Rickard Gustafsson | Saturday, 14 November 2026
So I went on the trip. I realised I was there a bit earlier in the year last time. It was successful in some parts and less successful in some parts.
The trip wasn’t very far north, it was a two hour drive that took us up and inwards of the country. But it got noticeable colder on the way there. When we stopped to shop some food we almost broke our legs as it was quite slippery on the ground as it had started to freeze. We didn’t fall but it still felt like it could’ve happened. We got kind of lucky and found something fun in the fish counter. Not a guarantee when you leave Gothenburg. I think I mentioned this cooking adventure in the last FP. It turned out great. Perfect fish and chips.
I was a bit worried on our drive there, would it be a problem with at thin ice crust on the lakes? Nooo the lakes are still warm and it is just in the night time it is cold now. We did sleep in a bit on the first morning. When we arrive to the first lake it looks like there are a lot of weeds in the water where we start to fish. No it is an ice crust. Nothing that stopped us from fishing as it was just a meter or two right at the bank. But I wasn’t very tempted to test my waders in those conditions but I soon had to. Just a few steps out in the water makes a huge difference for the casting. The waders kept proof the whole weekend.
The fishing felt not very promising the first hour, and then the sun decided to show up. Then it felt very hopeful. Warm and nice, or at least it felt so when the temperature is just a degree or two above freezing. When the sun came out a school of bait fish did show up right where we were standing and were acting like they were being hunted by something. But we didn’t find anything interested in what we did present. Then the sun disappeared into the clouds, for the rest of the weekend, the wind picked up. The conditions didn’t feel very hot after that. So we decided to try an other lake. On one of the first casts I feel a take, I was fishing a boobie, or something. It feels weird, no tugging but not like a snag either. When I get it in there are some weeds at the end of the line, but there is something else also. A crayfish. Quite an aggressive bastard showing off his claws. Later I saw an other crayfish attach the fly. Shellfish seem to be quite aggressive hunters for something that is mainly a scavenger. I have seen a crab attach a seatrout at least ten times the size of the crab.
In this lake we did at least see someone hook a fish and lose it a few seconds later. But then it went completely silent on that lake. We give it some more time, move around a bit and trying other strategies but nothing. We manage to test one more lake before it went dark. There we did see some activity but couldn’t find any thing to serve the fish to catch their interest.
So we had to accept defeat and go and buy something to eat. I wasn’t really looking forward to entering the store in waders and getting questions about the fishing. “Hey there, didn’t go well, so now you have to go buy fish instead?”
The smug comments didn’t happen. The assortment of fish inside this city was like none existent. We found some frozen shrimps that looked promising. Frozen but we wanted to eat as soon as possible. So we decided to thaw them in brine. That went well and the shrimp went down in the batter before the pan. In the pan the shrimp quickly separated from the batter. So we had shrimp on the bottom of the pan and batter on top. Great!
But we were quite hungry when shopping. Only breakfast and nothing else to eat during the day. So our eyes were quite big when shopping so we had one more bag of frozen shrimps. That’s when we remembered that drying them before the batter could be a good idea. Tossing them in flour was also a good idea.
Second batch turned out great. Pro grade. First batch was nice, but wrong. But two people can only eat so much so we didn’t even reach the first batch.
How much beer and whisky two people can drink is another story…
Belgian beer is nice. But they are what we call them ”a bad idea”. A bottle as big as a wine bottle and as potent as a wine bottle that gives the same resistance as lager going down is a bad idea. Bourbon and rye also has very little resistance going down. And the music was so good. So what could go wrong?
Well a lot could’ve gone wrong! But sometimes younger lucky. We woke up in time. Had some coffee and a walk in the cold refreshing air. After that things felt decent. Hope for the fishing was getting high. Today we were going to get them! We did visit the fishing shop and got some ideas for the day. Today we were going to get them.
Fishing felt very hot for the first 30 minutes. Nothing happened and then the weather did catch up. Fucking cold, no signs of any fish. Slightly hungover, and two nights of too little sleep didn’t help. It makes you cold and stupid. When even switching flies is an effort you don’t fish well.
But seeing fish helps! We kneed up to a small lake with a quagmire all around the lake. Slightly frozen quagmire. Helped with the reach but nothing else. But it was a lot of fish doing something. Don’t know what. Some where swimming around with their backs above the surface. Some where splashing water from time to time. But they weren’t interested in flies, or whatever they were presented. And as the other days, the powerbaiters were also denied.
So fishing-wise a failure. But otherwise a nice weekend and a much needed break from reality.
Some observations from the weekend:
I don’t like to admit it but the MED isn’t always the best line. At least when fishing a forest lake with trees and other obstacles. Forest lakes that have no running water to supply it with water, tend to be formed by being a natural point for water to collect. Which means that a lot of the ground around it is sloping down towards the lake. It doesn’t take a very steep slope to eat some of your backcast space. That and trees will soon let you know that you are using much more distance behind you than you think you are.
A Rio Singlehand Spey line #5 is a quite nice line on the HT6. And it is a line that solves situations.
Being cold and tired really breaks down your casting. Gauging distance on the back cast becomes a joke. It becomes old to go and fetch the fly behind you. Otherwise my casting didn’t suffer that much. But it shows that you should really try to practice in the conditions you expect to be fishing in.
Picking targets for your casting are important. Looking between two objects is hard. Especially when you are a bit tired and cold. “Oh look there is the tree I shouldn’t look at” *smack*. Just glancing at the object you want to avoid can change where you cast. This is something I will practice more, virtual targets with distractions.
PoD: Pic unrelated but kind of accurate. It was so cold I forgot to take any pictures.