A quick flick in Norway

This weekend I have hopped over to Norway for a family function with my wife. The first question everyone asks is are you going fishing? Well, that all depends on what I can get away with! It is too early for the salmon, but by all reports from friends here the snow fall looks set for a good season. However, there is so many more places to cast a fly in this country than just the salmon rivers.

My brother in law, Kenneth Erdal, came to my rescue by turning up with a car load of gear and said “Good to see you! Let’s go fishing!” That first evening we popped down to a lake literally just down the road from Lindäs. (Lindäs is about 45 minutes outside Bergen where my parents in law live.) We greeted by the sight of rings of rising trout all over the place. The warming sun was slowly slipping down the sky as we cast in vain at the persistent wild trout, but unfortunately could not match the hatch. I think they were taking a very small midge off the surface, and we had nothing small enough to imitate them. Never mind, it was a perfect way to spend a few pleasant hours casting a fly, having a quiet beer, and just enjoying being in such a beautiful place. As the sun slipped below the mountains the temperature dropped sharply, the hatch finished, the rings became infrequent and we headed home.

This morning Kenneth suggested a little expedition to find a sea trout. Again, there are more areas to find sea trout than just the rivers. We drove north, caught a ferry and made our way down to a stunning small fjord that has a river flowing into the entrance. It’s location shall remain a secret... It turns out that the fjord around the entrance has a great head of sea trout that cruise around the margins until the tide turns and they can run the river. As they are still in the sea they feed aggressively.. or so we hoped! Kenneth hit one quite quickly, to my surprise, and I had a couple of knocks on a black woolly bugger. We did not fish for more than a couple of hours, but the tide was pushing out fast so we were there at the wrong time.

Even though this is a bit of a pathetic tale of woe in that we did not catch much, it goes to show that if you think outside the box sometimes you can find some good fishing. I think the next time I come over I will bring my float tube as that will certainly expand my ability to fish locally. Even though it was not too productive I have still managed to scratch my itch!