Land locked Arctic char under the midnight sun

By Jerome Philipon and Roger Öhlund.

Two weeks before midsummer an opportunity presented itself when a friend, Andreas Olsson from Norsjo, called on the phone with a, to say the least, fantastic story. There was no mistaking that there might be some substance to what he was telling, at least judging by his enthusiasm. He wanted us to get up at 3 am Monday the week after in order to be on our way to Saxnas Village in the municipality of Vilhelmina, about 450 kilometers (279 miles) west. We were to fish in Ransaran creek for a day and a night and then return back home. It sounded a bit on the tough side but his enthusiastic story about a trip that he had made a week earlier tore down any resistance I had and I agreed to join him for the trip.

Most of the tiredness that I had been feeling that morning was washed away by an early breakfast at a cafe´ in the small town of Vilhelmina situated about 150 kilometers east of our destination. A quick stop at a local tackle store for some refilling of flies, and we were on our way to Saxnas. Saxnas village will host the European fly-fishing championships in 2004, which will be the second time in three years that this kind of event will be held in northern Sweden. Last time, it was the world championships. Ransaran creek is a long mountain creek famous for its large Arctic char and its trout. Originating from the lake Bije-Ransarn in the mountains close to the Norwegian border it has absolutely crystal clear water and an abundance of trout and Arctic char. The mountains in the area are partly consisting of limestone which in turn helps to keep the water as clear as can be.

We had planned to fish the trophy stretch located high up the lower part of the creek, a stretch that is under quota restrictions allowing 10 persons to fish every 24 hours. Andreas had called Saxnasgarden Mountain resort a week ahead to book our fishing permits, which this early in the season are fairly easy to get.

Upon arrival at Saxnasgarden we had lunch in their restaurant enjoying the fabulous scenery through large panorama windows while eating. One does get the feeling of being in the wilderness when looking out these windows and it is a surreal feeling to be able to sit down and eat a´la carte at the same time.

Looking out over the lake below we realized that weather conditions weren’t perhaps the best we could’ve wished for. Although there was no rain and even some sunshine coming through the clouds it was somewhat windy. We reasoned though, that in the valley of the creek it might not be that bad. Picking up our permits at the newly opened fishing centre in the same building as the resort, I learnt that the bag limit was one fish and the minimum size 45 cm (18 inches). I must confess I thought they were joking since I had only caught one wild Arctic char that big before and know of just about one place where you can find that many that you might have a chance at catching one, and this wasn’t it.

Once we arrived at the creek it was to our dismay a bit too windy to be good, it did calm down during the night though. We were going to fish the two calm stretches at the top of the lower stretch, the quotation stretches. I tackled my ten foot three piece five weight rod with a heavy caddis nymph.

As mentioned, the water of this creek has what is the characteristically crystal clear water of the mountains, this in turn cause the fish to be vary of any motion along the shoreline.

The calmer stretches that we fished were about 40 – 80 meters wide, this says very little about the creek’s normal size at about 15 meters wide, but knowing this gives you a hint on how very slow flowing this stretch is. Fish were taking heavy nymphs and nothing else, I believe it was the weather that made it impossible to catch fish on anything other than these nymphs, and we did catch fish. Two larger Arctic char and one nice brown trout were caught and released, the biggest weighing almost 3kg (lb6).

It is a bit special to go fishing this far north and so close to midsummer with the 24 hour daylight and to cut the story of our first visit short we kind of forgot time. What happened was that when we finally got home it was 4 am 25 hours later. I decided there and then that I would not drive up there again unless I could bring my tent. I did go there again and had the fishing of a lifetime.

Having been to Ransaran two weeks before midsummer and having seen huge Arctic char swimming within the reach of my rod tip I had a hard time forgetting about the place and finally four weeks later I called my long time fishing buddy Fred and told him about the place.

"You’re lying" was his immediate response. "There can’t be such fishing there and I haven’t heard about it….?"

"Well then, come with me and see for yourself" I told him.

And so it came to pass that we once again booked permits for 24 hours of fishing at Ransaran Creek.

Tagging along was another friend, Erik Holmlund, fly-fisherman and owner of one of the oldest fishing sites on the Swedish part of the web, Erik’s River site. We planned on arriving so that our fishing would start at 1 pm and end 1 pm next day.

Arriving at Saxnasgarden mountain resort I once again found myself sitting in a restaurant where one could pay a fee just to admire the view. After lunch and another visit to the fishing centre to pick up our permits we were on our way up to the creek.

Our first visit to Ransaran Creek had been a success although the weather had been on the windy and slightly chilly side. This time the weather was warm and the wind just about still. But what was to come nothing could have prepared me for.

Once at the creek we set up camp and took a walk up to a canyon leading out from a water reservoir, not a water power plant, just a reservoir. This reservoir having a bottom outlet affects the quota restricted part of the creek in two ways. First, the water is always very cold, around 6 degrees Celsius (43 degrees Fahrenheit) even during July. Second, the bottom outlet provides an abundance of gammarus in the stretch below. Arctic char normally feeding on gammarus and liking cold water reach enormous size in this creek and specimen up to 5.5 kg (lb12) have been caught.

