Week 31 Single hand, salmon & Tuukka

Tuukka’s week at Kengis

In this week we had Sebastian, Antti, Tuukka & Mika fishing at Kengis and lets just say that one of the guys had en absolute amazing week. First week of August is always interesting, will the fish stop at Kengis? Will they be aggressive? Do we get an indication for the rest of the month?

Going on a salmon trip, no matter where you are in the world, it is a special feeling to meet fellow anglers that are there for the same reason. Some know each other and some don't. This week showed that if you carry the same passion you can meet new friends by the river. Sebastian has been a returning guests at Kengis and he was a big help to our new Kengis guests this week. Tuukka had good use of his tips and tricks. It is so nice for us that our guests wants to help other guests in the search of the Baltic salmon. That shows reel Kengis feeling.

‍Follow this weeks guests on a weeks fishing at Kengis! 

Welcome

This week we had three Finnish Kengis rookies at the lodge but luckily also a seasoned Swedish salmon river connoisseur to show us the way. Big thanks to Sebastian for so willingly sharing all your tips and experiences – and not least the needed encouragement! And to of course the whole gang for good company and sharing the growing burden of blanking throughout the week.

Sun over The Pine, one of our striking points at zone 1

Fishing had been quite slow during the past weeks so our expectations weren’t sky high.That changed quickly when Tuukka started rocking on day 2 with three landed fish between 83 and 91 cm during our 22-hour non-stop session. Only to be followed by one more 90 cm fish and two lost monsters that charged into the rapids to snap the leader. If I was talking in good confidence about catching one on the hitch and only using single handers a few days ago, by now I was desperately just trying to do whatever Tuukka was doing. Obviously without a take.

Tuukka rocking at Kengis

Late night action

The good thing about fishing on a lodge like this and meeting other like-minded anglers is that you can at least share swimming and salmon-turned-out-to-be-a-grayling experiences with the others to laugh off the frustration. After 5 days of watching Tuukka repeatedly land and lose fish from the same pools, with the same lines, with the same flies, with the same drifts – I finally got a pull. I have never been as happy about a small grilse as this one, which felt like victory after all the long hours. Just around dusk I landed a 78 cm to finish off my day and a great week.

Antti with a grilse that saved his week

Luckily he was not done for the day

Water levels were very low during and kept on dropping, which seemed to favor Zone 1 where most of the action was. We caught our fish mostly with float/sink3 lines (of course) using flies from Superflies: Orange & Gold Templedog tube, Willie Gunn tube, Phatakorva Templedog Tungsten Conehead, Phatakorva double and Black & Yellow Disc Conetube. Tube sizes were between 4 to 8 cm. We tried giving the flies speed in the slow low water conditions, upstream casts and everything in between, but all of the takes came on slow-swinging flies.

Kengis magic

I had my doubts before the trip of big river salmon fishing being monotonic casting and not really my cup of tea, but I have to say Kengis turned out to be much more diverse and interesting than I expected. Even in low-water conditions it requires a lot of work: heavy wading and long casting, but the amount and especially average size of the fish we saw was impressive. Even a grilse can feel special after putting so much effort into catching it. Thanks for a well-hosted week and tight lines for the rest of the season!

Tuukka with a good fish from Erkkinskuoppa

- Antti Kalske

‍Tuukka had an amazing week at Kengis and August got kicked off in a really good way. Now we cross fingers that the good fishing will continue.

‍Tight Lines!

‍Aslak, Lars & Oscar

‍Photos: Mika, Antti, Tuukka