In northern Norway, just north of the Arctic Circle, lies the beautiful island of Senja. Deep fjords drive inland from the sea flanked by snow capped mountain ranges, their green tree covered slopes rising steeply from the sea. This is the land of continuous summer daylight where the midnight sun only briefly embraces the horizon before immediately climbing upwards to begin another new day.
Get a group of anglers talking about Norway and the prime topic of conversation will be the big cod that lurk these deep, cold waters. There are huge cod here and the quality of the cod fishing is exceptional, but these waters hold much more than just cod and the opportunities to the thinking angler are immense.
Barney Wright, Editor of Total Sea Fishing, and I were scheduled to team up with Ian Peacock, The UK representative for Din Tur, a Norwegian company specialising in Norwegian holidays for anglers. Din Tur were established in 1990 and have representatives in Norway, Poland, Germany, Sweden, and now in the UK. They are the biggest angling tour operator in Norway with access to some 180 specialised fishing centres scattered throughout the country, with opportunities for sea angling, trout, salmon and char fishing, as well as general freshwater fishing and ice fishing.
Also part of our six man team would be Volker Dapoz, a top German angling journalist and halibut expert, Dieter Borchet, a German tour operator working with Din Tur, and Geordie angler Terry Barnes.
Meeting up with Ian and Terry at Tromso Airport, we had a three hour drive in the midnight sun through some breathtaking scenery. Our destination was Senja Havfiskesenter at Medby, a purpose built series of Norwegian cabins situated on the waterfront on the northern flank of Veimannsfjorden.
Still knackered from travelling, after brief introductions, we had a quick look at the charts as this was new ground for most of us. We elected to split in to two groups of three and attack different ground to get a feel for the place come morning.
POWER PIRKING
We started drift fishing with a variety of pirks on ground called Kvengr. Instantly our pirks were snatched by cod in the 4lb to 10lb range, with small ling as well as torsk getting in on the act.
The torsk were a new species for Barney and me, but they aren’t the best fighters and come up like a brick. In fact the torsk are so thick on this ground that Ian christened them “tw*t fish” and henceforth for the remaining duration of our stay that’s how we referred to them.
I switched to a Jumper rig with a shad on and working the lure up from the seabed for the first 40-metres started hitting good haddock, cod and the odd torsk. The haddock were quality fish between 3 and 6lbs.
Keen to try new marks were went looking for drop-offs. The pirks instantly found cod, haddock, ling and torsk, but I stuck with the shad and bagged my very first redfish, a species that favours deep drop-off rock ledges in water over 100-metres. This fish went 2lbs 8ozs, but I later got one close to 3lbs.
The second and third days we spent exploring the fjords to the south and we accounted for good cod, haddock, redfish, coalfish and torsk. Barney getting a torsk just in to double figures.
Volker, Dieter and Terry went further west with Volker taking a cracking cod of 33lbs and Terry lifting another fish around the 30lbs mark on a pirk. Volker’s fish caught on one of his own Seawaver lures he has designed to take both big cod and halibut.
The weather was hot and calm, with minimal breeze and we were working along the edges of Sifjorden just south of our home fjord. It was after 9pm and the sun still shone from low in the sky. Suddenly the surface water erupted as huge numbers of small coalies smashed baitfish at the surface.
We knew there would be much bigger coalies deep down underneath them, and even in 130-metres of water we were pirking at between 30 and 70-metres. Ian was first in as a big coalie savaged his pirk and crash dived vertically for the seabed. Barney and I were quick to follow with the best coalies landed touching 15lbs.
I’d fancied getting a big coalie on the fly and already had fly gear set up. My first few casts in to the frenzy and fast stripping saw coalies to 2lbs hooked up. This got me thinking and I set about formulating a plan to attack the deeper down coalies with the fly gear.
The following day we found an unmarked bump of ground south of Oerja Island. The top of the bump was in just 29-metres, but it dropped off slowly in to deeper water. The cod were on the downside and Barney and Ian took some cracking fish up to 17lbs on dead coalfish baits fished on pennel rigs, or just attached to the top dropper hook on the pirk. I worked shads and pirks and took cod to 8lbs.
FLY BY NIGHT!
The next day we spent to the north inside Senja Havf and Torskfjorden taking big haddock to 7lbs on the pirks, cod, torsk, and also enjoyed fly fishing around surface breaking rocks catching small coalies.
