Week 23 - 24hrs is all you need

In our first week with guests we realized that the fishing is a little late at Kengis Bruk this year. The big baltic salmon was in the lower parts of the river fighting to reach Kengis.

But when you have a group that know Kengis Bruk so well, as our first group, they know it is a matter of time before the salmon will pass us.

Our friends from Denmark keep coming back to chase the dream of a big baltic silvery salmon. They keep the fly in the water and spend the time at the river. A good sausage before your turn in the pool has always been good.

What we normally see at Kengis Bruk, is that in the early season we have the first salmon come in decent numbers and they are willing to strike our flies. As in the first week we did not see many fish and the first days seemed quite slow.

And then to the 24hrs.

Out of nothing those forerunner fish came! And within 24hrs we landed four fish and lost 2. Now we knew that they where here.

Thomas started off with a proper fish in good conditions. 95cm pure silver, just like we hope for in the early season.

Thomas has been at Kengis for years now and this year he had his friend Einer fishing with him. Einer was relatively new to baltic salmon fishing and he did everything right and it was just a matter of time before he would get his chance and he did.

Out of nothing we heard a little whistle and Einer had his rod bended and the backing flying off the reel. With shaking hands and legs he did all he could to control the fish and he got into a good fight with a good sized fish. At the end his friend Thomas could net the fish for him. What a story and what a moment to remember. A first on fly is something special, but to land a 101cm fresh baltic salmon and get your best fishing buddy to net it for you. That is a memory that will last forever.

The danes know how to “hygge” and the next evening they did it again. The fire was on and so was the fishing. We were still in that 24hrs strike period.

Thomas was lucky to hook into his second fish of the week. Just after the book the fish striked on a long cast just between the fast and slower water.

And then to another fantastic memory. For some years Christian has been visiting us and did all he could to get in contact with at baltic salmon from Kengis. This year he improved his fishing and that evening is one of those he will never forget. In his first round in boat pool he came to one of the strike points and hooked into a fish. It gave him a good fight and after a jump and some rolls he lost it. The whole group cheered for him and felt with him when it got away. A broken leader was in the way of his dream to land a baltic salmon. But what do you do? Go up, do some swearing, tie on a new leader and jump in again. And what happend? On the exact same spot he hooked another fish and this time it came all the way to the net. What a story. Well done Christian. Another first on fly and with full group support. Fantastic moment.

After those 24hrs everything got a bit slow again, not many fish showed and the fishing was slow. Einer lost a fish and Anders had a good fight, but it was a pike.

It can be hard to ba a salmon fisher, but that is a part of the game when you are chasing the early fish.

It is always a pleasure to host our danish friends and we chase the dreams again next season.

Lars ended the week with a real Kengis Bruk beauty. This big baltic salmon took him for a good fight from the strike in Island pool to landing down at zone 3. What a way to start a Sunday.

Now we look forward to our next guests and hopefully a week with more fish coming to Kengis.

Tight lines!

Photos: Thomas, Olivier, Aslak & Einer