Laisälven -99

I had some days at the fantastic river Laisälven in the month of August. It was the best grayling fishing I had ever experienced. The fish was almost standing in line to get my fly. The best fishing was in the evening when the sun dropped behind the northern pine and the dark August night swept in over the hills.

Our catch that night was quite good and we could give my friend's grandpa and his brother some fish. The only disappointment was that the trout was totally absent. The only fish that find my E:12 irresistible was the grayling. The biggest fish that night was a grayling that I estimated to be almost one kilo. In the picture I am preparing the fish for the two old brothers that was kind enough to lend us their boat.

Our next adventure was to go to Björkliden a bit upstream from Mikaels grandpas stretches of the river. His grandpa and his grandpa's brother have been fishing on this stretch of the river since they were small boys. These charming old men are still active and Mikaels grandpa still fish for grayling and trout on the river, when the weather is right. In the picture you can see that the river is bit low. This summer was the opposite to the summer of -98 when the water was high and we caught more trout than grayling.

It was Mikaels grandpa who told us about the big trout's and graylings that had been caught in Björkliden. The next day we went to Björkliden were I caught a grayling that was weighing about 0,7 kilo within the first half our. I put back some smaller graylings. We met a party of fly fishers from the southern town of Landskrona. These fly fishers didn't believe me when I told them which fly that I used when I caught the grayling. Their scepticism was turned around when I caught the next grayling and this one was almost one kilo. Unfortunately, I lost a big trout that went out in to the strong current in the middle of the river. The fly I used was the Europe 12 or E:12 it is an imitation of the sedge/caddis fly. I usually use size 12 or sometimes 14 for this fly.

Mikael could not stop fishing although the night was over us. He was listening into the night trying to estimate where the fish was feeding and trying to put his fly in the right direction.