TR: Gierts creek and a grayling lake

(If you don't feel like clicking on all the picture links there's a web
version on the web site at the end of this post. Click on "Trip reports" and
"Gierts creek and a grayling lake")

Gierts creek and a grayling lake TR

A week after midsummer's eve I was asked by a friend of mine if I felt like
visiting a lake, with a small stream outlet, said to hold trophy grayling.
When I asked him what his perception of trophy grayling was he told me that
he himself had caught a 25+ inch grayling in the small stream. I don't know
about you guys, but for me a grayling longer than two feet is one big
grayling. Later, during the Swedish Lapland clave, I took all the clavers to
this lake with the hope that they would get into some huge grayling, and of
course we didn't get to see any fish at all.
Anyway, after driving from the coast to the small community of Sorsele we
met with a guy named Magnus Bidner who is involved in a project called
Lapland fishing. This guy has knowledge about the waters around Sorsele that
only a local can acquire. Driving along a small forest road we managed to
see two capercaillie before arriving at the spot where we were about to
leave the car. Stepping out of the car my friend Andreas points at some
tracks on the gravel road. Bear tracks, and fresh such. Knowing that a bear
had visited the exact same spot within a few hours earlier and knowing that
we were to walk a kilometer through the forest that probably was its habitat
was, to say the least, interesting.
On arrival to the lake, a small forest lake with an even tinier stream as
outlet, we saw some fish rising. Inflating my float tube I got into the
water with my 10 "#5 Sage with an Elk hair caddis tied to the tippet.

http://biphome.spray.se/salmo/ROFF/g...tr/ROD8024.jpg
Andreas and Magnus

http://biphome.spray.se/salmo/ROFF/g...tr/ROD8044.jpg
Andreas in the float tube.

http://biphome.spray.se/salmo/ROFF/g...tr/ROD8054.jpg
Concentration

As I was talking to my friends at the shore I missed the first take and
being late struck all too hard in a misplaced attempt to compensate for my
thoughts being on other matters than fishing. The line broke, and my
friendly spectators made some not so friendly comments about striking to
hard. Being a source lake with water coming out of the ground the
temperature wasn't all that welcoming to the use of a float tube and I had
to give up before I was deep frozen. But giving up came second to the fact
that I caught a grayling at about lb2. After a couple more hours of fishing
we decided to try another water.
Gierts creek is a well known creek in the Swedish fly fishing society. This
is a creek that starts high up on a mountain plateau and holds both trout
and grayling. Magnus showed us a calmer stretch where fish where rising all
over.

http://biphome.spray.se/salmo/ROFF/g...tr/ROD8014.jpg
Upstream.

http://biphome.spray.se/salmo/ROFF/g...tr/ROD8034.jpg
Downstream.

Grayling is an easy fish to estimate the size by its rise, at least compared
to Arctic char that is among the most difficult. With an abundance of rising
grayling we caught several at lb2 and I must say it was one of the nicer
grayling trips that I've had. I only saw one larger trout and although I
tried very hard to match the hatch and present the fly in as good a way as I
could, it simply stopped rising at my first attempt. The long story is that
I had to wade in the middle of the stream for about one hundred meters
before I even got to a position where I could cast. This in turn made me
extra careful in my presentation of the fly and I swear it was free floating
with the fly coming first to the fish. My guess is that there was something
about the fly that wasn't satisfactory. That's life I suppose.

/ Roger
Daytime engineer
Lifetime flyfisherman
If you feel like it, visit http://biphome.spray.se/angler/ for info on
flyfishing in northern Sweden, Lapland

"Roger Ohlund" skrev i meddelandet
...
(If you don't feel like clicking on all the picture links there's a web

----------------------------8-----------------------------------
That's life I suppose.

/ Roger
Daytime engineer
Lifetime flyfisherman
If you feel like it, visit http://biphome.spray.se/angler/ for info on
flyfishing in northern Sweden, Lapland

Thanks for another great report Roger! Brought back some fine memories of a
beautiful place and a very badly timed thunderstorm.....;-)
Stefan