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IMPORTANT
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Fish & Fly at fishandfly.com
Fishing
in Swedish Lapland
Our January 2004 contribution from Terry Lawton
When you hear of a stretch of river, up in the Arctic in Swedish Lapland, that holds mighty brown trout weighing up to five and more kilos, and it involves some effort to get there, this sounds like a challenge well worth accepting. Last summer, one of the hottest in memory in the UK and much of Europe and Scandinavia, I was able to combine a visit to this river with an expedition to fish even further north , up in the mountains near the Norwegian border.
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The cabin on the shore of a lake |
One afternoon in August we – me, James a Swedish fishing friend, Ingemar Petterson, our guide and two seriously hung-over Danes – met on the shore of a mighty long lake where we loaded our kit into a boat. We set off for what was two be a two hour trip from one end of the lake to the other. On the way we passed islands, some with summer houses on them, and a few other boats heading back to the shore. At the top-end of the lake, there was a tiny “village”, a hamlet really, where we started a two-hour hike upstream to the cabin where we were to stay. We all had a kit, clothing and limited provisions in ruck sacks. We were relying on catching fish to supplement the meager rations that we were able to carry.
When we got to the cabin – on the shore of a smaller lake than the one we had crossed by boat – we lit a fire and cooked supper. The next day, after a late breakfast, we set off to the river. And what a sight it was when we got there. At the top and bottom there are lakes but the river in between powers through narrows and over waterfalls and rapids, the whole length contained by rocky banks. My first reaction was how on earth were we going to fish it, let alone where would we find any fish. I had seen photos of the mighty trout and we were fishing with Rasmus who has caught them. So we knew that they were not figments of an over-fertile imagination.
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The river looked unfishable at |
Fish are to be found in the heavy water as there are always very big differences in the speed and direction of flow between the surface and the depths of the river. These rivers can be very deep and although you can see the bottom because the water is so clear, it can be very difficult to know just how deep the water is, particularly as it can be 15 or more feet deep. Rivers which originate in the mountains where they are fed by melt water from glaciers and snow have a lovely pale green tint.
But once you have started to fish and perhaps caught a fish or two, it is surprising how quickly you get used to these mountain torrents and can start fishing them with confidence, both down and across andupstream, with a nymph or dry fly. You must be ready to fish quickly, by that I mean as soon as your fly and line land on the water, start retrieving and be ready to set the hook. In fast, turbulent water, fish have only an instant to grab any potential food items before they are swept away. It can be very effective to fish with a short line with your rod held high keeping the line off the water, so that you have better contact with your fly.
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A quieter stretch, |
Czech nymphing is another technique that can be employed very effectively as one or two heavy nymphs on your leader will get you well down to where the fish are to be found and the short line means that you can set the hook quickly. Sometimes you will hook weed, but then when you think that you have hooked the bottom, the bottom moves and you are into a battle with a funky grayling.
Grayling will often come up a long way through deep water to take a dry fly but a nymph may have to be fished very accurately. This is where fishing with a short line, or Czech style, helps as you can position your nymph more accurately. Grayling can often be enticed from around or even under big rocks. Always fish round rocks and boulders carefully and thoroughly and even little pools where you may catch perhaps five or six fish.
But where were the monster trout? As hard as we all fished, we never managed to catch one between us. We put it down to the effects of the hot weather and the very high water temperature. Ingemar though that because the river was so warm the trout would have moved out of the river into the depths of the lake where the temperature would be that much lower.
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| Rasmus with a fine Arctic grayling |
Although we never caught the big trout that we were all hoping for, we did catch plenty of very fine grayling. A freshly-caught grayling grilled over an open fire makes a very fine lunch or supper. It is acceptable to kill one or two fish a day when you are relying on them for food, as there is a limit to how much you can carry on your back. Although we hiked-in to the cabin, for those who are less adventurous, it is possible to fly-in by helicopter which means that you can take more food. But there is, obviously, a cost to be incurred.
Essential flies
Rasmus, who is a regular visitor to the Arctic, recommends that you have some large black woolly buggers, streaking caddis, GRHE nymphs with and without gold heads and some Partridge and Orange spiders (for when everything else has failed and you are in despair). Although hare’s ear nymphs work well, very attractive, buggy nymphs can be tied using Russian and Scandinavian squirrel which are more popular in Scandinavia than the hare’s ear version. A streaking caddis is a very useful fly as it can be fished dry, or wet with the wing cut-off to represent either a shrimp or a small bait fish.
Try fishing the Partridge and Orange dead drift in the surface film, where it will be attractive to Arctic Char and trout as well as grayling, when all other flies have failed to produce a fish.
Another good nymph is the double legs, which is a caddis representation, and a selection of Czech nymphs, including some really heavy ones, will be essential for anyone wanting to fish Czech style.
While it would have been great to have caught a monster trout, none the less, we had some very good fishing, very good company and lots of good stories. The weather was marvellous although a bit hot from a fishing point of view.
Getting there
Although I flew with SAS from Heathrow via Stockholm to Luleå, it is getting easier to get to northern Sweden with budget airlines. Although it is possible to get to Stockholm with Ryanair, it is still probably easiest to fly with SAS for the internal flights, to either Luleå or Kiruna. Anyone who wants to fish this stretch of river, or other rivers in the area, should contact my guide Ingemar Pettersson who can make all the arrangements on the ground and advise on the best airport to fly to. Ingemar, who speaks very good English, is based in Jokkmokk and is an excellent fisherman and outdoors man. A good man to have with you and to be with.
Ingemar Pettersson
Solgatan 47
962 31 Jokkmokk
Sweden
Terry Lawton is a passionate nymph fisherman who caught his biggest wild brown trout (in the UK) - 4lb 2oz - on a home-tied variant of a goldhead, Sawyer-style pheasant tail nymph.