We knew the big coalies would push the smaller coalfish and fry to the surface as the plankton rose in the evening. Volker had now left due to other commitments, but Dieter and Terry were fishing tight under the north side of the fjord and phoned us to say the coalies were going berserk on the surface all around them.
When we got there it was an incredible sight with various parts of the sea whipped to a white foam by feeding fish. The guys got stuck in to coalies in the 10lb to 12lb range using pirks, but I opted for the fly gear.
I’d made up some special flies using tiny weighted jig heads and muppet legs, plus a couple of flies with twin leaded eyes to get the fly down deeper quicker. I was using a 10-weight SALT fly rod, Partridge large arbour reel and a special experimental hi-density ultra fast sink line from Shakespeare. My tippet was 12lb SALT Fluoro carbon about 6ft long.
Conditions were perfect, no wind, minimal drift and flat calm. I made a short cast to get some line out, then started feeding line off the reel slowly to gain depth. The fly line gone I continued feeding backing out too, to maximise my depth. The first few drops produced nothing. I began by stripping the line in fast, then realised that with so much line laying loose on deck I was asking for a major tangle should a fish crash dive. I changed my retrieve system using the rod to sink and draw the fly, but retrieving line back on to the reel as the rod dropped back towards the sea.
The next drop down I’d retrieved maybe 20-metres when I felt a gentle weight on the rod tip. Keeping the lure on the move I held the line tightly in my left hand and let the fish pull the rod over in to full compression to fully set the hook. The fish was heavy and fought hard taking a little line, but this was no coalie and I was confused as to what it was. It went round in a short circle, tried to dive, but would just hold steady against the rod. Steady pressure and pumping to gain line the fish started to tire.
Still unsure as to what I’d hooked we saw colour down below. I was gob smacked when a haddock weighing 4lbs 11ozs broke the surface with the fly fair and square in the top lip. I personally haven’t heard of haddock being caught on the fly rod before, but I ended up with three of them that night, so it was no fluke. I associate haddock with deep depths, but here in the far north they lift in the water to near surface if feed is available.
Still targeting the coalfish, I put a good cast out, then let line off the reel going a good 30-yards or more in to the backing, and the fly line is 130-feet long, so I was around 60-metres down.
Retrieving as fast as I could, sweeping the rod to full arm height, I concentrated on the feel of the fly far below. I’d retrieved maybe 20-metres of line when something whacked the fly, pressure came on the rod tip and I set the hook by holding the line tight in my left hand, then let go. Line screamed off the reel as the fish crash dived taking more than 25-yards of liner with it. It hung there for a second, then went again taking more line. Such was the speed of the dive that I burnt the tips of my fingers on the rim of the revolving spool as I tried to add a little more drag to slow the fish.
The fish was deep and the rod bent double, but using all the rod I gently pumped the fish upwards. It was a case of me making a few yards of line on the reel, then the fish taking it back. This stalemate went on for several minutes before I felt the fish tire.
My right forearm was killing me holding the fish with the rod constantly in full compression, but I was winning. Ian and Barney shouted they could see colour way down, then slowly the fish grew bigger from the depths. As it broke surface I could see the coalie went better than 7lbs. I swung the tired fish across the surface to me and lifted it by the hook shank in my left hand. Ian weighed the fish at just under 8lbs before returning it. Mission accomplished!
I wanted to try for a bigger one, but the fish had disappeared. The next few nights the weather was not so good and the opportunity to improve on the 8lber was gone, but I aim to go back to northern Norway and try for a fish over 12lbs on the fly.
SUMMING UP
Our last days produced more cod, torsk, big haddock, redfish and Ian bagged a cracking angler fish around 8 to 10lbs that took a whole dead coalfish bait worked off a pirk. This was the first angler fish any of us had seen and what an awesome creature it is with a massive mouth full of teeth and an eye that alternates between green and orange in the sunlight.
Senja had turned up trumps for us. Barney and I got our first torsk and redfish, Barney got a personal best coalie around 14lbs, Ian bagged his first angler fish, and I got my first torsk and redfish, plus haddock and big coalie on the fly. To sum up Norway, I’d say “Anything is possible”.
It was an unbelievable experience taking your own boat out in to these fish rich waters and although cod will always be king here, don’t forget there are so many other species to target.
