Rickard Gustafsson | Saturday, 11 April 2026
So last week I mentioned my eye. It seems good now and I don’t have to run around with blurred vision any more.
But it caused a bit of a problem when I attended a small competition during the easter. Wounded eye and I couldn’t use contact lenses, so I was not able to wear sun glasses. And this isn’t the first time for this happening. So I should probably get a pair of prescription sun glasses. What’s the best allround lens colour for a fly fishing competition?
During the easter a storm came rolling in from the UK I think. It was a pretty bad storm I think, the worst one we’ve had in Gothenburg in 20 years. So it wasn’t the best setup for a competition on Easter Monday. The storm had passed but the wind was still bad. The good thing is that everyone that had signed up for the competition did still show up. So even if the conditions did suck we had a good time.
So how bad was the conditions? Bad. The wind gusts were strong. So strong that the could take the line away from you and then some. And it wasn’t just strong, it was turbulent also. In the accuracy I had to throw the line behind me and jump down and take cover once. I also had the great idea that I could do the accuracy with my softest rod in these conditions.
To really describe how bad the wind was. The winning cast in trout distance was 34 meters. In the same cast you could have a tail wind, a side wind, a head wind and then a side wind again. There usually was a wind blocking casts at 26 meters, collapsing the loop and blowing it to the side.
I would say that I had no problems with the back cast, I played it safe and didn’t pick up more line and carry more than I could control in the conditions, but that didn’t help with the winds.
It wasn’t any better in the seatrout event either. A long shooting head and a thin running line isn’t a great combination in a turbulent wind.
Still we had a good time and got to talk through the plan for our next competition, in Gothenburg.
I’ve been able to sneak a bit of fishing in. And then I got sick, some would maybe say that my fishing was part of why I became sick.
When I was out fishing this Tuesday I decided it was a good idea to go ashore. To be able to fish some spots that I couldn’t reach in that wind with the boat. So I found a good spot on a sandy beach where I could moor the boat. I did drop the anchor, got a decent hold with it. And drifted up on the sand. I threw my backpack a shore so it would be easier to climb off the boat. As I prepared to jump the rope came loose from the boat. While I fixed that the boat drifted away from the shore. The key to the ignition was in the backpack. This wasn’t the time I did take a swim. I did manage to stake the boat back with the boat hook so I was able to jump a shore. Found a good place to tie the boat and everything looked good.
I was a bit nervous, that the pole I had tied the boat to would hold. But started to fish while keeping an eye on the boat. Everything looked fine. The boat did stay nicely moored between the anchor and the pole. Or at least so I thought. So I kept fishing for a while. Didn’t find any fish. So I decided it was time to leave. I got into the boat and I didn’t notice anything suspicious. Not until I started to pull the rope to the anchor. We didn’t move. I tried with starting the engine and lower it down a bit into the water to get some help there. Still stuck.
Sometimes it can help to move around in the boat in this scenario to get it to float a bit better. Nope. I tried to use the engine while pulling on the anchor. Nope.
I tried to jump a shore and pull the boat to the side. That’s when I saw it. The water level had lowered and the boat drifted onto a sandbar. It was stuck. My only chance to get it unstuck was to get into the water. Stripping down and getting into the water isn’t the most tempting thing to do when it is 4.5 C in the water. Fortunately I didn’t have to go deeper than above the knees. I managed to get boat floating and turned around after a bit of effort. But then it was the next problem, the anchor. As I pulled in the anchor I pull the boat up on the sandbar again. I didn’t want to try to drive in that drift with the anchor and the rope in the water. A rope in the propeller wasn’t something I wanted to handle on top of things. So I had to take an extra dip in the water when the anchor was out of the water to get the boat back in the water.
This isn’t the smallest and easiest boat to handle either. Almost 6 meters and a 100hp four stroke engine. So I was lucky I didn’t have to wait for the tide to turn before coming unstuck.
Cheers, Rickard