Em Opening Days 2020 – Isolated by the River
The world is under hard pressure, the virus situation has gone into something that is beginning to look like a global, almost war-like situation. We all need to take our responsibility by keeping clean, not socializing in bigger groups – taking care of each other at a distance. Foremost we need to support the old and fragile part of our population.
Us fisherman never liked crowds, we like to stroll around by ourself or sit alone behind our desks tying magic flies. We are among those who do less harm than others. But please bear in mind what you choose to do and how that may affect others.
Having said that, I went to the Em for the opening days. We were very few, we fished alone and the only contact is that photo we want and need. The fishing was good, it's quite long time since I saw the river with this much water, almost 100 m3/s and a fair temperature of 3,5 degrees. As always Em was a memorable experience.
Mornings were quite tough, but from lunch both the rivers salmon and sea trout showed they were there and eager to take our flies. The first day gave 70 fish, bag limit of six to my own rod. That’s a very good opening, one of the best ever. Also second day was good, maybe even better. And that despite a raise in the water with cold snow melt dropping the water temperature. The best fish were taken by “långe Peter”, he hooked and landed an 7,5-8 kilo sea trout fresh from the sea, in Stone pool. A fantastic fish!
My biggest trout was a 85 cm old fish and actually I landed almost as many salmon as sea trout. My best fish was a silvery 3+ kilo from the tail of Pike pool. My great pals Håkan and Peter also had good fishing with some nice sea trout to their rods.
As always this early, the trick is deep and slow flies. I used two rods rigged with a 700 grain deep water express and a 4.-5 double density head. The TTT flies, newly tied for the occasion worked well. The 1,3 gram large TTT really make a difference in depth. Hard current made they swim lively without collapsing by water pressure. The best patters were Pahtakorva of course, but also its brighter cousin Sierrakorva. Sillen gave me a couple of good fish too.
Hopefully the virus situation will stabilize so we can gather our ambassadors and the people close to the brand for the planned Frödinflies Em Weekend in mid May.
