Jeroen Schoondergang heads for Sweden in search of pike and a few grayling too.
Abborrträsk is a tiny village, hidden amidst the pine forests in northeastern Sweden. Hidden between the trees there is water, lots of it: lakes, ponds, rivers and streams. Fishing guide and allround outdoorsman Sonny Holmberg gladly shows his guests the endless fly fishing possibilities.
Sonny Holmberg didn’t lie when he told us he was going to take us on a fishing adventure. This morning we started on a trip down the river with the intention to fish all the way to the pickup point, many miles downstream. It hasn’t all been smooth sailing. After we crossed a lake, where we successfully cast topwater flies at pike, we entered a system of fast flowing streams. “We may hit some rocks”, Sonny warns us. He isn’t lying. When we start to feel like the ball in a pinball machine, Sonny hops out of the boat. But not after pushing his woollen glove in a tear in the hull. We follow him. And when the three of us wade waist deep through a hole between the rocks, Sonny grabs us by the shoulders and says: “now you feel alive!”. He must be freezing. I feel the cold of the water through my waders. Sonny is wearing leather boots and normal pants.
Plenty of water
A fishing trip with Sonny from Abborrträsk Natursafari is so much more than a day with a guy telling you where and how to fish. Be prepared to drag boats over land from one lake to another. Or to lift that boat over a log blocking a stream. Or to try and wiggle a boat through a swamp that is too shallow to row in, but yet is supposed to be a world class pike spot. Never a dull moment with Sonny. And the rewards can be pretty impressive.
I visited the area a couple of years ago, to check out reports from lakes with enormous arctic char. The char were on the list again, but pike were going to be the star of this trip. Plenty of water to wet a line, it seems, as we drive from the airport to Sonny’s hideout in Abborrträsk. “I was born and raised here and if I live to be a hundred years, I might get to fish one percent of the lakes and streams here”, says Sonny. He is probably right. Around every corner and behind every couple of trees, a lake or stream emerges.
Swamp pike
And so we drift around on one of Sonny’s favourite pike venues. Although, drifting around is an exaggeration. After every three strokes with the oars, Sonny has to free them from a pile of weed. We are hovering over a carpet of water plants and only in a few places the swamp opens up slightly. To make matters even more difficult, a gale-force wind is blowing and in a day the temperature has dropped dramatically from a comfortable 15 degrees to near freezing point. We are casting poppers right into the water plants. And to be honest, I am not really confident about the spot or the tactics. But then the swamp shows its secret to us. A large predator makes a school of baitfish jump up. And as I am zoomed in on the spot, the same happens right behind me. There are pike here, loads of them.
Against the odds we manage to hook some pike. With a little more water –water levels are higher earlier in the season- and less wind, we would have made a killing here. There might be something to Sonny’s claim that this might be a contender for the best pike fly fishing area in Europe.
The sticks
A day after our swamp experience we find ourselves drifting on an open lake with large reed beds. The wind has died down and our instructions are plain and simple: concentrate on the reed beds and get your topwater flies right into the ‘sticks’. These reed stumps are the hiding place of the ever present pike. We drift past hectares of reed beds and cast deerhair divers to the shore. The divers do what they are tied for: plopping and producing bubble trails and attracting pike. Surface fly fishing is the most spectacular way to entice pike. Doing it in this environment adds to the attraction. We hook a fair number of pike to eighty centimetres, fishing 5- and 6-weight rods. But often the fish we miss are the most spectactular. Often pike become airborn after a missed attack.
Grayling
Fishing has been tough throughout the week. We endured all weather types: freezing cold, gale force winds and horizontal rain and hail showers. But despite the conditions we have caught fish every single day. Between the pike there are perch, one of which is a personal best for me: a plump fish of exactly fifty centimetres that locks his jaws over a goat hair baitfish pattern.
The last day is reserved for arctic char. We have set up camp on the shore of one of Sonny’s char lakes. Apart from some curious reindeer, we have the place to ourselves. As there is no surface activity. Fishing buddy Rob and I cast weighted nymphs near to some sunken branches and tree trunks. We fish the shore, make long casts, take a belly boat to the middle of the lake, fish deep, fish shallow. But whatever we try, we don’t hook a char. They just aren’t within our fishing range, it seems. A lost fishing day? No way! We never have the time to become disappointed about not hooking char, as another desirable species fills in for the orange bellied salmonid. When our rods slide back in the rod sacks, we count our blessings. The consolation prize on this lake has been a good one, as our flies have been snapped up by a good number of grayling to nearly half a metre in length.
As we pack up our gear, I take one last look around. We have had our own lake for a day, caught some great fish and enjoyed a gourmet lunch and great outdoors stories provided by Sonny. During the week, we fished at least ten different lakes or streams. And yet we barely scratched the surface of the endless fishing potential of this area. Abborrträsk and its ambassador Sonny are more than just a fly fishing destination. Booking a trip is embarking on an adventure. You have been warned.
www.natursafari.se
To see more words and pictures from Jeroen please take a look at his blog, What Lies Beneath