I consider Lapland the best part from Europe where a fisherman can go and enjoy of beautiful nature, wild fish and pure energy. No crowdy place, just forest and rivers. The villages are small, almost nonexistent, you have to drive a lot to find them and the population is very low.
From the fishing point of view I consider Lapland the Grayling kingdom. The rivers are full with this superb fish , only wild grayling. If you know how to catch it you will be a happy fellow but if you do not know the spots, rivers, then is possible to consider the rivers almost without fish.
End of June and July are considered the best period of time for fishing big grayling but is very risky to find high level of waters. Even in this case you can catch fish if you know how to search it. In Lapland there are 2 types of rivers: forest rivers and mountains rivers. The forest rivers are perfect for fishing in the first part of the season. In June and July the mountain rivers ( the biggest ones) are very high due to melting snow or big raining. But they will be good for fishing from the second part of July and in August.
This time the water level of big river was quite high and I preferred to fish my first days in the forest rivers:
The water was perfect with lot of insects hatching so dry fly fishing and nymphing was absolutely fantastic. Each day , for a week I fished on a different river. I had to drive all the time to find the pools and spots, park the car and take a good walk:
There are parking places where you can sit down and you can prepare your rods and select your flies. Your friends will “check” your boxes to be sure that you’ll have with you what is working there” 🙂
The mosquito are all over in this period of time so the best repellent is this one from photo bellow:
It is produced by locals and these 2 solutions should be mixed together . The mosquito will let you in peace for hours 🙂
The rivers bed are very rocky and difficult. Every should be careful to wade in water because any slip can be dangerous. A hospital is far away, at good hundreds of km to drive. A broken leg or arm can be a nightmare!
I found squirmy nymphs extremely efficient in strong currents and I use it a lot. Mihai, my best friend did the same. As you can see he tested them before use. You cannot say that he is not really passionate 🙂
After fishing half day I always take a brake and make a fire, preparing a good coffee or tea and 2-3 fresh fish:
Then after such a good break we start together fishing the second part of the day:
Lots of grayling and bending rods:
Later , around 20-22pm a small brake again. This time just sitting down and chat about flies and how good was the day:
Then back to the car and driving home. A few stops to check small rivers between lakes can produce nice grayling and trout and of course like in the photo bellow: perch full of colors 🙂
Nice pike are hunting in deep pools so if you notice that the fish don’t eat completely after a good period of frenzy then you should prepare your big rod with big streamers and you will catch the water wolf from that spot:
Then you can enjoy fishing in sunset:
