Sometimes the best things in life are free...

Recently, I have not posted that many new stories on my blog. However, this does not mean that I did not have anything to write about. Several fishing trips after I was in Mørrum have kept me busy writing for Go-Fishing's blog. Among this, a story about mullet with Joe:

Here they are (the text is in Danish though)

Also I have payed a visit to the Skjern Å in Jutland, western Denmark, with Henrik to fish for salmon. Truthfully, nothing much happened there.

Last weekend, I guess, I was blessed by the goddess of fortune. During a meal at a restaurant on Fyn with my family, where one of the employees also sells self-made fur vests and hats, I bumped into the owner of the products. When she heard that I am flytieing nerd she was very happy to give me her dyed fox tails. And today, she came into the shop and brought three whole bags of more tails, finn racoon fur, and Tibeth lamb.

Tusind tak for det, Lotte!

Wonder how many flies I can tie from that?

The Unknown River

Check out the article about king salmon in Argentina that I translated for Stephan Dombaj for the June edition of the Danish fishing magazine Fisk og Fri.

Den ukendte flod: http://www.fiskogfri.dk/Forside/Dette-nummer

Cover by Stephan Dombaj

Why do we do this?

That's a good question that many of my friends who do not fish themselves, have asked me many times. And sometimes it may well be a little difficult to give a convincing answer. Why is it that we fish for salmon, the "fish of a 1000 casts"? A fish that we do not really know why it takes a fly during the migration to its spawning grounds and for which you may have to wait for several years. I can understand that it may seem a little silly to get up at half past five to fish for a fish that is not feeding and in a place where you may need to wait for an hour before it is your turn to fish the pool. I think one reason is that most who have tried this kind of fishing, are infected with the highly contagious and incurable "Salmo salar syndrome". Once infected, the only, however, very short-term relief, you can get, is to go out and fish for salmon!
That was why I headed for Mörrum last weekend to fish with my good friend Erik Hellquist, who has been fortunate to grow up in Mörrum and has also studied at the Sportfiskeakademin. It was the third time I came there and never had the conditions been so good: Good water temperature, and above all lots of fish caught the last while. Apparently, there were others who had heard about the excellent fishing, too. I arrived Thursday afternoon and after beating the world record for quick dressing and preparing your gear, we were out by the river to discover that there were long queues at all the good pools. So it was not so much fishing that night.
The next morning, or actually it was probably more late night, Erik and I stood up to be first at pool 1, but no, there were already five men waiting for their turn. Likewise, it looked at pool 4, so after half an hour we could finally start fishing seriously. But isn't it also sometimes part of the charm to just sit and enjoy and chat with your fellow fishermen? After all, a day is quite long when you get up so early. The first day went by too quickly, though, without anything happening at the end of neither Erik's nor my line. We did get some casting practice, though. On the whole it seemed as if the fisheries worsened a bit after we had come. Isn't that typical? The second and last day we fished on a private stretch upstream of Vittskövle, and there nothing much happened. In fact, we did not see a single fish all day and it can be a little uninspiring to stand and fish, where you do not really believe that there might be something that wants to take your fly. So the result was that none of us caught any fish.
Still, we had a really nice weekend, and simply standing outside by the river, enjoying nature and seeing a perfect cast turn into a perfect swing across the river, is just wonderful. Then there is also the companionship that is really important to me. Last but not least, the sense of knowing, or perhaps more accurately, not knowing when the next fish will strike is truly addictive. One thing is certain: If you continue long enough, one day you will hook the fish of your life. Many people who do not fish, often forget that it is not just about catching a fish. It is more about feeling the anticipation and expectation while waiting for fish to fall for your fly and the joy when it finally happens. If there was a catch guarantee there would be nothing to look forward to and it would soon become boring - and fishing is all but boring ;-).

