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!

Beat’s and other things to know

Orkla - upper part

Good thing about Orkla, and I think also about other Norwegian rivers, is that run continues during the whole seasson – from June till the end of the August, so you can expect fresh fish almost all the time! The Orkla runs through the idyllic Orkla-Valley, about 50 km away from Trondheim and pours into the fjord of Trondheim near Orkanger. The salmon usually come up-river to 88 km that means a lot of water for fishing! After the tackle sterilization, Hans introduced me to fishing.

Fishing at Klovsteinholen

In the Norway usually you can not fish entire river, and rivers are divided in to beats or pools -  200 to1000 meters long river stretches that belong to… To somebody! Heh, here starts the trickiest thing. If you are newcommer to this area, and you are not familiar with the river, it can be quite hard to understand where to fish and where to by licences. In general Orkla have a lot of good pools, but only few of them are easaly to access. Lets say these are public pools! Licences for these pools are not so expencive, but usually public water is not so good and you can expect several fishermen fishing with different tackle – fly, spin and even worm that is popular and quite productive there. So in general its of corse worth trying, but there are better places to fish.  Everything changes in so called private beats (pools) whre rools usually are diffrerent. Local farmers are the owners of the river, and they are renting streches to clubs and other organisations who are offering fishing. So the prices are different but in fishing is better in so called private beets. In some placess, like in Hanss beets, flyfishing is the only name of the game and just a few fisherman are fishing in the same time. So if you have a plan to visit Orkla, or any other Norwegian salmon river, besides bying oficiall Norwegian state permit (200 NOK), find out as much as possible where, why and how. Otherwise.., yeh, you know it by your self.

Fishermen in upper Orkla

OK, good news where, that Hans have 7 pools, and because of his reputation and relationship with locals (he is from Switcerland) these  where amongst best ones. I liked the fact that pools where different. Bakka, the lowest one, was about 3 km away from the Fjord and was “tide water” pool,  when Klovsteinholen and Brusholen was in middle or even upper part offering fresh salmon and also holding fish. I will not spend my time characterizing one pool after another, because they are well described in Hans home page, so you can see by yourself and reed more about them here.

I just would like to add that all of them are worth trying – just take a look at the biggest fish landed.

Rooles

General rooles are simple and correct.

Bag Limit: 1 Salmon or Seatrout a day.

If you catch + kill one fish, fishing must be suspended for that day.

Maximum 10 Salmon a season.

Minimum legth for Salmon: 40 cm.

Minimum length for Seatrout: 40 cm.

Maximum 3 hooks/rod. (one treble or one double and one single hook or 3 single hooks.

Sinkinglines maximum rate 3.

After each cast, the fisher moves 2 m farther downstream.

Never move in to the river in front of a fellow fisher – allways start behind him.

The last two I would like to introduce to our salmon fisherman – especially to spin fishermen! And also even more important thing – peopple here follow these rooles more like we do in our country…

Fishing

Lucky me!

At the arrival day – august 14, Hans met mee with the nice silver bar around 10 punds in his car –  so fish where there in the river waiting for our turn! Those who think that salmon fishing  here or in Norway is easy thing, and you will have one take after another, most propobly have never fished here. Salmon fishing is lot more than swinging your line ower the perspective spot – you will learn it fast here! I know quite a lot of stories about fishless trips, so you better get preparred. On the other hand, almost in all beats salmon was showing time after time, so everything was in fishermans hands.  If you would like to rely only on luck, that of corse is important part of the salmon fishing, then following things may be not interesting for you. For me luck is relevant, but it is only a part. In August when the water is lower and bit warmer around 14 degrees your presentation skills are highly important. You have to change the angles and speeds in order to get the most exciting swing, that will provoke the heavy take on the other end of the line. Now floating line is more less only thing you need, so it’s the best time for learning. Some times you can go deeper with polyleeder, and usually sinking lines are not needed.

