Fishing the Otra River in Southern Norway

[Todd K]

I guess I wont be to far from Flyaddict.com. We have a wireless connection in the house we are staying. My wife is so happy about that. :D

It was long 24 hrs. to get here. Both kids slept maybe 3 to 4 hrs. and then you try and force yourself to stay awake when you arrive so you can get on there schedule.

We all slept very well last night. it is 6 hrs difference here.

I forgot how stunning the views are around here...I will try and post pictures often.

My wifes family owns from the white house on the bottom right point that sticks out in the river up to the rock hill towards the middle left. The have lots of cherry trees and rasberry bushes on the property.

http://www.flyaddict.com/forum/images/random/norway/Norway_arial.jpg

There are so many trout in this section of river they don't get very big and they are happy that you take them. Salmon fishing happens a little futher down the road. There is a damn that they can't pass. Something they are trying to get a ladder system for.

[Todd K]

Iv'e been fishing pretty much every day. The trout I have caught from the families property have beautiful colors. They are brown trout, but I've never seen them like this. They have white on the fins like a brook trout with bright red spots and yellow bellys. There are so many trout in the upper part of the River Otra(above the damn) that it is very easy to catch them. It is like fishing for Sunfish. The locals feed there pigs with them and they are happy if you take them because they will get bigger if there are fewer fish. Wish we had that problem.

Here are a few pictures.

http://www.flyaddict.com/forum/images/random/norway/otratrout_6_30.jpg
http://www.flyaddict.com/forum/images/random/norway/otratrout2_6_30.jpg

I will be Salmon fishing tomorrow. I will report soon.

[Flyone73]

Those are some beautiful fish!

[The Fisherman]

Agreed. Just stunning.

[Redwings1]

Great lookin fish! Looking forward to the salmon report :P

[The Patriot]

Very cool! Beautiful fish, I assume wild?

Also looking forward to the salmon report and pics!

Have a great trip!

Jim

[Todd K]

Salmon fishing in Norway is very different than the states. Many of the rivers are broken up into zones and they only allow so many people per section. I went to the office where you find out what passes are available for a particular day. After talking to the gentleman I found out that the large salmon have moved into the river and are at the top zone below the damn. Naturally I wanted to be there. To his surprise and mine there happen to be one pass left out of only six for Thursday. The next available pass wasn't until the 9th of July. So I took it at around 40 American dollars for the day. 24 hours that is.

http://www.flyaddict.com/forum/images/random/norway/otrabelowdamn.jpg

Besides not getting much sleep that night because of excitement, the sun would start its journey back into the Norwegian sky between 3 and 4am. So I was there around 3:15am to find my fellow 5b zone friends. One Norwegian, Two Danish men, and myself. No others showed. The Norwegian was hot into a huge Salmon and asked if I could help him net the fish. I got down into the water with the net making sure I didn't get to close if the fish wasn't ready to come easily. She was about 15 feet away and you could see this was a 15-20 ponder. My heart was racing and then one head shake and she was of. What a shame, and the Norwegian wasn't even mad. You could tell he did this all the time. I noticed all of them had double handed spinning gear with heavy weight and bobbers. They were bottom bouncing with a salmon flies on.

The Norwegian was very nice, but told me I would be lucky to catch a fish on my fly rod. The water was deep in spots and the river was wide. You could see fish porpusing 20-30 feet out. I wanted to prove him wrong, but he had many years of Salmon knowledge under his belt. He also said I would be better off a little further down river with my fly rod. I could see men down river with Spey rods. I see now why they would come into use being that the river was so wide. I did not have a pass for that zone so I could not fish it this day.

I fished until noon that day without a fish. At that point I had already fished 9hrs. I had tried everything from a sink tip to a full sink. Every Salmon fly I had along with my buggers. Everyone left the river at that point...as well as the fish. No porpusing going on. I packed it in and headed home for an afternoon nap only to return that evening around 9pm to fish until 11pm. Some fish were on the move, but I still didn't catch one. The only fish taken that day was by one of the Danish men...so I didn't feel so bad. I also found out that the major runs with smaller fish don't happen until mid to end of July so I will fish again towards the end of next week.

