Sweden: fly fishing Jämtland for pike, perch, grayling and trout.

Intro

In a fishing weekend Kim says to me: “I am going to Sweden to see Germano on the first week of August, do you want to come?”. I don't think twice about it, and I say: "yes, let's go!". Our destination will be the Best Fishing Sweden lodge in Jämtland county. Pike will be our main target.

Before tell you the story, I decided to list: the equipment, the flies, and finally, the spots and the fish.

Equipment

For this trip, consulting both with the lodge manager, Germano, and with my friend Kim, as rods and lines I decided to bring:

The 9 '#9 and the 9' #10 for pike streamer fishing, with a floating line WF9/10, for fishing in top water, or just below the surface, and one with a sinking line Sink Type 3 WF9/10 for deeper fishing.
The unmissable 8'6"#4 for dry fly or nymph fishing with the strike, with WF4F floating line.
And at last the 9'8" #5 for any nymph, but also dry or light streamer, to be used with both the WF4F floating line and the nymphing line.

As for the reels, all loaded with backing and with an excellent clutch that must be ready to work well especially to fish for big pike.

An important note for pike fishing, and always in general during the streamer technique in these waters, to have leaders with a steel wire for the pike's teeth and carabiner for quick change of streamers.
As a final, between the end of the line and the steel wire, I used a length of about 1 mt of nylon 0,40.

In order not to cut your fingers during stripping and strikes, the stripping guards are very useful, and just as convenient for boat fishing is the stripping basket to keep the line grouped without going crazy!

Technical clothing is also very important for this type of travel. Waterproof jackets, hats, capilene, warm sweaters, shirts and t-shirts to be ready for temperature changes, and polarized glasses to see the pike as much as possible!

Flies

The preparation of the flies started about 2 months ago, to date that I am writing, in order to arrive ready at the appointment (I did not tied only me, but Kim also tied very hard and we had literally a bag of flies on the boat!).
Nymphs, dry, emerging flies, cdc flies for grayling and trout fishing. Small streamers, squirmy, streamers with Magic Head and Wave Tail for perch fishing. Buzzers to fish in the lake for grayling, whitefish or perch.
Mice for trout fishing in the river in the evening. And the boxes of large pike streamers, including floating foam flies such as poppers and gurglers, single-hook, double-hook, articulated streamers, with Wiggle Tail and Dragon Tail. Imitations of frogs, mice, fish, bait fish. We are really armed.

At the end of our adventure the pike flies that worked the most were: Streamer Baitfish White Brown, Streamer Jig Sacrificio Yellow Orange, Pike Gurgler Frog, Streamer Wiggle Chartreuse Orange and Streamer K.B. Jig Big Jim so nicknamed a very effective jig tie by Kim.

All the pike flies mentioned above are tied on barbed predator hooks, which we crushed with pliers before starting fishing to be able to easily unhook the fish.

Spot and Fish

The spots that we will face will mainly be the huge lakes that, alternating with the hills, form the territory of the county of Jämtland (an area located about halfway in Sweden, one hour by plane from Stockholm). Here you can find pike to fish in a boat, both in depth and afloat among the weeds and water lilies along the coast; and perch to fish with streamer or nymph at sight. Then there are real rivers, large, wide, with shallow waters, and connecting rivers between the lakes formed by large boulders and stone slabs, where grayling and brown trout can be caught. But even in rivers, some times of the year and in some spots, it is possible to find perch and pike.
Char and whitefish must also be added to the list, but they will not be present in the story that will follow shortly because, due to conditions or time, we were unable to fish but it will be for another occasion!

Story

It is 2 am on August 1th 2021, it is a hot Italian night, when Kim comes to pick me up, we load the car, and go to Linate airport. A day of stopovers awaits us, in view of the arrival at the Best Fishing Sweden lodge in Gällö near the town of Östersund, scheduled for mid-afternoon.
Upon arrival at the airport in Östersund, our friend Andrea (who will guide us and make videos and photos) and Germano, the lodge manager, await to welcome us.

I miss Northern Europe since my last trip to Norway 4 years ago (as of today I am writing, you can read the related article at this link). There were days of intense grayling fishing on dry fly, here the experience will be different. Our goal is pike in top water, but Andrea and Germano told us about all the other possibilities: bigger pike in depth, trout in top water with the mouse at night, perch on the dry and perch with streamer, trout and grayling with dry, nymph, drop and streamer as well! Whitefish and Arctic char. The premises are all there. Now it's our time.

Arriving at the lodge it is just as I expected from Andrea's stories and photos. Here there is only water, woods and incredible peace. We are completely immersed into the wild.

