Mariager Fjord 21/4 – 2019

A pontoon trip to the middle part of Mariager Fjord with Henrik, Carsten and Finn. The weather was sunny and warm but a light breeze disturbed the surface and that was probably in our favor as the light was very bright.

The first hour not much happened despite the water and the bottom looked very promising this well-known place that I have never fished before.

Carsten got his first ever pontoon boat sea run brown trout though it was not more than 12 cm but it took the fly properly.

 

 

Finn first got the first garfish of the year and after lunch he got this nive and well fed trout close to 50 cm.

 

Later I was lucky and got a 1,8 kg trout that also was very well build, so my wife was happy as I 4 hours later could serve a very fresh fish for dinner.

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Limfjorden 5/1 – 2018

It has become a tradition that the new year starts with an oyster trip to Limfjorden with some of the old Bombay guys and some hangarounds. This year it was not as cold as last year and not windy so very good conditions considering the time of year.

first we collect the oysters.

 

Then we open them

 

Them the chef Rasmus prepares the chowder

 

and some other delicious stuff

 

 

The chowder was served in small hollow bread so you could it your soup bowl. Saves on the dish washing

 

Fantastic cooking in nice surroundings – what is not to like

Cape Cod, week 25 – 2018

This years trip to Cape Cod was more or less with the usual suspects: Thomas, Peter, Carsten and Caspar. We also fished with some of our American fishing buddies Scott and Tom. The procedure was standard as we know where we want to eat and where we and how we want to fish but the weather may force us to change plans. This year the weather was very nice to us as we could go out in our kayaks five days and that is our preferable way of fishing as this often give us the opportunity to sight fish.

 

We started out on Brewsters Flat which is a  nice place but also quite popular so do not expect to be alone.

 

Most of the days we went kayaking and sometimes we could not leave the  beach fast enough as there a LOT of sand flies that literally would enter every opening around your ears and eyes.

 

But when we left the beach the weather was nice the water was clear and we got into fish. Here Thomas is fighting a fish in his shorts and boot outfit.

 

He lands the fish….

 

 

and presents it before the release. As always the big majority was schoolies like this but we saw good numbers of big and very big fish though we did not land them this time but some keepers were also landed.

 

 

Like always a lot of horse shoes crabs, here one trying to date our anchor.

 

One day Thomas got a small striper with a mark. We could not see any number so we just released it again but some scientist want to know more about this.

 

In very shallow water Scott hooked a nice fish that passed between us.

 

It turned out to be his first keeper of the year

 

 

So he was a happy man presenting his fish before the release.

 

We met some og our Danish friends several times this time wade fishing. To get to the bar you have to wait for the tide to drop which Jacob had a hard time waiting for but he managed without getting wet.

 

The ospreys are nesting and with plenty of fish around they have a high success rate in raising the young birds.

 

We had a good trip with a lot of exciting and many times quite frustrating sight fishing.  Everyday we wade fished I met American fly fishers using my Linekurv so that made me glad and a bit proud.

We had breakfast almost everyday at HangarB at Chatham Airport which by a good margen is the best we have ever tried in the States and we had burritos at the Corner Store and twice we grilled big rib eye steaks at the summer house so the food was good and the beer were cold so we will come back next year.

 

 

 

 

Fjellerup Strand, 28/4 – 2018

A pontoon trip with 2 x Henrik and Peter to Fjellerup. Nice weather though a bit more windy than the forecast predicted. When we started out we could see some fly fishers wade fishing further down the beach and when we got closer we could see that is was Peter and Carsten so it was time for lies and stories.

 

 

After the break Carsten got this nice 50 cm trout.

We stopped at noon and Henrik Mong had landed 4 fish and I got two but all were too small. Henrik Leth lost a bigger fish and had a garfish but no keepers and a nice day at the water.

