sixtytwo

Is It Spring Already?

2015-03-27T20:28:00.001+02:00

This winter's fruits

Howdy guys,
we're back! Or technically I am, but doesn't matter. And we haven't really even been away...

But anyways, maybe something not so completely off-topic chitchat would be more interesting, eh?

So, to start with, the winter is stepping aside and the temperatures are hitting springly readings on a daily basis! Technically we could go fishing right now to some nearby river, but we're a bit tight on our schedule, so the fishing - it feels bad to say this - will have to wait. And that's a bummer, but sometimes you just have to deal with blunt stuff like that.

Next summer everything will be totally different, though (or then exactly the same, one can never know). We're hoping to get to hit some good hatches and stuff and to catch some chubby trouts and their siblings. There's one certain thing at the heart of this uncertaintiness, though, and that's C&R. That's right, just as we've done before, we'll try and give our best shot in practising catch and release-fishing of brown trout and other endangered species in the whole of Finland.

See ya!

End Of Season

2014-12-05T23:01:00.000+02:00

I'd rather be fishing right now, but whatever.

Hello to everyone out there reading our blog!

Long time no hear, huh? Yup, but the season is coming to its end once again, and one does not simply go fly fishing at minus twenty celsius degrees. Currently it still would be a decent fly fishing weather up here, though: a couple of minus or plus degrees and light rain or snowfall sometimes. But then there's the other stuff that every single time (or so it seems, anyways) hampers your fly fishing plans, and then you just have to deal with it and - this really breaks my heart - limit your fly fishing.

"It's all about the right balance," one could say. But when you can't go fishing for an eternity, then you just get an aching need for it. After this hell of a rant, let's just do something distantly fishing-related and watch old fly fishing photos while suffering from the withdrawal symptoms of fly fishing.

Cheers, us.

Boilin' Hot Waters

2014-08-03T19:29:00.001+03:00

Hello there!

It's been Hot here lately, and that's not a good thing at least as far as the fly fishermen are concerned. The already three-weeks-long heatwave has risen the water temperatures in lakes and rivers to over 25 degrees, which hardly is an ideal temperature for trout and other salmon-related species, at least when it comes to c&r-fishing. No we'll just have to wait for the waters and weather to cool down a bit, because fly fishing at such high temperatures isn't a great pleasure - not even for the otherwise always so eager fishermen.

As usual, there aren't much fishing-stories to tell, but we have caught a couple of fish' since the last entry (which was posted already two months ago, sorry for that), so here's a few pictures for you guys. You're welcome.

We'd really appreciate if you first ask for a permission before you use our pictures.

Wet Conditions

2014-05-31T22:25:00.001+03:00

Hello there!

It's been a really really long time since our last blog entry, like two months already. And we apologize for that, but now we're back in business after the busy spring. Our summer holiday just began today, and we decided to celebrate it by going fishing - already on last Thursday.

As the title says, the conditions weren't exactly the best possible for fly fishing. A pouring rain and quite low temperatures aren't exactly the ideal conditions for fly fishing - nor are they for other outdoor activities. But, we were determined to go fly fishing that day no matter what the conditions were, because we hadn't fished in such a looong time. The day wasn't properly speaking the most action-packed in terms of fly fishing, but we did have quite a lot of fun despite the rain. I could write a story about the varied intensity of rain during the day, but I think you'll be more pleased with a few photos.

And stay tuned, after all it's summer now!

Ducks 'n' Sunshine on Muuramenjoki

2014-04-02T18:23:00.000+03:00

Howdy guys!

As the title says, we opened our fly fishing season on Muuramenjoki. The weather was perfect and unusually warm for the end of March, about 11 degrees celsius and the sun was shining all the time from a bright sky. So the conditions were absolutely great - for us, but maybe not so much for fly fishing, 'cause, you guessed it - we blanked again. Not a single fish was caught that day, nor did we get any strikes, or any clear fish sightings.

But we'll be back and hopefully we'll catch something.

Total number of fish caught: Zero, Nada, Null. Total number of plants, trees and junk caught: Too much.

Don't use these pics without a permission!

