Three flies for Trout and Grayling.

The Fish

Brook trout - Salmo Trutta Fario

Grayling - Thymalus Thymalus

Trout come in three varieties in Sweden.
First, head of the family is the seatrout, searun brown or archetype for the family. Salmo Trutta and the fishing for these are conducted either like that for Salmon in rivers or at the coast with onehanded rods. I won't cover these in this post.

Then there is the Salmo Trutta Lacustris or Brown Trout, the regular model so to speak.
Local morphs can be found and they often move between lakes and river systems.
A fish of 3-4 kilos is considered a trophy fish

The third one is Salmo Trutta Fario or Brook Trout. They are generally riverbound and tends to be the smallest morph.
A fish of about 40 cm is very nice.
They are not to be confused with what Americans call Brookies, those are Salvelinus Fontinalis, a relative of our own Arctic Char, Salvelinus Alpinus.

The Grayling is another salmonoid distinguished by it's grand dorsal fin.
They also have morphs all over the world but our tends to be silver with a red and purple dorsal.

While trout,and especially the lakerun variety, can become pescavore grayling and brook trout tend to eat insects their whole life.
They inhabit the same waters many times and can be caught on the same flies, hence the shared post.

The Gear

As i mostly fish small waters with fairly small fish i find it more fun and more usefull to use a 8' #4 rod with a floating line.
When the water is really high or if i'm fishing a lake i sometimes use a 9' #6 also with a floating line, in the case with the high and/or cold water i use a light skagit setup to deliver the flies deeper. None of these flies will be covered here though as most of this fishing is going on in the summer when the fish gladly rise to the surface to sip floating insects.
Thin leaders is a must here but i never really used anything thinner than 0.18mm.

The Flies

Choosing just three was incredibly hard as this is a couple of species that eat a variety of insects (and even small fish in the case of the trout) but i concluded this was my top pick.

Elk Hair Caddis

This one was an obvious.
Half of my box is composed of these buggers.
Tied to imitate any of the Caddis species i find that it works well generally from early season to late autumn,they seem to imitate a wide variety of insects.
This one is my own variety with a dubbed head or torso.
I always tie a different colour on the body and the head though sometimes the colours are reversed.
I fish them in streams free drift and in lakes i tend to give a bit of movement by raising my rodtip up high and wiggle it a bit and the fly looks like an insect struggling on the surface.

Materials used in this fly are:
Body -  Moose Ear, Dark gray
Wing - Deer hair, Rusty
Head - Moose Ear, Light Gray
Hook- Kamasan B420 Sedges #12

Purple Nymph

When you're not fishing a dry you better have something to get down a bit.
There is a great variety of nymphs and the imitations are as complex and diverse as the dry flies.
I find however that something that was NOT adapted to blend in to the rocks and debri of the underwater world is a lot easier to get the fishes attention with.
I tie these in a couple of different colours but purple is by far the best of this sort,especially for grayling.
I usually fish it dead drift upstream in rivers and creeks and jigging in lakes.

Materials used in this fly are:
Tail - Peacock neck feathers
Body -  Purple silk
Rib - Copper wire
Wing sack - Purple rabbit
Head - Tungsten bead
Hook- Kamasan B420 Sedges #12

Chernobyl Ant

This one is a bit modern and will probably raise an eyebrow on any Cane fisher or imitation purist.
It is made to look like an ant,grasshopper or beetle.
I started using it as a unsinkable fly for skating.
I cast cross stream or 45 degrees down, let the current pick up a big chunk of line to give this speed.
It imitates not the bug itself to me but the movement of a bug flying over the surface.
The strikes are usually violent and sudden, not the slow sip you get with an EHC.
It can be tied with endless combinations of coloured foam though i use cut up kneepad and find it to work perfectly.
The rubber legs should be short and respond to all the small changes in the current.
As i said, i mostly skate this fly and i never use it in a lake.
I once caught 11 trout and 8 grayling in one summer night on the very same fly.


