Rickard Gustafsson | Saturday, 30 May 2026
So I was thinking about writing something about the myth busting presentation that will happen at FFI today. Like how some people think that a bent string can transfer force without a pulley.
But instead there is something else that has happened this week that I think needs to be addressed.
Fly fishing won’t happen without a good climate and environment. The fish needs a certain habitat to thrive or even survive. It needs food and its food is also affected by both climate and environment. We can see it in Sweden that the tree line is climbing higher, and probably in other places as well. There is a decline in insect populations. The typical image of a fly fisher for the general person is someone trying to imitate an insect with a dry fly. So we as fly fishers should be very interested in climate and environment questions. It is kind of a strong requirement for what we want to do. Without fish the only thing left we have is to go out on the lawn and cast. And that will also be worse as climate change will mean extremer and more unstable weather.
So we have some really cool people. Activists. That fight for these things. Some people have a problem with activists, I don’t get it. Is it so hard for them to be reminded of their own inactions and bad things they are doing?
In Sweden we have some cool activists. Not thinking about Greta this time. She is keeping a lot of powerful people sleepless, even Trump. So he even takes time from thinking on Biden to think about Greta. The ones I’m thinking about is Återställ Våtmarker, or in English; Restore Wetlands. That is something that is very good for both many species of fish and insects. Not only our beloved trout where a wetland can act as a buffer zone and ensure that its spawning ground doesn’t dry out before they had a chance to migrate back to the ocean or lake. But spices we typically might not consider be affected by drying up water areas, like the pike.
Återställ Våtmarker is supported by a big company, https://eu.patagonia.com/se/en/actionworks/organizations/restore-wetlands/
A big company supporting activists instead of lobbyists must be a kind of cool company, right? Having a look at them they seem to be very much into the climate and environment thing. It has kind of their thing, like their founder giving the company away to the earth. Yvon seems to be a cool guy and like living after the motto “You are what you do, not what you say”.
Sadly this seems to be forgotten by the company now. As this week it has become official that they have decided to sue a climate activist. The person has been active since 2018 and the company has know about this person for quite some time now. Since 2018 the person has raised more than $3.7 million for nonprofits. Making tours nationwide, in the US, about climate solutions. Built a community around “A nonprofit teaching allyship in the outdoors.” Sounds like a kind of a cool person, something that the company should be supporting instead of suing.
So I hope the company betters themselves and drops this lawsuit.
Oh and the activist? Pattie Gonia, you can get more details here:
https://www.instagram.com/pattiegonia/reel/DY2L725tVow/
https://www.instagram.com/pattiegonia/p/DY2M4qmlL7M/
Cheers, Rickard
PoD: How do you like my fishing hat? Hope I soon can remove the tape.