Fresh fish from Klovstein

Salmon and Norway  are too things that really stick togeather quite strong, and for me its not about farmed fish that can destroy the whole thing in the near future, but about wild ones. This year I had a chance  to visit our EFFA Master instructor Hans Spinler at Orkla in middle of the August – week 33. Of course, as one may suggest it was hard to refuse! In general, Trondheim area, where Orkla enters the fjord, is well known for salmon fishermen since around 1830, when gentlmen from Great Britan came here to catch fish of the liftime! Still you can find reports about 200 fish in 20 days and so on if you are keen salmon fishing historian.  Impressive… However, it was not yesterday – times have changed, but, yep, still Norvegian rivers in this area such as Orkla, Gavla, Namsen (enters different fjord) and also Verdal, are amongst the best world wide and have a plenty of fish to catch. First three mentioned rivers are in top 5 during the last years in Norway. But what is more important – its not about the numbers, but about the size – annually there are reports about fish ower 45 lb and 20lb fish are quite freequently landed. In Orkla, The largest salmon caught and registered weighed 25 kg,  so – it is worth to try!

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SALMON... to be or...

In these days when eggs are hatching deep below the ice in our beautiful Baltic salmon Rivers, our minds can not rest in peace, because our friends are  endangered around the globe. Geir Kjensmo, Chairman of Norwegian Salmon Association just send me a video, that illustrate unbelievable  threat that comes from Salmon Farms. You must see the whole  film Farm Salmon Exposed (all parts) -- to know better how does these monsters (farms) impact our friends. Is there a way to fight with them? Yes, and it is simple: BOYCOTT FARMED SALMON, because fish farms destroys wild fish. All Salmon that you can by in Baltic states comes from Norway farms, and now these are active in both sides of Atlantic Ocean, by this destroying  wild fish populations even in Canada.  Producers of the film have gathered unimpeachable evidence of this important fact, and you can find articles about this problems in major scientific journals such as Nature. Hopefully we don’t have such a big problems in Baltic Sea, where our salmon unfortunately have high dioxin levels.  If you are responsible fly fisherman spend a while and watch a film -- we are part of this whole story…

Link from Geir is here, video below. ACT NOW!

Intro

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Ok, i`m back again online, so first I need to finish with promises.

Arriving

When I arrived on 13 of June in Varzina, I recognized that this beauty is like big trout stream in northern Scandinavia – wide river with small islands and different sized pools in between them. Hence this year was my first experience in Kola and I have prepared some flies, I was interested in water color first. There is no such a thing as typical kola peninsula salmon fly – there are blue crystal clear waters like in river Sidorovka, and more tea type like in Kola and Panoi. Here in Varzina water has a slight touch of tee, but in general it is crystal clear. So orange and yellow colors should do the job, one may suggest. I have prepared a different tube flies for this trip, and more less these flies where quite big and bright, hence I was going to fish at the opening week this year, when water temperature are low, yet level is quite high. Unfortunately, when we arrived, water was already 6 degrees Celsius, and level was down for some 50 cm in comparison to typical level you might expect in this week. (more…)

Varzina - view from main lodge

Some times you travel more than others, and there is no time to share your emotions, experience and feeling about where, why, what and so on. Few days ago I returned back from beautiful trip to Kola peninsula Varzina river, where I was invited from team Sportfish – tour operator in river Varzina.  We where fishing on the second week of June, when water temperature increases and salmon are staring enter the river. In Varzina, main portions of fish, especially biggest ones, enter the river on spring, so let call Varzina a spring run river. So, again, what is it all about? Bullets? No this time it’s all about silver tuna shaped salmon that is powerful enough to straighten the hook and push the tackle to upper limits – so you better be prepared! On the other hand the amount of the fish in the river is enough for fishing, but not enough to catch them without endurance – it is more like hunting on deer rather than shooting one duck after another. In other terms fishing is about catching few nice fresh and absolutely silver fish rather than landing plenty of small grilse or kelts. So…. Yeah, river! It is beautiful and diverse.

Nice and silvery...

There where only few similar pools, and mainly here to be successful you must adapt your presentation, fly and even line to fish properly in all places. On the lover part pools are located close to each other, but in the upper river pools are situated some 500meters ore even few kilometres from each other. In between them are only rapids with a strong current, where fish is not holding, but just pass it by. So fishing here is without any doubt interesting, tricky and rough. Wind is blowing all the time from differnet directions; temperatures are changing fast like hell – just like it should be in the North. We where lucky with the weather, but even in this week, some times only thing about to dream after fishing was sauna and a shot of nice Russian vodka.

Special russian vodka!

I am on the move again, but i hope within few day`s, in the next part I will let you know about fishing, conclusions and my opinion on flies. My opinion on flies and techniques during fishing changed, so it may be interesting.

Today, i was out for few hours in Salaca – to enjoy start of the spring and of coarse to inspect some spots for salmon and seatrout. Weather was nice – mild sun with a breeze of light southeast wind, temperature few degrees above zero. This year licence price for one day fishing is 9 Lats, that is really not expensive. In spite of such a price, there was quite many spin fishermen on the other bank without licence (effect of the economical crisis), but with not a bad collection of damn words. Fishing in favorite spots meanwhile hearing these “birds singing” was somehow tiresome. I moved upstream hopefully not to meet anyone there. I was lucky – next to the small tributary Korģene there where only some steps in the snow reminding that i`m not the first one here this year. In spite of the comfortable conditions on the river bank, water temperature was o,8 degrees above 0. Not the best new`s – but what can you expect if the snow is melting. Fortunately water level was not high and it was clear enough to see bottom in 1,3 meter depth. Usually in such a conditions, let`s say in autumn, there are no doubt about using floating line (shooting head), but after some half an hour i felt like an idiot – expect a salmon rising for fly in such a conditions? Maybe some other time. I changed a head to intermediate/sink2 and finally i felt my fly in the water layer where it should ride. Just patience… Fishing in such a low temperatures requires a slllllooowwwww presentation of the fly, and if you are using 30 degree casting angle, fly swing`s almost forever. Just cast and wait, wait, wait – meanwhile with full control over fly. Boring some may say. Ok, but you can watch how nature is waking up and finally hope that you have more patience than fish. Too or three casts – step, then again casting and stepping until the end of the pool suffering from little cold, that makes you feel alive. Until someone stops your fly. Today it was around 14:00 when at the end of the pool, in the well known place 5,5 kilo kelt female stopped the fly. I was using Rusty Orange 7 cm long tube fly with bright orange cone in the front. These colors work fine in brown colored waters. But, without a proper presentation it is useless. For sure! I was lucky – salmon season 2009 opened.

Salmo Salar kelt