Learn how to fish

Where can I find perch?

Perch are a living creature found in most of the municipality's more than 1,500 lakes, countless streams and along the coast. One tip is to look for shallow, lobate lakes that tend to have high fish production and warm water. Good spots tend to be shallows and potholes, and preferably at the steep edges where the shallows change to deep water. Good perch fishing near Skellefteå can be found in Varuträsket and the lakes in the Bureälven water system, among others.

How do I catch perch?

Most baits work on this fish. An effective and fun way to fish is to spin fish with a jig, a soft and moving worm-like bait in various shapes and colours. It should be retrieved jerkily, irregularly and preferably bouncing off the bottom. Spinners and small wobblers are also effective, not to mention fly-fishing with small surface poppers or streamers. A classic method is angling with a worm and float. A good tip is to replace the classic red and white cork float with a new, modern torpedo float. This is streamlined and offers minimal resistance. A cork float, on the other hand, provides a lot of resistance that often scares the fish before it has time to hook.

Perch are one of our most popular game fish, and also one of the tastiest on the dinner table. This fish likes to swim around in schools and is most active in high summer, when the water is really warm. It is a highly predatory fish and will eat anything in its path, from insects to other fish and preferably other perch too. Its extremely large mouth allows it to eat surprisingly large prey. Its shoaling behaviour and aggressive feeding easily creates a kind of "jealousy" among a group of perch, which anglers can exploit. Once a school has gathered around the hook, after each fish is caught, try to get the bait down as quickly as possible to keep the activity alive. If you succeed, you have a moment to remember.

Where can I find pike?

The fact that the pike is large and easily teased makes it one of our most popular game fish. Something to whet the appetite is what it takes to get up close and personal with aggressive strikes and tough fighters. Best of all, pike can be fished in almost all of the municipality's lakes and in many coastal locations. Kåge, Innerviks and Ytterviksfjärden offer good fishing. In flowing water, it is the selenium and the calm-flowing sections that are interesting.

Fishing for pike with sport fishing gear is successful from the end of May to October. The pike spawn during the ice age. A good time to fish is just after the spawning period in late May when the pike are hungry again. Shallow lakes and bays are usually best at the beginning and end of the season when the water is cold. As the water warms up in summer, the big pike move out to deeper, colder water. The smaller ones, however, stay and enjoy the sun in reedy bays.

How do I pull up the pike?

Common spinning baits used are jigs, spoon drags, spinners and wobblers. In recent years, surface baits called jerkbaits have become popular. Pike often jump high up in pursuit of these small splashing things. Similar strikes are also experienced when using fly rods and large glistening flies on the surface.

In recent years, an increasing number of anglers have begun to release the large pike they have caught. Pike several metres long are often tens of years old or more and play an important role in the water's ecosystem.

Where can I find walleye?

The extremely sensitive eyes of the walleye offer advantages in hunting, but also disadvantages. It shuns light, limiting its range to waters with poor visibility. It also prefers waters with depths down to 15 m, where it can seek shelter on days when the light is too bright.

The walleye also prefers warm water, which has limited its range in northern Sweden to isolated locations. In the municipality of Skellefteå there is a long-standing population of walleye from Bodaträsket up to Neboträsket in the Bureälven water system.

How do I catch walleye?

In a large body of water like Burträsket it can be difficult to find walleye. The most popular and effective method in such waters is trolling with a jig or wobbler. The advantage of this method is that you can easily cover large areas and thus find the fish more easily. Once a pike has been caught in one spot, it can often be worthwhile to continue fishing there. A good tip is also to talk to other anglers to get a tip or two on good spots.

In smaller lakes, fishing from deep holes can be beneficial. At dusk, however, walleye often follow prey fish close to the surface. So even though the lake is deep where you fish, it can pay to present the bait near the surface.

If you know where the wigeon tend to hunt, bait fishing is also effective.

Compared to pike, wigeon prefer smaller prey. Baits and baitfish in the size 8 - 15 cm are recommended. The goose always attacks from behind, so make sure the hook at the back is flawless and sharp.

Where can I find trout and grayling?

There are both large and small streams in the municipality and many have stocks of grayling and trout. The grayling are usually found in greater numbers than the trout. The undeveloped forest rivers Åby River, Byske River and Kåge River offer almost endless fishing opportunities. Here in the northern part of the municipality, grayling and trout can be found from the most downstream streams on the coast to the municipal boundary in the north and west and on into Norrbotten.
For those looking for a stream close to the city, there are opportunities for grayling fishing in shallow and currenty areas next to Rovön in the Skellefte River or for both grayling and trout in the Klintfors River.

In the south-western part of the municipality, Sikån, Risån and Tallån all offer grayling and trout fishing.

How do I catch trout and grayling?

On the vast majority of days during a fishing season there is no visible hatching. This means that you have to present sinking flies called nymphs instead, which mimic insects in their aquatic stage. The flies used for grayling and trout in small streams are often the same. For larger trout, fish-like fly patterns called streamers can be effective. Trout and grayling eat similar food but differ slightly in behaviour. Grayling tend to move in groups, while trout often dominate a territory alone. Grayling also spawn in the autumn, while grayling spawn in the spring. The latter is also a more pronounced insectivore.