On our walk up to the canyon, where fishing is prohibited, we saw fish swimming in the narrow creek that easily surpassed 4,5 kg (lb10). Asking my friend if he still thought I was lying, he was too distressed by what he saw to give an answer.

Fishing started out with us casting with very small gnats or weighted nymphs tied on to what was the smallest diameter tippets we dared to use. Fish were rising everywhere and it was big fish, even huge fish, but we caught nothing. It was still day time, in the afternoon, when we decided to take a break and have something to eat. The shear frustration of having such rises and being unable to fool the fish was taking its toll.

At this point something happened that I never ever had expected, the char was starting to do head and tail rises all over. It was a sight that will be forever imprinted in my brain. The number of fish rising per minute was around a hundred and the size was such that the tailfins easily were wider than 10 cm (4 inches). Guess if we hurried to the rods!? but no avail. The fish would simply not touch anything thrown at them.

Late that night I caught what was going to be my first Arctic char that trip (18 inches and lb 2,5) on a fly that I had no more than four of. And my friends had none. It was an iron blue version of the Klinkhamer in size 14.

It was a humbling experience to see all that fish rising under the midnight sun in a mountain valley where the snow still was evident on the slopes

The only way we found to induce a rise was to wait for a fish to show itself and then present this Klinkhamer so that it floated fly first, leader coming behind it, to the fish. I had to give my friends one fly each explaining that I had only four and that the last one also was mine. We must have seen thousands of rises that night and later I heard that one of the fishing guides had expressed that he was close to tears from the sight. It was a humbling experience to see all that fish rising under the midnight sun in a mountain valley where the snow still was evident on the slopes.

Waking up the morning after, a bit tired but very keen on getting a few more hours of fishing before our permit ended, we cooked breakfast. While sitting and eating a big Arctic char started to rise no more than 50 feet from our tent. Fred being frustrated from not catching anything the night before, simply dropped his sandwich and grabbed his rod with the small Klinkhamer still on it. It was kind of fun looking at him approaching the riverbank on all four, expecting the char to stop rising in any second. Stripping line onto the ground he made one false cast and dropped the fly above the fish in the stream. Slowly floating towards the point where the fish had been rising the fish rose again. At this point I literally yelled at him,

"Why didn’t you strike you moron."

He shouted back that the fish had been rising to something no more than 25 inches to the side of his fly. At the very second he closed his mouth the fish took the Klinkhamer and he hooked it.

Getting up to a standing position he shouted,

"Oh, oh! It’s a big one."

And it really was. He never took it out of the water, just unhooked it since we were going home later that evening but I took some really nice pictures of it while it was still on and I swear it must’ve been close to 20 inches.

Getting back to his breakfast on shaky legs, but with a smile on his lips nothing could’ve erased at that point, he sat down mumbling something about how good life can be.

Now comes the fun part. We hadn’t been sitting there for more than two minutes when another big Arctic char rose in the exact same spot. We both looked at Erik who already was on his feet. Erik more or less imitated Fred in his approach and did everything perfect. The fact that the fish broke him and left him more or less devastated is another story.

I caught another four char at approximately the same size or slightly smaller than my first. This is not what I remember best from the trip though. I was fishing the lower calm water at the inlet from the creek when I saw one of those trophy fish that we knew could be found in these waters. It was rising again and again in a side current created by the inlet and did not really pose any difficulty as to how to fool him and hence I cast and landed the Klinkhamer two meters above him in the current with the leader coming behind. I hooked that fish but after 30 seconds I hadn’t even slowed him down when he broke me. I don’t cry easily, but this time it was very close.

Packing up and returning home was bittersweet. We had had an experience that made us want to stay longer but also a fishing trip worth telling about. Next year... next year...

Authors: Roger Öhlund, Jerome Philipon.

Photos: Roger Öhlund, Bo Lindfors, Andreas Olsson, Michael Renstrom

Saxnasgarden mountain resort is located in the midst of the Lapland wilderness in the municipality of Vilhelmina of Vasterbotten County. Surrounded by two nature reserves and distanced from what is normally called the civilization with about 100 kilometers.

The area is characterized by high mountains, big lakes and several streams.
Some of the streams hold fantastic trout fishing, like Marsan creek, Satsan creek, Kultsjoan creek and Saxan creek.

Saxnäsgarden mountain resort

Postal address: Saxnasgarden
Box 1
910 88 MARSFJÄLL
SWEDEN
Tel: +46 940 377 00
Fax: +46 940 377 01
Email: info@saxnas.se

Since our visit the Fishing Centre has moved to another mountain resort close by.

Kultsjögarden mountain resort

Postal address: Kultsjögården
Box 129
910 88 Marsfjäll
Tel: +46 940 700 44
Fax: +46 940 702 70
Email: info@kultsjogarden.se