The people are very friendly and speak good English, the food is good, you’re sheltered from the worst of the weather by the fjords so can fish pretty much every day, and during the summer you have 24 hours of daylight to play with. It’s an amazing package and well worth saving up for.
WHERE TO FISH
The fact is that you can catch huge cod just at the mouth of the home fjord without travelling more than a half mile, but there is key ground out to the west and clearly marked on the chart. We chose to look at Soegr (South Ground) which comes up from 169-metres to 34-metres, Kvengr rising from 252-metres to 61-metres, and Nordgr (North Ground) lifting up to 54-metres from 211-metres.
All around the island of Oerja and Hoimenvaer there are good drifts, and north of the island is unmarked ground rising from 209-metres to 70-metres. Also look to the west of these small islands where there is good drift ground we didn’t get the chance to try.
Use the sounder while running alongside the edges of the mountain slopes and look for the steep drop-offs that fall sheer in to the depths. Such feature is everywhere here and the fish tend to be down towards the base of the feature during the main day.
SEASONS
Cod and haddock can be caught in numbers 12 months of the year, but most anglers visit the area between April and early October. The best time for halibut is May, though again they show all year, as will the redfish, torsk, coalfish, ling and catfish. Angler fish are caught too, mostly in the May to September period, but again these can show at any time. There are also plaice, dabs and the odd ray caught off the sand through the summer and autumn period.
Herring show both in April and May, then again in late August to September. This is often when the biggest cod are caught as they move in tight to shore to feed on the herring.
The biggest cod verified from these local Senja camp waters is a cod of 23-kilo’s, that’s over 50lbs, coalies top 15-kilo’s, catfish reach 10-kilo’s, with ling to 10-kilo’s. From what we saw you’ve an excellent chance of getting a 30lb cod during a week’s stay.
TACKLE TO TAKE
I’d suggest taking a 3oz spinning rod and fixed spool reel loaded with 15lb line, braid or mono, for some fun fishing and working light 100gr pirks. A 30lb braid rod with a stiffish action for working bigger pirks, this rod to be at least 7ft 6in in length to give you maximum pirk lift movement, and if you want to target the halibut, then chuck in a 50lb class rod and reel, though I’d think carefully about this as a good angler with the 30lb class would be fine on halibut up to 100lbs.
Take some spare braid, plenty of strong links, some swivels, beads and spare mono for snoods, a few hooks from size 2 or 1 for the flatfish, some 4/0’s for adding to shads and jelly worms, and some bigger 6/0’s. 8/0’s and 10/’s, should you need them for pennel rigs when fishing whole coalfish baits.
Tide flow is not that bad, so a few pirks in sizes 200, 300, 400 and 500grm will be ideal. Chrome works well, as does lumo, but black is also excellent. I fished a full week and lost no gear whatsoever. Certainly ten pirks or so would see you through the week here.
Calcutta shads in Pink Ice and the Red Head, both 4-inch and 5-inch sizes, caught me a lot of fish worked off a short jumper rig. I also had fish on Hokkai’s and jellyworms.
The locals do well on Gummymac’s which are the old type tube sandeel we used to use here 30-years ago.
The centre will hire rods and reels out for a small fee, and surprisingly you can take their pirks with you and you only pay if you lose them, which is an excellent service.
THE BOATS
The hire boats are superb Hansvik 18fters powered by 30hp 4-stroke Yamaha’s and moored on the pontoon 20-yards in front of the houses. These are open craft, but exceptionally seaworthy and absolutely stable with three fishing all down the same side.
The boats are fitted with a variety of sounders, ours being a Lowrance, plus a GPS unit. Check you have HOME listed as your first mark on the GPS so you can find your way back.
There is an instruction book supplied with the sounder, so you can have a brief read before using the unit. They are easy enough and some of the fishing centres even have a base unit set up so you can practice on this before heading to sea.
DAY TO DAY LIVING
It’s a misconception that Norway is ridiculously expensive. Certainly beer in bars is full whack and we chose to buy a few beers from the supermarket and drink back at the cabin. This works out much cheaper. Food in restaurants is also pricey, but cooking back at the cabin is easy enough and we ate fresh fish we’d caught several nights which is unbeatable and free.
You can buy staple foods like bacon, eggs, beans, bread, milk etc from the local shops. One is just a 10 minute walk away and other a 15 minute drive, this latter one having pretty much everything you can think of.
