Paradise Found

time, but with „nature” as, in these special weeks, the sun only dips into the horizon between 2 and 3 in the morning. With this, after just a few days, you learn that normal routines in our day to day lives are actually „forced” routines and, if you listen to your body, and eat and sleep only when it tells you to, you will become much more at peace. It is exactly this peace, along with medatative affects of casting flies into rivers, which has become a balancing point and much-needed staple in my annual planning.

In the Summer of 1996 I was blessed with two special moments, both of which would change my life forever. The first was the marriage to my beautiful wife who, being half Swedish, endulged my naivity to her homeland by suggesting an extended honeymoon visiting friends and relatives throughout the country.

On this 2-month tour (yes, I was then unemployed), visited Jämtland and the „village” where her Grandparents had lived, Ösjön. Village is relative in definition as, in this context, there are a whopping five houses competing for a space on multiple lakes which, in Austria (where I reside) would see thousands of houses crowded along the banks. The largest „town” is a one and a half hour drive over dirt roads called Hammarstrand and, in that Summer of ’96, on my first visit, was greeted by the unexpected surprise of one of my favorite bands, Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR), playing an evening concert for a group of spectators of around 500 people .. but I divert.

The concert was the perfect opening to the next adventure which awaited, namely my first trek through the woods to the family cabin on the Gimån River. My wife and I were joined by her brother who, at 18, then introduced me to his favorite hobby, fly fishing.

This was the second enlightenment of that Summer which, now 27 years back, has become my true passion ever since, honed but never „perfected” through the invaluable patience and skills passed on to me by both my brother-in-law and father-in-law, both masters in this skill. In fact, I have only missed one single Summer in all those years where I did not return to that magical place, and that was due to the recent pandemic.

Now to the actual fishing part. Fly fishing is an art which takes a day to learn and a lifetime to master. Casting is actually the easiest part; but learning how fish „think” is the toughest part in understanding where and how to catch them. There are multiple components to a perfected strategy which include studying the types of insects currenty in and around the water and matching these to the flies which are used. Also whether or not to use floaters or sinkers, the weight of the rod and the lines used, the height of the water and its clarity and weather conditions are all very important considerations. But once you have all of this prepared, you then need to then understand the current of the river and the position a fish would put itself in to feed off of downward floating nurishment.

But, again, all of the above leads to only one state: calmness. It sometimes takes several days to reach this state (especially after a closing TNF party) but once it’s reached, you feel a relaxation that can easily negate weeks or even months of stress in just a short time. As an added bonus, should your strategy play out, you’ll be awarded with a nice fish for dinner. In my case, of course, an „enormous” fish. Should you catch a small fish (which never happens to me), the best part about fly fishing is that most hooks do not contain barbs and, for that reason, you can safely „catch and release” a fish back into the water without injury, allowing them to grow into bigger fish .. which I would then catch the following year.

Now, while many of you may believe that the passion of fishing has to do with catching fish, would argue that you have never truly „fished.” The passion that evolved from that Summer had little to do with actual fishing but all to do with everything which sorrounds it. From that first walk through the woods to entering a mecca of calmness where there are no people, no networks, no electricity, no plumbing (J) .. you become encapsulated into a world where your one and only focus points are fishing, eating and sleeping. And, since travel mainly in late June to early July, the normal rythms of these activities are no longer synced with

Sven Trahan MD, Deputy Global Head of Securities Services UniCredit