Austria - Fly fishing in a postcard!!

I've been to Austria a couple of times now, with lot's great memories - but especially a trip with my good fly fishing friend Svend Erik, who by the way taught me to enjoy the great pleasures of fly fishing. I might add that Svend Erik is a hardcore Hardy fan, to a degree that even his dog is named Hardy!! - I love it :O)

The drive from Denmark is 16 hours, and we stayed in a small town called Lienz, at the Best Western Hotel. A hotel I can highly recommend, not only because of the very nice fishing beats, the have the rights for, but also for a sublime atmosphere at the hotel. Friendliness and very good Austrian service comes natural from all of the staff.

At this nice hotel we meet an english couple - Fiona and Clive. It soon came to our attention, that Clive was an excellent fly fisher, who taught us a lot of finesse and precession. Fiona joined us trough everything, but she were also a brilliant fly fisher - lucky Clive !!!

Besides that we had a splendid time together - what more can life provide!! :O)

We fished for a week, and I could write manny great things from this trip, but it would simply be too much writing. One little story though, I will give you dear reader.

We had been fishing in one crystal clear pool after an other, and I didn't have much luck that day. You know, clumsy presentations, making too much noise, catching trees and losing fly's all over. Then we came to a beautiful pool, and instantly I caught a glimpse of a huge Grayling, behind a little rock. Like the rest of my day, I didn't succeed in anything, but scarring this beautiful fish. Then Svend Erik came up to me and asked if he could give it a try, I shook my head and proclaimed that this fish was impossible to catch.

That didn't have any effect on Svend Erik - he watched it for a while, and then he made a very precise cast - and caught it!!!! - and it still gives me nightmares :O)!!

Life isn't always easy, as you know - especially as a fly fisher!!

The huge Grayling came with us home to the hotel, were they very kindly prepared it for dinner - a 65 cm long beautiful female made an exquisite dinner.

That were, by the way, the only fish we took with us home - the two of us caught over 400 Graylings, Rainbows and Brownies in one week, most of them on dry flies - pure purse fishing all week!!.

So if you ask me if I am going back to Austria again some day - I can only say - SURE!!! - and I don't think it will be difficult to persuade Svend Erik to join me again :O)

Check out the hotel here : http://www.hotelsonnelienz.at/sites/winter/

Tight lines out there

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The Magic Mörrum River

In southern Sweden you will find  "The Magic Mörrum river".

This place is nothing less than an amazing fishing setup, it is run by the Swedish government, and is therefore open for everybody, witch is very unique in it self, because it gives room for everybody, and that is not at all a normal situation, when it comes to fishing for salmons. This means that sometimes you are "not alone" along the river banks. But even though it can be crowded, it still has a BIG place in my heart. Especially the upper beats are surrounded by very beautiful nordic nature. And as mentioned, it was in Pool 32 I hooked my first "real" salmon - and lost it!!! - of course, I might ad, because it is a quite challenging fly fishing river, but always with the chance of catching a really big fish, witch a part of the reason why this place got so famous.

Mörrum has a reputation of being a real "big fish river" and it hasn't come by a coincidence. A lot of big salmons and some of the worlds biggest sea trout catches, comes from this magic river.

May is the month to be there, because that's when the first big "may springers" arrive - huge fish, that often show them self with a "head and tail", sometimes very close to you. This brings the adrenaline to a max level, and even though they are hard to catch, just the sight of one of these monsters, motivates you to cast, cast and cast some more :O)

A lonely fly fisher at pool 32 

Long exposure of Laxenshus

HDR magic of Pool 32

Long exposure of Poll 32

The main area is divided between 32 pools - you are fishing in a unique mix of astounding nature and fishing in the middle of town, which has it's own charm because the whole town is focused on the fishing - well even then supermarket is named Laxa!! :O)

In the middle of the little Morrum town, you will find Laxenshus (The Salmon house) and it is here it all begins. Here you pick up your fishing card, and it is also here you get a chance to meet other fishing enthusiasts, dreaming of that one record fish of their life. Laxenshus also has an amazing exhibition of fishing tackle used trough time. But also a couple of stuffed "monsters" - huge salmons and sea trouts caught outside in the humus colored river. In the cellar of Laxenshus, you will find an aquarium with salmons and sea trout's - of course!!! :O)

The old smokehouse in Morrum

Klaus Plate with his 14 kg salmon

Further upstream you will find even more beautiful areas called Vittskövle, Knaggalid and Härnäs. My personal favorites are from pool 30, 31,32 and all of Vittskövle - but there is so much fishing water to cover, and I simply haven't gotten round the upper bests yet, even though I fished there for several years now. I guess I have a tendency of going back to the pool's I know !!! - but on the other hand it is always nice to have something to look forward to. Maybe this year, these beats are the ones I have to explore more seriously (PS. I keep saying this to my self every year, but I haven't gone around it yet!! :O)

Right now, as I am writhing this blog, the opening of a new season is a reality and the catch report for the first day of the 2010 season said 304 fish - biggest one was a 12,7 kg. 