Relaxing a little

Pool 4, no fish on this cast either

Talking about D-loops

Rest In Pieces SAGE FLi

The first fly rod is always something special, you get a really close maybe even sentimental relation it no matter how expensive it was. The memory of your first fish caught on a fly rod is something you will always bear in mind.

I had decided to take today off to fish a little and early this morning, or call it late this night if you prefer that, I got up at 0300h to head to Fyn's southern coastline to fish for seatrout and garfish on poppers. Due to the warm temperatures during this time of the year, we had 27°C yesterday, the only time to catch a seatrout is around dawn and around dusk. Garfish are not so tricky, they will take at any time of the day.

The spot I picked was around Assens and the stretch looked really promising with the important variety of the bottom structure, some stony areas, some with seaweeds and some sandy - over all perfect for seatrout. However, I did not see any of those but I had some strikes by garfish. Unluckily, they are a little difficult to hook.

And then suddenly I heard this "crack" sound. At first I could not believe my eyes but I had definitely broken my rod tip. Somehow I must have managed to break it in a cast. How? I have no idea. It still can't believe it. So frustrating! Getting up at 3 not catching anything and after two hours you break your rod and have to go home. That sucks! I just hope that the warranty will somehow cover it.

R.I.P.

 

Go Fishing

Today was the first day of my internship at Go Fishing in Odense, Denmark. For those of you who don't know the store, let me just tell you this: This is where you find THE seatrout experts in Denmark and the flyfishing and flytying material department is really well-sorted. At first I was maybe a little nervous (but only a little) but that feeling disappeared straight away when I met Henrik, Claus, Jens, Jesper, Joe and Niklas. They welcomed me warmly and I had a truly pleasant first day at the store, so that I am really looking forward to the next four weeks. Okay, and to the splendid seatrout fishing along Fyn's coastline ;-).

The store in Odense

Hmm, what (not) to buy?

 

There is always something to complain about

Isn't that the sad truth? No matter how satisfied you ought to be with a day of fishing there will always be something that you can grumble about. Just as it is with anything else, I guess.


The last week of school is now over and while I am writing this I am already sitting in Germany. After the last test were completed there was a little time left to fish before going back home and starting our internships. Erik and I thought a nice way of finishing this school year was to go to our small and special lake where we had fished from the belly boat a couple of weeks ago. Only this time we brought a little more equipment as we wanted to camp out at the lake from monday to tuesday. We really fished a lot and paddled several kilometers. I didn't know that I was so out of shape until I had cramps in both my thighs at the same time. Not funny at all when sitting in a belly boat, I can tell you that. However, despite cramps and sun burns and waaay too nice weather Erik and I caught 44 pikes, amongst them my new pb on 75cm end Erik new pb on the fly on 85cm. Apparently, we were extremely lucky with the timing as the fish had just spawned. We saw a lot of eggs in the reeds. A bonus was how aggresive those pikes took the fly, incredible how big a small fish can seem when it strikes. Eventhough the average size during in that lake seems to be rather small, the fights were still amazing.

Overall, we really enjoyed the last days in Forshaga before we go our seperate ways until the beginning of october. Although we got sooo sunburned, the weather was too nice, we only caught 12 pikes the second day ;-). I guess a fisherman can never be satisfied.

"Almost there, Erik"

Two savages

Angel in white

Pike on 85cm a.k.a. "torpedo"

Emilie's first Pike on the Fly

Yesterday Emilie and I spent the whole out fishing on Klarälven. There is really not so much to write about. We must have hit the period of spawning because we saw some surface activity close to the shore but no pike seemed to have an appetite for a nice looking fly. Well, almost that is: Emilie had borrowed Jon's VISION Big Daddy rod and sure enough the rod lost its virginity to a nice pike on 63cm. After a quick fight I was able to land Emilie's first pike on the fly, but definitely not the last! Congratulations!

First pike for Emilie!

 

Guiding at Örnäs

The last couple of weeks have not been very "fishy". A lot of school work has kept us busy and our lines dry. For instance, we had several exams to get our boat license. I am relieved that all of this is over so that we now can enjoy the last days in Forshaga before we head home on friday. Next monday it will be getting serious: Our internships start!

