Relieved

As I was out fishing river Mörrum this week I finally managed to land a fish! Kelts, but still the first once for me! The road to hook and land has been long. Hope has come and past, fishing trips has been measured in lost flies, good casts and recreation. I have probably spent as much time tying new and exiting flies as I have been out using them. Now that the first fish is landed I think about all this time I have spent not catching fish! Has it been a waste of time? Some times I have been fairly confident that my days fishing for salmon was getting close to expiration date, I honestly don´t know why I kept on trying. And it did cross my mind that this season might be the last... then maybe I would go back to fishing for trout instead.

I am struggling to put words on what these fish mean to me, but the first fish was not a pleasure! I didn't enjoy it at all actually, there has been so much time invested into landing that first fish, I just felt a lot of pressure instead. When that first one was landed and released I sat down and felt the calm spring breeze, I saw a pair of geese cruising at the far bank and it felt like all the birds in the forest were singing and celebrating, celebrating the arrival of spring. Spring really came fast this year, even though it was a hard winter. Wood anemone is filling the space between the trees and birch leafs is starting to make the forest green once again. I took my rod, put a new hook on my tippet and again put my fly into the stream. I was fishing my way downstream and after a while I started to feel rather content, I was enjoying fishing again! About an hour after the first fish I felt the weight of another fish on my fly. This fish was fighting harder and so was I! I managed to land it myself and it took the same fly as the first one. Both fish where about 90 cm and I hope to meet them again some time in the future!

Recovering

When I woke up Sunday morning I was really tired, a friend of mine is getting married and this Saturday there was a small bachelor party... anyway I got to the river as the sun was shining and almost no wind. I think that because I was a bit tired I was probably more relaxed while casting and it felt really good! We where mostly fishing a place called fajan, a good place when fish is coming up at spring. This is also where the 9,5 kg fish where caught earlier. I was fishing with a sink 1/2 with fairly big flies, still I got stuck in the bottom several times. Maybe its time to use a line that is fishing a little less deep, I lost no more than one fly but most of my hooks got badly beaten... need some more! Me and my fishing buddy where fishing Ätran last Sunday and now it´s obvious spring is coming fast, soon nature is green again and it will bee nice to rest in the growing grass looking up in the trees.
A good fish was caught later in the afternoon on Sunday, a 12 kg and 114 cm, biggest so far this season!
Hopefully this week will be a good one! I will fish (just a few hours) in Mörrumsån this week and it seems as fishing has been good so far this season.

weekend fishing

This week has not contained as much fishing as I would like... but a trip to Ätran is planned on Sunday. Earlier this week a spring salmon was caught on a fly and that was the third fish landed this season (first one for fly fishing), maybe a few more will be caught this weekend. Temperature is rising slowly and water level keeps dropping. Sunshine is expected and it will bee a nice day to lay a cast into salmon water!

This season has started in a good way on the west coast and in river Lagan (40 km south of river Ätran) a sea trout at 8,45 kg and 87 cm was caught this week! This is a fairly big fish to bee caught at the west coast! Promising!

Salmon caught in river Ätran

First salmon caught by flyfishing was caught earlier tody in Ätran!
Go to http://fiskebloggen.se/2010/04/20/arets-forsta-flugfangade-lax-i-atran/ for pics
congratulations for this magnificent fish!

First time again!

Sunday was some what of a second premier since my fishing friend had spent the past weeks on vacation. It was also the first time he lay a cast into river Ätran and we fished most of the beat to get a feeling for where and how to fish it in the future. We will probably spend most of the Saturday mornings this season fishing the beat in Falkenberg.

The seasons second spring fish was caught during the time we where fishing unfortunately not by us... we had been told two spring fish had been caught earlier but one of them turned out to bee a kelt! Hard to see the difference sometimes even though that fish was caught by an experienced angler. The salmon caught yesterday however had sea lice on it and was a nice fish at 5,8 kg.

Water level is now dropping about 10 cm / day and water temperature was yesterday at 7,3° C.
It was fairly windy until noon but for the afternoon wind was OK, the sun scattered the clouds and was shining from a clear blue sky. It turned out to be a nice day for salmon fishing!
The super fast sinking tippet is now packed in my vest and casting is starting to work better, need some more time practising still.

Fishy business

As I was closing in on the spot I planned to start fishing on Saturday I came across a odd sight! A man waking downstream with a antenna. The project he was involved in was looking at how salmon migrate in river Ätran.
They had caught 45 salmon last year and put a transmitter on them, since then they had been following those salmon. There were some fixed checkpoints put up in different places along the river but they where also “strolling” the river bank with a antenna. With the the fixed points they could see how far up the system fish where moving and with the hand held antenna they could pinpoint the fish. Now in early April they were looking at fish mowing out to sea again, and what surprised me is that he found the fish was still in the river! In Ätran it seems as most of the spring flood has already passed with last weekends water level at over 110m³, now has dropped to 60m³ – I thought the fish were following the flood into the sea – but instead it seems last years spawning fish is still somewhere in the river system. Maybe the river temperature has something to do with it? Last weekend river was in about +1° C and this Saturday river temperature had risen to +5° C ! maybe fish is waiting for a optimal temperature to return into sea?
The project is a part of the river management, next year the hydro power plant closest to sea is supposed to bee remodelled – this will bee done by opening the original canal and let the river and migrating fish take that way instead of going trough the dangerous turbines! But as it is with those project it is not yet certain whether it will bee delayed or if it will go as planned.

