this fly. I've heard that it drives salmon crazy in some rivers.

Sarvijaakko or James Horn as Google Translator suggested. Originally Sarvijaakko is I guess Finnish salmon fly and this is a variation from that.

One tied from Mikael Frödin's article, Sierra Gorva if I remember right. On this I've used aluminum bottle neck tube.

Copper Wire Spider

Every fly tyer should visit some handicraft shop every now and then. It's amazing what you can find there and what you can use in fly tying. Recently I have bought lace for salmon fly ribs, foam for dry flies, small doll eyes for streamer's eyes and these colored copper wires for ribs and bodies. And the costs are ridiculous compared to what they cost in "real fly fishing shop"

So here's bunch of spider-kind of flies that I tied with colored copper wire. You can have these in quite many colors. Very easy to us and I'm pretty sure that these are also quite durable. I've used green wire on Super Unrealistic Larva's ribs also.

Copper Wire Spider:

Hook: Size 8-14 wet fly hook

Tail: Some flash

Body: 3/4 colored (.3mm) copper wire, 1/4 matching dub

Hackle: Some dark cock hackle

Super Unrealistic Larva

There was a time on my fly tying career when I tied small insect patterns to imitate real insects as exact as possible. Then I met Joonas. He used a bit larger, simple flies. And always caught more and better fish than I did. Then I started to do things "over" and this larva is one that came from that era.

In the early season it is quite nice to do Czech nymphing even most of the people don't count it as fly fishing. When water is high and it is hard to reach the fish with other techniques this one is my number one option. It's very good way to catch fish in larger rapids in the summer time also. In Naruska river there is quite one long and fast flowing rapid and almost no one uses czech nymph style there. With three heavy weight larvaes I have nearly never failed there. In fact year ago I caught my record grayling in that rapid with this fly.

Super Unrealistic Larva:
Hook: Size 6# curved caddis (Partridge Klink on this one)
Head: Bright green tungsten bead
Rib: Green copper wire
Back: Bright green nymph skin
Body: Rear body caddis green hare dubbing, one segment orange dubbing (optional) and thorax grey hare dubbing with a bit flash

Sea Trout Shrimp

Like Angry Dragon these are also tied sea trout in mind. Fun fly. Don't have any idea how these will work in fishing but sure I enjoyed tying 'em. Oh and yes, Bug Bond makes back of the fly look very cool :)

STS:

Hook: Partridge klinkhammer hook, size 8#
Weighting: Lead on "deepest" curve of hook

Eyes: Burned mono line

Tail: Silver and crystal flash

Rib: Stren mono line

Hackle: White or grizzle cock hackle (on upper one doubled, lower one ripped in half)

Body: Cream colored antron or flash dubbing

Back: Crystal flash under a slice of surgeon's glove and bug bond

Bug Bond Beetle

I'm pretty satisfied with this beetle pattern here. Earlier ones sure are nice looking and works well but I've been looking to get this peacock color on them. With Bug Bond you can get very nice and realistic looking back for the fly. In my experiences it doesn't matter if your beetle won't float. Fish will eat them better submerged.

Bunch of peacock herl tied on wide-gaped hook's shank tails pointing back and tips forward. Three long herls tied in tail. Three pairs of black biots legs tied in and secured with Bug Bond.

Body twisted with peacock herl, head and back folded over. Looks quite cool this way also.

Top of the fly covered with Bug Bond.

Bug Bond: Synthetics

I think I'm quite right if I say that there's two kind of fly tiers: those who uses glues when tying and those who doesn't. And then there's two kind of glue users: those who thinks that UV glues are worthless and those who has just simply fell in love it UV glues.

Few years ago I was one of those who didn't use any glue when tying. Then about year ago I bought first super glue tube and agreed that it helped here and there a bit. Then week ago I ordered Bug Bond Original Kit from Nordic Angler. I had  a bit conflicting feelings about it, if I really need UV glue on tying and is it worth of all that money.

I've now used Bug Bond on about twenty flies and have to say that it is worth every penny. Great stuff, easy to use, hardens very quick, don't mess up the places, just awesome stuff.  Of course it sounds like when you get something new it's always the best thing ever so I'll just let you decide if it's necessary. I wouldn't abandon it anymore.

First fly I used BB was last summer's favorite Synthetic Love. This one is tied normal way. I just picked it out of the box and added doll eyes and Bug Bond on the head. Pretty cool and bait fish looking shape.

And since that looked so cool I tied one synthetic love with same style as Tinsels earlier.

As I said, cool stuff. Experiments will be continued soon.