Icefishing & freeskiing in the untouched wilderness Pt:1
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| "The skies were clear and the wind was glistening with it's absence. With the skis on our feet and our backpacks equipped we started to advance towards the cabin. Carefully dodging every tree and rock in our way, we shortly arrived. There she stood, popping out from the chest deep snow like a brown piece of Lego in a sea of white pillows" |
I know that in our first draft I wrote that our first real post would cover a trip to the Swedish west coast were we would be chasing sea trout. But you are now going to read about clear blue skies, frozen beards, freeskiing and ice fishing for brown trout instead. But thou shall not worry. We will still be chasing sea trout later this spring.
Coffee crisis
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| Here Jacob is waxing his skis before we hit the road. |
Before we went to the mountain lake where we were going to stay for the upcoming days we prepared our skis.
We applied wax for 12 to 16- Celsius in hope that it would not be to cold.
We had already packed our bags with all the essentials. Warm clothes, comfortable clothes (to wear at night in the cabin when you're sippin' on lil' a whiskey in front of the fire) and mountain gear, foldable shovels, hatchets knifes and such. And of course, our fishing gear! After this we went to buy food for the trip. Three breakfasts, four lunches and three dinners. But when we got to the most important item on the list, the elixir of life, the source of everything that's enjoyable, the coffee! I made a horrible mistake.. I only bought one pack!! That's like only enough coffee for one day. What the **** was I thinking?! Because of me we were forced to ration the caffeine, like savages! One cup a day?! No one can live like that. But any how, let's not dwell on that anymore. I've learned my lesson. Let's move on!
Cabin fever
We arrived at the cabin at around 10 am. The skies were clear and the wind was glistening with it's absence. With the skis on our feet and our backpacks equipped we started to move down towards the cabin. Carefully dodging every tree and rock in our way, we shortly arrived.
There she stood, popping out from the chest deep snow like a brown piece of Lego in a sea of white pillows. (I know that's sounds like something inapplicable but I'm keeping it because I like it.)
A bit upstream from the cabin you could see some open water and beyond that, surrounded by snow covered peaks, the beautiful mountain lake spread out.
Just outside of the cabin the river was still frozen but a bit downstream you could see the clear water simmer down between the snow covered rocks. The feeling you get when you come to a place like this is breathtaking. And you just know that you are going to love the following days.
When the awe had settled we started to get our things in to the cabin. So now you might be asking "I've always wondered, what is the first thing one should do, entering a cabin in the north of Sweden when it's way below freezing outside?" Well I'll tell you what! You start a fire! You have to make the cabin warm so you can dry your clothes and get your body warmth up again if you fall through the ice. And also because it's fun to burn things. Although be careful. If you get to ambitious with putting new logs on the fire, you'll make an accidental sauna. That is something that we did every night because, as I previously wrote, it's fun to burn things. Also you will get too hot, and when you get too hot you'll get thirsty, and when you get thirsty you'll might drink one or two beers too many and that is not good for the following morning. Anyhow, the cabin was warm so we got our fishing gear and went out on the ice.
No wind. No wind at all. It felt amazing as we got to the first spot were we wanted to fish. We started drilling holes in the ice and while doing so we noticed something. The ice had divided it self in to layers. First there was about 3 cm thick ice. Beneath that there were slushy ice mess and then some more ice with even more slush beneath and then the last ice layer. It was like a huge tasteless ice-cream sandwich. I got a bit worried at first, because was not in the mood for a bath at all, but we realized that it was safe when Jacob started jumping up and down on the ice just to prove that it would hold for us. We then put the bait on our hooks and lowered them down in to the water.
After we sat down we realized something. We hadn't had a cup of coffee since we left home that morning. So we immediately started to dig a pit in the snow on the shore. Why you wonder? Well we needed a place to make a fire so we could brew our coffee. Also because it's nice to sit in a snow pit when the sun is out and just relax and enjoy the hell out of life.
