Read more about Fly Fishing here:
"Streams of Dreams"
by John Ross
A World Wide Guide to Flyfishing is published by Chartwell Books
in USA ISBN O-7858-1060-9 and Quintet Publishing Limited England
The Flyfishers
Annual
2001 Millennium Edition Volume Six, where Flyfishers
like Lefty Kreh, Jack Dennis, Bob Dunn and from Scandinavia Harry
Salmgren with others write about fly fishing.
The Flyfishers Annual is published by Australian
Fisning Network Pty Ltd. 43 Centre Way, South Croydon, Victoria,
Australia 3136. Tel (03) 9761 4044. Facsimile (03) 9761 4055
USA Importers and Distributors, Frank Amato Publications.
PO Box 82112, Portland OR 97282 USA, Tel (503) 653 8108
Read Contents on Flyfish's Homesite.
Uppstream: Meditations
on Fly Fishing
Upstream is a combination of
two arts merged to convey the essence of the beauty of the natural
world in this Essay by Thomas McGuane with Photographs by Charles
Lindsay .
96 pages 55 images in duotone. Published by Aperture
Visit Aperture here
BACK |
|
Flyfish's
Reports
Swedish
International Fly Fair
in Rocklundahallen, Västerås,
Sweden
23
- 25 March 2001
This
years Fly Fair shows that it is evident that the fly fishing
industry is in debt to the individuals who help it to develope.
The recent Fly Fair in Västerås,
organised by Jussi Sjölund, was this year again bigger
than before with close to 7000 visitors. It is the first time
in its three-year history that all the exhibition area was sold
out and one reason was the destination exhibitions. A couple
of them were the Fiskecentrum Norr with Sorsele Kortfiskeområde
and its multitude of waters not far away from the venues of the
up-coming World
Fly-Fishing Competition in Swedish Lapland.
Also the Gimån area with Idsjöströmmen
was
represented by Lars-Åke Olsson together with the
rest of the Drömfiske Jämtland/Härjedalen
fishing area. And for anglers interested in Fly-Fishing in
Kola, the Varzina River Company
and Juha Vainio from Finland was there to help.
For those of you that have attended the Fly
Fair in Belgium and Holland, in comparison the Västerås
Fair only lacked the great variety of international stands exhibited
there. Well from other countries than Finland of course. Finland
was represented by both tackle and magazines with everything
from Vision products
to the excellent fly fishing magazine Pohjolan
Perhokalastaja
by May Fly OY which
also publishes books and the Atlantic Salmon Review,
and there was a young female fly tier and salmon angler Minna
Simonen. Also former international angler Hannu
Lehtonen
tied his flies for the Loop Tackle Company, known for
marketing the Loop reel made and invented by the Swede Kurt
Danielsson and his family.
Still
more internationally-renowned companies as Diamondback,
Fenwick
and Sage whose
products were shown by the Swedish representatives and shops.
Also anyone wanting to shop for waders could choose any of the
12 different sizes of the Simms Guide
breathables or the already well-known Vision
waders. Snowbee was
also represented together with the excellent fly tier Sean
Andrews.
But naturally there was more gear for sale, too much actually
to review in this report.
However
one of the highlights of the fair was the presence of the reigning
casting world champion Steve Rajeff.
With the confidence worthy of such a long and successful career,
he really showed how Loomis rods
can perform in hands of an expert. His performance made one also
realise how small the sports arena of Rocklunda really was. So
Jussi, the
exhibition "general", started murmuring something about
getting more space for the next year's event.
Between casting shows and instruction, Steve Rajeff was
to be found on the Loomis stand where he was happy to
share his secrets with visitors to the Fair. Also on the same
stand was Gareth Jones who represented Airflo
from Wales.
One
other of the casting instructors that also stood out from the
crowd was the Danish-born Gunnar Rask Nielsen. Without
making any fuss of his former second placing
in the world casting championships, he invited you all to shares
his personal secrets of becoming a confident and better caster.
If one instructor in Sweden deserves recognition for long and
truthful service he is the one. Nowadays his main interest is
to inspire youngsters to the world of fly-fishing and casting:
something he has done for a long time within the Swedish
Sportfishing Federation.
A couple of other people to mention are the passionate photographer
and fly fisher Leif Milling, fly tier of excellence and
photographer Lennart Bergqvist and Kenneth Boström
the chairman of the Swedish Fly Fishers Association
and also inventor of the fly Rackelhanen.
Apart from them, there also were some younger anglers making
their presence noticed with excellent products, one of them being
the inventor and maker of the Tyfon fly reel
Anders Johansson from Göteborg and also the young
female casting instructor Solveigh Rask Nielsen.
Together with other females in fly fishing as previously mentioned
young Minna Simonen, Solveigh too showed that extreme
talent is no longer the sole prerogative of men.
But as young women should be protected, the
inventor of the tube fly machine and craftsman Eero J. Kostiainen
provided fatherly accompanied for Minna on her stand at
Västerås. He really showed that fly fishing can be
just anything: from making flies to carving fantastic wooden
fly boxes and fly tying benches. And close by was HS
Import
with Henry Bergqvist and partners who's main product is
imported accessories for assembling fly rod kits for making your
own rod. Funnily enough it has become one of Sweden's biggest
company to export them!
As a conclusion this fly fair showed that still more and more
young people and also females are in to fly-fishing and like
to fish together. It was also evident that the fly fishing industry
is in debt to the individuals who help it to develop. If there
were no genuine craftsmen and developers like the individual
reel makers exhibiting at the fair, and also knife makers and
others together with all the excellent fly tiers and individual
works of fantastic wood work with sculptured and painted wooden
fish or builders of fly rods, our beloved fly fishing would go
back to being the secretive small time hobby so many of us visitors
have left behind by attending this great fair.
See
you on the waters
Harry
For
any questions or further information please mail: Flyfish
Welcome
to Southern Swedish Lapland and the XXI WFFC in Lycksele, Sweden.
Copyright © 2001
HS Skriv & Utred, Harry Salmgren. |