05/09/08 - Christopher Robinson reports on his visit to Lakselva in August

My brother and his friends have fished Lakselva for the past three years and constantly regale me with stories of big salmon, and we have also had good reports from Roxtons clients - so this year I was determined to see it for myself.

One of our clients fishing earlier in the season had given us a good steer on kit needed - "As for the fish, there were lots of fish in the river. Once I'd established that the fish were not taking at the surface as they were last year, I immediately started to go deeper, initially with small flies with no luck and then with long Sunray Shadows and hey presto! Apart from my first fish which was the grilse on the dangle, all the big fish came from a floating line with a 10' fast sink tip and large Sunray shadows with a small throat of orange or yellow". We took a wide range of lines and flies and agreed to remain constantly open to change - a tactic that paid off handsomely.

My two sons, Edward and Jeremy and I joined two clients, Roger and Charles at Heathrow early on 10th August and by mid afternoon we were way north of the Arctic Circle and being shown the river which seemed in perfect condition at summer height and 12 degrees C.

Stuenes Lodge overlooks the Home Pool and in addition we had two other beats each day to fish, so we kept the Home Pool rested during the day and fished it in the evenings and before breakfast. The two beats were excellent, both had a good holding pool and a variety of other runs and pools. Our guides, Tom and Martin were first class, knew the river backwards and constantly offered advice on tactics. They also conjured up bank-side fires and delicious lunches - and had ruck-sacks full of cool beer!

Most days we saw fish running, a mixture of grilse and salmon, and in the holding pools there were periodic explosions as some whale breached out of boredom. All of which kept us fired up when the inevitable blank session happened.

We caught 13 grilse, mostly sealiced and normally in the more obviously grilsey places. The bigger fish too were taken in the obvious big fish lies - and what kept the adrenaline racing was the fact that, when the line went tight, there was an 80% chance that the salmon would be 20lbs or more.

In addition to the 13 grilse, 17 salmon were landed, with an average weight of 23.7lbs, only three were under 20lbs and three were 30lbs or more. We also had a couple of sea trout, one of which was 9lbs. We caught the salmon on a wide range of tackle and lines, from ½" skated tubes fished with a single handed rod through to very fast sink tips on big rods. Flies too were a real mixture with various Sunray Shadows working well, as did the Red Francis and Cascade. The most consistent line was a slow sink or intermediate tip - but we changed constantly if we had no luck. Leaders were generally 30lb Seaguar fluorocarbon (the guides will not let you use less) and hooks were Kamasan trebles # 4-8.

We had some great adventures, lost a couple of huge fish, made some mistakes, learned a lot and have inked in next year's dates! If you'd like to see the photos follow this link and view the slide show.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Roxtonsphotos/LakselvaAugust2008