The best part was, that out of these 304 fish, 192 was released again - a tendency that has grown slowly the last couple of years, which of course shows that a general awareness of the pressure theses fish are exposed to, are established round the globe. 

Loop has opened a new shop in Morrum, in the building of the old smokehouse. And here the restaurant has also opened up again with a new owner - as usual with splendid buffet. Just beside the shop and the restaurant the Å-pub has also open up again, so now it is possible to get a cold beer when you need a brake from all the casting. Magnus Hammerström - who is in charge of the new Loop shop, also told me that they had plans of making a fishing lodge in the same building, so that is going to be an interesting project to follow.

I simply love this The Magic Morrum River, and if I should arrive on a crowded day, with lot's of fisherman along the banks, well no panic, I just relax and enjoy the scenery with my camera in my hand instead - And wait to get my chance of catching one of the Magic Mörrum Giants.

Alex Viklund with his 19,6 kg beauty - caught in may 2009

For more info - have a look at these links:

Morrum Kronolax's webpage : http://www.morrum.com/en/
- and the MFA : http://morrumfa.com/pages/english.php

Weather forecast for Morrum: http://vader.svt.se/vaer.aspx?ID=14776286&zoomlevel=8 and for the rest of Sweden: http://svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=52618&lid=puff_678875&lpos=rubrik
write the name of the place in Sweden you want the weater forecast for - and the hit "sög".

And if you should need a guide in Mörrum - Ask for Magnus Hammerström or Mattias Holmquist at - http://www.rivermorrum.com/engelska/presentation-eng.html

Link to the local fishing shop in Mörrum, where you can get great advise on all aspects of the fishing in Morrum River http://www.fiskeshopen.com/ - ask for Lars Terkildsen og Allan Bloch

Tight lines

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Midfjardara - a fly fishing paradise in Iceland.

Salmon action on Iceland !!!

Paul - with a big smile :O)

Ready to go!!

92 cm

Dining room at the lodge :O)

Ohh no!! - Liam lost 7 salmons in 25 minutes!!

Rafn is an excellent fly fisher :O) 

Rafn's daughter's first salmon on a fly rod !!!! :O)

Well I started my blog with a depressing post - "How to kill a river" - simply because I want to put focus on the need for political action, and human respect for our beautiful planet.

But let's jump over to something very, very exciting and positive :O)

Fly fishing in Iceland. Here they understood the meaning of preservation, care taking and respect for mother earth. And the result is an outstanding fly fishing scene.

I stayed on a lodge run by Rafn Alfredsson by one of the smaller rivers up there, called Midfjardara, but with one of the best catch statistics on the entire island - a very beautiful river - full of salmons!!. I think we were 10-15 people that ha 120-130 km of river all to our self - pure paradise fishing conditions!!!!

It was just such a positive experience, with super nice accommodation and excellent food, and the guides knew what they were doing - but most of all an outstanding fly fishing scene surrounded by Iceland's remote, and rustic beautiful nature.

I now know why you have to pay more to fish up there - it is very simple - it's the best fly fishing in the world. Nothing more, nothing less!!.

I was fishing with two gent's from Ireland - Liam and Paul - and they were very, very pleasant company all week, always cracking jokes from the backseat - would be a pleasure to meet up with them again one day.

I caught heaps of salmons the week I stayed up there - 87 to be precise!!!! - grills on a one handed rod #7 - with shooting head - scandinavian style :O)

Sometimes I was so surprised by the number of salmons we saw, but also on the way they took the fly - BANG!!! - raw power every time!!!

Biggest one for me were 92 cm. and the average ones were around 3-4 kg's - great fun, fresh fish with sea-lice, and a lot of power!!

A brilliant and enthusiastic guide!!

PS. I was only fishing with a rifling hitch all week - a fantastic way to catch salmons, by the way. Some times I experienced that the salmons jumped out of the water, and then took the fly on their way down!!! - that is what I call "real fly fishing action"!!! :O)

And to describe how sublime the fishing were, I will tell one of many extreme fly fishing experiences I had up there.

The Guide and I arrived to a small pool, one of manny beautiful and remote pools (no people anywhere), and within seconds I saw a tiny tip of a tail, close to the other riverbank. I threw my fly carefully close to it, and BANG!!! instant response. In 15 minutes I caught 4 salmons - all of them were about 4 kg. on a #7 rod, with rifling hitch - life doesn't get any better than that!!!

Big smiles from my good friend Mr. T :O)

I know it is expensive fishing up there, but what a place!! - save up, and give yourself an experience for life, you will never regret it.

(PS. one of the above pictures shows, as you can see, Rafn with his 9 years old daughter's first salmon catch on a fly rod - her only comment was - "It was very strong".

She was such a nice, easy going and polite little girl!! :O)

Relevant links:

1) Rafen's lodge at the Midfjardara river:  www.fhd.is

2) Fishpal Iceland reports : http://www.fishpal.com/Norse/Iceland/Reports.asp?dom=pal

Tight lines to all of U

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