Remember to take a European plug adapter with you to charge your mobile. You get a good signal pretty much everywhere here too.
ACCOMADATION
The cabins are traditional Norwegian log cabins, very snug and warm, and fitted out with all mod cons including dish washer, microwave, fridge, freezer and TV. They can house six people comfortably.
You can clean the house out yourself at the end of the trip, or pay a small fee, about £40 between you to have the house cleaned for you after you leave.
HOW TO GET THERE
Barney and I flew from Stansted to Oslo, flight time 1 hour and 40minutes on average, then took a second flight from Oslo to Tromso which takes about an hour and 45 minutes. You can then either hire a car yourself or the fishing centre will pick you up and return you for your return flight in a mini bus.
As a guide on prices flying from London Stansted to Oslo with Norwegian Airlines Wednesday to Wednesday costs £102 and £110 for the connect flight from Oslo to Tromso. Saturday to Saturday prices are Stansted to Oslo for £160 and Oslo to Tromso for £102.
You can also fly SAS, KLM and Widroe from Manchester, Newcastle and Teeside airports.
Baggage allowance with Norwegian is 2 bags weighing 20-kilo’s each, but book these in when you book the flight. You can also carry an additional 20-kilo’s with the other airlines, but again book this with your flight, and they may charge you a very small fee for the second bag. Your fishing rods in a tube should go free.
PACKAGES & CONTACTS
Packages are available from as little as £295 per person in to some southern Norway camps and include ferry, sea view cabin house, and your self drive boat.
In to mid Norway packages begin at £449 per person and includes flights, airport transfers, house and boat, and northern Norway begins at £549 per person again including flights, airport transfers, house and boat. All prices are for four persons sharing for 7 days.
You pay separately for the boat fuel you use over the weeks fishing.
For full package information and alternative fishing centre options, contact Ian Peacock (UK), Din Tur Booking Office, North East Tackle Supplies, 309 Ryhope Road, Sunderland, SR2 9SS. Tel: 0191-5654970 Mob: 07763576995, or by E-mail at Peacock@dintur.co.uk, and also check out their website via www.dintur.co.uk .
On a final note Ian Peacock has personal experience of most of the centres Din Tur offer for sea angling in Norway. What’s more he fished with us all week and is a real angler absolutely nuts about fishing, so any questions you have he can answer factually from both a company and fishing viewpoint.
Get a group of anglers talking about Norway and the prime topic of conversation will be the big cod that lurk these deep, cold waters. There are huge cod here and the quality of the cod fishing is exceptional, but these waters hold much more than just cod and the opportunities to the thinking angler are immense.
Barney Wright, Editor of Total Sea Fishing, and I were scheduled to team up with Ian Peacock, The UK representative for Din Tur, a Norwegian company specialising in Norwegian holidays for anglers. Din Tur were established in 1990 and have representatives in Norway, Poland, Germany, Sweden, and now in the UK. They are the biggest angling tour operator in Norway with access to some 180 specialised fishing centres scattered throughout the country, with opportunities for sea angling, trout, salmon and char fishing, as well as general freshwater fishing and ice fishing.
Also part of our six man team would be Volker Dapoz, a top German angling journalist and halibut expert, Dieter Borchet, a German tour operator working with Din Tur, and Geordie angler Terry Barnes.
Meeting up with Ian and Terry at Tromso Airport, we had a three hour drive in the midnight sun through some breathtaking scenery. Our destination was Senja Havfiskesenter at Medby, a purpose built series of Norwegian cabins situated on the waterfront on the northern flank of Veimannsfjorden.
Still knackered from travelling, after brief introductions, we had a quick look at the charts as this was new ground for most of us. We elected to split in to two groups of three and attack different ground to get a feel for the place come morning.
POWER PIRKING
We started drift fishing with a variety of pirks on ground called Kvengr. Instantly our pirks were snatched by cod in the 4lb to 10lb range, with small ling as well as torsk getting in on the act.
The torsk were a new species for Barney and me, but they aren’t the best fighters and come up like a brick. In fact the torsk are so thick on this ground that Ian christened them “tw*t fish” and henceforth for the remaining duration of our stay that’s how we referred to them.
I switched to a Jumper rig with a shad on and working the lure up from the seabed for the first 40-metres started hitting good haddock, cod and the odd torsk. The haddock were quality fish between 3 and 6lbs.
