Summer’s here — and we’re still in spring! The radio just said we’ve lived through the hottest May day ever recorded… We’re torn, pulled in two directions: just give in to some serious lazy-ass do-nothing energy, sprawled out in a draft dreaming of a fan that might actually cool down our nights — or we cool off, dig deep, drag ourselves off the couch and head down to the river. And once we’re there, it’s one of two scenarios: it’s a god-awful heat wave and the fish have clocked out along with the hatches around 6 PM, right when we’re finally pulling up to the water’s edge — or, if we catch a lucky break, a cloud rolls in, the wind drops, and it’s an absolute party at the grand May Fly buffet! Either way, I’m heading out again tonight and I’ll be posting the whole story with pics on Insta.
In the meantime, if you’re stuck at work, you can always start daydreaming — go watch this film, The Never Ending Chase of Hatches by Daniel Bergman, it’ll keep your rod up for a good while!
THE NEVER ENDING CHASE OF HATCHES
A cinematic dry fly fishing film about obsession, nature, and one of the most anticipated hatches in Scandinavia — the legendary and the biggest mayfly in the Nordics; Ephemera vulgata.
This film follows Vision’s long time sales representative Daniel Bergman, a well-known fly angler from Northern Europe, whose passion for chasing mayfly hatches has shaped his life for years. Every Summer, when Ephemera vulgata begins to hatch in massive numbers across rivers and lakes in Northern Scandinavia, a short but unforgettable window opens. We joined and captured the annual chase with Daniel and documented what’s it all about really.
When you’re lucky enough and your chase is successful, you’ll see a magnificent theater played by nature. The mayflies are hatching (and don’t forget the last dance of the evening) and fish like brown trout, grayling, char (and other species) joins the celebration and start feeding on them on the surface. The water comes alive. And anglers who have spent months waiting — watching weather forecasts, driving hundreds of kilometers, and planning everything around this brief hatch — finally get their chance.
But the chase of hatches is never simple.
Sometimes it means long road trips through the North.
Sometimes it means missing the timing completely.
Sometimes you’re close to inch perfect but then the wind comes and it dies off.
Sometimes the hatch is there… But no rises.
And sometimes, if everything goes right, it leads to moments that define why it becomes an obsession.
This is a story about that chase.
A story about obsession, patience, and the deep connection between a fly angler and the nature where only simple things matter; does the insects fly on the top of the lake and are the fish there ready to feed. And the happiness of being able to concentrate on such a simple things like that for that particular moment.