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IMPORTANT
SITE UPDATE:
Visit the relaunched
Fish & Fly at fishandfly.com
Paradise Was Close - continued
< Back to part one
There is a certain "out of this world" experience when you wade
and fish a river at night, the water swirls and tugs, drawing you, pushing
you. There is a constant soundbarrier that dampens and block out other
sounds. Still you hear the rises, you see the heavy bulges and the dorsal
fins of big grayling as they take adult sedges and pupas in the surface.
In the beginning of August there is still enough light for "easy"
night fishing and even if you don´t have the good midnight light
of the weeks around midsummer there is still plenty of light. So we fished.
We
were now well past midnight and after having released my best fish that
night, a heavy 48cm grayling that took the elkhair caddis with the smallest
of rises, I decided to walk upstream to see how the others were doing.
Most of them were fishing from the other bank but I knew Johan was upstream
from me on this side. It was not all easy to move upstream in the dark
but it was a treat just to be there, listening to the river and see the
light pink strip of dawn towards the east. Suddenly I heard an excited
shout from Johan. I looked upstream and saw him just 15m from me, his
rod in a hard curve silhouetted against the lighter surface of the river.
"This one is big," Johan said as he saw me. I crawled out of
the water up on a larger rock, to be out of the way and sat down to watch
the spectacle. In the beginning I just saw the tall, lean shape of Johan
with the rod held high above him, but after a while the fished tired and
started to show itself in the surface. By now a couple of the others had
been alerted by the struggle and I could see two of them standing on the
bridge above. It took him a while to get the fish in and for a while it
seemed doubtful which of them was in control, but Johan came out on top.
I saw him fumble a bit in the dark with rod, fish and forceps. Then he
grunted, lifted the fish slightly out of the water for me to see it and
said : "Around 52cm". I could not see much of his face but I
did see his grin as he released the fish. "Let´s round up the
others and go get some sleep." And that we did.
The
next morning I tried, with no success, to get the others out of bed when
I woke up at 6.30 am. I made breakfast and went alone down to the river.
Before getting the gear together I walked up on the bridge and stood there
peering into the crystal clear water. I thought I saw something move,
so I got out the polaroids and looked again .... there was something.
And suddenly I saw them! Three, no four, no five! And then another! Big
dark shadows in the slow deep water below the bridge, moving leisurely
left and right , picking up drifting insects. Big grayling. I got frantic,
ran to the car, cursed the laces of the wading shoes, cursed the leader,
hands shaking when setting up a rig. Upstream fishing, how deep? Two meters?
I put a big, heavy stonefly as an anchor, size 8 longshank and loads of
lead, then a doublelegs and an Oliver Edwards rhyacophilia pupa to finish
it off, some 60cm up. Within five minutes I was in the water and swinging
the package upstream, close to the pillars of the bridge.
It took me a quarter of an hour to get the first take, and even though
I lost it almost immediately I felt it was a good sized fish.
At nine I had caught four grayling and lost twice that. I'd missed loads
of takes and I just sat down and smiled. None of the fish had been under
47cm and the big one touched 54. This was unbelievable, I had to get the
others down here, they had to be part of this! So I got up to the lodge
and got them up, they ran past the breakfast, slightly sceptical after
my story but not willing to chance it. Half an hour later there were five
of us on the bridge and Lars was in the water being directed where to
cast. I had the camera out and just waited and it didn´t take long
before he caught and then they all took turns. I took pictures, satisfied
with my good luck that morning, I fished little during the day, I had
one more fish but I already had got my fill. I could wait for the night
and the rising fish.
Beside the grayling we caught brown trout up to 1.8kg but there are much
bigger browns there, the biggest one weighed 5.1kg!
Later
that evening Lars-Åke and Jennifer came down and had some real coffee,
boiled in an old blackened kettle over an open fire. They told us that
the big grayling were known as "harvest grayling" and usually
backed down from the Lake Idsjön into the river in August to feed
on the massive sedge hatches. They complimented us on the catches and
we talked of all and nothing until the rises came too frequent for us
to stay out of the water. Then we fished. We stayed for another day in
Gimdalen before returning home to Göteborg.
The 800+ km was like nothing. Paradise was close.
Yes, off course we have been back, but that is another story.
< Back to part one
Factfile Idjöströmen
When to go:
From around mid-summer or the week/s before that, all depending on the snowmelt in the mountains. Then the fishing goes on with a slight down period in mid-August to peak again with small flies and big fish in September. The autumn in Jämtland is amazing, the colours just take your breath away, and the fish, as I said, are big! The weather is a big factor though so contact Lars-Åke and Jennifer to make sure.
How to get there:
Idsjöströmmen and the village of Gimdalen is located 1.5 hours by car south-east of Östersund the principal town of Jämtland. Closest town is Bräcke, half an hour by car. You can go by train to Bräcke and the closest airport is in Östersund. It is 400km to Stockholm and 800km to Göteborg.
Where to stay:
There is all sorts of accomodation available but you cannot beat the friendliness of Björn and Cathy Johansson at "The Grayling Tourist Center". Björn is also a very good fisherman who can give you good hints on other fishing in the area.
What to do:
Well, fish of course! There is also a lot of other activities in the area and Lars-Åke, Jennifer, Cathy and Björn can give advice. The natural beauty of Jämtland is exceptional and limestone areas makes the botanic life something extra for the interested.
What it costs:
Idsjöströmmen offers daytickets for a limited number of fishermen per day, With the current exchange rate it costs approximately £20 a day. You can also contact Lars-Åke and Jennifer for guiding and casting lessons. Jennifer started as a fly fishing guide and fly casting instructor more than 15 years ago and has been a Montana and Yellowstone Park fishing guide. Lars-Åke has been teaching flycasting and fishing for more than 30 years so you will be in good hands. Contact them for prices on guiding/instruction.
Contacts:
Lars-Åke and Jennifer Olsson at River Idsjöströmmen.
http://www.scandiwestflyfishing.com
October - May in the US: P.O. Box 132 Bozeman, MT, 59771
Phone: (406) 587-5140 · Fax: (406) 585-9625
Email: olsson@scandiwestflyfishing.com
June - September in Sweden: Gimdalen 1426, 840 60 Bräcke, Sweden
Phone: 46-(0)693-13056 · Fax: 46-(0)693-13026
Email: olsson@scandiwestflyfishing.com
Cathy and Björn Johansson at The Grayling Tourist Center.
http://www.algonet.se/~butch/
Kathleen Johansson Backen, Gimdalen 1442, 84060 Bräcke, Sweden
Phone: 46-(0)693-13000 Fax: 46-(0)693-13008
E-mail: butch@algonet.se
Author profile
Ulf Borjesson works as a picture editor for Göteborgs Posten, Sweden's second largest morning paper. He lives in Gothenburg from where it takes him 30 minutes by bike to get to some really good seatrout fishing in the salt and he can fish for rainbows, tench and perch just 10m from his front door. He started fly fishing seriously about 12 years ago. He has fished in England, Ireland, Norway, Finland, Denmark and New Zealand. He is fond of single malt whisky and good bitter: a river with a good pub close by is a dream. So a crystal clear river, with a good pub nearby, and a good book in the fishing bag, that is really pleasing for him.