Femundsmarka in winter

Ice-fishing for artic char requires an early morning start, in order to set the rods just before "sunrise". On this picture, Tobias is hiking up to Volsjøen lake. I was really happy that he joined me on this trip, as it is great to have a good companion on the ice and in a cabin. We stayed in Dammhytta cabin on Valdalen farm - a perfect basecamp for our "expeditions". 

Weather conditions were not ideal up on Volsjøen, because the wind was strong and snow was in the air. But the ice was good (20cm) and we were hoping in a lot of fish. 

We managed to find a nice spot that was sheltered from the wind and that had an interesting depth profile. And for a few moments, we enjoyed some views as well. 

But most of our time we were looking at different types of our rods, hoping to hear the sound of bells...

Femundsmarka is one of the famous ice-fishing destinations, but our rods were silent most of the time. Tobias got one very nice artic char (>40cm) every day and that was it. The other icefishermen we met were not lucky at all... strange and unexpected.

Our last (3rd) day we spent on Hammarsjøen, a nice lake next to Fv654 road. We fished (=drilled 100 holes) on the farthest end of the lake just to find out, that we should have probably stayed at the opposite side. 

Catching an artic char is the only chance to see some other color than white/dark in these days. And it tastes so good! We must come back in March, when the days are longer, to discover other lakes farther from the road.