Although the journey was tiring, the desire to try to catch fish is really great. So, after a nice hot tea prepared by Ola, we get ready and go out on the boat a couple of hours before dinner. The lake on which our base overlooks, and in which we will do more fishing days, is the Revsund.
I leave the honor to Kim, who catches the first pike on the second cast! (and here we delude ourselves, because we both think "ah but then it's really as easy as they say up here!" but it won't be like this ...) I throw a few but nothing, I change streamer, I mount the Streamer Jig Sacrificio Yellow Orange and a pike arrives immediately for me too! They look like brothers, both small pike between 40-50 cm.
Let's change some streamer, lose some pike, a nice couple bite me short and I lose it. The wind is strong, and the tiredness of the journey is felt. Let's go back to the lodge, and a perch dinner awaits us! Perch tartare with avocado and lime, perch and blueberry risotto, crostini with salt perch, and finally a cake. Olga (or Ola) exceptional cook!
We light the fire in the stove, and we finally go to sleep. From tomorrow it is serious.

Wind, it's wind from the North until Wednesday. Then it should drop and the temperatures should come up.

Breakfast with homemade jams, arctic blackberries and blueberries. A nice charge of energy, and ready for the pike. With Kim we decided to organize by keeping 2 rods ready each, one with me sinking line and an intermediate one, and the other two ready with the floating.
The first day brings us to about twenty fish between lost, seen and caught (but as our friend Rocco says: "only count the fish on the net!" And therefore, at the moment, very few!). But anyway a cold windy day, we lose a couple of beautiful pike each but nothing to do, only small pike on the nets.
The trip continues between lunches, dinners and fabulous breakfasts (I don't list every single dish because otherwise I would need a separate blog just for food!).

The second day comes the time of the river, and here we will finally see grayling and trout.

The usual hearty breakfast, car loaded with all kinds of equipment and we go, today our river will be the Langan. There we will try to fish for grayling, with dry, nymph and maybe even streamer. The incredible thing is that even in rivers there are pikes as in lakes.

The roads pass through forests of pine and birch so dense that, looking inside, the forest is dark after a few meters.

The day on the Langan is marked by cold wind, and therefore it is a very hard fishing day, like the previous one on the lake.
Despite the difficulty, we cast non-stop all day long, from 11 am in the morning to 10 pm in the evening! And between the dry, the nymph in drop, and the nymph with the strike we capture some little grayling.
In the morning Kim found the right technique, in the deepest waters on nymph with the strike, while I, after some small fish on the dry with the Fly Ant, and after in drop finally caught 3 funny graylings.
The afternoon/evening was harder than expected, but at the very last light a good hatching begins, and insisting, I bring a nice grayling to the landing net, on dry with the N.S. Sedge. (Thank you very much Nicola!)
The thrill of catching such a beautiful fish, at 10 pm in this infinite sunset, is unique. Although the fish is not huge in size, it was still my best catch of the day, which paid off the consistency of continuing to cast and never giving up. From tomorrow the wind should drop and change direction. We hope for an increase in general activity, both of pike in the lake and grayling in the river.

In the lake under the lodge the pikes continue to be not very active (Not very active in proportion to the potential that these places have when they make it 100%!). Kim save the day, realizing to fish deep and with a Jig (Big Jim). He catches 3 fish, I follow him and I do 2 too. Then nothing until the evening. Realizing that it is not a day for pike, seeing some perch in shallow water I decide to try them with nymph (at that moment I only had the #10 for pike with me!) and with squirmy I make several catches of perch, but not the bigger than we could see!

The day ends in the relax corner with a nice sauna and boiling water pool overlooking the lake, which is finally flat and without waves from the north. Thanks to this condition Andrea is able to take some really beautiful drone shots (you can see them at the end of the page among the photos).

The story continues.

The beauty of the sunsets, with the clouds turning pink and the green woods turning orange, associated with deafening silence, are an incredible thing. These are emotions that you cannot write, you can only live them.

We are halfway through the adventure, and after breakfast we decide to organize the day by dividing it into the lake in the morning and the river in the afternoon. The first lake today will be the Sundsjö, and we will immediately try to pike, and then eventually try to perch. The afternoon will continue to Forsalenden, a point where two lakes are connected by the river which here makes big falls and pools.

Here our story change.