Spring and Black Eyes

2014-03-21T18:24:00.003+02:00

Hi guys!

It's been quite a long while since our latest blog entry. Almost two months, to be exact. It's just that we haven't had time to write anything here, nor have we had time to do anything that's worthy to be mentioned here. But that is about to change, because we're going to start our fishing season in just over a week from now. It's been a long, long wait, and watching fishing movies from New Zealand, Patagonia and wherever didn't make the wait any easier.

Wait a sec, maybe I've done something worth mentioning, though: I recently got myself a Black Eye. And no, I didn't get it from a taxi queue, like some guys do. I bought mine from a nearby home electronics store, and I really, really like it a lot.

The idea is simple: it is a 180° fish eye lens with a magnetic ring for attachment. And it's so small that you can carry it in your pocket or key-chain and take it out whenever you see something interesting and photo-worthy. Of course it might not be the greatest lens optic-wise, but in my mind, that's not the point of this lens. I think I'll be using this thing a lot in the future, and I can definitely recommend it to everyone. Oh, and yeah, here's a few sample pictures. Want more, just let us know!

The fit-ring attached on my phone

Ready for action!

Trees in the woods

Last remnants of snow

The lake's still frozen

Cloudberries rising towards the sun

Got interested? More info about the Black Eye Lens.

If you'd like to use our pics somewhere, we would really appreciate if you contacted us first. Thanks!

Winter Things

2014-01-24T20:20:00.000+02:00

Hi guys, guess what?

It's finally winter here in Finland. Or it has actually been for two weeks already, and it feels quite awesome because only a bit over two weeks ago it still was raining and the temperatures were something like +5 degrees celsius. Now the temperatures are a bit colder, about -20 degrees and the scenery is just gorgeous with the snow-covered trees and frozen lakes and rivers.

That means, of course, that we've spent quite a lot of time photographing and, well, photographing. And of course we've also tied lots of flies for next season.

#10 | Had to test the pink metal wire bought from local hobby crafts shop.

#12 | This one ain't actually new, but it's a good pattern anyways.

Steamy river

Fishing prohibited

January sun

Steamy rapids

Snowy twigs

All of the photos presented here are copyrighted, so please contact us if you intend to use them.

Happy New Year 2014!

2014-01-01T01:07:00.001+02:00

Happy New Year (Hyvää Uutta Vuotta in Finnish) everyone!

It's now 2014 here in Finland. So... Happy New Year! http://t.co/Peina3QSKC

— SixtyTwo Degrees (@SixtyTwoDegrees) 31. joulukuuta 2013

Hyvää Joulua!

2013-12-24T00:49:00.003+02:00

The title says it all, but again, Merry Christmas and thank you to all of you guys, especially to the readers of blog!

Another short Timelapse

2013-12-08T18:09:00.001+02:00

Muuramenjoki - Fly fishing in Snowfall

2013-12-02T20:12:00.001+02:00

Snowfall

We went fly fishing on Muuramenjoki, a nearby river, last Saturday. The weather was quite cold and windy and there was also some dense snowfall for a couple of hours.

Alasuvanto

We arrived at the river at about nine o'clock in the morning and began fishing on the lower stream pool, usually referred to as Alasuvanto ("Lower stream pool"). Aft
er an hour or so we moved a bit upstream, to the upper end of Alasuvanto. There was no action, though, and everything was just dead-silent.

Upper parts of the the rapids. No wading here.

Then we moved on to the upper stream pool, Paloasemansuvanto ("Fire station stream pool"), where the currents slows down. We fished there for sometime without any results. With no fish-contacts, we decided to try some of the upper parts of the rapids, although we knew that the fish' don't like the fast current places on such cold water. Unsurprisingly, we had no fish-contacts there either, so we went back all the way to Alasuvanto, though we were now fishing it from the other bank. I had no fish-contacts there, but my friend managed to hook a nice rainbow after a couple of unsuccessful attempts just few moments before.

A snow-rainbow

It was a nice day fishing, although the weather was quite freezing because of some heavy winds.

