The Sea trout and The Shrimp

 C&R on a 65cm Sea trout 

 Had two nice days on the River Harmånger with three Sea trouts caught, two fish that came off and also some pulls on the fly. On the the third or fourth cast on friday morning I hooked up with a 75cm Sea trout that gave me a good fight and made my Hardy Bouglé scream a little bit. I had a new fly pattern at the end of my leader that did the trick and it always fun when a new fly delivers fish. The fly was a Shrimp pattern in peach colors and made with composite loops. Did loose one bigger fish that was on for maybe 5 seconds then after a cup of coffe and a short rest in the sun I did hook up with the second fish for the day. It was a realy good take and the fish went airbourne three time and did a good work bending my rod. After a while I could release a 65cm Sea trout and say thanks for the fight. After the second fish I was realy pleased and packed my stuff in the caar and went home.

Early on Sunday morning I was back on the river again and did fish for some hours with just a pull or two before I waljed further down the river to a pool I never fished before. I started to cast and with just my Commando skagit head and a couple of meters of shooting line I had the first very gentle pull on my Hares ear and brown shrimp fly but no fish on. Did some more cast at the same spot but the fish refused to take the fly again. I started to cast longer line into a realy bad wind and maybe after 5 meters of wading down the pool I got fish on. After a nice fight I could release another 65cm Sea trout and then I went up river again to try some pools but no more fish and by now there many people fishing the river so I decided to call it the day.

65cm Sea trout with a Peach Shrimp

A bunch of Shrimps

From the top: Olive shrimp, Hares ear and brown, Grey heron and rainbow.

The river

Harmångersån - A beautiful little river!

River Harmånger or Harmångersån meets the sea in the small village of Strömsbruk on the east coast of Sweden. Its a small river and the Sea trouts can reach realy goods size with fish over 90cm caught and realesed (it's just C&R and only single hooks allowed) so they can come back to spawn. The main part of the fishing is in the spring because it's a spate river and when the snow melts now in April the fish that stayed in the river over the winter starts to move down to the sea and new spring Sea trouts will enter the river. The river has the pontecial to be one of the most productive smaller rivers in Sweden but at the moment the fish can just migrate 1,5km up to  the first dam. There are a group of people working hard and doing a realy good work to restore spawing grounds both down stream and upstream the first dam. Hopefuly the first dam will be gone in a near future and in a couple of years the fish will have 50-60km more river to run and find new spawing grounds.

Here is some pics from the some of the lovely pools down i Strömsbruk. It' s well worth a visit in April and you have a chance to hook up with big Sea trout.