Keen to try new marks were went looking for drop-offs. The pirks instantly found cod, haddock, ling and torsk, but I stuck with the shad and bagged my very first redfish, a species that favours deep drop-off rock ledges in water over 100-metres. This fish went 2lbs 8ozs, but I later got one close to 3lbs.
The second and third days we spent exploring the fjords to the south and we accounted for good cod, haddock, redfish, coalfish and torsk. Barney getting a torsk just in to double figures.
Volker, Dieter and Terry went further west with Volker taking a cracking cod of 33lbs and Terry lifting another fish around the 30lbs mark on a pirk. Volker’s fish caught on one of his own Seawaver lures he has designed to take both big cod and halibut.
The weather was hot and calm, with minimal breeze and we were working along the edges of Sifjorden just south of our home fjord. It was after 9pm and the sun still shone from low in the sky. Suddenly the surface water erupted as huge numbers of small coalies smashed baitfish at the surface.
We knew there would be much bigger coalies deep down underneath them, and even in 130-metres of water we were pirking at between 30 and 70-metres. Ian was first in as a big coalie savaged his pirk and crash dived vertically for the seabed. Barney and I were quick to follow with the best coalies landed touching 15lbs.
I’d fancied getting a big coalie on the fly and already had fly gear set up. My first few casts in to the frenzy and fast stripping saw coalies to 2lbs hooked up. This got me thinking and I set about formulating a plan to attack the deeper down coalies with the fly gear.
The following day we found an unmarked bump of ground south of Oerja Island. The top of the bump was in just 29-metres, but it dropped off slowly in to deeper water. The cod were on the downside and Barney and Ian took some cracking fish up to 17lbs on dead coalfish baits fished on pennel rigs, or just attached to the top dropper hook on the pirk. I worked shads and pirks and took cod to 8lbs.
FLY BY NIGHT!
The next day we spent to the north inside Senja Havf and Torskfjorden taking big haddock to 7lbs on the pirks, cod, torsk, and also enjoyed fly fishing around surface breaking rocks catching small coalies.
We knew the big coalies would push the smaller coalfish and fry to the surface as the plankton rose in the evening. Volker had now left due to other commitments, but Dieter and Terry were fishing tight under the north side of the fjord and phoned us to say the coalies were going berserk on the surface all around them.
When we got there it was an incredible sight with various parts of the sea whipped to a white foam by feeding fish. The guys got stuck in to coalies in the 10lb to 12lb range using pirks, but I opted for the fly gear.
I’d made up some special flies using tiny weighted jig heads and muppet legs, plus a couple of flies with twin leaded eyes to get the fly down deeper quicker. I was using a 10-weight SALT fly rod, Partridge large arbour reel and a special experimental hi-density ultra fast sink line from Shakespeare. My tippet was 12lb SALT Fluoro carbon about 6ft long.
Conditions were perfect, no wind, minimal drift and flat calm. I made a short cast to get some line out, then started feeding line off the reel slowly to gain depth. The fly line gone I continued feeding backing out too, to maximise my depth. The first few drops produced nothing. I began by stripping the line in fast, then realised that with so much line laying loose on deck I was asking for a major tangle should a fish crash dive. I changed my retrieve system using the rod to sink and draw the fly, but retrieving line back on to the reel as the rod dropped back towards the sea.
The next drop down I’d retrieved maybe 20-metres when I felt a gentle weight on the rod tip. Keeping the lure on the move I held the line tightly in my left hand and let the fish pull the rod over in to full compression to fully set the hook. The fish was heavy and fought hard taking a little line, but this was no coalie and I was confused as to what it was. It went round in a short circle, tried to dive, but would just hold steady against the rod. Steady pressure and pumping to gain line the fish started to tire.
Still unsure as to what I’d hooked we saw colour down below. I was gob smacked when a haddock weighing 4lbs 11ozs broke the surface with the fly fair and square in the top lip. I personally haven’t heard of haddock being caught on the fly rod before, but I ended up with three of them that night, so it was no fluke. I associate haddock with deep depths, but here in the far north they lift in the water to near surface if feed is available.
Still targeting the coalfish, I put a good cast out, then let line off the reel going a good 30-yards or more in to the backing, and the fly line is 130-feet long, so I was around 60-metres down.