Blasmo - on the move!

My suggestion to begginers: give it a try at August you will learn lot more than in early June when your sinking line is swinging your fly in uncontroled manner (uncontroled for begginers…). And here I would say is a lot to learn from Hans – he know the pools, tactics and how, when and on what fly! He also showed some important things to me – so thanks again.

Hans with the nice fresh fish!

Hans is familiar with atlantic salmon for about 30 years, and during last 20 he is bussy in his Salmon Fishing scool in Orkla.  His experience is worth to consider, and it is not just a few weeks anually, but lot more. For me it means something… Besides that Hans is a great caster who really master and understands Underhand technique. So, after fishing for one week in Orkla, when I gathered my experience and things I understood from others I came to following suggestions, that helped me and I think was also important part of Hans tactics (he landed more than others that week):

1.    Present your fly in a manner that is not too slow  – let say fast enough for the fish just to see it, not more! Or almost forget about takes.

2.    Move, move, move! Its no use to make a lot of casts from one point – fish will take most likely on first propper swing, and you will rather disturb the fish by casting rather than provoke them. You would say well known, ok, but frequently forgotten truth!

3.    Present your fly gently, in a quiet manner, and try to be constant with presentation. May be we miss the take during that one bad cast.

4.    Take a rest and give a rest to the pool – it will recharge you and fish. I had never a take when I was pushing hard with my fishing…

My biggest one!

5.    Change and think if you have no success – flies, go deeper with line or leader, increase the speed of presentation and so on! There are days without any takes for everyone, don’t panic stay calm.

6.    Be out when its cloudy and rainy – for me these where the best days when I landed my biggest fish. Also, I must admit, that Hans landed his biggest fish at sunny days (evening and morning accordingly).

7.    Have a plan, belief and never, never, never give up!

I had a days without fish or with a small grilse, and so? It‘s salmon fishing! Now it is easy to say, but at that time every morning when I had a breakfest, I looked at 14 kilos Hans salmon that was hanging in dinning room and I knew by the hart – my time will come… So again never never give up! At that morning, almost it was the last day, i wake up at 5:30 was calm and relaxed. I new that this is the day …

Happy man!

Flies

I know that a lot of peoople think that fly is key factor in salmon fishing – its important but not as much as the way how you fish with it. Anyway, one week is not enough to say these are the best ones, but I believe that flies from Hans page are correct ones, so take a look here. No doubt – in low water conditions in generall smaller flies can be better, but also I can not ignore the fact that a big black creatures where deaddly too. In general Sunray shadow, Blue Norseman,  Phatagorva, Green gighlander, different shrimps, micro tubes and bombers are most popular here, but also we should not forget about suns of the gun, general practiotioners and, jeh, so on! As Hans like to say – some like spagettty, but some cutlet.

Tackle

My Opti setup, Polset pool and Blue Norsman

During the whole trip i was fishing with 12.4 8wt LOOP Opti Rod and Runner reel on it. For me it was perfect, but usually rods between 13-14 ft are most popular at late season and low water conditions. Please notice, that during the June 14-15 ft rods would suit better, because distances increase and also sinking lines are  important tools at this time. Also bring some polyleaders with you and good monofilament in between 0.37 and 0.50. Not so much, is not it?

Recommended Links

Here are the links that I think can be helpful if you are about to visit Norway and Orkla in particular next year. Also it is quite possible that I will have a courses there next summer – so stay tuned, I will put some info later! So here are the links:

Hans page

Orklaguide

Jurij Shumakof experience at Gavla

*Big Salmon Fly fishing in Orkla!

Nice autumn addition...

Lovely dinning room at Aunemo and and Hans 14 kg

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

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.

