Now we're sitting here, all current and future anglers , with Gunnar Johnson's legacy in his lap. The board of Långå FVOF calls owners and invites other stakeholders to the annual meeting at Nytta, The board of Långå FVOF calls owners and invites other stakeholders to the annual meeting at Nytta, a legacy with even greater relevance and dimensions today than when his texts and comments were already written decades ago. What has been added is that we now sit with hindsight which explains why the earth is surrounded by storms and climate disasters while eutrophication weighs on our way of life.
Gunnar Johnson's vigilance and insight, in association with responsible conclusions about our time on earth and how we manage natural capital, is made clear today when more and more people understand the extent of the human footprint. Many guess, actually more and more people understand, that each individual has their own personal impact through their overconsumption, despite knowing better. More and more fiercely of all, our surroundings are affected and despite observations and knowledge, few of us take personal responsibility for the consequences of our way of life.
In its commentary editorial, december 2002, for the extraordinary journal Flugfiske i Norden, where he alone constituted the editorial staff, he writes:
“In ancient times, of course, people lived their daily lives closer to nature than is the case in our urbanized society, where more and more people experience nature more and more often via the TV screen. This applies generally and also affects us fly fishermen. We are also becoming more and more technically oriented, while nature becomes a "backdrop" for our leisure activities. The many pockets of fishing vests must be filled with more and more gadgets, the ornithologists carry around increasingly exclusive binoculars, the downhill skiers take a helicopter to the top of the mountain and the new hunters take their hunting exam via a crash course.
But at the same time, I think I notice how many fly fishermen today have fairly basic knowledge of the biology of fish, how ornithologists turn into mere "cruisers", how the skiers jealously guard the year model on each other's Gore-Tex jackets and how the hunters hunt in a forest that they no longer know is actually a forest plantation...”
In the same text, he reminds that "there are of course also many well-written and interesting books published in recent years, but the joy of discovery often found in authors of previous generations gives their books a special dimension, while finding that their knowledge is constantly 'rediscovered’ and made into modern experiences in our time. There Izaak Walton is found with his 1653 published book about the perfect fisherman.”
It is almost twenty years since Gunnar Johnson wrote down these observations with relevant conclusions. In the meantime, interest in fishing and nature experiences have had to give way further to mobile phones, toads and electric scooters as elements of the intellectual limitation and physical immobility.
A lifelong interest in fishing belongs to life and eternity. I suppose that when Gunnar Johnson got to accompany Saint Per into the cloud layer to try out angel wings, he asked: Can you tie bow ties from them here?

Helgi Jonsson, All Saints' Day 2021. In memory of Gunnar Johnson.