The lake has begun to freeze over and snow has fallen. The boat is out of the water until next spring and thoughts turn to Christmas and ice fishing. But first a recap of the fishing season.

From mid August to the end of September the fishing was awesome.

Perch were caught in huge numbers and at time became a plague to get through in search of other species!
I did a basic experiment to see how many Perch I could catch from the boat in 3 hours. The result was 35lb and is photographed below. It was a memorable session in that a Goshawk spent the day around me, culminating in it snatching a juvenile Hooded crow from its nest and flying off with it over the boat!
All the splashing from the caught Perch led to a quick cast with a big lure at the end of the 3 hrs producing a twenty pounder pike. Great day!






Big numbers of big Salmon were counted passing upstream by the cameras. Quite a few jumped in front of me as they went by!
We did find a wonderful new Salmon jumping viewing place. Lots of Salmon and beautiful scenery.

And we had a big new boating and fishing store open up nearby. Sweden sure is attracting the attention of overseas anglers. Plenty of boats and top brands of lures and clothing on display. Simms, Orvis, Rapala, Daiwa, Abu Garcia, Savage Gear, Westin etc. This caught my eye and I took a crafty photo. The Swedes really are honest! All in all a brilliant store and a must see for any keen visiting angler. A second HUGE sports shop nearby full of fishing, skiing, biking, hunting equipment etc means you can visit two places at once.
September and October brought a lot of Moose into our back garden and forest. They were mainly mums with 1 or 2 calves and they seemed to enjoy feeding lakeside by our boat.
You never know what you may encounter. This slowworm made for a strange meeting on one session.

And I found some new bird watching places. I hope you’re OK with heights? This is a Grebe and migration hot-spot.
It may surprise you but Sweden also has terrific beaches. We spent a few weeks on this one in August with an average 24 degrees centigrade every day.