Now i'm not going to write about every single fish that was caught. Mostly because I only managed to catch one small grayling during the whole trip, but also because there is not that much to say about most of them. But I will write about some favorites from the trip.
the first day one fish stood out from the rest. the monstrosity you see here to the left. It is a fish who's Swedish name is lake. That name is pretty similar to the English word for a large body of water (see Lake) so it's perfect for dad jokes! Wikipedias english page calls it a burbot and here is a link if you want to read more about it. I will use that name from now on to minimize confusion.
It is the second time that Otto has caught one of those bad boys at the same spot in this lake. In Sweden burbot is considered a garbage fish. Probably because when you are fighting with it you might think it is a trout, grayling or arctic char that you have hooked, but when you see this bottom feeder break the surface you might feel a wee bit disappointed. My friends dad caught one a long time ago and when he saw that it was a burbot he shouted "En jävla Lakejävel!!" and kicked it far out in to the woods. Me personally think that they look pretty cool and would not mind catching one.
Besides from the burbot we also caught some trout and grayling that afternoon and after five hours on the ice we started to get hungry so we packed our gear and went back to the cabin. After we had dinner we played some cards, looked at the sunset and then went to sleep. We had to get up early the following morning to catch some trout while they were having breakfast.
To be continued.....
A bit upstream from the cabin you could see some open water and beyond that, surrounded by snow covered peaks, the beautiful mountain lake spread out.
Just outside of the cabin the river was still frozen but a bit downstream you could see the clear water simmer down between the snow covered rocks. The feeling you get when you come to a place like this is breathtaking. And you just know that you are going to love the following days.
When the awe had settled we started to get our things in to the cabin. So now you might be asking "I've always wondered, what is the first thing one should do, entering a cabin in the north of Sweden when it's way below freezing outside?" Well I'll tell you what! You start a fire! You have to make the cabin warm so you can dry your clothes and get your body warmth up again if you fall through the ice. And also because it's fun to burn things. Although be careful. If you get to ambitious with putting new logs on the fire, you'll make an accidental sauna. That is something that we did every night because, as I previously wrote, it's fun to burn things. Also you will get too hot, and when you get too hot you'll get thirsty, and when you get thirsty you'll might drink one or two beers too many and that is not good for the following morning. Anyhow, the cabin was warm so we got our fishing gear and went out on the ice.
Ice layers
No wind. No wind at all. It felt amazing as we got to the first spot were we wanted to fish. We started drilling holes in the ice and while doing so we noticed something. The ice had divided it self in to layers. First there was about 3 cm thick ice. Beneath that there were slushy ice mess and then some more ice with even more slush beneath and then the last ice layer. It was like a huge tasteless ice-cream sandwich. I got a bit worried at first, because was not in the mood for a bath at all, but we realized that it was safe when Jacob started jumping up and down on the ice just to prove that it would hold for us. We then put the bait on our hooks and lowered them down in to the water.
After we sat down we realized something. We hadn't had a cup of coffee since we left home that morning. So we immediately started to dig a pit in the snow on the shore. Why you wonder? Well we needed a place to make a fire so we could brew our coffee. Also because it's nice to sit in a snow pit when the sun is out and just relax and enjoy the hell out of life.
The lake in the lake
the first day one fish stood out from the rest. the monstrosity you see here to the left. It is a fish who's Swedish name is lake. That name is pretty similar to the English word for a large body of water (see Lake) so it's perfect for dad jokes! Wikipedias english page calls it a burbot and here is a link if you want to read more about it. I will use that name from now on to minimize confusion.
It is the second time that Otto has caught one of those bad boys at the same spot in this lake. In Sweden burbot is considered a garbage fish. Probably because when you are fighting with it you might think it is a trout, grayling or arctic char that you have hooked, but when you see this bottom feeder break the surface you might feel a wee bit disappointed. My friends dad caught one a long time ago and when he saw that it was a burbot he shouted "En jävla Lakejävel!!" and kicked it far out in to the woods. Me personally think that they look pretty cool and would not mind catching one.
Besides from the burbot we also caught some trout and grayling that afternoon and after five hours on the ice we started to get hungry so we packed our gear and went back to the cabin. After we had dinner we played some cards, looked at the sunset and then went to sleep. We had to get up early the following morning to catch some trout while they were having breakfast.
To be continued.....
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