Seven Nights on the ALTA

Seven Nights on the ALTA

There are many classic Atlantic salmon rivers each with its own unique history, but there is only one that can said to be ‘first among equals’ — the Alta River in northern Norway. The Alta’s primeval gorge setting, legendary monster salmon and excusive status have given it has an almost mythical reputation around the world.

Fishing the Alta is the stuff of dreams.

This dream certainly came true for Jan Ekman in 1983 as described in his wonderful fishing diary book called Seven Nights on the Alta. Written in Swedish however, this book —like the Alta — has been out of the reach of most anglers — until now! At last an English version has been published.

Jan was prompted to write the book due to what he believed was the imminent destruction of the river as a result of a hydro power project. It is based around a diary of seven nights of fishing the river in July 1983.

New English edition

This new English edition is richly illustrated by Jan’s own photographs and the book has a wonderful feel of ‘time gone past’. That said, many of the issues are still being debated, or have been replaced by even more pressing ones.
Thankfully the doomsday prophesies in the book have been averted; as a matter of fact, the Alta has had some of its best years ever recently. That’s not to say that we can relax.

It is only over the past few years that we have seen any form of improvement in stocks and the survival of the Atlantic salmon as a species is far from guaranteed.

There is a lot of work still to be done, and for that reason I’m delighted and grateful that 100% of the proceeds from the sale of the book will go towards supporting NASF’s work throughout the North Atlantic.
The book is a classic which I hope you will enjoy as much as I did.

Orri Vigfússon
Former Chairman, North Atlantic Salmon Fund

About Jan Ekman

After being awarded a law degree from the University of Lund in Sweden, Jan worked briefly as a legal assistant in New York City. Before embarking on a long career in banking back in Sweden. He helped build Svenska Handelsbanken into the most consistently profitable commercial bank in Scandinavia, and he also took on several roles internationally.

Jan was passionate about his work but it was the outdoors that he truly loved, and probably more than anything, fly-fishing for Atlantic salmon. He fished the Alta for the first time in 1968. It instantly became his favourite river and he returned there every year between 1970 and 1988.

A regular contributor

A regular contributor to various Swedish angling magazines, both as a writer and photographer, he was particularly fond of describing the political, historical and, last but not least, culinary context.

His management background made him a natural candidate for the leadership of the Swedish sports-angling community.  He was also the architect behind the merger in the mid 1960s of three independent groups into one national organization representing over 50,000 anglers. He caught his last salmon four months before he passed away in December 2004 at the age of 75.

Also available:

ALTA Nineteen Years, 1970-1988 Photographs by Jan Ekman

Links

Nowegian Salmon Rivers

ALTA Museum World Heritage Rock Art Centre