Mika Lappalainen | Friday, 30 August 2024
We came out from mountains late Friday. Our flight was delayed because bad flying weather. So I had few extra hours fishing in the mountains. Afternoon I went to have sleep as it looked that flight might not come at all, so I wanted to be fresh for evening/night fishing. I was in full sleep when copter came.
I jumped up pack my stuff and off we go. In Friday evening we had nice private stretch to fish but as we were late there othee crew went to sleep after short session and I kept fishing until 2 am. I caught some nice graylings, 47-49 cm, but no trout.
Saturday was last filming day. I was tired from night fishing, not badly. I was getting fishing gears ready in the front of restaurant where we had accommodation in upstairs. One of the cameramen came and asked if I had right longjohns. I dropped my waders in front restaurant, yes these are right ones.
I put waders back on and asked what question was that. Cameraman just told that he wanted to be sure. I dropped waders again and checked one more time, yes these are right ones as there is small hole just up from right knee.
We loaded the car and went to the river. There was 5 pools and I decided to take one from front of our "camp". We would have lunch and all the interviews done over there. Our guide, Micke, gave area introduction and spotted hot spot from area which was in pool I planned to fish. Satu went down from me for graylings.
I waded out and as I reached run line, wind hit. Also water was really high after two days rain so wading was really difficult. Wind didn't help at all as it was coming from upstream. I had to wait when blows got down to make cast. One cast was going just fine when extreme blow came, it took flyline and turn it as butterfly in the wind, my line end up totally downstream.
I did my run and got closer to hotspot. I was fishing with dh rod which I haven't been using in 6 years unless you count previous night. My few first casts were short in my opinion. I wanted to get one more meter.
I waited for pause in wind and made cast, still 50 cm shorter than I wanted but that end up under birch which was mark for spot. Next cast was better and I turned to tell that to cameraman when it hit, heavy weight on rod and line. I had strike, when I changed rod to my left hand as reeling was from right, somehow line went twisted around rod so line went over before going to rings.
Fish took first run and I had to release brake as line was not going smoothly, then I realized that I have to stop fish before it hits long rapid down from us. I stopped the fish and it went close to bottom. I had few seconds to think about line which was wrong, I knew that if I don't fix it it might make me lose the fight. I felt fish pumping and planning its next move.
I untightened the brake some and locked line with other hand so fish couldn't have any loose line, risky move but had to be done. I took some line out from reel and fixed line so it was now going from reel to rings as it should. When I released locked line fish took off and brake was adjusted quite loose.
I tightened it and I got instructions from shore that don't let it go into the rapid. I yelled back that it is not me to decide as fish just pulled line even though brake was pretty much full. There was just little bit more to put and fish stopped. Now it turned to where Satu was, so I had to yell her to move just in case. I felt heavy fish and knew it could be big. I hadn't see it yet but I felt it.
Cameraman had better view and he saw fish on surface before me, It is huge fish was his comment. Then I saw it first time and it was big. I yelled that I need help for landing as I won't be able to net it with 15 ft rod and short handle in landing net. Producer, Juhani, had hiking gears on as he was planning to start interviews and not fishing at all. That was probably fastest change in universe and he came to help with landing. We did not want to pull it on shore.
Juhani came and took my landing net from my jacket and we landed big trout. My net is good size but he had problems to fit trout in. We went close to the shore and started to take measurements, Satu came just in time to help.
My first measure was 83 cm. Juhani said that now my beard will be gone. On Monday when they came he said that if I got trout +80 cm they will shave my beard. I said that deal as it seemed easy bet not to lose. Juhani started to speak about shaving me and I started back up our bet, as I'm man of my word.... I agreed to shave but let's measure again just in case.
Now it was 79 cm long trout. Juhani said that he has never seen or heard any fisherman to make their fish smaller than it is. We took some photos and measured fish one more time, now it was 76 cm or so. Juhani said that okay, it is 79 cm and I can keep my beard. We all know how big it was, official statistics will be 79 cm forever.
That was fish of lifetime so far. I lost +80 cm fish 6 yrs ago in same river when doing tv. Now I got big one up for same TV program. Ladies and gentleman, this is how you make story and drama for TV.
And yes I had same underwears which are not washed. This was the FINAL PROOF.... do not change and wash your longjohns during the season.
Have a nice weekend and go fishing!
Mika the Legend currently in Sweden