Saturday, April 24, 2010

Salmon fishing the "traditional" way!


Today's story starts with some fiction and ends with stinking reality.
Imagine you are a guy living on Kallandsö near Vänern. The summer is over, fall is coming and you have nothing to do, but in your deepest memory you know that with fall and sinking water temperature the Salmon are coming close to your shore. You have a small boat and a net and some jerrycans and as it is Tradition in your area, you put this stuff in the water of Vänern some where not so far from your home, to get your share of the Salmon.
You do not have a license to do this, but as you do not prepare moonshine whiskey, drive to quickly or pay a women for sex, nobody cares.
As your net is in the water it starts fishing, while you sit at home. Than all over sudden and completely unexpected something happens, Winter is coming! Your small boats gets frozen in, in your shallow bay and you can not go anymore to check the hard work and devastation your net is doing.
And while your are sitting at home, the jerrycans which kept your net marked and floating are sucked with water, as they were not made for the purpose you use them. After a short while they are submerged and your net is now what the tradition calls a Spoeknaet.
This is something like a ghost net as it can not be seen anymore but it is still fishing for you although as you can not go and find it, the hard job is done for nothing. The fish start rotting and this goes on as your net is not rotting and moreover it becomes a hazard for the nautical safety.

With the spring coming the ice is melting and the salmon are coming back to your shore and your net is still fishing for you, but you can not find it anymore or you forgot it completely.

On a Saturday in April a Trolling boat comes to your area, because the Trollers come from all over Europe to spend their money in your country to catch some Salmon as well, this Trolling boat gets tangled in your hard working net, as the captain could not see it!
The captain is now in deep shit as he is alone, his 2 downrigger wires and 4 rod are hanging in your net and the motor is caught as well, it takes him 2 hours hard work to clean up the mess. He has to get your rotten fish out of the water and and the remains left from your net, which is still working as it has again caught a fish for you, which is still alive.

This is what happened to me today, the picture shows the stinking result of traditional fishing!

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