Laivajukke Dry-Fly Land
I'm looking at our pilot. He smiles and I can see how his eyes finding a focus on the horizon further to the left of my position while at the same time making a strong turn. We are now facing straight towards the cliff we have been flying next to for a couple of hundred meters. I can here the passengers behind me screaming just like they did when we took off. They had never been in a helicopter before and their eyes told me they had enjoyed the ride. Until now!
It wasn't long until it was all we could see. The cliff approaching in front of us. With what felt like only 10 meters left to a collision he steers away with another strong turn. He smiles and so does I, we both looked back at my guests which screaming quickly changed to laughter. The pilot was just playing a joke. Even though I fly helicopter often and used to maneuvers such as flying in a turbulent wind or flying really low when there is fog. I have to admit these turns made me grasp for anything to hold on to. We are on our way to Laivajukke, the dry fly land. And this trip was already memorable for both my guests and myself.
In a very flat valley, just as flat as the valley Tjuonajokk is in. It makes its way down from Laivajaure. It is a very small stream early on from the lake but further down where the tributary stream called Ammerjukka joins in, this is where the fishing starts. With meandering turns the stream continues down. Very changing but this stretch is quite deep and slow in general. On some places, the stream is very wide and this is where you find the largest fish. Our basecamp is just a few hundred meters downstream from Ammerjukka.
Downstream of the base camp, the stream continues its meandering way down the valley, but with more shallow parts as well as more narrow. This combination makes the stream go faster. There are more places suitable for sight fishing upstream of the base camp but I have some good memories from sighting fish even further downstream.
One time I remember in particular was in quite a narrow but deep part in a scorching sunny day. The deeper part I decided to fish felt right during the daytime because there is a lot of trees all the way down to the bank. This means coverage in the shadows and most likely hiding spots for larger fish near the roots of the tree. This fish I got hooked up with immediately was not among the biggest in the stream. I fished a smaller caddis imitation on the surface very near the shadow of the trees. Simply by the light bend of the five weight rod, the fish wasn't able to swim downwards into the water. It was al the way up the surface and almost chasing its own tail in circles just like only small fish can do. It was right then I could see the spotted creature appear like a dark shadow from below into a surface attack. The small fish on the hook survived the mere terror. It was unharmed and possible to release, even though the larger fish wasn't visible I tried to move very slow when moving down to the water and letting the little fellow of only 20 cm go back. I backed off from the shore a little bit and while searching the water for the bigger fish I checked my leader. Only 0,17 mm was unnecessary thin for a larger fish like that, especially due to the steep sides of the stream and possibly even roots that the leader can get snagged in. Just when I had my clipper in my hands to change fly the fish appears again. Not in the surface this time but maybe a meter deep. It was clear on its behavior this trout was ready for revenge on catching one of his own kind.
I cut the leader in half, rolled the thinner part together again because this can be reused. My seatrout tippet material will be perfect for this situation, one meter of 0,26 mm fluorocarbon attached and what fly I was going to use was already decided. A copper and brown streamer with a wiggle tail because this trout was on the hunt for big meat and it was going to fall prey for its very first articulated fly. It is so much material in this fly and I want the fly to be soaked before I start fish it so I pressed it down into the wet marsh ground where I have been standing. As soon as the fly lands on the surface the fish will see it and I don't want to waste any of its interest to fish a fly that doesn't move well. I had to arrow cast the fly out in the water. The fish showed interest right away but it wasn't really interested to go so far up near the surface where the fly was. I had to work it quite many times in front of the fish and it wasn't before I made a real overhand cast risking to cast the fly line above the fish and let it sink further down that it finally took it. What a beautiful fish it was.
We continue to the lower part of this private stretch where there is a small bridge that we can use, Ran Sami community use this bridge for their transport on ATW's and it is thanks to them we are allowed to fish here. This bridge is the only sign of human activity this far out in the very remote part of the Vindelfjällen Nature Reserve in the south of Swedish Lapland.
The stretch ends with a stunning pool where a quite large steam joins the water system. Depending on the water level, this place can hold so much trout that you can spend a whole day in this area. I use to bring lunch down to here so my guests can spend the whole day in the pursuit to catch "the king of the pool".
We offer complete packages to this destination including helicopter transport from Ammarnäs, accommodation in the comfortable and large tent with three bedrooms and camping beds, all food during the stay and guide during the whole time. It is a two-night trip that we most often do. If you want to see more about this exclusive offer and price details you can check this link: English Svenska
The season is from the beginning of July until the end of August. When landing after the crazy scary helicopter flight that the pilot gave us, we landed on the 11th of August 2016. This trip was to be the last trip of the season and are now approaching the evening. We decided to make an early dinner and focus on the evening fishing. What is on the menu? Tonight I'll serve them local reindeer meat. We need all the energy we can get. Because we are going to fish all the time until 4 am this epic night. The fishing was unreal!
Looking forward to many more experiences like this one in the future.
My Laiva setup: Rod: Tane 9' #5 and a six weight rigged for streamer Reel: GT custom Line: Tane #5 Leader: Tapered nylon leader with 0,17 mm tippet Favorite Flies: CDC Caddis, CDC midge pupa, superpuppa, vindels gnat, elk hair caddis See pictures here Sunglasses: Costa del Mar 580p copper lens
Contact me if you want to embark on a journey robert@fishyourdream.com
