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The Salmonswitch
The Salmonswitch - Story by Frank Michael Larsen
The final group had just left the Lodge and outside my cozy camp-office a bunch of demo-rods were hanging-out in the rod-rack. Still shiny and crispy as when they were tackled up in the spring, but no longer virgins. Their cork handles molded from shaking hands with many guests and silver scales scattered and etched to their blanks, bearing witness of battles and victories. In less than 5 month these rods and reels had gained more combat-experience than most of their clones ever will.
My eyelids went heavy - It could have been the wind or the vodka in my tea - but I think I heard the rods talking! Yes – the Yellow Loop rod was definitely giggling away about an unbelievable June-session with fish everywhere in a high leveled Krivetz. "Not the regular stuff" she said "but real fighters close to the 20 pound mark - and I really had to bend over right down to my skirt to drain their power". "Oh yeah" - said a bragging G. Loomis rod - "you are indeed a soft stick miss Loop, but be glad that I was in front when the first autumn fish entered" . "It takes a rough guy with a strong back-bone to crack them" ! "Never mind the monsters" - whistled the snobby Sage single hand rod - "I was picked for the summer fish, chasing tiny flies and I even caught a handful of the top"! "Oh shut up, you are all a bunch of babies" - squeaked a truly hardened Loop traditional Reel from the bottom shelf. "I was here in the beginning, when fish outnumbered mosquitoes and were all as long as hip waders"! "I had my throne on the verandah of the old Umba lodge and I remember the days when the guides were rough but enthusiastic and the kitchen was more quantity than quality". "I have seen them grow to become the best salmon guides and the finest kitchen staff on the peninsula". "I have served three different camp managers for several seasons and I have tamed hundreds of salmon with dozens of clients". "I was even there, in the old Grumann-boat days, when the famous Billy Butt fly ‘raped’ his first fish back in -98" !
"You are indeed a mean old wheel pop-eye" - said a pair of extremely battled Bogdan reels - "but you can lie down now and lick your six sore ball-bearings and let us take over - and don’t think you know it all Mr. Looooop"! "We actually found a handful of new salmon-pools this season"!. "One of them in the serious rapid between the Rat pools - and to get a fish out of that current, you need a serious brake-system like ours !
"Steefan ! Steeeefan - telephone" ! OOY - there is Nadia from the kitchen waving the wireless at me ! "Hello - Umba lodge - Steffen here". "Hi you half-Russian salmoooo-maniac - are you planning to hibernate on the river"? "Or will you come down and answer your phone in the office"? "Clients are calling every day, trying to book for next year"! That was the never resting Mr. Baldursson, having a laugh at the other end. "Yes of course I will come - I just have to pack up and get ready". I looked out the window towards the rod-corner and made eye-contact with the Loop 2W - was it the one I used back in autumn -95 when I caught my biggest Umba-salmon? There was still light and I think I saw a fish rolling just outside the big rock upstream the boat-landing. "I have to run Arni - there is someone knocking at the door"! Time to leave - time to get a kick in the guts in the real world, with its crowded highways, television and politics. But not without a last fish from a home-court pool on tried and tested outfit ! I grabbed the rod with the old reel Loop reel and time stopped again - for a while!
I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Kindest regards
Steffen Juhl