Stevns, week 16 – 2018

After 6 months without a fishing trip due to my bad shoulders I signed up for five days at Stevns flyfishing for sea run brown trout from pontoon boats. We normally go to Sweden this time of the year but this year we tried something new. In order to lessen the stress on my shoulders when casting I had bought a Hardy Demon 11 foot switch rod #4/5 which I fished with my regular 6 weight shooting head on 14 grams. This turned out to work very well despite the rod is supposed to be loaded with an 18 gram head but that may be fine for switch cast and I has casting overhead. The important thing was that it was a delight to cast with and I could fish all day without too much pain afterwards. I was a jumping happy boy inside 😉

The group was more or less like last year except that Jesper and Knud joined from time to time. I forgot my camera so I did not get many photos but Henrik and Leif took some nice photos that I could use.

The coast at Stevns has many places cliffs and are very beautiful and the bottom looks fantastic

 

 

Lars presenting a nice fish from the first day, it was a nice fish but as it had been up spawning it was released.

 

The water is a bit brackish so now and then an ide will grab the fly. Lars turned out to be the ide expert but I did not get any

 

Some af the fish were below the minimum size so they were released

It was the first time I fished with my new electric motor a Torqeedo 1003, that worked fine but is quite expensive.

Some of the days were very calm. It was easy to see if fish showed but they were trickier to get to the fly.

 

As I had not fished for a long time it was a joy every time I was in this situation

Especially when the fish was big enough to keep and not a kelt

 

 

From the last day were only Leif and I were fishing and we had the best fishing of the trip as we landed 11 trouts all over the minimum size and 3 times we had a double hook up. I brought back two fish this day as I had promised my wife to get some and they have already been consumed.

We got 27 trouts as a group and I got 13 (you never know if you get the chance to brag again) and my new rod worked very well so for me it was a fantastic trip. The trip was like always with a lot of laughs, good food and something to drink so what could go wrong. I now consider getting a two classes heavier switch rod for my striper and pike fishing and what I can find to fish for. I feel I am back 🙂

 

 

Rio Panará Argentina, week 40/42 – 2017

After 3 months without any fishing at all I was very excited about going to Argentina for golden dorados with some of the Bombay guys. I worried about my shoulder but looked forward to visit Argentina for the first time and to fish for dorado as this has been in my dreams for quite a lot of years. We should fish for ten days in Rio Paraná and Christian had arrived some days before as he should stay with the guides and he had lived in Argentina so he had no problem communicating with the locals where I realized that my Spanish is quite rusty.

We had a VERY long trip from Denmark but the guides picked us up in Resistencia airport and had arranged a nice meal at the restaurant at the hotel at 11 pm so we went straight to bed afterwards as we should go fishing next morning. We (Lasse, Carsten, Jonas ,Stefan, Christian and I) fished in pairs so we were three boats with guides (Pablo, Enzo and Dante) and we made a rotation system so everyone fished together.

The Paraná river is a very big river and many big ships transport cargo to and from Paraguay and the Argentinian parts of it. We fished in the very big central river but mostly in the smaller side rivers.

 

On the way full speed up the river in morning

 

The fly fishing for dorado involves a lot of casting as we fish to structures in the current typically trees like these.

 

The dorado rests around the trees and literally attacks the fish from this position. When they are feeding they seem to move around much more and the you may see smaller fish jumping or the dorado showing at the surface.

 

The first days we found out that we would not catch the dorados in big numbers but our guides also aimed for the bigger ones and that was also the reason we fished this time of the year in the parts of the Paraná river. Everyone had contacts the first day but only a few were landed but the fish were just as beautiful as we had imagined and the take was normally very violent and they put up a good fight. I did not get any fish the first two days but as had chances everyday I thought it was a matter of time until I would get one.

 

The third day I landed two fish in the 4 kg range and I was very content but I did feel my bad shoulder and my casting became worse especially in the late afternoon as I got tired.

 

The surroundings were very nice despite the occasionally big ships and the wild life were impressive. We saw  a lot of crocodiles (kaiman), monkeys and giant otters and the bird life was even more impressing.

 

a howling monkey family where one of the female were carrying a baby monkey on the back.