Materials used in this fly are:
Body -  Black foam
Belly - Orange chenille
Legs - Barred Orange sili-legs
Hook- Kamasan B420 Sedges #12

That is all for this round!

Ice fishing premiere.

Allright so I do fish in other ways then flyfishing.
Ice fishing that is. In the winter. When all the streams and lakes are frozen solid.
Since this state of torture lasts for about 4-5 months of the year you at least gotta make some trips in to the winter forest to go ice fishing not to go crazy.

It's really nice.
Warm coffe, the stillness, skiing through the white landscape.
I'm not really there yet, lot's of ice but no snow wich led me to the new experience of going by bike (and a short hike) to get to the lake i was looking for.
It's not marked on any map as a troutbearing lake but i've heard a couple of stories.

And trout there was!
The lake is small, clear and very shallow, i suspect only about 2 metres at the deepest.
Probably fed through a spring as there was a small creek running out of the lakes southern end.

When i got there i saw no previous holes, no snowmobiles (well, the lack of snow..) or really no other sign that anyone had been there in a long time.
The lake was only accesible by foot through a walk over a rather steep ridge.
Perfect!

The third hole i drilled gave the fish.
A very nice little trout that first slammed the bait, missed, went for it again but as they say, third time's the charm and up he went for a quick snap and then back in the cold water.

Seeing the bottom on all places i drilled, acctually seeing the bottom before that due to insanely clear ice, seeing the fish take and not just feel the tug, the lack of people and everything about this lake have made it my new favourite winter fishing destination.
As it often is when you hook a fish in a new water.

Lonesome, quite lake.
Perfect.

First trout (or any fish) of this years ice fishing season.

I practice my ice fishing much like i do my fly fishing.
Usually a single hook, sometimes with a nymph, gluehook or as today, with a funky smelling old shrimp.
I also put most of the fish back, it's more about the catch then the eating.

I won't tell you where it is but i'll gladly,as always take you there.

The need for a new ladder

So, in my river there's this old mill.
While i do appriciate the historical values of it (and do NOT want to see it torn down) it does present a stop for the fish in their migration upstream.

There are potentially two types of trout present in this river, the brook trout Salmo Trutta Fario and a large lakerun brown or Salmo Trutta Lacustris.
The stream resident Fario morph operate mainly above the mill but the lakerun variety need to be able to pass upstream to further the reaches of their spawning grounds.
Lake Siljan and the Orsa Lake trout are of a particularly large breed and are both valuabe and considered threatened.

There is an existing ladder although it functions poorly.

Clogged with logs and branches.

Low water levels leaves leafes in the ladder.

Above the inlet.
The reeds are taking over.

The inlet.
Clogged with twigs and branches.

 I cleaned out the log,branches and twigs and as much leafes as i could.
This years low water is a problem as the ladder is clogged.
The principle here is that the fish should go through V shapes up the ladder and further up the river.
With low water however, that is not at all possible.
I can safely say that not a single trout have passed here.

My suggestion therefore is to tear out this old ladder and install a new, more naturelike ladder that will allow, the fish to pass.
If the reeds above the inlet were to be cut down and a new ladder with a higher flow were to be installed they'd have a hard time growing back, making it more of a onetime job.
A higher and more natural flow would also eliminate the problem with leafes and make logs less of a problem.

I've mailed the lokal fishery society and are awaiting answers from there.
They'll probably not have the resource for such an operation and i'm probably gonna have to go further up, to the local government of Dalecarlia.

Would't it be great to hook one of these large browns not in the lake trolling but on a swung fly up in the river?
Of course, it's about all the species and not all about fishing.

Here's a great new report from the University of Karlstad on planning and building nature-like fish ladders.

http://www.nrrv.se/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/CG%C3%96-2012.pdf
It's a PDF in Swedish.

When autumn comes.

The birches are letting go.