Varzina - view from lodge

Fishing in Varzina is diverse and here the size not numbers meters. This river does not have so many fish as the rivers in southern Kola, but the size differs. If 3 kilos is nice fish for Southern river, than 7 kilos is average here. Maximum size you can expect here is around 16 kilos, but of coarse everybody know record – 30 kilo fish landed by some Englishman quite long before. Believe it or not, it is of coarse your choice…

About numbers – if we count fresh fish you can expect one or two per day, and of coarse there is blank days for everybody too. Meanwhile Kelts and autumn runners can bend your rod, so you should have something at least every day that touches your hook. In the lover part next to the camp, you can reach all pools by walking and they are located next to each other. As you can see in pictures some pools are narrow, and river is not more than 15 meters in width, while in the other places river is wider than 50 meters. In the upper part situation is different – river has more less constant width and pools are located in between long rapid sections. Guides are 100% percent sure that you can expect salmon takes here all year around. So let’s check it out…

First Experience

Fishing in Varzina river is well organized and scheduled – we where 7 persons in this group and head guide A. Danchukov, a nice person by the way, divided us into 4 groups. Fortunately Jegor, from Russia, was one on one with guide, so he had more freedom to choose where to fish during the day. So, I was together with the Canadian – Hugh, he had just arrived from Kharlovka, with the hope that here fishing would be better. He landed only 4 fish in week and meanwhile M. Frodin only 14. For sure spring run was on it`s way in Kharlovka, and as guides told at the very beginning, in Varzina situation was the same – everybody was waiting for more fish…

Every morning until lunch, we hade a chance to fish one or too pools from one bank, and then we where moved to different pools to fish until dinner at 7. After dinner usually people are tired by different reasons, and are shearing the drink in lovely bar with the best possible river views. But, of coarse you can take a chance and go out for night fishing.

Hugh with the trout!

First morning was tricky – after some arrival celebration and drinks at the evening, I was feeling poorly, and half an hour walk to Hollow glass pool does not change my feeling a lot. Hence the sign was broken there was possible to read only 3 letters – …ass pool! Apparently somebody hand a same feeling here. By the way, pool was beautiful – in between long rapids small tributary Pahta was entering in to 50 meters of deep dark water. There definitely was some fish in the current. Whether was “perfect”, wind was blowing like hell, and hence, by mistake, I picket up wrong rod my tackle was unbalanced.  After two hours of struggle, with no success, I was back in camp to change the tackle. Also Hugh did not succeed and we both did not recognized even any fish. It is always like this – if the beginning is bad wait for good news in the near future.

After lunch we where fishing Golden pool and I picked up smaller rod – 12 ft LOOP Multi, loaded with 31 gram shooting head system. Now it was much better. Especially nice soup during the lunch gave me this extra boost that was more than necessary. Back in touch again, and I have a feeling that first fish is around the corner.   In Golden, Delta and Silver pool it should usually be enough to fish with in 20 meters, so I was feeling perfect with my setup. Intermediate/sink2 head was presenting my Phatagovra just like I needed until – boom! Yes, first fish is on! Fighting with a lot of power but not leaving the pool, salmon was struggling some 10 minutes until finally entered the guides landing net. 94 centimeters – and around 8 kilos – these are the craziest fighters here in Varzina – fast and furious. After fifteen minutes another take in the pools exit, close to the bank… This time it was nice browny around 1,5 kilos, that of coarse is nothing fun on double hander. I am mentioning it only because Varzinas upper lodge is famous for its brown trout, where the length of these creatures can be up to 80 centimeters. Fascinating!

First fresh fish - 94 cm 8 kilos

First day was the best day for my casting student Igor who landed amazing 108 cm and 14 kilos fish in the Fin pool. Unfortunately, he did not put a drink to everybody at the evening, and you know what happened after… Broken rod and no fish for few days! Except Hugh and Vladimir, all others had a fish and Sasha, Bosnian for states, even more. Varzina is river that you must know to be highly successfuland it was forth time for him here. Pools are different and some times fish lay in certain places which is hard to find just by watching the river. Experience here is essential in these spots.

