Snags, Midges and Elves

Tuesday morning and Lars picks me up from Mum & Dad’s house. Weather is great, a few clouds but mostly sunshine and 20 degrees. The car is packed with fishing gear, camera gear and the occasional food and drink item. We are heading west, approximately 100 km’s into the wild deep forest of the county of Hälsningland. The plan is to fish a few tarns, fish a few rivers but also relax and enjoy the scenery at the same time.
We drive west towards the the small country of Färila. Situated on the banks of the large river Ljusnan, which we are planning to fish a little later,  in my book Färila is famous for 3 things. A kind of very yummy smoked sausage (which I have praised in a previous blog a few years back), Arne’s fast food kiosk which serves traditional Swedish grilled sausages, mashed potatoes , prawn salad and home made mustard (oh so yummy but oh so not healthy) and the third thing is……hmmm….can’t remember now, maybe it was only two things after all….
Anyway, after visiting both famous places we take a left turn and after a couple of kilometres we stop at the very small village of Stocksbo. Here two good friends of Lars and his Wife Karin lives, Staffan and Yvonne, in a beautiful old 18th century farmstead  with the very pretty river of Stocksboån running right through their backyard.  They even have an old power station right next to their living quarters which in it’s glory days only produced DC power, interesting. They have cattle, a cat and a 12 year old dog which goes under the name of Nisse :-)
We are greeted with coffee and after a little chat we head out to try the fishing in the river. It is very pretty country, like taken out of a movie with the river meandering through the farming landscape, flowers of all kinds and colours covering the river banks, horses, cows and goats grazing in the thick grass along the river. So it doesn’t matter much the fish isn’t biting much apart from a few tiny little ones which I don’t even know what they are called, sardines perhaps..same size anyway.
We fish for a couple of hours before it’s time to have some dinner. We are treated to a lovely dinner at Staffan’s and Yvonne’s house and it’s not until 7.30pm we head out again. This time to a tiny tarn some 25 minutes away called Lust Tjärn (Lust Tarn?). It’s another picture perfect spot with the tarn having a glass like surface when we reach it and a cuckoo singing from the top of a tall spruce. A few mozzies tries to annoy us with their presence but we hardly take notice.
Within 20 minutes Lars has landed a nice trout but with the size restrictions on caught fish on our fishing license we cannot keep it and have to release it. I catch a tiny perch and despite there are to minimum size requirements on perch this one goes back to the water. It was tiny enough to be a toddler and not out of it’s nappies yet. A few more mozzies have now joined us and they brought some midges mates with them, it’s is starting to get annoying…
30 minutes later and we have to give in to the assaults of these little flying insects. Clouds with thousands upon thousands of midges are constantly on the attack and despite being covered from tip to toe in repellent they find every unprotected spot, like your eyelids, ear canal to mention a few.

A 400 metre dash to the car and we’re in safety after killing the 539 midges which managed to get into the car with us. We take the long way home in the hope of seeing some moose, bear or wolf but no luck this time. Back at the house I go for a walk in the fading light along the river. It’s 11pm and the sun has just dropped below the horizon. The fog is rising from the river and the meadows and it’s almost like  page out of the Lord of The Rings where you can see elves dancing in the fog and hear the mysterious Näcken (water spirit) play his fiddle.
After an hour I’m back in the house where Lars and I have a late cup of tea before heading to bed.
I wake up the next morning to the sound of rain….not a good sign. After a quick breakfast we say our goodbyes to Staffan & Yvonne who has been so kind to us and looked after us so well. We head north west until we hit the river of Ljusnan. After a tip from one of the locals we head down a very narrow road dirt road, definitely not built for the standard type of road car, and after a kilometre oo so we can see the river. The rain is bucketing down but with a rain coat and gumboots on we take no notice. The river flows quite fast in this area and is very wide, probably 200-300 metres. The river bank is incredibly steep, easily a 50-60 degree slope, which makes it hard work to walk and there are only a few spots where we can get our fly fishing rods out and try and do some fishing. As the rain eventually eases we sit down for a cup of freshly brewed strong coffee and something to eat. Some more fishing does not result in and fish and with our 24 hour fishing license almost expired it’s time to head home. But not before a stop and the yummy smoked sausage place for another purchase! :-)
With not so much fish to bring home but with lot’s new impressions of the lovely countryside and it’s people we head home late afternoon for a well earned rest.