White wasn't the color of the day

Some icicles under the bridge

A random snowfall pic

As always, more pics can be found at our Instagram page.

Timelapses and Other Stuff

2013-11-18T19:22:00.003+02:00

Hi there.
Not much has happened during the past weeks (again), because of the closed season here in Finland. It actually ended already on last Saturday, but we didn't have time go fishing. We shall go fishing pretty soon though, maybe next weekend or on the one after it.

I haven't even tied any flies because of my laziness when it comes down to fly tying. But I made a nice discovery on the web called CHDK. It's a pretty sweet and a bit complicated software for Canon's point-and-shoot cameras that allows to do some cool stuff with them, including for example timelapses and HDRs.

My old Canon PowerShot A495

I was most excited about making timelapses so I downloaded a timelapse-script and put it in the Scripts-folder of CHDK on a memory card and after a short setup I was ready to shoot some timelapses. I used Canon PowerShot A495 for this, but basically almost any PowerShot- or Ixus-model is supported.

CHDK's booting image

I didn't make any step-by-step for installing and using CHDK, because there already is quite a few of them (links can be found at the end of this post). But if you want me to do one, just tell it by commenting on this post or send a message on Twitter, Vimeo, Google+ or wherever you like.

Setting up the timelapse script

Short timelapse test clip which I made

If you prefer YouTube, click here.

That test clip isn't the best possible, and I made it mainly to show the opportunities offered by CHDK.

Canon CHDK Hack Tutorial: RAW, HDR, and Time Lapse on Vimeo

CHDK Website

Winter is Coming

2013-10-24T18:28:00.001+03:00

How about fly fishing? ;)

Or maybe it isn't, but the weather has been pretty capricious for some time now. For example, just last weekend we went fly fishing. Or well, there wasn't much fishing to be done then, because the lake was frozen. Of course we thought it could have been frozen, but we really couldn't believe our eyes when we arrived there, because on the way there we saw many small ponds that weren't frozen. Then the temperature was about minus five degrees Celsius, and today the temperature rose up to about twelve degrees.

And we're still waiting for the end of the closed season, and can't wait get fishing on the rivers again.

Holiday Break

2013-10-11T16:21:00.000+03:00

It's finally autumn holiday here in Finland! Because of that we won't be updating our blog. But we'll probably post a couple of pics to our Instagram profile and maybe we'll tweet a bit. Check out our Instagram page!

With that said, everybody have a great fly fishing holiday/weekend!

We'll be back soon.

Six weeks of Closed Season remaining

2013-10-04T16:56:00.002+03:00

So, as the title tells, there's "only" six weeks of closed season remaining before the rivers open for fishing again. In the meantime, we've been fly fishing for pike and rainbow trout on some nearby lakes. And tying flies. Lots and lots of flies. Actually that was a lie, 'cause I'm so lazy when it comes to tying flies that I just barely have managed to tie enough of them when the new season begins in spring.

Take pictures, don't fish

Last weekend we went fly fishing for rainbows to that same nearby lake again. My friend managed to catch a nice one on dry fly, while I had only one rainbow on for sometime.

Also remember to visit our Instagram and Twitter pages for more pics and stuff.

Guess that's it, everybody have a great weekend!

Lake fishing

2013-09-21T18:05:00.002+03:00

The lake

Earlier today we went fishing for rainbow trout to a small lake nearby. Fishing was good, fish' were surfacing and they also bit flies quite eagerly. We managed to land three rainbow trouts in total and lost as many. For more pictures, visit our Instagram page.

Playin' a rainbow

Almost identical twins c&r

Closed Season and Random Stuff (non)related

2013-09-17T16:18:00.001+03:00

It's been quite a long time since the last update here.

So, to begin with, the closed season on salmonid containing rivers and rapids begun last week, meaning that the next time you can go fishing for trout to a river is the November 16th. That is good thing for the fish', of course, that fishermen aren't wading on the breeding places and spookin' them.

Otherwise we've been quite busy studying and stuff like that, but we managed to go fishing to Kuusaankoski, a popular fly fishing destination near Laukaa.