Where can I find burbots?

Burbot can be found in most waters in the municipality. Try the lower reaches of the larger coastal estuaries or the shallows of the larger lakes. A classic place where many a burbout has been hoisted through the jigging hole is off Björnsholmen in the lower part of the Skellefte River.

How do I bring up lakes?

The best time to fish for bourbot is December to February. Fishing is then done from the ice. As bourbot are mainly nocturnal, fishing is often best after dark. The equipment used is stiff jigging rods with coarse line and large blanks with fish hooks. The bait should be brought close to the bottom and preferably "bumped" into the bottom material. When fishing in places with a slightly harder current, a heavy jig with a small surface area is usually required to get down. An ice-borer of at least 150 mm. diameter is recommended, as it is not uncommon to find salmon weighing over three kg. In late autumn it is possible to bottom fish for bourbot before the ice has settled. The best locations are rivers with calm streams and relatively deep sections in close proximity to larger salt marshes, lakes or the sea. Bait intake should be very slow and with breaks when the bait is completely still. Unfortunately, with this tactic, bottom snapping is not uncommon, so 0.40 mm. main line is recommended. A three-way leach can be used as a link between the sinker, hook and main line.

Most other fishing is conducted during the daylight hours. Bourbot, on the other hand, are fished most effectively during the dark part of the day. For families with children, it is a very pleasant experience to exchange the stress of Christmas for a few hours of quiet salmon fishing under a starry sky. The children's mixed delight as they pull up a wildly meandering lake will be a memory for a lifetime. Unfortunately, there is a resistance to salmon fishing because people don't like to eat the fish they catch. This is explained by the fact that it looks "nasty" and that they don't know how to cook it. Salmon meat is of a very high quality and is often called freshwater cod, due to its relationship to this species.

Bourbot is highly prized in our neighbouring country Finland where it is considered a delicacy, and you don't have to go far back in time to find the same opinion in Sweden. Stewed bourbot and "bourbot soup" are two classic recipes well worth trying.

Where can I find salmon and sea trout?

The most famous salmon river in the municipality is the Byske River, but the Kåge and Åby rivers are also well worth a visit. These forest rivers all have a relatively early salmon run, normally peaking in the second half of June.

The Skellefte River offers urban fishing from both boat and shore for sea trout in spring and for salmon and sea trout in late autumn.

How do I fish for salmon and sea trout?

Among fly anglers, there is often discussion about the colours and patterns of flies and which rivers require what. This also applies to the rivers in Skellefteå municipality and there are several local patterns. It has not been scientifically proven that certain colours or patterns work better than others. Given that salmon do not feed during their spawning migration in the river, most of the time it is a matter of irritating them into taking a bite.

A common piece of advice when salmon fishing is that "the fly fishes better in the water than on land" which means that it is more important to be efficient and persistent with fishing rather than frequently changing flies. The hard part is getting a fly in front of the nose of a rising fish. Whether the fly happens to be blue-green instead of red-white may be of secondary importance in the end.

The sea trout premiere usually takes place in mid-May, while salmon are allowed to be caught in most rivers from early June. Please note that salmon fishing times are set by the Fisheries Agency and may change from one season to the next.

The success of fishing during the rest of the season, which runs until mid-September, depends largely on the river's water level and temperature. Usually the difficulty of attracting fish increases with low and warm water, but it is perfectly possible to catch salmon and sea trout during most of the summer.

Salmon and sea trout are similar in many ways, which led to the long-held belief that they were the same species. The fishing methods used are also similar. For the spin fisherman, narrow spoon drags in silvery colours as well as wobblers of various sizes work well. The flies used are often of the 'hairy wing' type with or without a taper.

Where can I find roach and bream?

The white fish found in the municipality are mainly roach and bream. Cod are the most common and can be found in many of the municipality's lakes. Bream are mainly found in more nutrient-rich lakes such as Tåmträsket, Ragvaldsträsket, Gummarksträsket and the lakes in the Bureälven water system. Other so-called white fish species such as tench, tench and roach are also found but are not as common as roach and bream.

How do I fish for roach and bream?

Whitefish fishing is mainly a summer activity. Fishing is often best just after the spawn in early June and when the water warms up in July-August. Both bream and roach are found near soft bottoms with vegetation. Depths of 1.5 - 2 m are often suitable and fishing is therefore often also possible from shore.

The only fishing method used for targeting roach and bream is angling. The classic red-and-white cork float on top-knotted line and bamboo rod works. Thin lines, small hooks and tapered floats are even better. Instead of the large earthworm, it is best to choose a small worm, maggot, corn or blood worms.

Depending on whether you want to catch roach or bream, present the bait at different depths. Bream take the bait exclusively from the bottom. In contrast, cod usually take the bait near the bottom and sometimes in the open water.