Two days ago, our class had the joy to guide a group of foreign students from Karlstad University. We had planned everything on our own, from the agenda, to food and equipment. And indeed, we had a really nice day with our guests who caught many more fish than expected. Even the horrific weather could not spoil the excellent mood everybody was in.

I had the pleasure to guide two awesome guys, Nick  from Toronto and Ulysse from Paris. And as a bonus Ulysse managed to hook and land the biggest rainbow I have seen in the Örnäs lakes. Thanks for the awesome time, Nick and Ulysse!

Biggest of the day: around 55cm

 

A Package Fulll of Kick Ass - VISION Skagit

Is Santa Claus early this year? At least that was what it felt like when I finally received the package which I had ordered from Fly Dressing/VISION. Inside: The brand new VISION Ace Skagit line for my VISION siks, two extra T-Tips and a s***load of the new Ace leaders in all available lenghts. This was a reward from the school for the article I had written for the German magazine FliegenFischen in february. Why Skagit, you might wonder. During last years "VISION week" I had the opportunity to test Skagit lines for the first time and I just wanted one of these shooting heads. At the fishing fair in Stockholm three weeks ago I then tested the new lines, a 31gr shooting head, in combination with my Siks #7 13'4" and it felt awesome. The good thing about the Skagit style of casting, which comes from the Pacific Northwest from a river named Skagit, is that you can fish extremely deep and with huge and heavy flies in areas with barely any casting space.

I am really looking forward to testing this incredible combo on the hunt for salmon and trout soon.

 

If you want to have more precise info about Skagit then you should watch this video with Matthias Drugge and Tobbe Hedin:

What the hell is Skagit? 

VISION Flyfishing

Pike from the Belly Boat

The spell seems to be broken after I caught my first fish of the year last week, a seatrout on the west coast, although the day didn't start promising to say the least.

Yesterday, Joakim, Erik and I headed out to one of the millions of small lakes in Sweden to hunt pike from the belly boat. Joakim and Erik borrowed their belly boats from school which might explain why we had to repair one of Eriks leaking chambers before we even got to the water. In addition, to make things worse access to the lake wasn't as easy as we had imagined, so we had to plough our way through 100m of marsh. Terrific, we thought, we won't be able to fish at all before it gets dark. 

Finally on the water it didn't take long before both Jocke and Erik caught their first pike. Soon after that, still on the way to our base the big backpack with food on my belly, I hooked a really nice pike. I paddled to the shore and landed the fish, a fat lady around 70cm and  2,5-3kg - my personal best on the fly! This was what I had been working so hard for the last couple of months.

The day continued like that. I caught three more but a little smaller pikes and lost four. All of my fish were lured by a, self-tied of course, chartreuse fly with a little pink and gold flash. I call the pattern MLI. Joakim caught six, among that a really fine pike around 90cm and 4kg, while Erik landed nine pikes. It was amazing to feel the strength of these pike. Even the smaller ones literally hammered our baits. Maybe this was why neither Joakim nor Erik complained about their slowly leaking belly boats. Every time they got out of the belly boat the chambers had to be refilled. It would probably not have been as much fun if one of them had taken a swim in the not so warm lake.

We until the sun disappeared and instantly the fishing died completely. Too cold, too dark for the pike. But one thing is a 100% certain: This definitely wasn't the last time we used the belly boats.

There is a lot to carry

 

 

Personal best on fly: 70cm

Well deserved, belly boating is hard work

The second lady

And another one takes the fly

Seatrout madness

Finally! That is probably the word which suits my feeling the best and if I was to sum up the trip our class made to the Swedish west coast from thursday to yesterday.

