River Tjulån (Sweden)
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The Tjulån runs between the lakes of Tjulträsk and Gautsträskthe, close to the Ammarnås locality, in the region of Västerbotten in the north of Sweden. Present fish species are grayling, trout and some canadian char. This latter is the remaining of some exemplars that were introduced several years ago. Also if some Ammarnås lake trout are also caught every now and then, the grayling is the undisputed Tjulån highlight.
The bridge on the Ammarnås road entering the village, offers a view on nice grayling feeding in the currents and well visible in the gin clear water. After a few casts at the bridge, we start from there the walk to the upper part of the river.
There are about 4 kilometers to arrive to the waterfall. As we follow the path through the woods, we come across fantastic spots, that could stimulate in any fly angler the wildest fantasies. Nonetheless we overcome the temptation to stop and cast, pursuing our idea to start fishing from the upper part.
We walk through landscapes that are suitable for post cards. The beauty of the nature like in a dream, painted in pastel colour. Framed by overwhelming nature, the plastic red bag with the mushrooms we collected, seems stuff from another planet.
After one and half hour walk we stop and make our base by a wooden hut. We decide to split in two groups and start fishing.
There is no insect in sight. There is no sign of activity by the water. The weather is cold and a bit windy, the sun shines through dark cobalt clouds. Two of us are fishing with nymphs and the other two with dry fly and it this latter that start catching. Paul found a shoal of grayling that show interest for a big dry mayfly pattern with deer hair wings.
By the rapids there are several deep pools and pockets of water. On heavy nymphs we catch some mid sized brown trout between 20 - 30 cm.
At the meeting point by the campfire, a grayling is sacrified for our spartan lunch with potatoes, salami and mushrooms.
At dusk the insect activity does not start as we expected, apart some sporadic rises on (our) big dry flies.
The Tjulån hosts big grayling. Some days Fish tend to be very moody but it can grant astonishing surprises when grayling enter the right mood. Fish over 50 cm are caught on regular basis. The all stretch offers plenty of room to explore and lovely landscapes for a full immersion in the nature.
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