Back in the air

Following my misadventure with Lily (the start up drone that failed to see production line) i went for the obvious choice, Mavic.

Its the portability of Mavic that attracted me straight away, fits in a small Pelican case, or in a dry bag. I hoping to push this little beast, but i am still in the "baby step" mode...Its not exactly cheap, and it needs time to know and put into practice all that Mavic has to offer. Thanks to Youtube there is a crazy amount of guys flying it and putting up some cool tutorials. But i still feel uneasy having over a 1000€ flying over water.

The very first thing i'm practicing is to hand launch and land to be able to take Mavic with me on my pontoon , boat or float tube. It looks easy, but i know its going to be a totally different story doing these manoeuvres sitting in the middle of a lough or river. So, practice makes perfect and i don't want to get my fingers chopped..
 Putting this aside,Mavic looks like a fantastic piece of tech.It does not feel cheap, its sturdy, flies very well, stable , responsive and the camera is fantastic.But now a new season starts for me at the lodge, first guests are arriving this afternoon, that's me busy until mid june...Be patient my friends, i will try to fill the blog as much as i can.

For those who are interested in the procedure i use to hand launch and land, i think i am doing it the easiest way possible. If you know of a better way please do put it in the comment below.
Mavic is equipped with obstacle avoidance sensors in the front and underneath its body. So if you try to catch it, the bottom sensors will see your hand coming towards it and the drone will fly upwards to try to get away from you. I have seen many videos where guys go into the settings and disable the bottom sensors, but why paying big money for all these extras and not using them?..One easiest way it to use the take off option on the app (DJI GO 4 ) to launch and to use the auto landing from the app as well to catch it.Even if your hand is under, by confirming that you want to land the drone, the sensors will not see you as an obstacle but as a landing platform. Mavic will go down about 20cm and will pause for about two seconds to initiate the landing, all you have to do is position your hand under ( away from the blades and your face) and catch it as it lowers itself, then shut off the motors by holding your left stick down.Simple....well we'll see on the water, for the moment i keep doing this over and over in my garden.

Innoko,the return.

To say that i'm exited this morning is a real understatement.I got a mail from Scott of Midnight Sun Trophy Pike Adventures confirming our next trip to the Innoko.I am so pumped i even put a countdown clock on the side of the blog....


Some of you guys are probably familiar with the Innoko system , part of the Yukon drainage, if you don't know this place you probably have seen it from the fantastic movie of Barry Reynolds , In pursuit of the water wolf.

The first time i have seen this movie i knew i had to do everything in my powers to go up there.Stop smoking, drinking,put five euro aside each week,whatever you can to save money to visit this true pike mecca while you still can.It's remote, it's beautiful,it's just unreal! We had an amazing stay, with a super professional crew taking care of us. I still remember this place like it was yesterday, every details are engraved in my brain for ever, like a virus, the Innoko comes back and hunt you, calls you back.I don't know what's the deal with Alaska, but once you step foot up there you are done...You will come back over and over, no matter what it takes.I have been to quite a few places around the world ,but nothing sticks to you like Alaska and especially the Innoko ( if you are a pike man).

The sheefish were playing ball too!

When we arrived there back in 2013, the weather was unusually hot, water temperatures were high for this part of the world, it took a lot of scouting from the guides to find cooler waters and to finally find active, aggressive pikes. And boy, when them found the sweet spot it was like nothing i have ever experienced. Our fourth day was out of this world, we had to push further and further north to find these precious cooler spots, over 2  hours on the skiff in the morning travelling at full speed with some serious horse power got us to pike heaven.We had the best day of our lives, my good friend Dominique and myself had personal best records, falling and falling and falling on that day.We clocked  40 pikes over 40 inches, we lost count of the total number of fish that day, and the ones under the magical 40? All big fish too, all high 30's, no jacks that day.They were probably terrified to come out that day...