 

We also started to get bigger fish up to 6-7 kg and everyone were happy and we were happy for every fish as we knew that you had to work for them.

 

A regular lunch break at a sand bank. The boats were equipped with app. 100 HP so we moved easily around and we normally sailed 70 – 100 km per day so at night after dinner we were tired as we had almost 12 hours on the water every day.

 

 

At lunch we had some nice lunch boxes but two days we were even more spoiled as the guides grilled and then we started with picada, a mixture of cheese, ham and salamis.

 

After the picada we got meat and some terrific sausages prepared on open fire. No wonder I gained 4 kg in the two weeks.

 

If you casted your fly into some dead water there were good chances or risks of catching a piranha. Quite strong fish and we got them up to 2 kg but you would not want to remove the fly with your fingers.

 

Catching a piranha meant loosing a fly. Here a fly before and after a piranha.

 

Not all dorados were big actually we got them down to 1 kg but they had a good average size.

 

The fourth day I fished with Jonas and just before sunset he took a few shots as the scenery was very nice. According to Jonas this was the actually cast where the dorado of my life took the fly.

 

After the take it took a very fast run into the backing where the line went via a big island of weed and I was really worried as Jonas earlier this day had lost a very big fish as the line got into some underwater branches. This may have been my luck as we then were ordered by the our guide Pablo to turn the break on the reel to maximum in order to keep the fish as close as possible to the boat and thereby minimize the risk af having the fly line around stuff in the water. We saw immediately that is was a big fish but it was not until it came to the boat and turned its side to us that we saw the width and depth of the fish and realized that it was huge.

 

At first it was placed on the front deck but after it was measured it jumped out of the boat and we had to get it in a second time and the we placed it in the back of the boat.

 

This may not be a perfect photo but it shows how big this fish is, remember I am 195 cm so most fish look small when I hold them

 

A happy fly-fisher despite I could not lift the fish with my bad shoulders but you can not help but smile big time when you get a fish like this – 18 kg dorado on a fly. The guides call fish of this size and fatness “vaca” which means cow.

 

The last part of the trip I fished mostly with bait fish due to my shoulders and here we got different species of catfish.

 

here a three-point cat-fish

 

This catfish was called something with pata which means duck, and you can see why with its strange mouth

 

on bait we got many piranhas but we only got one of these – another piranha species

 

We did not catch any big cat-fish on the live bait – this was the largest.

 

Almost all the dorado missed parts of the tail due to piranhas

 

 

Jonas got this big 10 kg dorado that was a bit less golden than normally – a small man with a big smile

 

Carsten also got this mullet like fish that took the big dorado fly.

 

We had to buy and drink this rum. It was not the best but it had dorado on the label.

 

Stefan got this carp one day at the lunch break thought it was not hooked properly.

 

In Argentina you have to eat steaks (1 lb.) and drink red wine so we did that very often.

 

What better way to end this post from the dorado trip…

 

There is a better way to end the post another beautiful dorado.

I got 10 dorados during 10 days so it is not hard to figure out the stats. I had many more contacts and I really liked the fishing and the area. The guides were great and  partly due to my bait fishing I got seven different species. Everyone got fish and also good-sized fish above 6 kg. and I still can not believe my luck with my  18 kg. dorado. It was camp record for 2017 so a very memorable trip I would love to do again another time.

 

 

 

 

 

Rena week 32 – 2017

Like last year a week planned for dry-fly fishing at Rena drifting from pontoon boats. This year I was joined by Henning, Anders, Gunnar, Inge and my wife Lise and we all had pontoon boats. We stayed at Rena Fishing Camp where the plan was to fish, eat drink and have a lot of fun.

Rea is a beautiful river but a lot of places it is hard to wade fish and that is one of the reasons we are very fond of drifting down the river. it also adds variation to the fishing but when you do not anchor up you only get ones shot at a fish.

