Tatiana Rynbäck puts on her cap, grabs the kayak, fly fishing rod, and walks down to the river right next to the house. This is where she recharges, surrounded by water and forest and the whistling of a fly fishing line breaking the silence.
Once you’ve started fishing and gotten hooked, it’s hard to stop. Just one more cast. And one more. Often, it’s not the catch itself that’s most important. But the stillness, an active mindfulness, becoming one with nature and letting your thoughts wander. Sitting by the ice fishing hole or with a fishing rod and pondering, gathering around the campfire and gazing into the flames. Cooking over the fire and conversing in the scent of birch wood and coffee.
Tatiana vividly recounts how, during her first visit to Sweden, she ended up at a campfire in a Sami hut with local Sami people. She was struck by how their stories so closely resembled the situation described by the indigenous people she worked with in the Amazon rainforest. Although she was so far from her home country Ecuador, she felt a sudden closeness and belonging.
FROM THE AMAZON TO NORTHERN SWEDEN
Tatiana has always had a great interest in nature. Before coming to Sweden, she worked as a nature guide in Rio Napo, Ecuador’s part of the Amazon, among other things. She left Ecuador in 1994 to further her education in tourism at the university in Madrid. Her studies brought her to northern Sweden.
Tatiana chose to stay here in Sweden where she has started a family and settled in Överstbyn. Throughout her years in Sweden, she has been active in the tourism industry, in recent years with her own company Women Adventure Travel, where she still receives guests from all over the world alongside her other job as a Spanish teacher. She had the idea early on to cater only to women with nature-based activities.
“I had guided so many groups and felt that I wanted to do it my way. I find that there’s a different kind of conversation and more humility when it’s just women in a group,” she says.
LEARNED TO LOVE FISHING
When Tatiana needs to recharge and replenish her own batteries, it’s to the waters she turns. What Tatiana loves most about her life close to nature is what she, as a nature enthusiast, had done the least of before – fishing!
“Fly fishing is a new activity that I’ve learned up here. Sport fishing wasn’t in my world before. But I tried it through my work. And I became completely hooked on it. I’ve been fly fishing for over 20 years now. I’m no expert, but I like it and have learned more and more. Last summer, I booked a mountain trip myself with hiking and fly fishing for just girls, and it was so incredibly fun!”
Her tip is primarily to dare to try and let it become a part of everyday life, just as it’s possible here in Boden municipality where you can reach fishing waters no matter where you live.
“We’ve always been out a lot with our children and not made a big deal out of it. Getting a fishing license is a nice way to get out and fish and at the same time support the work being done locally. In winter, you can take the snowmobile and ice fish. In summer, there are nice rapids and fishing lakes nearby. You can catch pike-perch, pike, perch, grayling, trout, stocked char and rainbow trout here. But a trout on a fly is the dream,” says Tatiana with a smile.
FOOD FROM THE WATERS
Tatiana likes to cook food from the local pantry with a touch of the flavors she brings from Ecuador. The fish you catch can be prepared in many simple ways – frying, grilling, cooking in a hearty soup or curing.
“I like it when it’s a bit tangy. Just breading the fish, pike-perch for example, in flour, frying in butter, and finishing with salt, capers, parsley and lemon, and serving with boiled potatoes is delicious!”
GREAT VARIETY OF FISHING
Boden has a wealth of opportunities for fishing enthusiasts of all ages and experience levels. You can fish in lakes, forest lakes, calm seas and lively rapids all year round. There are two rivers with different characteristics in Boden municipality – the forest river Råne älv with rapids and slow-flowing sections, and the regulated Lule älv with slowly gliding water and one of Europe’s best salmon fisheries. Plus a large number of tributaries and many inland lakes.
In Boden municipality, you can fish for species such as pike, perch, sea trout, trout, whitefish, salmon, grayling, crayfish, char, rainbow trout, roach, bream, ide, burbot and pike-perch. You can fish from land, boat, and in winter also try ice fishing, which is an art of fishing in itself and a popular activity to gather around in the spring sun.
TEXT: ANNA BERGSTRÖM
