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Swedish Fly Fair 2001

Harry Salmgren visited the Swedish Fly Fair in Västerås, Sweden, which was held between 23 and 25 March and sent the following report:

The recent Fly Fair in Västerås, organised by Jussi Sjölund, was this year again bigger than before. It is the first time in its three-year history that all the exhibition area was sold out and one reason was the destination exhibitions. A couple of them were the Fiskecentrum Norr with Sorsele Kortfiskeområde and its multitude of waters not far away from the venues of the up-coming World Fly-Fishing Competition in Swedish Lapland. Also the Gimån area with Idsjöströmmen was represented by Lars-Åke Olsson together with the rest of the Drömfiske Jämtland/Härjedalen fishing area. And for anglers interested in fly-fishing in Kola, the Varzina River Company and Juha Vainio from Finland was there to help.

For those of you that have attended the Fly Fair in Belgium and Holland, in comparison the Västerås Fair only lacked the great variety of international stands exhibited there. Well from other countries than Finland of course. Finland was represented by both tackle and magazines with everything from Vision products to the excellent fly fishing magazine Pohjolan Perhokalastaja by May Fly OY which also publishes books and the Atlantic Salmon Review, and a young female fly tier and salmon angler Minna Simonen. Also former international angler Hannu Lehtonen tied his flies for the Loop Tackle Company, known for marketing the Loop reel made and invented by the Swede Kurt Danielsson and his family.

Still more internationally-renowned companies as Diamondback, Fenwick and Sage whose products were shown by the Swedish representatives and shops. Also anyone wanting to shop for waders could choose any of the 12 different sizes of the Simms Guide breathables or the already well-known Vision waders. Snowbee was also represented together with the excellent fly tier Sean Andrews. But naturally there was more gear for sale, too much actually to review in this report.

However one of the highlights of the fair was the presence of the reigning casting world champion Steve Rajeff. With the confidence worthy of such a long and successful career, he really showed how Loomis rods can perform in hands of an expert. His performance made one also realise how small the sports arena of Rocklunda really was. So Jussi, the exhibition "general", started murmuring something about getting more space for the next year's event.

Between casting shows and instruction, Steve was to be found on the Loomis stand where he was happy to share his secrets with visitors to the Fair. Also on the same stand was Gareth Jones who represented Airflo from Wales.

One other of the casting instructors that also stood out from the crowd was the Danish-born Gunnar Rask Nielsen. Without making any fuss of his former second placing in the world casting championships, he invited you all to shares his personal secrets of becoming a confident and better caster. If one instructor in Sweden deserves recognition for long and truthful service he is the one. Nowadays his main interest is to inspire youngsters to the world of fly-fishing and casting: something he has done for a long time within the Swedish Sportfishing Federation.

A couple of other people to mention are the passionate photographer and fly fisher Leif Milling, fly tier of excellence and photographer Lennart Bergqvist and Kenneth Boström the chairman of the Swedish Fly Fishers Association and also inventor of the fly Rackelhanen.

Apart from them, there also were some younger anglers making their presence noticed with excellent products, one of them being the inventor and maker of the Tyfon fly reel Anders Johansson and also the young female casting instructor Solveigh Rask Nielsen. Together with other females in fly fishing as previously mentioned young Minna Simonen, Solveigh too showed that extreme talent is no longer the sole prerogative of men.

But as young women should be protected, the inventor of the tube fly machine and craftsman Eero J. Kostianen provided fatherly accompanied for Minna on her stand at Västerås. He really showed that fly fishing can be just anything: from making flies to carving fantastic wooden fly boxes and fly tying benches. And close by was HS Import who's main product is imported accessories for assembling fly rod kits for making your own rod. Funnily enough it has become one of Sweden's biggest company to export them!

As a conclusion this fly fair showed that still more and more young people and also females are in to fly-fishing and like to fish together. It was also evident that the fly fishing industry is in debt to the individuals who help it to develop. If there were no genuine craftsmen and developers like the individual reel makers exhibiting at the fair, and also knife makers and others together with all the excellent fly tiers and individual works of fantastic wood work with sculptured and painted wooden fish or builders of fly rods, our beloved fly fishing would go back to being the secretive small time hobby so many of us visitors have left behind by attending this great fair.