Sunday 14 August 2022

It's A Wonderful Life

Remember the bit in the film when James Stewart says he wished he'd never been born and his guardian angel lists all the ways he has impacted on other people's lives ? No ? Well, watch it, there's more to it than meets the eye.

What I'm trying to say is one thing leads to another and there are innumerable paths you can end up on, depending on chance or whatever. Or maybe you're one of those people that says " Everything happens for a reason" and when invited to expand on this profound statement just repeat the original line.

Waffling, sorry. Anyway, my James Stewart like encounter with another Swedish angler sent me to a little stream in a totally out of the way place, where, once again we saw nobody for two days. A few cars passed on the track but that was it.


I was after an arctic char.

The first morning I tried maybe a dozen swims and had not a bite in all but one of them. The swim that was productive produced eleven grayling in as many casts, it was loaded with them.



The stream varied from a few inches to maybe two foot deep, full of boulders and full of fast flowing water. Not really possible to float fish in the conventional sense.

I drilled a 15 mm cork ball, found some orange paint and stuffed a cocktail stick in like you would a pike bung. Two bb pinch hard against float, no shot down the line and a small bit of worm. It worked perfectly, next to no snag ups and presented the bait well.


The next day I went up a side stream and came across a lovely waterfĂ ll which was full of fish. I mean full. Mostly trout with some grayling. I had over sixty fish that day but no arctic char. Maybe I was on the wrong stretch, but who cares, it was brilliant fun on my 6 foot, 5 gram Noddy rod.



Again, we reluctantly moved on after two days, this time in the direction of Norway and maybe a bit of sea fishing.


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