Day 2

After a late-ish breakfast at 10am, our team head back out onto the water to try their luck again with the salmon, who had been jumping aroundand showing off the night before, challenging us to try and catch them. They continued to tease us until Finlay caught his first grayling! 

Lunch was in the riverside kota, after which we drove for an hour to Äkäslompolo, a village surrounded by seven fells at the edge of the Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park. As soon as we arrived we checked into our accommodation, the main house at Ylläksen Yöpuu log cabins and then went shopping for food at Jouni’s Shop, where we were faced with a giant multicoloured male reindeer in the car park with its nether regions dangling proudly right above our heads. We filled our shopping cart with freshly frozen local reindeer meat, Lappish flatbread (rieska) and most importantly multiple bags of sweets and salty licorice to keep us going through our night fishing missions. Our cart was so full of goodies, we decided to wheel it all the way to our cottage and lift it inside for easy unloading.

Before venturing out into the water, we soaked up some more rays on the sunny terrace at Selvä Pyy and chowed down some tasty burgers. Then we were ready to fish. The beautiful River Äkäs runs through the area, providing a perfect playground for anglers. At the river bank we bumped into local fly fishing fanatic @jabahei who kindly offered to guide our group. The gang spent the evening casting their flies, with @catchtastic catching his first grayling! @scottish_mountain_man also made a few catches, as did @dansmoe, who refreshed his fly rod skills with style. With graylings biting hard, you couldn’t wipe the grins from our faces.

Back at the cottage at 2am, we found our production manager Becky waiting up to find out what time we wanted breakfast. But we couldn’t resist heading back out onto the water. Äkäslompolo, the lake that the village is situated around and named after, was calling us from under the beautiful orange and pink haze of a sunrise with fog gently hovering above its surface. We knew that there was pike waiting to be found amongst the weeds. Even Becky turned her back on a full night’s sleep to come and row a boat for us after trying out the scenic lakeside swing.

Out on two rowing boats we continued fishing into the morning on the still glassy water, surrounded by a serene atmosphere. Felix @catchtastic fished with a frog lure and managed to fool a small but nicely coloured pike that was hanging out by the grasses. Finlay also caught a pike, using a fly tied by Arctic Anglers. The warm weather we had been having had pushed the big monsters down to the cool waters in the bottom of the lake, out of our reach. We decided to finally turn in at 6am. But only because Becky made us.

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Day 4

Our fishing fanatics were kept in suspense as we packed on the morning of day 4. They were told to pack a separate bag with sleeping bags and camping gear, along with specific fishing gear, with no idea where they were going.

After everyone had been for a morning swim in the lucid waters of Lake Pallas, we set off around midday for the long drive north. We took the scenic route through the idyllic Lappish villages of Raattama, Vuontisjärvi and Hetta to Palojoensuu, where we joined the main road to Kilpisjärvi, also known as the Northern Lights Route. 

On approaching Kilpisjärvi, with the distinctive view of Saana fell looming ahead of us, the cars took a sudden turn down a little road on the left, towards the lake. We arrived at a small car park and at the end was a jetty where a Polar Lento float plane was ready and waiting. The reaction of our fishing crew was priceless, mouths dropping open in disbelief, eyes flashing with excitement, uttering whoops and cheers and ‘I can’t believe it’s.

Each piece of gear was weighed before being put on the plane. Two tents were taken along, but two were sacrificed as the team decided that they probably weren’t going to sleep. Maria from the @catchtastic team stayed behind to look after Milow, as the float plane experience would be too much for him. Becky also stayed behind, knowing that there was a risk that the food she packed for them wasn’t going to be eaten. She felt like she was sending her children off into the wild to fend for themselves.

The propellers started to spin, the engine roared and the plane glided along the surface of the water for a while before taking off into the air against a mountain backdrop. The crew were dropped at wilderness lake with no cabins and no sign of man. Camp was set up on a small hill on a peninsular dividing one of the bays. On went the waders and the boys started fishing for trout that had risen after a caddis hatch. It was the grown-up fishing version of Lord of the (black) Flies (and mosquitoes). Our @scottish_mountain_man Finlay made the first catch before dinner was even ready.  The meal was reindeer stew and potatoes, cooked on the campfire. After a quick refreshing skinny dip taken by two of the crew, we then hiked a couple of kilometres to a small river flowing from the lake, where we spent the whole night fishing with dry flies in crystal clear water, catching trout after trout. Felix @catchtastic landed the biggest catch of the day! All the fish were released apart from two that bit the flies hard and deep, causing bleeding. They made a good snack when we returned to our camp.

No-one felt like sleeping, fishing around the lake through the night and into the morning. The atmosphere amongst our anglers was jolly, filled with laughter and smiles. Finlay couldn’t be called away from the water, even for a bite to eat, fishing from a belly boat in the middle of the lake until the float plane came to make the first pick up at 8.30am.

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Day 6

With a long drive ahead of us on our last day, we left at 8am to go and have a luxurious breakfast in a kota back at the Arctic Land Reindeer Ranch before hitting the road properly. The home-baked bread, home-cured reindeer meat, smoked salmon and all the less exotic things you would wish for at breakfast were just what we needed.

Tanked up on coffee, we drove to our final location before heading back to Rovaniemi. We had organised for Jari Rossi @laplandshaman to show us the traditional fishing practice of seine fishing on Jeris lake. We were welcomed by Jari to his home in Keimiöniemi, where he and local fisherman Jouko (aka Jopi) welcomed us and let us swim in the warm waters from his sandy beach, before taking us by boat to the charming and historic Keimiöniemi fishing huts. The huts have been used for accommodation for local fisherman since the 1500s. We were lucky enough to have a peak inside one of them, as one of our filming crew had keys due to having family roots in the area.

After our tour and tales of a giant one-eyed pike told by master storyteller @laplandshaman, it was time to head back into the boats and drop the seine net to see what we could catch. It took around an hour to drop the net and drag it back to shore, where lunch was waiting. Jopi then cleaned the 5 white fish that we caught in one and a half minutes before heading back to his house on an island on Jeris lake.

On return to Rovaniemi, our fishing influencers checked into the dog and people-friendly Hostel Cafe Koti for their last night. Our final farewell meal was provided by Pure Pizza. We all concluded that it had been a successful trip. Fishing in Lapland had certainly influenced our influencers and left them with a wealth of warm memories. Warm sunny weather, unique locations, hospitable locals, an abundance of good food, plenty of fish, the midnight sun, a few surprises, countless laughs, no need for sleep and a fun-loving bunch of outdoor enthusiasts made this the perfect fishing roadtrip.

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