Fly-Fishing for Arctic Char
- How to find it

The edges between the main current of the river and the
pocket waters are also 'hot spots'

When fish are rising - and they do more or less regularly - you can easily identify a productive spot for fishing. But, be prepared! These feeding intervalls sometimes last only for half an hour or so. That's why my single-handed rod is always 'ready-for- action' when I am at the river fishing for salmon. Char will rise anywhere in the river except for the fast water in the main current. Wherever the stream is a bit more quiet, i.e. in slow water, on shallow banks, in pocket waters behind stones or bushes, you will all of a sudden perceive small rings breaking the surface.

Unfortunately, there are no particular feeding times like we know them from fishing for trout. I have caught Char at literally any time of the day/night - though at the time of the year I fish Reisa (July and early August) midnight sun lights the 'night'. I, therefore, cannot tell whether darkness influences the feeding habits of Char? It appears to me that warmer weather favours both dry and wet fishing; some of the best catches my friends and I made during bright sunshine around midday. Yet, even in the coldest hours of the night a shoal of feeding Char might come across your way and offers a welcome distraction from hours of tough and often monotonuous salmon fishing.

However, when Arctic Char are not feeding on the surface it can be hard to tell where fish can be found. Well, there are a few behavioural patterns that we could observe over the years and which helped us to locate fish:
Where a small creek of cold water from the mountains flows into the river it is always worth having a few casts. I suppose, fish do like these spots for three reasons: First, some of these creeks function as spawning grounds and like salmo salar gathers in the sea close to the mouth of its native river, it seems as if Arctic Char - in a very similar way - gathers in large numbers before heading upstream to the spawning zones. Second, the water is here - in general - colder than the water in the main stream. Yet, while the deep cold pools in the river are likely to be taken by salmon [which do not like to share their 'living rooms' with others], Char can occupy the cold but usually flatter lies close to the creek's junction with the river. Third, the incoming stream will often transport a good variety of nourishment, which Arctic Char will eagerly accept.

The edges between the main current of the river and the pocket waters are also 'hot spots'. After having had a first turn on salmon it is always worthwhile to replace the two-hand by a single-hand rod and give it a try for Char which hides between the rocks and boulders in the slower water. Keep your fly/nymph on the very edge with the full stream!! Again, I do believe that Char occupies these less power consuming lies in order to avoid being chased away from the deeper salmon lies.