It takes about a day by car to reach the fishing areas in the middle of Sweden once you have left the harbour of Göteborg behind you, from the Stockholm airport it is just a few hours driving. Whatever way you choose, be prepared to fish new and exciting waters for trout, grayling, pike and perch every day.
Text by Rudy van Duijnhoven, pictures by Rudy van Duijnhoven and Leon Godijk
Our second year
After leaving the Stena Line ferry in Gotenborg in June of 2016, it was again about an eight hour drive for Leon Godijk and myself to Kustleden in Strömsbruk in the middle of Sweden. We were looking forward to try some waters in this area together with our guide Jessica Dolk and Stefan Barenfeld in the next few days.
Kustleden has among others a number of apartments close to a river. Kustleden’s main building is situated on the same strategic spot as the smithy which operated from the late 1600′s and two centuries onwards. When Ströms Bruk changed directions at the end of the 1800′s the smithy was replaced by a splendid new head office right by the rushing river. The building was finished in 1912 and added on to ten years later. The era as a head office ended in the 1960′s and today the rooms offer comfortable accommodation, kitchen, lounge, café and a gallery.
There are only four rooms in the main Kustleden building and one of those is a single room. That means that there will be no more than seven guests sharing kitchen and lounge at the same time. The building turned 100 years in 2012, the ceilings are high but the atmosphere is still cosy. There is a small angling shop and a camera museum in the main building too! Although there is no TV, Kustleden does offer free wireless internet (WiFi) and exciting books in the bookshelf.
The Kustleden apartments
The Kustleden Söder apartments consist of two rooms, kitchen and WC with shower. Size: approximately 50 m². The seven holiday apartments at Tallbo differ a bit from those at Kustleden Söder. They do all have two rooms and a kitchen and are equipped for four (or three) guests. Tallbo is the original name for these homes built for the mill-workers as early as 1903 and have been modernised throughout the years. In the 40′s – 50′s they received electric power and water after half a century with outhouses, a well and root cellars. The buildings are log but they have been insulated and modernised. Right now they could do with a lick of paint on the outside but they are comfortable on the inside with lots of character. On the first floor the apartments have sloping ceilings and large balconies while those on the ground floor have high ceilings and a door from the living room straight out into the greenery.
After a nice tour, on the morning after our arrival, by the owner of Kustleden in Strömsbruk of both the hotel/apartments and the area, Leon and myself tried the river at the site before Jessica Dolk was going to pick us up for some guided fishing. The river in front of Kustleden brought some small grayling plus a 39 cm fish on the nymph, which was nice. There are a lot of small silvery fish in the river that attacks everything, could they be asp? Jessica brought us to a nice stretch of the river with some deep pools and runs. As there was little surface activity we fished with nymph and streamers for most of the time. After a nice dinner prepared by Jessica along the river, we tried some more. Now a 38 cm grayling took a floating CDC nymph of mine, other than that we just landed some small, wild brown trout.
A good many grayling
Before driving to Riverwild Fishing and Lodging once more, Leon and myself spend a few more hours at the Harmånger river that flows alongside Kustleden. We started with small nymphs fished upstream and that brought us six nice grayling between 35 and 39 cm (some more threw the nymph before we could take a good look at them). After lunch the pike rods were put together and after missing some takes by very small pike and some perch that also tried to take the big snack, we landed three strong, healthy pike up to 73 cm from the river.
With Leon I arrived at Riverwild Fishing & Lodging that same afternoon and the following day their guide Mattias Furuskog took us to the River Leån to try for trout and grayling. We started at another section than the one we fished last year and here, in some fast runs, we got some small grayling and a few nice wild brown trout on size 8 black streamers. Lunch was served where the section of the river comes out of a lake and here we had fished the year before as well. After lunch Leon and myself took some roach and perch in the lake on small dry flies and nymphs. After dinner we tried the river Ljusnan in front of Riverwild for some more, it provided us with some grayling in much the same size as the year before.
Big perch
From Riverwild it is about half an hour driving to Fjussjön, a ginclear lake with a good head of brown trout, grayling and some big perch (as Leon found out halfway through the day); it is ideal for fishing from a rowing boat or a belly boat. I had a brown trout on my very first cast and a grayling a little while later (both on an American Gold Ribbed Hares Ear Nymph in a size 12), but than the sun came into play and things got more difficult. Some large brown mayflies were hatching and these were often chased by trout and grayling, but getting these fish to take our flies was a bit more difficult.
We went to a rather large pike lake (Vexnan) the following day with Mattias Furuskog, we went on the water (some twenty minutes from Riverwild) with a rented aluminium boat and a proper engine behind it. The morning in the bright sun was slow with just some small pike following our streamers, but after lunch the clouds came and the fishing improved a lot. We were ‘tortured’ by small pike all afternoon, some better fish missed the fly or threw the hook too early. We missed a whole lot of takes too. Our best fish was a 75 cm pike in prime condition.
Bigger pike
With Mattias and Leon I started the following fishing day at a deep, slow flowing stream that connects different lakes in the area of Riverwild. We had some small pike here and missed some takes of better fish. In the afternoon Mikael Frisk brought the rental boat to the lake we fished the day before for a few more hours of flyfishing for pike there. Leon started the afternoon with a 90 cm pike, not a bad way to begin, and after that we landed several more pike, but we missed and lost probably at least twenty each in the reeds and weeds (mostly small pike though). In the last hour the rain finally came, a sign that our stay in Sweden was coming to an end, sad but true. We would be driving back to the ferry in Göteborg early the next day.
Information
Fishing in the middle of Sweden
www.fims.nu
Kustleden Hostel & Holiday Apartments
Harmångersvägen 2
820 72 Stömsbruk
Sweden
Tel. +46 (0)650 – 74 00 30, +46 (0)70 – 26 77 976
Website: www.kustleden.com
Email: info@kustleden.com
Riverwild
Morvall Färilavägen 90
820 41 Färila
Sweden
Tel. +46 (0)70 – 5091 570, +46 (0)70 – 6767 921
Website: www.riverwild.se
Email: info@riverwild.se
Wildlife Sweden Camp Ängra
Ängra 6
820 43 Kårböle
Sweden
Website: www.wildlifesweden.se
Email: info@wildlifesweden.se
Jessica Dolk Fishing Guide
Email: j.dolk@hotmail.com
Tel. +46 (0)72 – 732 6464
Cordes Travel
Groenveld 19
5752 BH Deurne
The Netherlands
Office: +31 (0)493 – 310 103
E-mail: info@cordestravel.nl
Website: www.cordestravel.nl