Finally the pike are active and Kim starts immediately with 5 catches just below the surface of fish between 60 and 70 cm, while I lose a beautiful one on popper. Then nothing until it takes a nice perch. After the lunch we decide to repeat this morning spot, and with the small Streamer Baitfish White Brown that so far had brought me only that perch, I move 3 pikes that all unhook, until he arrives, the 74 cm, which is little attached to the tip of his mouth, Kim takes the net and is finally on the boat! I hug Kim and finally the tension of catching a nice pike I had since the beginning of the journey subsides.
We continue and find a spot where we miss another couple, we are about to return when Kim see a beautiful pike on the bottom, he tries and nothing, I always try with Baitfish but nothing, then I mount a Kim's Big Jim (fly with which he had solve the day before), I drop it and Kim says to me: he comes he comes! Bam! I do a very powerful strike (with rod since I find it straight under the tip) and it is hooked! Beautiful fight, Andrea films everything, I'm very tense, Kim keeps telling me not to lose it, honestly for fear of losing it in the woods, I force it slightly but the #9 work very well. I bring it to the surface and Kim put it on the net at the first attempt! Another big fish on the boat and we are very happy! (Kim I owe you a pike on sight! Like when Toretto tells Brian that he owes him a car of a quarter mile in ten seconds!) Now we rowing back to the starting point (since the electric motor has abandoned us...) and have sunset in Forsaleden. Here too was great, and some great graylings arrive, Kim gets it right immediately and with nymph take 3 nice fish! Seeing his success, and a nice hatch of sedge, I mount the Deer Sedge and after a few cast one of them rise and is in the net! Continuing between these sharp rock waterfalls and lakes, night falls. We enjoy the latest rise and the pink sunset, then with a headlamp we go home for the midnight dinner. Great day.

Now we still have 3 full days of fishing to be enjoyed.

The following day with the fishing permit for Forsaleden valid for 24 hours, we try on trout and grayling and we do some with nymph. After a nice perch risotto, it is the turn of Lake Lockne, a lake with crystal water and a very clear bottom, our goal, and hope, is to find pike to fish on sight.

We arrive at Brigitte's farm, the lady who gives us the permit and rents us the boat, with the help of the drone we understand where the weeds are. Kim at the second cast strike a nice pike but that unhook immediately, after a few cast another one and is on the boat! The afternoon starts in a great way, I insist but fishing even a few cm more on the surface than him I have no attacks, until with the Streamer Wiggle Chartreuse Orange I have a following. It is a beautiful pike, dark in the shade. Kim tries to throw him but nothing, I raise and nothing. On my third cast he turns like a shotgun taking aim, and bite the streamer. I strike it well and the fight begins. We set sail, ritual photos and release. Measured 75 cm, fish similar to the two of the previous day. On returning, accompanied by a beautiful sunset, Kim sees one on the bottom, I mount his usual Jig and as soon as I drop it, fish! A nice pike also sailed, photos and release. We are happy to go back to the lodge hope to sleep a few more hours and recovering some energy.

The next day we went back to the lake, and Kim made a couple of pikes including a beautiful one measuring 78 cm! I only had a couple of attack but then by insisting I get one on top with the Pike Gurgler Frog, even if small, it was a beautiful attack! In the afternoon, given the absence of pike activity, we decided to have fun on perch with squirmy and we caught lots of them! An alternative but very fun fishing!

Last day, the gray day and the rain seem to tell us it's time to go home. A few more pike and we are ready to close the suitcases. We missed the meter fish that we have been looking for so much, but it doesn't matter, it will be for another round! (Now, don't say we didn't get the big one because we didn't use big flies... trust me, we tried the 30 cm streamers, Kim moved a big fish, but then nothing for the whole trip. Like Germano told me before leaving, there the pikes are used to eating forage fish so rather "small" flies work well, at least for the fly fishing technique, then for spinning it is another matter).

Conclusion

It was a very positive and very informative experience, we laughed, ate and fished, what more could you want from a fly fishing trip!

Fishing in Sweden for how they described it to me, for what I had seen in the videos, for what friends and customers told me, is not so easy and obvious, especially on the fly. It is true that there is full of fish, literally more fish than water, but even here if you are not in the right place and at the right time, there are many factors that can make it difficult the fishing. Levels, wind, external temperature and water affect a lot on fish activity.
We tried to better understand the situations and adapting to what the river or lake was asking of us at that moment, we catch all: pike, perch, grayling and trout.
In our case, the trip lasted about ten days, of which the fishing was 8 days. A sufficient time to understand how is the fishing, which are the best spots and the flies. But surely it would take many more days to see different realities, or to make more trips and every time to see new lakes and rivers.

Here nature dominates, and when the wind stops, there is an incredible silence that can only be interrupted by a rise or an attack of a pike under the boat!

Below I leave you with some photos and the video of this experience!

To fish together and experience these emotions go to page contacts.

Thanks for reading and see you next time :)

Matteo Lavezzini