 The summer's gone and I thought i'd tell a bit more about my river.
"My". Well it's not mine personally but i do fish it and for that matter, have never met anyone else out on the water.
The closest i got was a few bobbers left in the stream that i picked up.
When you fish the same water over and over you develop a connection to it.
You know the places, know the rocks and form a bond to the inhabitants of the water.
A respect for the fish, a love for the bugs and the water itself seems to come alive.
Here's some pictures from the day and i'd love to take you out on the water if you're passing by.

I'm gonna walk you through three pools spaced out about 400 metres from each other
They are all low water at the moment.


First out is the Forest Bridge Pool.
Named thusly from the small rickety bridge connecting two small and partially overgrown trails.
Nice spot to get to the water though.
The water itself gets a dark green feel to it due to weeds growing on the rocks.
The pool usually holds some fish though not loads.
One to three trout or grayling.

Forest bridge Pool.

Descent trout.
They are spawning atm but this guy didn't get the memo
that they are off the fishermans list.
Quick pic and back into the stream.
Note the white and black lines on the anal fin.
Typical for this variety of trout, Salmo Trutta Fario.

 Second of is the main destination of the day.
Grayling pool. I'll let you figure it out.
Pearshaped pool that broadens at the end.
The downstream portion holds a lot of fish.
Always. My trip ended with six or seven just in this pool.

Grayling territory.

Why hi, got a moment to speak about our lord Neptune?
Seriously though, one of my own patterns was the fly of the day.

And then the third set of pools.
I simply call them "The Cauldrons"
Here the water have bared the rock, run over it for millenia and dug holes down into the granit itself.
Doesn't always hold fish (as was the case today) but when it does the fights are awesome.
In the spring flood these are not just rapids with wierd currents, they are raging.
The water is clear and the light green weeds at the bottom of these bowls make them look like witches cauldrons.

Can you feel the primal surge?

Not all creatures aquatic are fish.

Bye for this time!

Hey, it's summer!

It's been like that again.
I've been busy and havn't written in a long time.

Since last time i've fished a lot, explored new stretches and caught a LOT of fish.
More trout and grayling now that i know where to find them.
The water is extremely low right now and the fish are shy.

We've entered the time of the caddis and this is what i fish with almost exclusivly right now.
Elkhairs and some other types, often with a big dubbed hare torso that you brush up.
Very effective fly.

There's bigger trout in the river than people know.
They are a bit smaller then some other neighbouring waters but still good, the biggest i caught was a little over 40 cm.
Fairly small but insanely beautiful!

Mid sized Våmå river brown.
Took on  a skated Chernobyl Ant.

It's just another month left of the trout season.
Yup, that's all there is. From the midst of May untill the last of August.
2.5 months of troutfishing in the streams every year.
On the other hand many of the troutbearing lakes are open another month after that and then there's grayling fishing for as long as there's no ice (or until the last of december but it's defenatly covered over by then.)
And of course, when the autumn comes i'm hoping to get stuck in to some char,there's plenty of lakes around but they're to warm right now in the hight of summer.
Autumn also means pike fishing and i'm starting to look forward to that.

All i miss right now is to swing the twohander, it's been a while with just the lightest rods and while they are fun it's great to vary the fishing a bit.

New waters.

I realised it's been some time since my last update.
I've been busy with moving but with all that fuss and turmoil comes of course, new waters.

My main focus have been on river Våmån.
It's a small fairly shallow river that is wadable in most stretches.
It has a pepple and stone bottom with some weeds and sunken timber.
Perfect flyfishing water.
It also houses some of our favourite bugs such as different varieties of Trichoptera, Sulphurea, Beatis and last but not least both Ephemera Vulgata and Danica.
The fishes include, but are not limeted to; Grayling, Trout, European Whitefish as well as pike, perch and other spicies of whitefish such as the Common rudd and Dace.

Most of them eat bugs of the surface.

Pretty grayling of smaller proportions caught on a warm summer evening.
Dry fly.

