Total fishing

Finland has over 180 000 lakes all ranging in size and depth so to say I am spoilt for choice is an understatement. Around Kuru my home, there are no less than 412 expanses of water within a 35km radius. Some no more than 500m long by 200m wide while others stretch for 70km like Lake Nasijarvi. Out of these 412 lakes 65% are either close to roads thus giving you the chance to access them by boat.4% can be found in National Parks & are out of bounds with regards to fishing, leaving me with 31% that are free from boat activities but could be accessed by either float tube or canoe.
I set about at the beginning of the year plotting which lakes I would have to use my float tube on due to their isolation and which were close enough to forest roads but could be easily reached with a short portage with my canoe.
Packing a day pack with sleeping bag, open shelter, enough food for a day and a half, compass and map…..Oh! (And let’s not forget Dingo the dog), has added a new element to my fishing. Scouting out lakes like this has given me a real sense of exploration…..(something which has been sorely lacking in my life until now) The cherry on the cake though is being able to come back and paddle on these recently inaccessible wilderness waters and chuck some fluff on them.

To spend the day fishing around wilderness lakes like these, working your way meticulously from reed bed to water lily patch, then into open water is just mind numbingly awe-inspiring yet so hard to express on paper. On those truly calm days, It actually becomes deafening with the incessant sound of my rod and fly line cutting the air back and forth and I become quite conscious that I am disturbing a perfectly wonderful setting by being there. Every beat of a bird’s flapping wings can be heard overhead and I can’t tell you how many times I have followed the movements of a lone mink along a lakes shoreline by the patter of its paws. This is total fishing for me. Laying down the groundwork, scouting areas, hauling in the equipment, chucking fluff for Esox, being one with nature, it doesn’t get much better than that!