 

We fish to fish that feeds at the surface but we also blind fish with dry flies and that can be quite productive when you have learned where to do your fishing. The trouts are wild thoiugh some fish are stocked and they are marked with the fat fin cut off. I have now caught probably more than 200 trout and still haven´t seen any stocked trout. The largest trout are caught at nighttime but we did not fish in the dark so for us nice fish are in the 35 – 40 cm range.

 

Here Lise has hooked at trout

And presenting the fish before release

 

I normally fish primarily for trout but when I see a grayling I go for that as well. The average size for grayling is very good as it is around 45 cm. You may kill one grayling and one trout per day and they must be in the 30 – 40 cm range.

 

The fly I used most of the time was Dyret or the Animal.

 

It is an imitation of a sedge or a stone fly, not anatomically correct but it works fine.

 

 

When you want to release the fish and want a photo I seem to end up with two kinds of photos. One in the net..

 

or one in the hand. When sitting in a boat alone and  wanting to release it as fast as possible I end up with a bit boring photos.

 

 

There is a 5 km stretch that is only for fly fishing and no boat fishing. This is part of the fly zone that is very promising

 

 

We typically drifted 10 – 12 km so a bit of logistics were necessary everyday. We managed to transport all 6 pontoon boats inflated on two cars and a trailer.

 

Inge managed to find a handful of big very good-looking and tasting Karl Johan, one of the best edible mushrooms and we had a fantastic starter one night.

 

Everyday we started out with freshly baked bread. The eating is an important part of the trip.

 

  One day Lise was the master fly-fisher as she caught the two largest fish of the day here presenting one of them. We all used my stripping basket but they probably felt that they had to 😉

 

There are also many birds and we all also saw beavers so always a nice experience in the nature.

 

‘    The best fish on the trip was this 1,5 kg trout that I got in the afternoon after Gunnar promised two free flies to the biggest fish of the day.

 

It was taken on a Dyret like most of my fish.

We were lucky that the wind was very calm almost all the days and only one day rained away. We got a lot to drink and eat and had some nice fishing and a lot of laughs. I only paused one day du to my shoulders so that was Ok and I am sure we will come back next year.

 

 

Mariager Fjord 26/7 – 2017

After last weeks trip where we saw a lot of fish Michael and I wanted to try Mariager Fjord once again. We were delayed as there had been an accident on the highway and I worried that we would make it to the tackle shop MB Grej in Hobro as I should pick up a pair of new waders to be worn on the trip. we just made it and we went to another location than last time so we did not have to walk as much. I tried the foam fly again but like last time without success. This evening we only saw a limited number of fish maybe 25 % of the number last time.

 

Michael excelled once again with a trout 5 cm larger than last time so he is unbeatable at the moment.

 

And the waders were leaking both in the left and in the right leg so they has to be returned 😦   on the photo you can see my left leg of my shorts and I am not incontinent yet.

 

 

Mariager Fjord 19/7 – 2017

An evening trip wading with Henning and Michael on the north side of Mariager Fjord. I fly-fished while the others were spinfishing and we started out with having our dinner which was “Danish smørrebrød” i.e. open sandwiches. Normally they quite tall but as I tripped over a log 5 meters before we arrived at the beach they did not look good and were more the wide kind but the tastes was still fine. As we had our meal we saw several fish jump and this evening we saw many fish and all of them in the 2 -5 lb. range. I fished a foam beetle but without any luck.

 

Michael got a nice fish and as this was his first sea run brown trout in 10-15 years he wore the big smile.

Österlen 19/4-22/4 2017

A pontoon boat trip to the southern part of Sweden for searun brown trout like we have done for some years. We know that we are likely to catch fish and that the average size is way better than in Denmark but we also know that most fish will be kelts on their way to top condition, and sometimes they will be far away 😉

This year 2 x Henrik, 2 x Lars, Torben and Leif made the team. We started out in Denmark but I had to get towed as my car apparently needs oil to run. We thought the problem was solved but the next day we had to call for road help again and we were transferred to a rental service where we switched the car. A break down with a car is always inconvenient cut with a car loaded with two  pontoon boats and outboard engines, tackle and food and drink on the way to a 5 day fishing trip it is VERY inconvenient.

