Norway Report Back

[fish]

Hi All,

I will update this report continuously during the next few weeks. Herewith some pictures to start with, many more to come.

Gary Glen-Young, Hendrik Enslin, Daniel Factor, Christiaan Pretorius, Philip Meyer

[fish]

[gazzarowan]

awesome photos menner M.
really cool place and a great tournament

[Korrie]

Plak nog fotos op.

[Scythe]

What is that ?

[fishlover1]

If I'm not mistaken, that is a cod.

[Korrie]

Correct, You get large ones, patrolling the fjords.

[fish]

It was rather difficult obtaining quality information regarding the Vefsna area, especially what we could expect in terms of insects, numbers of fish, areas in the river and techniques. Most anglers in Norway seem to fish further South and not so much in the Northern parts of Norway. Salmon fishing in general also seems to be much more popular that trout fishing with Norway having a great reputation when it comes to salmon rivers. The plan was to spend some time after the event to target salmon, more on this later.

As a team we had three days to fish the rivers and lakes prior to the championships with two official practice days where each country is allocated a group and you fish with +- 8 other countries on the same water at the same time.

I tied all the basic patterns prior to the event - PTN's, Caddis patterns, soft hackles etc. also some more specific patterns like Bibios, Crane flies and ants which might possibly feature during our visit. Usually quite a bit of fly pattern fine-tuning is done just before and during the event.

The first river we fished during our practise was one of the prettiest streams I have ever seen, but an hour of fishing didn't produce any fish nor any fish spotted or spooked. We decided to speak to one of the locals Hendrik had met and showed us a different river, where we had great fishing with numerous fish landed and also a 48cm Brown for Daniel.

[fish]

The amount of water available in Norway is just staggering.Thousands of Lakes and rivers cutting through the valleys and connecting the lakes. Most of these almost never see any people,there are just not many people in Norway (5 million), especially in the more remote parts where the weather can be severe in winter. Geir, our oarsman on lake Storvatnet was a local and said they ice fish this lake in winter when it is covered with 2m of ice

Due to the Norwegian sheeps' and Elk fear of heights they don't keep the roof vegetation under control.



Spot the mayfly and its shuck, crystal clear water. 500ml spring water in Norway is in the region of R 40.00, although a person can drink water from all the lakes and rivers we fished

The second day of our team practise we fished one of the many lakes. Some of these lakes do produce big fish, between 3 and 5 kg's. The fishing was tough, the lake crystal clear, here we caught some small browns and I also landed an Arctic Char, which was very special. These fish are very spooky and approaching the dimple rises with the boat was near impossible. The fish will just move further off. 6X Tippet was they way to go and later on in the competition even 7X.

Streaking Caddis, very similar to an Elk Hair Caddis, just with a spun head in #10. Plopping this fly attracted fish in the area, however during the later stages of the competition it spooked fish and a CDC Sedge was more effective. Look at the time and how light it still is.

I had good success with a streaking caddis on the lakes, the fish were definitely aware of overhead activity in the form of insects. The caddis with a small PTN soft hackle below also produced a double up.

Two flies, one cast, two Brownies, Bonus! The Norwegian Browns are stronger than their SA counterparts...........



Arctic Char, very pretty,

A fisherman needs food too.

[fish]

Here we had some good fishing, one of the many rivers, with no other people to be seen during our time on this stretch of water.

After the session on the lake we decide to fish the upper Vefsna, above the confluence with the Austervefsna. Fishing was quite slow but we did manage to pick up some fish on a range of tactics, with a small caddis dry fly taking its share of fish and also some fish on down stream swinging tactics.

Again Sedges/Caddis featured with some big insects around, up to a size 8

We were nearing the end of our uniofficial practise days and decided to fish a bit more on the lower Vefsna, just abiove the Laksfors waterfall. Here we took some small browns on dries and nymphs. Christiaan and Daniel landed to big Grayling on small dries, 7X tippet and a strong current.

Christiaan and Vefsna river Grayling, as pointed out by Gary a "Vlagsalm" in Afrikaans, a great description.

During our research we realised that Grayling is not as prolific on the Vefsna river, later on during the competition some beats did produce Grayling, big ones!

Mr. Factor followed up on Christiaan's Grayling with this great specimen.