[Z Fisher]

Those are some beautiful trout. As you say, I wish we had the problem of too many, eager, beautiful trout.

I'm sorry to hear the salmon portion of the trip was a bust, but it's always fun fishing new water.

Thank you for sharing the story.

[Todd K]

It's not over yet! I still have a week to get out for Salmon.

[hookandhackle]

Wow! You're one lucky fellow. Great photos. Those photos of the Norway Brown trout are spitting images of our native brook trout.

Are there any differences in their (Norwegians') fly selections? Good luck in your hunt for salmon.

[Todd K]

There are a lot of similarities in the trout flies. But they seem to stick to traditional streamers especially for Salmon. I also see a lot more tube flies here. They use a lot more double hooks and I don't think anyone practices Catch-and-Release. They don't get that.

Today I really got lucky when my father-in-law talked with a local he grew up with. This guy has a pass for the river that stretches to most of the zones I would normally have to pay for...each zone on different day. He is letting me use it for as long as I want and I can walk all the zones freely. Wish I had this from the day I got here.

[Todd K]

Today I fished one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. Two of my wifes cousins took me up to a place they have been fishing for 30 yrs. We drove an hour and a half and biked two miles to a old private farm now used for vacations. Everything you see below belongs to one family. The cabins with grass roof is in the far back right of the top photo.

http://www.flyaddict.com/forum/images/random/norway/panaramic.jpg

We hiked on through the property with intent to fish another lake up river and fish our way down to the lake on the farm. We hiked about one mile or more before coming to a lake that looks like it had been untouched. There was no trail so not many had come up this way. I could have just sat for hours taking it in. Norwegians are big on coffee breaks so we fired up the burner and made some coffee(about 4 times during our outing). I love coffee so it was nice to sit and take it in. I tied a wolly bugger on my sink-tip line and began to cast. On my second cast a landed a spunky trout about 14 inches. It looked much like the trout on the Farmington...more brilliant because they were wild. I was going to take a photo but my cousin-in-law said there would be plenty more as we worked down the river to the lower lake so I held off. I caught a few more and the others did even better on there spinning gear...hate that. :-)

http://www.flyaddict.com/forum/images/random/norway/lake.jpg

We worked down the beautiful river catching trout after trout. They just seemed to get smaller and smaller. My photo opportunity should have been at the top lake for the bigger ones so I held off. The story goes that the owner of the land didn't like people fishing on his property, so not enough fish are taken and they remain small. The water falls and pockets on this river were amazing. Caddis were in abundance and I came across a hatch of mayflies going off below this waterfall. The closest think I could describe them was a size 16 dark almost black body, not much color at all...dull.
http://www.flyaddict.com/forum/images/random/norway/waterfall.jpg

We fished down to the farm and made some burgers and coffee on the burner. We sat out on the island at the base of the river that fed into the lower lake and took it all in. You can see the island in the top picture on the middle left.

A fishing trip I will truly remember for the rest of my life. Next time we will camp out at the top lake. Im trying to get back there this trip...we will see.

[lar42]

You lucky dog, you! :wink: :)

[Todd K]

We are heading home in the morning to the states. I fished for Salmon a few more days but came up empty. I hooked into one for a few seconds on one of those drifts where your mind is wondering and you aren't expecting it. I think we have all had those. I could have kicked myself. Maybe next time we come back. I will be sure to come during the main run which is mid July into August.

I am looking forward to getting out on the Farmington when I get home. Something about the home river.

[Z Fisher]

Safe travels home.

[Todd K]

Thx! In New York now. Will be home this evening. I don't miss this humidity at all, but it is good to be home in the US.

[h.ridley]

:D Welcome home. It looks like you had a wonderful trip.
Howie

P.S. The Farmington is perfect right now. Had a beautiful morning there today.

Tis a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. W.S.

[Todd K]

Here is a video of some Browns I caught in Norway. This is a quicktime video about 6.4 megs.


http://www.flyaddict.com/VIDEOS/002/002_norway_06.html