Retrieving as fast as I could, sweeping the rod to full arm height, I concentrated on the feel of the fly far below. I’d retrieved maybe 20-metres of line when something whacked the fly, pressure came on the rod tip and I set the hook by holding the line tight in my left hand, then let go. Line screamed off the reel as the fish crash dived taking more than 25-yards of liner with it. It hung there for a second, then went again taking more line. Such was the speed of the dive that I burnt the tips of my fingers on the rim of the revolving spool as I tried to add a little more drag to slow the fish.
The fish was deep and the rod bent double, but using all the rod I gently pumped the fish upwards. It was a case of me making a few yards of line on the reel, then the fish taking it back. This stalemate went on for several minutes before I felt the fish tire.
My right forearm was killing me holding the fish with the rod constantly in full compression, but I was winning. Ian and Barney shouted they could see colour way down, then slowly the fish grew bigger from the depths. As it broke surface I could see the coalie went better than 7lbs. I swung the tired fish across the surface to me and lifted it by the hook shank in my left hand. Ian weighed the fish at just under 8lbs before returning it. Mission accomplished!
I wanted to try for a bigger one, but the fish had disappeared. The next few nights the weather was not so good and the opportunity to improve on the 8lber was gone, but I aim to go back to northern Norway and try for a fish over 12lbs on the fly.
SUMMING UP
Our last days produced more cod, torsk, big haddock, redfish and Ian bagged a cracking angler fish around 8 to 10lbs that took a whole dead coalfish bait worked off a pirk. This was the first angler fish any of us had seen and what an awesome creature it is with a massive mouth full of teeth and an eye that alternates between green and orange in the sunlight.
Senja had turned up trumps for us. Barney and I got our first torsk and redfish, Barney got a personal best coalie around 14lbs, Ian bagged his first angler fish, and I got my first torsk and redfish, plus haddock and big coalie on the fly. To sum up Norway, I’d say “Anything is possible”.
It was an unbelievable experience taking your own boat out in to these fish rich waters and although cod will always be king here, don’t forget there are so many other species to target.
The people are very friendly and speak good English, the food is good, you’re sheltered from the worst of the weather by the fjords so can fish pretty much every day, and during the summer you have 24 hours of daylight to play with. It’s an amazing package and well worth saving up for.
WHERE TO FISH
The fact is that you can catch huge cod just at the mouth of the home fjord without travelling more than a half mile, but there is key ground out to the west and clearly marked on the chart. We chose to look at Soegr (South Ground) which comes up from 169-metres to 34-metres, Kvengr rising from 252-metres to 61-metres, and Nordgr (North Ground) lifting up to 54-metres from 211-metres.
All around the island of Oerja and Hoimenvaer there are good drifts, and north of the island is unmarked ground rising from 209-metres to 70-metres. Also look to the west of these small islands where there is good drift ground we didn’t get the chance to try.
Use the sounder while running alongside the edges of the mountain slopes and look for the steep drop-offs that fall sheer in to the depths. Such feature is everywhere here and the fish tend to be down towards the base of the feature during the main day.
SEASONS
Cod and haddock can be caught in numbers 12 months of the year, but most anglers visit the area between April and early October. The best time for halibut is May, though again they show all year, as will the redfish, torsk, coalfish, ling and catfish. Angler fish are caught too, mostly in the May to September period, but again these can show at any time. There are also plaice, dabs and the odd ray caught off the sand through the summer and autumn period.
Herring show both in April and May, then again in late August to September. This is often when the biggest cod are caught as they move in tight to shore to feed on the herring.
The biggest cod verified from these local Senja camp waters is a cod of 23-kilo’s, that’s over 50lbs, coalies top 15-kilo’s, catfish reach 10-kilo’s, with ling to 10-kilo’s. From what we saw you’ve an excellent chance of getting a 30lb cod during a week’s stay.
TACKLE TO TAKE
I’d suggest taking a 3oz spinning rod and fixed spool reel loaded with 15lb line, braid or mono, for some fun fishing and working light 100gr pirks. A 30lb braid rod with a stiffish action for working bigger pirks, this rod to be at least 7ft 6in in length to give you maximum pirk lift movement, and if you want to target the halibut, then chuck in a 50lb class rod and reel, though I’d think carefully about this as a good angler with the 30lb class would be fine on halibut up to 100lbs.
