"Jarmo Hurri" wrote in message
...

Roger Well, here comes what I've discovered so far:

Roger Caddisflies like elk hair caddis (hair winged caddises) with
Roger greenish body. Actually all insect life in the area tend to
Roger have nuances of green. I think it has to do with the greenish
Roger water. Mayflies, also in green nuances. Last time we were up
Roger there an olive variant of the Wulff series flies worked
Roger excellent. Nymphs in the color "guess what", pupaes like the
Roger superpupae (olive). Klinkhamer. Black wooly buggers for
Roger streamers. Actually I've also tried an olive (surprise) variant
Roger with some success. Soft hackles in low water. Stewart's black
Roger spider. And yes, an olive variant.

The two times I've visited northern Sweden I've observed that green
Klinkhämers and Superpupas in various colors are very effective. Why
green Klinkhämers were effective seemed obvious after examining the
contents of the stomachs of a few fish: loads of some green insects
that had almost completed their metamorphosis. Last year Vaughan dug
up a couple of real hits from his vast collection of flies: the
Streaking Caddis and some *very* small fly.

The importance of mayflies up north - which is what you always hear
and read about - has fascinated me for some time. If I remember
correctly, we didn't really catch fish with adult mayfly imitations
last year, but we saw lots of these orange/brown mayflies flying
around:

http://www.cis.hut.fi/jarmo/fishing/...002/mayfly.jpg

Now what will be really interesting is to try to catch some
charr. Never caught one with fly-fishing gear before (just some small
ones with spinning gear). Any special tips for this mysterious but
delicious fish?


Ah, now there's a question for the masters of this pastime called fly
fishing. As you know I plan to hold a mini clave at Ransaran creek, this is
where you will be measured and judged ;-)

The Arctic char is among the most difficult fish to fool. This for a number
of reasons. Arctic char feed mainly on midge pupae's and a fresh water
shrimp "Mysis" of the Mysidae family and as such not often feed on caddis
and/or mayflies. At times they will however feed on these two species'
nymphs. The char's habitat often being very cold water, far north and/or in
the mountains equally often puts them in waters clear as gin. A big Arctic
char will make a sip of a rise not distinguishable from the small Arctic
char doing the same thing.

I never seem to get a grip on how these fish feed. Some of the mystery, I
guess, has its answer in the fact that when feeding on Mysidae or Diptera
there is often an abundance of these in the water and you can cast until
your arm fall off without success. When the char is feeding on such insects
I often, and not without success, trick them with a method that will induce
a take (slightly unethical). I watch them feed as they cruise by and try to
figure out where they are going. Once I think I have a clue I cast a large
caddis fly in their path. Then when the char approaches I simply strip the
fly in front of the fish. Mind you, it doesn't work all the time.

Also, the bigger the char the more difficult. Where you would use a streamer
on a big trout you're not likely to have the same kind of success with this
particular fish. I've seen lb 11 Arctic char feed on Mysis only to duck away
from more than twenty different nymph imitations and streamers presented by
me. Imagine the feeling of seeing such a fish in a 4 yard wide crystal clear
stream, imagine also that you were able to approach to a point within reach
of a cast. Then you get to see this huge fish ignore everything you can
think of.

Sometimes these fish actually rise to caddis or mayflies, often this
coincide with a major hatch. You can sometimes see them rise without any
obvious surface activity regarding insects. At times you're so completely
emptied of ideas that you start thinking of giving up fly fishing.

God, I love this fish. So beautiful and so damn hard to catch.

/Roger