Kuusaankoski

We lost few pretty good fish', including a couple of trouts and a grayling, but the only ones we actually managed to land were only about 10-30 centimeters in length, so they were of course released.
I don't know what the problem was, but setting the hook and playing the fish just didn't go too well. Maybe it was just a stroke of bad luck or something...

Hidin' under the bridge

There's one positive thing about the autumn, though. This is the best season for fly fishing for rainbow trout on the lakes. Next weekend we'll go fishing and see if we can find any willing fish to bite our flies... Hopefully we do, but we'll see...

Naarakoski

2013-09-05T21:15:00.001+03:00

Kissakoski

So, we finally decided to go fishing to Naarakoski rapids last Saturday. Here's a short story about that day.

We arrived to the rapids some time before noon, after redeeming the licences. We began fishing with some basic nymphs and czech nymphs on the lover part of the rapids, which is called Kissakoski. It is pretty shallow and not-so-easy to fish, especially on low water. Small fish' were biting the flies eagerly, but there was no sign of any bigger fish', for example brown trouts. We kept on nymphing the lower part for some time and I managed to loose a bit under 40 cm long trout after a few seconds fight.

We also met a couple of other anglers who told us that they hadn't caught anything on that day either.

Naarakoski

Portrait with colors

After fishing for a couple of hours on the lower part, we decided to go fishing to the upper part of the rapids, the Naarakoski itself. Although this part looked pretty promising, we didn't manage to catch anything besides those damned weeds.

A couple of hours later, at about five o'clock we returned to the lower part of the rapids, again trying to lure the trouts from their hide-outs with different czech nymphs. I had one pretty strong bite but I didn't manage on setting the hook 'cause my concentration was wondering. My friend had also a couple of nice, about 40 cm trouts on for a few seconds at the koskenniska.

Kissakoski again

And again

That's about it, we didn't catch any fish, but otherwise had a pretty great day on the rapids. We'll try to arrange some time for one trip to a nearby-rapid before the closed season begins on next Wednesday.

Dead end sign next to parking area

Megamuddler

2013-08-28T21:34:00.001+03:00

We thought to share a good fly pattern with all of you reading this blog. It's a modified version of a Finnish Megamutikka.

It doesn't look too pretty, especially when tied by me, but it's a very effective streamer when fishing for brown trout on Central-Finland's rapids. It swims on the surface, or just beneath it, splashing the water on it's way.

#4 (about 8cm) and #1 (about 10cm)

I'm too lazy to do step-by-step instructions, so I just listed the materials which I used on it. Hope you don't mind... :)

Hook: Long shank streamer hook size 1-4 (e.g. Kamasan B800)
Thread: Black 6/0
Tail: Squirrel
Body: Yellow and/or orange dubbing
Underwing: Squirrel
Wing: Brown rooster cape
Head/collar: Deer hair

Just add water and remember that bigger is better!

Find us elsewhere on the web

2013-08-22T17:29:00.001+03:00

Hi guys, we have a Twitter page and we're also on Vimeo, so remember to follow us to get our latest blog updates, links and videos. At the moment we've got nothing fishing-related to tell you, but we'll go fishing pretty soon, so stay tuned! :)

Some pics from this summer

2013-08-11T19:26:00.002+03:00

Small rocks

Small rainbow trout

Rapid

Nymphing on river Muuramenjoki

2013-08-11T18:40:00.001+03:00

Some rocks and foam

So, we arrived at the river on afternoon, at about two o’clock. We started fishing on the upper parts of the river with different nymphs and czech nymphs. The water was quite low and it made fishing a bit difficult on some places. My friend, however, caught a nice rainbow trout on a small leech.

Splashes

After a while, we went a couple hundred meters downstream to fish a rockier rapid part of the river. Nothing too exciting happened there, I caught a couple of roaches and took some photos.

More rocks

We fished for some time after that, but caught only some water weeds. We took some photos of some random things and then we went home.

It was nice to go fishing after a one month break, although I caught no rainbows or brown trouts. And Muuramenjoki is a nice, local river, so it doesn't matter if you don't sometimes catch any fish.

A couple of white mushrooms