May 2016
View Jay’s Baltic Salmon Blog Post »
Loop Profile Jay Bartlett
What got you interested in fly fishing?
Jay: My earliest memories are of fly fishing, I have the very faintest image of a Sea Trout caught by my Dad on a trip to the river Teifi in South East Wales, I must have been 1 or 2 years old at the time.
How did you get into the fly fishing travel business?
Jay: Purely by chance and a series of fortunate events. Lars Munk from the Loop Pro Team was reaching out to young fly fishers like myself, to fish for Big Baltic Salmon in Camp Onka on the Lainio river in Sweden. Despite very affordable prices, life as a modern musician was not kind on my wallet, so in exchange for a weeks fishing I offered to build a new website and help promote the business, as I had always wanted to fish in Scandinavia and Sweden has very few private stretches of salmon fishing available. After a successful launch I also started selling these trips and gained interest from other operations to do the same across Northern Sweden for Baltic Salmon, Grayling, Mountain Trout and Char, of which I was able to build a roster of destinations under Fly Fish Scandinavia. I have now started working with other destinations across the pond under Fly Fish Adventures and working on some new projects coming later this year.
Tell us about your fly fishing experiences Northern Sweden
Jay: I also discovered the fishing here by chance. My knowledge of Sweden was very limited until my music career brought me to the North. Driving past peat stained torrenting rivers peaked my interest to see if Salmon were running them. Of course they were and it took no less than 4 hours from this discovery to find a local tackle shop that sold licences, calling local friends to borrow rods and battling through dense forests to fish bare foot with rolled up jeans, taking on big baltic salmon with a 9’0″ #5 rod. I didn’t stand a chance really, but I didn’t care I was Salmon fishing again. I have many fond stories from the last 3 years here, but last year was my first proper experience spending 10 days on the Kalix, Torne and Lainio rivers in June, loosing 2 salmon 20-30lbs+ and finally landing a good fish of 14lbs. I saw many others catch fish 20-30lbs or more and that was an experience in itself. I always have a good day when someone is catching these illusive creatures.
What is your favourite part of working with LOOP?
Jay: I am happy to say that my involvement with Loop has started quite recently and I have enjoyed all aspects of what I do so far. The best part is to be in close contact and working directly with people who have a real passion for fly fishing as well as developing and producing fly fishing products that are improving year after year. I am looking forward to flying the Loop banner this summer in Sweden and developing and working with new projects such as our outfitter and guide support programme and new projects that will see the light of day in the near future.
Other than Baltic Salmon what are your favourite fish to target?
Jay: I must admit that river fishing is always at the top of my list, even the big lake systems that are connected by short rivers and streams and Sweden has opened my eyes to to big brown trout, grayling and Arctic Char, so I am hoping to do a lot more fishing for these species in the coming season. I had a great experience with Grayling last summer in Camp Onka, September is supposedly a fantastic time there, so I’d love to do that and having Ice fished for Arctic Char in Västerfjäll Arjeplog earlier this year, I would love to go back and try to catch Char on the fly. I have had a great experience with Trout and Grayling here also in previous summers, after the Char disappear into the colder deeper waters.
If there was one tackle set up you could not live without, what would it be?
Jay: I am a fast action guy when it comes to both single and double hand rods, but as most of my fishing is for Big Baltic Salmon, it will have to be my Cross SX 14’0″ #9 and Evotec CAST Fast 15′”0 #10 rods and these must be paired with my Opti Megaloop to quickly gain ground on the most powerful beasties and the full range of GDC shooting heads from floating down to the fastest sink ratings, for all the varying conditions of a Scandinavian summer.
When and where will your next adventure be?
Jay: Well my Baltic Salmon fishing quest continues in early June, this season is going to be particularly special as it will be my first guiding and hosting for the majority of the short 12 week season we have on the Kalix and Torne river systems. I am particularly looking forward to catching up with more Loop Pro Team guys and gals, working on photography and film projects, developing the Baltic Salmon destinations further and making lots of great new content to feature on Loop’s media platforms. I will be in search of my first fish over 30lbs, but equally excited for all our guests coming to potentially catch their fish of a lifetime also! The adventure continues as we say.
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