Hello my pretty!
Ephemera Danica, one of the big ones when it comes to fly fishing.

Fairly big Common rudd caught on a dry.

I know there's good pike fishing in the lake by the village, it remains to be seen if it's as good on a fly.
And of course there's numerous small forest lakes with trout, grayling and char around that needs exploring as well as the upper stretches of Våmån that promises to hold more trout than down here in the village.

I think it's gonna be a good summer.
And i'm not entirely unpleased with living here now!

New materials.

 Today i donned the usual viking outfit (yes, there is one) and went down to the local yearly mediveal market to have a few beers with a mate, play some games and have a look around.
As usual i was on the lookout for flytying materials, there's always an abundance of feathers and furs to be found in those markets and way below fishing store prices.

I payed in total 200 swedish crowns or about 20 euro for all of this.
One big piece of dark red/purple fox that turns black at the tips.
One fairly large piece of blue/black racoon.
One very dark purple whole rabbit skin.
One lepard dyed whole rabbit skin.
A whole peacock sword.

The sword is neatly cut into bits to fit my tying box.
As you know it's a versitile material used for tags, nymph bodies, dryfly torsos and also goes in classic flies like the Sunrays Shadow among other things.

Rabbit is another material i really like.
It makes a great wing for streamers and has a way to almost vibrate in the current.
To strong of a current and it will collapse though.
It still makes a good swung fly and is excellent fished in still water.
The hair also makes an excellent dubbing for nymphs.

I like those moment when you buy those odd materials in an odd place and the salesman wonder what it's for and you reply with "fly tying".
That usually sparks some conversations.

Feathers and furs.

Rabbit zonker sculpin for seatrout or large browns.

Hairwinged salmon fly quickly named "Nightmare".
Peacock tag, silver body with thick silver rib,
black rooster, fox and racoon wing and guinnea fowl hackle.

I like adding a bit of  a silver body to my salmon flies, i have a theory that states that a swung fly should in some circumstances have a bit of material that gives a bit of reflection to catch the attention of the fish.
Not that i fish for salmon and seatrout a lot but they are fun flies to tie.

First trout of the year.

Me, the lass and a friend went fishing today, last outing before we leave school and went to a place we went fishing last year a couple of times.
The aim was for grayling but instead i landed this beauty.
Just above a kilo and with those intense colours only trout really have.
Wild trout on top of that, none of that sausage look and broken fins stocked fish get.

I was fishing a double rig with a caddis fly as strike indicator and my alltime favourite nymph Orange Attacker as a dropper.
He took the nymph and it once again proved its worth.

As i fiddled with the net (not the one on the picture,that one was kindly supplied by my girlfriend who also did the netting) the fish went down a fall and into some whitewater rapids and i thought i lost it.
Good thing i didn't!
The fish posed for some pictures and then swam back home.

Happy angler!

Beutifull fish!

Of you go!

Spring is comming

It's been warm the last week and almost all the snow is gone.
Some rain and heavy wind should probably make short work with the ice.
I went to a small river some days ago and it was a proper spring flood, brown raging water!
It'll settle down soon and hopefully the water will rise.

In the meantime i've gotten some new materials for my tying.
Grizzly saddle and epoxy eyes from Taimen.

Here's some new stuff!

Pike fly with trailing feathers and rubber legs.

Spent Danica.
This is a work in progress using deerhair for boyancy and for wings.

For this project i shape the hooks to really look like a dying drake.

Fierce orange EHC with rubber legs.
One of my best grayling flies is the Orange Attacker (pic in the post) and i thought "what the hell, might as well try one as a dry.
You can clearly see the grayling taking an interest!

Only the river knows

The guys from Frontside Fly are at it again,this time with a 80 minute film.

"Only the river knows" promises to be a real treat judging by the trailer.
Nicely filmed in nice settings and with a story, not common in fly fishing movies.

They have been involved in some of the best productions these last years including the Vindel River series.

Here's the trailer: