Tag Archives: river

Brown trout fishing

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To catch a brown trout is not the easiest thing but it will offer you adventurous moments. If you discuss with some elderly local people from the countryside or from the fells outside Rovaniemi city they can tell you how excited they were in their childhood when they learned how to get to the rivers in the wilderness to angel the brown touts.

Brown trout is found in fast flowing, oxygen-rich, cool clear waters with gravel or sandy riverbeds. They occur across almost all of Europe and as far north as Lapland.

First of all, the brown trout is a very sensitive fish. If you arrive to the riverside speaking load and running close to the river side you can be sure the brown trout disappeares for a long time. Then your chances to catch these rare spotted fish in the wilderness of Lapland have gone for a while.

The right way to start the fishing of a brown trout is to sneak quietly onto the river side and not talk load. You also have to take into consideration where your shadows are, so that not your shadow or the shadow of the rod are showed in the water. The best day to go brown trout fishing is on a cloudy day in the end of the summer in Lapland.

The latin name of the brown trout is Salmo trutta fario. It is also sometimes called the river trout. The size of the brown trout is about 25-30 cm in length and weights around 1 kilo at the most. In small rivers they do not grow that big. Their back is olive-dark brown and silvery blue, red spots occur towards the belly, the belly itself is whitish yellow. The brown trout can live for up to 18 years in the small rivers.

Brown trout are very faithful to their habitat i.e. they live only at one spot and do not migrate. Even after being disturbed they will return to their traditional sites. The adult brown trout requires its own territory. During the day it is hidden in the shadows of the river bank, facing upstream and that is where you start fishing. You throw your fishing rod with the worm on the hook into the water near the bank and wait for the brown trout to attack. Usually it does not take long time until you get the catch. The brown trout attacks very quickly and unexpectedly.

That is one thing that makes the angling of brown trout so adventures. It differs a lot from catching perch.
As the brown trout belongs to the family of salmons, the taste is more like the salmon’s.
The tradition of angeling brown trout is about to end, because at the moment the habit to fish brown trout is mostly omited by elderly men, who teach the skills only to their children.
I have had the opportunity to learn how to angel brown trout and I am so happy that I got that chance.

By a river in the wilderness of Lapland to catch the river trout

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Did you think I am not fishing this time of the year? Actually, this year I am not summer fishing in Lapland, but I want to tell you about earlier years as I have fished in Lapland in the beginning of summer. In Lapland there are a lot of small rivers and really tiny rivers in the wilderness, not much bigger than a ditch, where there is a lot of fish.

IMG_9474You can get greyling (harjus) from the rivers near the rapids also in summer, not only when ice-fishing. In summer you catch greylings standing on the shore of the rapids or you could stand in the rapid yourself, if you want. I never did that, though.

 

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If you are out camping you can fry your catches on a trangia spiritburner right away. Delicious!

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Another peculiar fish in the tiny rivers is the little brown trout or river trout (tammukka, purotaimen) as it is also called.

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The river trout is related to the common trout, but it does not really grow big. The river trout stays in the river where it was born. Normally trouts migrate from the birth place to bigger rivers and rapids and at times they grow really big; they could even be about 15 kg. But the trouts that stay in the little river where they were born never grow big, to not even 1 kg. The river trout is found all over Finland but specially in Lapland it is really small; about 25 cm. The government of Finland has decided the minimum of all fish you are allowed to catch, and the minimum length they have put on a river trout is 40 cm, but the fact is, they never grow that big in Lapland! So you could say the river trout every little boy in Lapland uses to catch does not even exist in the eyes of the government. Read more about fishing licenses and restrictions here.

IMG_4139 IMG_4132Even small children can go angling river trouts in the small rivers. It is easy to catch, But one thing is important; you should keep quiet when angling! The river trout does not like voices and noise. It is easily frightened away. You should sneak quietly into your place on the shore before you start angling.

I love to walk along these small rivers in the absolute wilderness. The forest is so quiet around you. Sometimes you meet some reindeer and sometimes a beaver. I have also seen poo-poos of bears, but I never saw a bear, luckily. Even if I am very keen on fishing I also often just admire the nature and try to enjoy every minute of my stay in the wilderness. A foot bath in the ice-cold, clear river-water is a lovely experience after a long walk into the wilderness and refreshes your feet .

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Enjoy these photos of the wilderness of Lapland!

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In Lapland during summer season the main trouble is the mosquitoes. You should never forget to put on some insect repellent when going angling by the river. The mosquitoes could ruin the pleasure about angling for you. 

 

 

The time to catch river trouts is at its best in early summer. At the same time the cloud berries are blooming and every Laplander hopes for no night frost or hailstorm that could spoil the opportunities to enjoy a perfect cloud berry crop later in the summer.

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Ice-fishing expedition to the Upper North of Lapland

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One of the high-lights of my every year ice-fishing period is the fishing excursion to Far North; Kilpisjärvi in Lapland. A five hours (450 km) driving along among others the Northern Light road from Rovaniemi to Kilpisjärvi is worth every minute! The experience of going fishing on a river between the Swedish and the Finnish fells in the wilderness is just outstanding!

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This year’s trip took place on April 24th to 28th. The weather was really too perfect; sun, no wind and temperature around -2 to +2 Celsius. You could not ask for better outdoor weather in April in Lapland! Use sun protection on your skin and sun glasses to protect your eyes. The sun shining from a clear blue sky on to a snow white river for several hours a day is hard. In spite of all protection I always end up with the first sun burn of the year in my face and acing eyes because of the sun shine.

Me and my friends spent five days on the ice on the river of Könkämäeno in the so called “arm” of North Finland along the Swedish border. The river was frozen with about 0,70 to 1 meter ice, except for the two rapids that were open, and the hole making definitely needed a power auger. Once the holes were opened they really did not freeze that much during the nights. It was easy to break the thin ice in the holes in the mornings with your boot.

The river Könkämäeno is the last part of a long river starting from Kilpisjärvi lake, going along the Swedish border, changing name to first Muonionjoki and at the end to Tornionjoki before it ends up in the Gulf of Bothnia near the city of Tornio. This was the 6th time I made this trip and it has always been rewarding with a lot of fish. The fish would be greyling (Thymallus thymallus), whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus), pike (Esox lucius) and occasionally also trout (Salmo trutta). This time was no exception. We ended up with three pikes, one trout and a lot of whitefish and greylings. Greyling is a typical river fish in the north of Finland and it is very frequent in Könkämäeno. I love the taste of this fish and it is also very challenging to catch! As we spoke to some local people we although got the impression they value whitefish more than greylings.

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I had a big catch of a 3,2 kg pike. The challenge of getting it on to the ice was great, but frankly, I did not want that kind of fish. It is just too big to be tasty. I valued a lot more the trout I got the same day!

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And greyling is a really tasty fish. IMG_2485

The water in Könkämäeno is so clear and clean that you can actually see the bottom of the river up to 2 meters down through the holes. The water is of course streaming as it is a river and that is another challenge when ice-fishing. The rod and line do not go straight down as usually when ice-fishing in lakes, but they follow the stream and you could have some difficulties to find out the depth of the water.

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During the day there are several different times when the fish is easier to catch and times when there seem to be no fish at all in the river. One of the times when there were no catches for a couple of hours I got inspired to have a look through the hole down into the water. And I found out there were a lot of fish and they just moved around down there without paying any attention whatsoever to my hook with the delicious larva! They actually did not have any appetite at all at that time. It was amazing looking at the swimming fish in the absolutely clear water! Even if they came near and sniffed at my bite they did not try to eat it!

During such a time of the day you just have to find other things to do. We made a log fire and fried some sausages and had coffee and sandwiches and above all: enjoyed the perfect weather. There were some Whooper swans (Cygnus cygnus) flying over looking for water to swim in. Without success, of course. We also could watch the little White-throated Dipper (Cinclus cinclus) making dives into the part of the rapids that was ice-free.

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Greyling and trout spend a lot of time in the streaming water heading towards the rapids, while the whitefish is to be found more in still waters. Along the river, between the rapids,  there are both streaming water and also the stream pool. A stream pool, is a stretch of a river or stream in which the water depth is above average and the water speed is quite below average. We were fishing in both of these areas. The 1,5 kg trout I caught was to be found in the area where the stream pool changes into streaming water. This time we had difficulties to find out where the whitefish were. From earlier years we knew about a few places where they had been found. But this year we ended up with three pikes from that area. I do not know, but had the pikes frightened away all the whitefish? We never really found out where the whitefish had gone.

The time we spent sitting on the ice varied from 6 to 12 hours per day. People, who do not understand the philosophy of ice-fishing could ask me: “What is the use of sitting for hours staring at a hole in the ice?!” I could only answer: “There is no use whatsoever!” But to spend time wondering about life and its opportunities and enjoying the nature around you. There is always the possibility to catch something to eat, of course. I can promise you the fish in Lapland is really delicious!  It is also challenging to always be alert if there is a catch and not least, the challenge of getting a really big fish up through the hole in the ice without breaking the hook or the line. Sometimes it happens the fish releases itself before you get it on to the ice, and the feeling of disappointment is always a fact. But that disappointment you soon forget as you get a new catch!