Memories Of The Year 2011

A long planned and expected year 2011 is finally over.
Now as I write this story, the temperature outside is minus -28 degrees!

When I think backwards, the season passed really quickly! A lot of new things were perceived. There were a lot of expectations, planning, joy, laugh, celebration and great fishing.

I think that this year really opened my eyes in the aspect of fly-fishing. I was able to improve my fly fishing skills a lot.
I learned how to read the river better, know where the fish are, what they were eating and when they were eating. I also learned also how to approach the fish, how to cast your fly in the right way to the fish, how to notice the hit on your fly line and your fly and when precisely to counter on the hit.

One important thing which I have learned is the confidence on your own fishing. You can feel free to try new things and learn from the things that your friends do.

Also fly tying is an own world. Using right materials, colors, figure are really important things..
Hiking in the mountains is also a bit challenging. You need right equipments, tents, backpacks, right shoes and clothing and food to make it. A lot of things to think about, don't you think?

The most important thing to me is, that I can enjoy being in nature with my good friends. Just to focus on fishing and forget your work, stress and hectic atmosphere, where you are running around with your calendar in your hand!

I have written some memories to this story, about what experienced in the year 2011.
I have also added some HDR pictures from our trips around the world. I hope that you like my story.



One of my highlights of the year 2011 was the trip to Slovenia.
(Slovenia 2011)

We expected this trip with my frienda a lot! We had fly tying evenings, watched movies about Soca and dreamed that we would be soon fishing there.

We were also in contact to our guide Matevz and nervous of what kind of weather we would have. One of our big  dreams was to be able to fish in Soca. Fortunately this dream was fulfilled during the first day when Matevz drove us to the point where Lepenja and Soca rivers comes together. Our feeling was unbelievable when we arrived there. The nature was like a paradise and the water was crystal clear. Fortunately, humans have not yet destroyed everything beautiful!

Fly fishing in Slovenia is really challenging and you develop a lot when you fish there. Fishing in Slovenia is really different than in Finland or Sweden. It's all about how to approach the fish, fishing with thin leaders and small flies. I think this was the most instructive trip of my life.

The week went really fast and the trip left us great memories and over thousand pictures.
The trip resulted with my stomach getting some new shape in ways of some fat, which was of course fault of Rambo pizza and Union beer, those damm delicious foods.

This trip was completely different than our first trip to Slovenia.
Thanks to our guide we were able concentrate fully on fishing, because we didn't need to stress driving or getting lost. We also saw a lot of new places and we caught many fishes that we wouldn't have even found without a guide.

Fly fishing in Slovenia is incredible and we really need to go there again!






Second highlight of the year 2011 was the trip to mountains of northern Sweden.
(The Mountains Of Northern Sweden)

We decided to go northern Sweden and hike to the mountains. This was my first time on a longer hike, as we spent a few nights there. I was waiting for this trip with anxiety, because I didn't know anything about the place we were heading to or how long I had to walk there.
Only thing that I was able to do, was to focus on to buying right kind of equipments to survive in the mountains.
During this trip I learned how important is the right equipments. You have to have good hiking shoes, right kind of backpack, light and big enough tent and of course, something to eat and drink.

My father-in-law Juhani had heard of the spot in the mountains from his friend which had been there a few times. Only thing that I knew about the place was the fact that you had to hike there about three to four hours.
All didn't go as we had planned as you can read from my story. After all kind of adversity we ended to take a sauna bath and swim in the cold river, awesome =)

The river was great for grayling fishing, because there were lot of graylings and they were pretty big, average size was almost 45 centimeter. I fished with a dry flies, nymphs and streamers, they all worked fine.
Also there was lot of trouts and some arctic char. The biggest trout I had on I lost during the night because I fished with too light rod and too thin leaders. There is only one thing that kept bothering me after the trip, which was the fact that I didn't fish enough during nights!
Well perhaps I was just too charmed of the big graylings that I had caught :)

Third of my highlights of the year 2011 was the trip to northern Sweden.
(- Chasing The BIG ONE -)

This was my second trip to the place. Our first trip left us great memories and we decided to go there again. There is lot of grayling and if you fish enough you might get a BIG northern trout.

Our trip started on the friday 26th of August.
I took Wiljami and AleXandra with me for the trip to north. Also Johan joined us a few days later.
Each of us experienced a good grayling fishing and also landed nice big trouts!

This trip hooked me in to the trout fishing, it's awesome! This trip was perfect ending for the year 2011.

I have high expectations for the year 2012!

There are some great trips being planned. Paradise Slovenia, hiking to mountains, flying with helicopter and perhaps some steelhead fishing somewhere a bit "futher" ;)  We'll see how it will all go!

...waiting for the summer!

- J. Inkinen -