Take some spare braid, plenty of strong links, some swivels, beads and spare mono for snoods, a few hooks from size 2 or 1 for the flatfish, some 4/0’s for adding to shads and jelly worms, and some bigger 6/0’s. 8/0’s and 10/’s, should you need them for pennel rigs when fishing whole coalfish baits.
Tide flow is not that bad, so a few pirks in sizes 200, 300, 400 and 500grm will be ideal. Chrome works well, as does lumo, but black is also excellent. I fished a full week and lost no gear whatsoever. Certainly ten pirks or so would see you through the week here.
Calcutta shads in Pink Ice and the Red Head, both 4-inch and 5-inch sizes, caught me a lot of fish worked off a short jumper rig. I also had fish on Hokkai’s and jellyworms.
The locals do well on Gummymac’s which are the old type tube sandeel we used to use here 30-years ago.
The centre will hire rods and reels out for a small fee, and surprisingly you can take their pirks with you and you only pay if you lose them, which is an excellent service.
THE BOATS
The hire boats are superb Hansvik 18fters powered by 30hp 4-stroke Yamaha’s and moored on the pontoon 20-yards in front of the houses. These are open craft, but exceptionally seaworthy and absolutely stable with three fishing all down the same side.
The boats are fitted with a variety of sounders, ours being a Lowrance, plus a GPS unit. Check you have HOME listed as your first mark on the GPS so you can find your way back.
There is an instruction book supplied with the sounder, so you can have a brief read before using the unit. They are easy enough and some of the fishing centres even have a base unit set up so you can practice on this before heading to sea.
DAY TO DAY LIVING
It’s a misconception that Norway is ridiculously expensive. Certainly beer in bars is full whack and we chose to buy a few beers from the supermarket and drink back at the cabin. This works out much cheaper. Food in restaurants is also pricey, but cooking back at the cabin is easy enough and we ate fresh fish we’d caught several nights which is unbeatable and free.
You can buy staple foods like bacon, eggs, beans, bread, milk etc from the local shops. One is just a 10 minute walk away and other a 15 minute drive, this latter one having pretty much everything you can think of.
Remember to take a European plug adapter with you to charge your mobile. You get a good signal pretty much everywhere here too.
ACCOMADATION
The cabins are traditional Norwegian log cabins, very snug and warm, and fitted out with all mod cons including dish washer, microwave, fridge, freezer and TV. They can house six people comfortably.
You can clean the house out yourself at the end of the trip, or pay a small fee, about £40 between you to have the house cleaned for you after you leave.
HOW TO GET THERE
Barney and I flew from Stansted to Oslo, flight time 1 hour and 40minutes on average, then took a second flight from Oslo to Tromso which takes about an hour and 45 minutes. You can then either hire a car yourself or the fishing centre will pick you up and return you for your return flight in a mini bus.
As a guide on prices flying from London Stansted to Oslo with Norwegian Airlines Wednesday to Wednesday costs £102 and £110 for the connect flight from Oslo to Tromso. Saturday to Saturday prices are Stansted to Oslo for £160 and Oslo to Tromso for £102.
You can also fly SAS, KLM and Widroe from Manchester, Newcastle and Teeside airports.
Baggage allowance with Norwegian is 2 bags weighing 20-kilo’s each, but book these in when you book the flight. You can also carry an additional 20-kilo’s with the other airlines, but again book this with your flight, and they may charge you a very small fee for the second bag. Your fishing rods in a tube should go free.
PACKAGES & CONTACTS
Packages are available from as little as £295 per person in to some southern Norway camps and include ferry, sea view cabin house, and your self drive boat.
In to mid Norway packages begin at £449 per person and includes flights, airport transfers, house and boat, and northern Norway begins at £549 per person again including flights, airport transfers, house and boat. All prices are for four persons sharing for 7 days.
You pay separately for the boat fuel you use over the weeks fishing.
For full package information and alternative fishing centre options, contact Ian Peacock (UK), Din Tur Booking Office, North East Tackle Supplies, 309 Ryhope Road, Sunderland, SR2 9SS. Tel: 0191-5654970 Mob: 07763576995, or by E-mail at Peacock@dintur.co.uk, and also check out their website via www.dintur.co.uk .
On a final note Ian Peacock has personal experience of most of the centres Din Tur offer for sea angling in Norway. What’s more he fished with us all week and is a real angler absolutely nuts about fishing, so any questions you have he can answer factually from both a company and fishing viewpoint.