 

We mad it to Sweden a bit late and we went fishing. The first day we got some nice fish that were below the minimum size (50 cm) like the one on the photo and that was an OK start as we only had half a day.

 

 

The following days we fished most of the day and we got more fish like this. They were above the size limit but they clearly had spawned this winter so they were released.

 

Some were big like this 80 cm fish and as we this year came quite late they had regained a lot of their strength and this one really struggled hard. Actually I thought that it fought so hard that I was convinced that it would be a keeper, but like everything else I got it was released.

 

A couple of ides or orfes were caught as well. Here Henrik presents a 2 kg and as it was his first he was very pleased though they are not very interesting to fight. Most of the days we had to work hard as the wind speed was app. 10 m/s and therefore we were limited in our choice of fishing spots and quite tired when we returned late in the afternoon.

 

One morning before the wind picked up I got a small trout. This day I tested an electric outboard from Torqeedo. It is less noisy and seems to have a battery capacity that is big enough for my needs and with a bad shoulder it is a pleasure just to twist the handle to start it. It is expensive but I have ordered one to save my shoulder a lot of work and myself some pain.

 

The red kite is always seen in this region and it is a very elegant bird that I always like to watch.

 

Leif shot some video of me landing a fish the last day. It is only the last part of the fight but still nice at least for me

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B86oHkCCwUmTbnVuYk41SG5HYUE/view

Here presenting the result – a 75 cm trout that still needed to gain some weight but were quite strong.

Despite too much wind and all the problems I had with the car it was a good trip and next time we hope to hit some of the trouts that skipped a spawning season.

Djursland 9/4 – 2017

Our original plans were ruined by the wind so we ended at Kobberhage on Djursland. We were Henrik, Torben and myself and planned a pontoon trip for searun brown trout.

Before we had entered the water we saw the first seal and not the last and as we also saw porpoises several times it was clear that the fish could be stressed and that may explain that the fishermen we met all told that the season had been very bad compared to normal.

After a couple of hours I got a small fish below the minimum size,

soon after I got a better sized fish, it was in the mid 60´es cm but needed to gain a lot of weight to be well conditioned. After lunch we continued but without any luck and these two fish turned out to be the only contacts for us all day.

Mariager Fjord 1/4 – 2017

A trip alone in the pontoon boat to Mariager fjord. Last weekend not much happened and after a couple of hours I thought that this would be the same. But after lundbreak a fish showed at he surface and 15 minutes later a nice trout grabbed the fly and started a serie of jumps.

it was a well conditioned trout that measured 50 cm and 1.51 kg.

 

It took a worm pattern and when I gutted it I saw that it had feasted heavily on polychaete worms.

Nice fish but not for me :-)

This weekend I was out for the first time in almost 4 months but I did not have much luck. Fortunately others have done better.

In can very much recommend this article from Globalflyfisher (a very recommendable website) about a fantastic sea run brown trout.

And my friend Leif also did well this weekend and he made a smal video

Have fun reading and viewing and hopefully I will come back soon with news of my own

 

Limfjorden 7/1 – 2017

With a non working right arm due to surgery there will be some time without any fly-fishing.  But the annual oyster trip with Bombay to Limfjorden could be managed. This year we were 8 people attending the trip including a few hangarounds and as usually we had a blast collecting oysters, eating them au naturel, preparing oysters, eating them gratinated in different varieties, having a drink and telling stories.

Stefan presenting an oister ready before release.

Preparing oysters with pickled onions and hot sauce.

Enjoying oysters with its natural companion: bubbly wine, here a cava.

 

 

 

Fjellerup, 4/12 – 2016

A trip in the pontoon boats with Henrik to Fjellerup. I did not have high hopes for this trip as the other Henrik had fished the spot the day before without any luck at all but we gave it a shot despite the cold weather. After a shaky start as Henrik forgot his waders so he had to lend a pair from Jan that luckily lives quite nearby. We fished the spot where Henrik last year got a beautiful 10 pounder and there I got this nice fish around the ½ meter mark.

 

 

Later Henrik got a 35 cm fish but then the party was over. After lunch we did not see or feel anything but I was content as this will be my last trip for a while as next week I will have surgery in my shoulder. So I wish everyone a merry Christmas and hope to be able to bring more reports in the year to come – hopefully with a better functioning shoulder.

 

 

Mariager Fjord, 22/10 – 2016

A pontoon boat trip with 2 x Henrik from Bombayfly. We started in the dark and fished until noon where we stopped as the wind and rain drained us for energy. I excelled in catching nothing  while Henrik got three trouts. No photo as he was very discreet. The other Henrik fished with a sinking 3 line in 3 feet of water and that payed off as he got a flounder 🙂

 

The flounder was the basis for a small thai inspired fish soup in the evening – very delicious, thanks for that Henrik

 

Cape Cod week 33 – 2016

The team for Cape Cod this year was exactly the same as last year and included Thomas, Caspar, Peter and Carsten. This time we came in September which is new to us. The new time of year gave opportunities af fishing for false albacore known as albies but we were a bit concerned for the striper fishing as the summer had been quite hot and long so the water temperature was high.

 

The first day Casper and I went out with a guide Dave. We primarily looked for albies and Caspar got one and that was one of his goals for the trip, so from dy one he had been succesful. We arrived late in the evening and we met with Dave 6 AM next day and I must admit I had not finely tuned my gear from start and therefore I missed some good opportunities with albies at the surface. It was Saturday and there were many boats on the water. Another time I would definitely go for a day outside the weekend.

 

Later in the afternoon we did some fishing towards the rocks of an island and had some interesting fishing here. I got a nice striper though not a keeper. Dave with his characteristic beard in the back – I will recommend him if you want a guide trip, he was knowledgable and keen to give us a good trip.

 

In the evening we met with the other guys that had been fishing the bay side and had very good fishing. Caspar and I also had good fishing and this first day I got two keepers around 29 inches and then I had fulfilled one of my goals.

 

This day and the day after we got a lot of fish. We got between 30 and 50 stripers each. Most were smaller fish but also several like this that were not keepers but almost. This raise the hopes for next years fishing. Peter got app. 50 fish the first day including two keepers and he had two goals: to try to catch many fish and to get a keeper so he was also content from day one.

 

Caspar excelled with a new species on fly on our trip to the Cape, a fluke or a flounder.

 

The second day we fished in the dark at Brewsters flat and found a spot where the fish at least at that time had a very good average size. Here Thomas presents a keeper.

 

Monday the weather forecast was not that good and some went shopping but Peter and I wanted to fish. We fished at Mill Creek and we got a few smaller fish but we saw a lot of surface activity but out of reach. At times the weather prediction was very precise as it rained a LOT. We had the empty our stripping baskets every 3 minutes.

 

On e morning Thomas and I fished Chatham bay. We heard something we have never heard before. It sounded like there was a speed boat race going on constantly. It turned out to be seals howling. All the dark areas on the sand bars are big grey seals. We could see several hundreds of seals and often they come very close and I must admit that I do not have much confidence in the fishing if I have several seals within casting distance.

One day Caspar and I tried some new spots on the ocean side near the canal. I had to stop fishing as a school og small bluefish literally took my fly all the time and Caspar added yet another species to our list. I can not remember the name but here it is.

 

 

As always we see some wildlife despite that Cape Cod is thickly settled. This year I saw many wild turkeys, chipmunks, squirrels, coyotes, a skunk in our garden, osprey and a big variety of birds and then a lot of seals.

 

This year we had one day kayaking to the sand bars. There were too many clouds so we did not get many opportunities for sight fishing. The day before would have been much better but we had some problems renting the kayaks so we had to wadefish. And during this wadefishing we saw many fish at the surface at very shallow water so we got our bit of sight fishing. Now Thomas and I have bought a kayak so next year we hopefully will be able to use that a lot.

To sum things up we had very nice weather, we caught a lot of fish though the pace went down from the first frantic days, we got five keepers and many almost keepers, we had some sight fishing and we found a new favourite breakfast place (Hangar B at Chatham airport). We also visited The Corner store several times for panini and burritos so we all look forward to next time.

 

 

Mariager Fly Cup 2016

Bombayfly had its annually fly fishing competition Mariager Fly Cup for the third time. It is a one day competition only for fly-fisher in Mariager Fjord. I think it is safe to say that it is the biggest fly-only competition in Denmark and it is also backed up by many fly related companies sponsoring prices  . The fee is very modest at 100 DKK  while the prices are very generous.

This year 165 fly-fishers participated and as always everyone was in a good mood and despite the weather that was too good (warm and sunny) many very nice fish were caught.

 

Here the winners with fish and prices.

 

Here the top 10 fish from 1,7 kg to 3,1 kg displayed on ice.

I only participated as an official in the weighting procedure so I had my excuse for not catching anything. ´Friday I leave for Cape Cod for this years striper fishing and I hop to return with a nice report with many fish.

Kolding Fjord 28/8 – 2016

A trip with the Bombay-guys Simon, Søren, Jan and Morten to Kolding Fjord to a destination I haven´t tried before. In Bombay terms it is known as the clamydia-swamp, not a nice name but in a way an OK description of this part of the fjord where the bottom is very soft and sometimes very smelly.

Four of us were wade fishing and Søren fished from his pontoon boat. We saw the first trout even before we entered the water but despite a lot af casting and seeing several fish within casting reach we got nothing. After a 3 hours Søren sailed to another location and that proved to be a good move as he had terrific fishing seeing and catching many fish.  He kept three nice fish and released som and lost the big one. He also called us so we moved to his place and that resulted in one nice fish for Simon and a small one for me. Then it started to rain heavily despite the sunny weather forecast and we stopped. A location to try another time maybe in a pontoon boat.

 

 

Rena, 1/8 – 6/8 2016

almost a week in Norway at Rena dry-fly fishing from pontoon boats with Gunnar, Anders, Henning and Lise.

 

We stayed at Rena Fishing Camp where we had the new apartment above the new café.

 

We managed to arrange transport of all five pontoon boats with only one deflated. Everyone looked a bit concerned when they saw our setup but if we did not drive fast it worked very well.

 

We did not see many fish taking insects from the surface so it was primarily blind fishing with caddis patterns. This was probably the reason that we almost only caught brown trouts. Here a nice 37 cm trout from the first day.

 

The first day Lise only got three fish but it was a Rena grand slam: a grayling, a brown trout and a white fish. All good fish with an average size around 37 cm.

 

five times I was lucky to meet a beaver this is from my first encounter where it climbed out the water and started to eat at the shore.

 

The last day I drifted 12 km with Lises and mine pontoon boats tied together with a rope and here Lise saw her first beaver swimming with its dinner.

 

Caddis flies were the main target for the fish at this time but there were also smaller mayflies.

 

There was not much wind and many times Rena really presented itself very nice.

 

But in the high mountains the weather can change in minutes and this photo was taken shortly after. The showers normally did not last for long so all in all the weather was very suitable for fishing.

 

The brown trout were sometime with red spots and sometimes without. We never caught any stocked fish without fat fin.

 

The night-time is the best time for big trout but as Rena runs south it is not well suited for late evening dry-fly fishing from pontoon boats as you can only see the fly behind you so it is better ti fish from the shore.

 

The last day Lise only got two trout but again both of good size, she must be doing something right.

 

It is always a pleasure to fish and drift down Rena so I would love to come back. This time we did not get any really big trouts but we had a lot of laughs, drinks and good food. We got grayling up to 50 cm and trout up to 42 cm and we caught quite a lot of smaller fish so we will not make any complaints. Next time we may go for the night fishing and the bigger trouts but a nice meal and a drink is sometimes hard to compete with 😉