The fly-fisher's rule is to examine what the fish eats: Take a small black fly and catch one fish with it Then open its stomach and look what it has eaten

Then you can choose the right fly The Renaissance Man: Flies on the Surface Lappeenranta, Finland I was at River Oulanka with Esu for the very first time, and never before had I been fly-fishing Esu bought some fly set, and I didn't know anything about tying a fly We had visited Oulanka river with Jaska for years – paddled the same rapids and stuff I thought that could I really catch a fish with this fly

Could something actually grab this? Then I threw, and it felt nice There was some kind of glory in it English lords fly-fish, of course Then in my new pair of waders, and with my rod, in the middle of the first rapid of River Oulanka I threw And suddenly a finger long grayling caught the fly

What a miracle it was In the evening we are going fishing The fish has to be lured It cannot be just taken, nor will it come by force I remember when we were tying flies at Jimppa's place with Esu and Iski, and we made a black gnat

It imitates a tiny blackfly or caddisfly, and it needs a little hook Like this This is placed in a tying pliers Here are all kinds of accessory Here is some lac, hooks – and these are leftover feathers

This is a spigot And this is called setting up a fly – maybe there are better names for it, but I call it setting up I have these surgeon's scissors, which are quite convenient A bench like this is useful, because tying is much easier, and all the stuff fits here And what should we mimic? The insects are surfacing, hatching and taking off

The creature has been crawling the bottom and eating for three whole years Then finally it comes up as a totally transformed being and spreads its wings It's fascinating Now we take some dubbing There are many styles, but I do it like this

I make a loop here Then I use this instrument to make a gap between the strings The hair is in between now Then I start to circulate, and it entwines like this You can also put some wax on a string and go around it

It must be a more common style Like this we get a hairy body, at the head, too Now we should make a hackle This is called a parachute hackle A neck feather of a rooster

It looks like this We begin to roll carefully When the insect is on the surface, looks like it has legs Something is coming like from another dimension The surface is an event horizon

You cannot see beyond it And then something comes through it and catches If you are using a worm as a bait, you feel a tug, and you know there's something in the deep But with a fly bait the creature has to come to this world, to the surface Now we can almost call this ready, but still the wings need to be cut to the proper length

I would say it's somewhere here The lac should be carefully put There's a risk that it will mess the hackle Well, OK I think, we'll try to catch a fish with this fly, when the evening comes, what was it? A rudd

EQUIPMENT The fly-fisher’s suit is a vest like this The pockets contain certain things that a certain fisher needs Everything is always in its right place A fly case made by an artist This is a unique, precious item

And it includes all these flies One thing is the equipment-centeredness When the rod costs a thousand euros and the reel costs another thousand euros They certainly are great, English Hardy, but then there are some Japanese replicants They cost a hundred euros

I bought my favourite rod from Lidl, and it was a bargain And it's so good But the reel is a bit more expensive It must have cost less than a hundred, I recall I think that if it's all about the equipment, how expensive and fine they are, the fishing itself might be easily forgotten

A human is like a magpie, buying all those expensive things But one doesn't get any happier by doing so I guess the thing is that when you manage to make a fly with your own hands, from cheap materials, and witness the miracle of catching a fish, that's a pleasure A happy surprise, I would say They say that the hole shouldn't be blocked

You shouldn't tie too close Now I did just like that, and there isn't enough space in front of it So I have to make little gimmicks and put this Now we tie the head They are very strict about not doing it wrong

But I'm not a fly-fisher like that, so I have to do it this way, because I can't do it right But anyway, in the end all that matters is to make the fly by yourself, and if you catch a fish with it, that's the fun part Could it be? It is Look, dull scissors Like that

OK, now it's free from lac Now we have three flies, and as the evening news air, we should have a chance to catch a rudd But as said, it will be given, not taken We should ask for it, from whom, I don't know From someone

Lake Saimaa I'll make a knot like this This is called a surgeon's knot, when you combine two knots like these It should be as thin as possible, because the fly itself is also tiny Then I use spit to make it a clean knot The trot… And now I have to take another fly, because the first one was left on the windy side of the bridge

Let's take a new black gnat from this beautiful box A knot Like this… My father taught this knot to me I'll cut off that extra part I'll put some floating substance

The fly doesn't get wet Then a couple of blows to make it look like an insect Well, let's throw then In the evening, during sunset, the caddisflies and butterflies start to hatch It's interesting to watch

There are flies in all sizes: big and small Often you don't fish at all You just watch the flies hatch Sometimes just the throwing itself feels nice Even without any fly or bait

The throwing is all you want to do There's a certain rhythm It feels satisfying, when you succeed when the line stays airborne for a long time and then falls on the desirable spot Alright, there's a fish

Let's see, if we can get it up Some fish it certainly is It's a roach Take it easy, roach So we got this kind of a fish with that fly we tied earlier today

The roach is a fine fish Let's set it free, take the hook off and throw it back to water Like that There it goes We got a fish! Let's see if we get another one

This fly has to be rinsed a bit, because it's a bit slimy after getting eaten by that roach The roach is as valuable as any other fish They catch salmons and others, and it's great But the roach is also nice… and beautiful I'll dry this fly with my sleeve and blow it like this, to make it fluffy again

I think we have a good fly here, because that roach already took it I already told about opening the stomach, seeing what the fish has eaten and then choosing the right fly At River Oulanka we really experienced it in practice When Esu got a grayling, opened it and found ants… in it's stomach I considered there should probably be some red and black in the fly

Then we found some flies of that color And guess what, graylings started to rise from the water time and again We realized that it's more than just lottery That you really can think and examine, and then it works! This is a slower style of fishing This is like… You can't just rush it

Although, it will speed you up, when you spot some bigger action in the water Then the fly hurries it's way to the scene It causes some unnecessary confusion Let's use this – the mayfly mimic It will draw attention if it gets in the right place, I'm sure

When you're at the river, in your waders, in a waist-deep, flowing water, and you have to craft this same stuff, you may feel like a juggler Alright… I think this looks pretty fine If I was a fish, I would gladly snatch this Like that Now it's underwater

Look, there's a fish This fly floats neatly So this other fly works as well What could it be? A roach or what? Well, a roach it is Hey, calm down, little roach

It goes like… It's a pretty roach, isn't it? But let's put it back We don't want to tease this poor creature There it goes So also this mayfly attracts fish And if a roach took it, any other species would do the same – a grayling or a trout – they have the same diet, you know

If it deceives a roach, it deceives anyone What is it, when a child gets something? What's the joy? It's the miracle of something appearing Juhani Aho once wrote about a little boy, who finally brings home something actually useful, – like fish The Renaissance Man: Filming, sound recording and production: Aerial footage: Music: English translation and subtitles: Ville Nikunen