While looking for salmon moving out to sea he found a majority standing right downstream the hydro power plant – it might bee a sign of fish going through the turbines and not in the intended passes.
Unfortunately I got the chance to see the consequences of fish passing through the turbines later in the day, a fellow fisherman caught a kelt with massive damages! Half the upper jaw was torn of from passing the turbines – the fish was put back but I think this one will have a hard time surviving at sea.
In river Emån there is a project with one of the power company's, to build a safer passage for the downstream migrating fish – this project was put in place last year and has been working fairly good! This year some improvements is supposed to be done and hopefully it will work – if it does work, and fish is passing beside – instead of through the turbines I hope this solution will be used in all the places where the hydro power plant is viewed as a necessity!

A few interesting fact though;
Although there is some man maid obstacles – and because of that man maid passes for salmon – one salmon had been spotted more than 60 km upstream !
Another salmon had been found in a small stream less than a meter wide at spawning time! - I thought sea trout was using the small streams and salmon in the bigger once...

River Ätran Saturday

I thought I should try to cast my fly out in a different time than I usually start fishing.
I came to Ätran just after lunch and thought the warm day might heat up the water a bit, and hopefully fish would bee a bit more active! This was my fourth time fishing the new rod and i think this will bee a very nice rod for me.
Fellow fishermen caught some kelt but not even the slightest pull in my fly.
Conditions is getting better and better with dropping water level and rising temperature soon there will bee more fish rising than there is fish moving out to sea.
The season up till yesterday has produced two spring fish - and more is coming!

Emån

Emån is not a very large river and in today's water level it was huge in many places, in most places flooded. But to lay a cast at Nacken is a pleasure in any conditions! A new experience is wading waist deep and having trees right beside, feels a bit strange since I had been fishing here in a lot less water. Also I had to think some about all the small bushes growing alongside the river bank, bushes that eat flies it seems. But on the other hand the fish probably move in closer to land to find slack water... difficult but I am at least sure I got close to the those small bushes. I know salmon has been caught recently but I did not see any sign of fish, small signs of spring on the other hand was sowing! Birds singing, buds on the trees and on the ground spring is close and more rising fish is on the way.
It felt good being back here in Emån, the whole river feels fantastic and I hope I can come back soon again.

Emån Tomorrow!

A fishing license for Emsfors beat in Emån (http://www.emsforssfk.se/) is booked for tomorrow but I fear for even more water – at the moment 130m³ and rising – lots and lots of water! Bad conditions seems to follow my planned trips...
I will probably bee fishing the lower parts of the beat, probably in a pool called Nacken.
I tried this pool last year and even then in fairly bad conditions, when I was there the conditions was bad on the other side of the scale... I was fishing in September at 5m³ and the water temperature was probably better suited for swimming. Even though water level and temperature was as it was, I had my best chance for fish right in this pool. My fly caught something I thought was a rock or a log and I started to pull – then it started to pull back and made a heavy splash in the surface before my tippet broke... after that I was a bit more careful when my fly stopped in the middle of the stream.
Nacken is a very nice place to lay a cast in, it is a slow pool that ends in rapid water. A pool that running fish tend to rest in for a while (at least what I´v been told). If it is a good place to fish in spring I don´t know, but salmon moving upstream has already been caught in Emån.

Streamside

I had planned to fish Ätran on Friday and Monday this weekend, my girlfriend thought of a very good idea and booked a room for the both of us in Grand Hotell Falkenberg with a view over tullbron – the last rapids before Ätran enter the sea.
So when I woke up, the first thing I saw looking out the window was Ätran! A lot of water but just a cast away. A cup of coffee and a sandwich then right out in the stream. Conditions was probably not the best, lots of water and and low temperature.
Since there is a lot of water I fish with a super fast sinking tippet, to get my fly a bit further down, but this tippet is not quite working with my casting. The rod is behaving a bit nervous and is not as agile as I think it should bee in normal conditions.
As soon as water level is getting lower I hope my casting will work properly again.
I did not catch anything nor did I feel a single fish, but reports say that the first spring fish has been caught toady April 5´th, a salmon of 4,5 kg and 75 cm!

Finaly ! The first cast is made!

First day of fishing has come and past, and it was fantastic!
The new rod need some more practice but it feels as a rod suited for me. The line for today was a sink 1 / 2 but the water was realy fast so I used a supre fast sinking tip... this made the casting a bit challenging especially as I was a litle rusty. Started to feel better after a few hours.
Water temp was low, probably something lik 1 C.

Unfortnatly I did not land any fish but three times a few feet of line went out... fish was in place as well as I was. I will be back on Monday and try again.
Maby some trout fishing this weekend...

Nothing has changed – everything is new!

Preparations for the season has this year been more intense than it has been any prior seasons for as long as I can remember. For this season more or less everything is new... new rod, new lines, new flies and so on. The rod has been taken out of its case several times the past weeks – shiny, new and admired. The shooting heads where prepared last week, cut to length and mounted. Flies has been tied for more or less the hole winter, big, bulky and hopefully with lots of movement especially for the spring fishing, a new favourite material is “burnt Spey hackle” that give a nice movement, combined with a fairly large wing I have quite some hope for this kind of fly.
Yesterday I did my final preparations and bought some flourcarbon instead of the nylon tippets I have previously used, will bee interesting to test those.

Where I will bee fishing tomorrow is Ätran in Falkenberg, last year I was fishing in 20 – 40 m² - during the entire season - and at those levels it would bee a nice and comfortable start of the season – today however, Ätran is flooding at 110 m²... a whole new river.