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A struggling fishery in northern Europe is springing back to life thanks to a switch to a new species and a new target audience for tourism, and the marketing team behind the initiative says tackle companies could profit from an even greater boom in the future.
The Teno Valley in Finnish Lapland has long attracted anglers to its picturesque patchwork of lakes, streams and side waters surrounded on all sides by bare mountainous highlands known as fjells. Down in the valley is where the River Teno winds its way over 230km to the Barents Sea in Tana fjord, forming a natural border between Finland and Norway.
Also down in the valley is where wild Atlantic salmon flourished for generations, providing food for the indigenous Sámi people and attracting anglers with the chance to catch magnificent individual fish in excess of 20kg. In 2017, the best year on record, 32 salmon over that magical figure were caught in a single season.
“The fishing was legendary,” says Elias Teriö. “It was known as the best salmon river for fish over 20 kilos. Visiting anglers would come to be guided by local people, most of which are Sámi, the people that have lived alongside the river for generations.”
Until 2021 those visiting anglers were injecting around €5m a year into the Teno Valley economy. But then a crash in numbers led to an outright ban on fishing for Atlantic salmon and disaster for the locals and especially the Sámi way of life.
With the economy spiralling, in June 2024 Teriö, a project specialist in tourism, was drafted in to set a new course for the fishery.
“The Atlantic salmon brought wealth to the area,” Teriö tells Angling International. “The local municipality turned over every stone to find a solution, but there was no agreement on what had caused the catastrophic drop in numbers. Was it climate and environmental changes? Over-fishing? A combination of factors? Whatever it was, it was clear that the salmon had been pushed to their limits and people had realised too late.”
So, as the region faced a fourth year of the ban there needed to be a new approach, one that was focused on a new form of tourism and a new clientele.
“We called it Tana 2.0 after the alternative name for the Teno Valley,” says Teriö. “Tourism is at the heart but the message has changed from ‘come and catch your trophy salmon’ to ‘experience Arctic summer fishing under the midnight sun‘. The key factor was to remind people that even though the Atlantic salmon were no longer available, the Teno Valley still offered world-class fishing.”
That world-class fishing involves other species that are abundant in the region’s rivers, chief among them grayling but also Arctic char, trout and pike. The marketing messages have also switched to appeal to anglers with a sense of adventure.
“Fishing for grayling is a chance to go further into the wilderness and to experience the endless light of an Arctic summer. The fjells surround you, birds buzz overhead and it feels like the fishing could go on for ever,” says Teriö, smiling at the thought that a week’s fishing in the Valley in summertime equates to more than 150 hours on the water.
“There is so much water to cover you probably feel like you need all that time,” he adds. “And with the right guiding, it is a great start to a lifelong obsession with Arctic fishing.”
The project was launched in July 2024, which means it is now heading into its first full summer. Marketing first focused on the domestic audience with a message that the Teno Valley is once again open for fishing. Anglers from further away are now being enticed with packages that include the ‘road trip of a lifetime.’
Local operators have had to adapt their offerings too, to appeal to a new type of tourist. Says Teriö: “We have had to shape services, such as accommodation packages, to suit the needs of active anglers instead of the salmon clientele who mainly needed any place to stay plus food and drink and a ghillie to take them on the river. The ultimate goal is to form a healthy business model around these active anglers where accommodation with great views and hospitality is accompanied by sophisticated guide services.”
Anglers making the trip for grayling will be in the market for 10ft spinning rods and 5-20g lures, says Teriö. Specialist gear is needed for the spectacular pike fishing up in the fjells.
There is, however, another tantalising prize for Teriö, tackle companies and the hospitable locals. Pink salmon.
Unlike Atlantic salmon, pink salmon are thriving in the region and, if local politics fall into place, could set off a mini boom. The story, though, is not straightforward.
Explains Teriö: “Pink salmon were originally stocked in the Kola Peninsula in the 1950s as a food source for people in Russia. When the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, the fish population exploded and the salmon spilled over. They can now be found in almost all the rivers of the Norwegian coastline.
“Mass migration occurs in uneven years and for this coming season the rough estimate of the numbers heading into the Teno river system varies between 200,000 and half a million.”
Under normal circumstances such numbers would represent something not unlike a gold rush for anglers, local service providers and sellers of single-handed fly rods and fluorocarbon line. But there is a catch, says Teriö. While Finland sees the pink salmon as an invasive species, Norway considers it as a hazardous invasive species that should be deterred.
“The common aim is to secure the rehabilitation of the Atlantic salmon and Norway believes pink salmon numbers should be brought down. Actually, it wants to get rid of them from its rivers. It is testing special dams in the form of nets stretched across the mouth of rivers. The problem is, as numbers of Atlantic salmon start to recover, the dams could have an adverse affect on them too.”
Negotiations are ongoing on Norway‘s stance, which means it is too early to say whether fishing for pink salmon in the Teno Valley will ever be a marketable option. It is just the latest twist in the long-running saga of a remarkable fishery.
It is a waiting game, says Teriö, who for now is focused on what he can control – breathing new life into the fishery and demonstrating what can be done when adversity strikes and a new direction is needed.