At 0800h we headed off to Grebbestad near the Norwegian border with our fly boxes loaded with shrimp and fish imitations that the trout were supposed to munch on. Arriving at the hostel, we thought that it was almost too good to be true. Awesome fishing weather, no wind (at the west coast!), neither too sunny nor too cloudy. And when we got to the water we couldn't believe our eyes: Surfacing fish everywhere! At times it was hard deciding which fish we were supposed to cast to because there were so many. Still, it is almost a miracle that I didn't get any fish the first day despite the fact that we fished until 2100h and that everybody else seemed to be catching trout. At the end of that day I was completely devastated. What was I doing wrong? You probably know the feeling of getting to a point where you really start doubting your fishing skills.

The second day started with me running to the spot where the others had had some incredible fishing the previous day. There was no way I was going to leave without getting my hands on one of those beautiful and strong seatrout, by the way also the first fish for me this year. After a couple of ours I finally found a fly that seemed to attract the interest of the still surfacing fish. A tiny orange/brown finally hooked a fine 35cm trout. After having released the fish it felt as if an enormous weight was lifted off my shoulders. Maybe I wasn't cursed afterall? Amazing and seen from a non-fisherman's perspective possibly a little ridiculous what kind of emotions a small scale carrier can cause.

The result of the trip was quite unbelievable. Cornelis, our teacher, claimed that he had never experienced such extremely good fishing in those past 12 years he has fished that area. I can't say how many trouts were caught but it was a lot. 19 out of 21 classmates caught a least one trout and for seven it was the first fish ever on the fly rod and the size of the trout was also very respectable. Several were over 50cm and one was around 70cm and 4kg, a trophy fish in everybody's point of view. Even die-hard jerkbait fishermen were thrilled by fighting seatrouts on a fly rod.

Hard to believe that this is the west coast

Anton fighting a seatrout

Emilie's first fish on the fly and not a bad one either - the expressions speaks for itself

I don't remember a fish that made me any happier

Growing Frustration

Yesterday my buddy Joakim Bornedal and me were out on Klarälven to fish pike. Our mission: Catch pike that Johnny Norrgård from Karlstad University could then tag with a radio transmitter for his science project. Unfortunately, in the beginning of last week 20.000 salmon smolts were released into the river, so finding a hungry pike was going to be hard and the water temperature on 1,9°C did not help our cause. Long story short: After 4 hours of fishing without even the slightest contact, the coating of my brand new running-line starting to peel off and an increasing wind we decided to head home and call it quits.

In the evening the guys and me decided to give it a shot at Kvarntorpsån, just to finally get at least a small fish. The sky looked nice and there was only little wind so everybody looked forward to making a few casts. But sure enough, the second we climbed out of the car a snow storm started. My first thought was: "Who talked me into this s***?" However, the storm did only last for a few minutes and we were able to fish. This Swedish spring weather is really weird, changing so rapidly. 

Both Jocke and Bambi succeeded in catching a small but fine pike, so I am still the only one who has not caught anything this year. Despite the fact, that I have by far invested the most time. But sometimes that's just the way it is and you just have to suck it up and keep on fishing. 

Joakim is on the hunt for pike

Did I say spring?

 

Spring is here...

My life as a flyfisherman has not been easy during my first winter here in Sweden. With nearly 50 cm of ice on the lakes and even most of the streams and rivers frozen getting my fly to the fish was, well, pretty much impossible. However, now that the last ice is finally withdrawing the anticipation is growing constanly. My buddies and me have already had some days of fishing but the water temperature, which still is barely above 0°C, has made getting the fly down deep  enough hard. BUT: Help is on its way! The new Skagit lines by Vision that I ordered for my new Vision Siks will solve this problem for me. And with the pike's spawning time not far away some, hopefully, great fishing awaits. So with the fly boxes filled with all kinds of new flies the season can finally begin.

Here some impressions from the last couple of months.

Erik doing some hardcore flyfishing (predatorfrenzy.blogspot.se)

Fredrik on Klarälven

Me and my new Siks

Trout candy

Ready for the pike attack