Fishing in the Haarakoski Eco-fishing Area on the River Suolijoki

Fishing in the Haarakoski Eco-fishing Area on the River Suolijoki

We sat down at the Haarakoski lean-to shelter, to take a break and to think. The river was in spate, typical of the first days of June, washing the bushes that grow along the banks. We hooked the occasional fish by fishing deep with nymph. At the tail of the lower rapid, where the boulders stand on dry land in the summer, we polled the fish population for their opinion of our flies, receiving responses from a number of grayling and one lively trout. The trout was a surprise.  Most votes in the knee-deep water went to a small tinsel streamer and a Montana-style nymph.

By midnight, our plan was clear: we would fish the water along the banks of the upper rapid. Jari began fishing downstream from the rapid’s upper section, catching one grayling after another. Many took the fly right next to the bank when it had been in the water for the briefest time. Not only large but surprisingly small grayling hit the small tinsel streamer. This incredible fishing lasted for about two hours. Then Jari hooked a large grayling on a small tinsel streamer, forcing him to follow it downstream in the fast-moving current. Before the tail of the rapid, where the water empties into the pool in a smooth glide, Jari steered the fish into a calmer section of the current, lifting it in his landing net for both of us to admire. We spent a moment sitting on the bank before heading for our accommodation. It didn’t take long before one of us voiced what both were silently thinking: were the fish biting as eagerly on the opposite bank? Or even more so? We crossed the river in a boat, pushing our bedtime forward by another two hours.

Aleksi Määttä, Oulu