Next two days was at its glance! Weather was nice warm, calm and pretty hot for the spring – temperatures above 12 degrees. At the second day we where going with the chopper to Finpoolof. Of coarse with the hi hopes and expectations, hence yesterday there was few nice fish landed. At 10 o clock quite bright sun served tricky conditions for us, that was unexpected by the way. During the first 3 hours until launch time no fish where landed at Finpool! Wow – it just cannot be true! By the way I must admit that we so only too or three fish rising at the exit. So what is happening here? Even Guides was frustrated… Ok – after the launch we switched bank to the right one. I was fishing with quite big orange Buck tailed black Temple dog, meanwhile quite convinced that take is around corner! After half an hour first cloud covered the sun and – boom. Yes, fish is on. First minutes of fight showed that this is not a bad one two! When it appeared first time on the water I recognized the length – around one meter, and it had a mark on the back. Ok, we should land it. Ilja, nice guide from St. Petersburg, was on its move and finally fish was in the net. It was not a Kelt, but little bit slimmer than first fresh fish that I landed yesterday. Anyway length was around 1 meter!

From the Fin pool

From the mark on the back Ilja recognized that this is so called autumn run that stay in river for winter and would spawn next autumn. Varzina is Spring run river, and these fish are not so common here, so I can say that I was lucky. If I remember correctly Vladimir landed 4 kilo fresh fish during my fight and it surprised a little, hence the size of the fish should be bigger at this time of year. Hugh had a take, but missed the fish, and after half an hour same situation for me. I think, that during the first two hours sun was blinding the fish hence it was shining directly above the pool, and all the flies was presented in between fish and sun. At the moment when clouds appeared immediately came first takes. I was constantly fishing with same setup and 20 minutes before finish, another take. Yeh, again nice fight and …, another nice autumn run fish with the mark. No it cannot be that I landed this autumn salmon second time in the same day? Length was the same, but fortunately mark had different numbers. I landed this fish two minutes before we where supposed to leave and get to chopper, so I was lucky!

Night fishing

Hence day was hot I was out for night trial after the dinner and sauna. Yeh, last night I blanked, so I must have a fish this night. During early June Ice pool is not as productive as later in season, at least guides was sure about it. Best way is to check it out I supposed. During the night time you are out on your own, so you must be ready to land a fish on your own. Ice pool is quite wide, I would say like Finpool, so you must be able to cast long distance. I was fishing with Opti 14 ft and Int/sink5 adapted head. River was quite quiet – fish was not rising and I had no take during the first half an hour. Patience is a lot in salmon fishing and at the very exit of pool, deep in the V I stacked to something. Stone, no it moves! Partridge salar double gave me a confidence that everything should be ok. First run for 20 meters and I managed to stop it. Fortunately here was a place with an open gravel bank and after some ten minutes silvery tuna shaped salmon was on the solid ground. Yes! I would say it was around 9 kilos and 95 cm. Hook was at the jaws corner like it should be, but my black temple dog was smashed during the fight. Ok, I can take another fly… Constantly moving downstream after 20 minutes I hooked and landed another fish – 2 kilo grilse. Quite a surprise – grilse should not be here at this time.

Releasing the silver host

Next evening I was out one more time with no success, and now I can agree with the guides, that during the early season day fishing is more productive in Varzina.

Third day was my best day in the trip. Until the lunch I was fishing in the Penka (small Varzinas tributary) mouth. At that moment already I was using smaller flies with a touch of green color. At the morning landed two fresh fish, than one kelt, and finally missed nice fresh fish during the landing – it was almost in the net! After the dinner we moved to Delta and silver pool. At the 3 cast I again missed 9 kilo range fresh fish during the landing and after an hour landed another one on my own. That fish on particular was my biggest in this trip. I measured it next to the rod and later we decided that weight should be around 9,5-10 kilos. Not bad. Also during the day I had quite a lot takes, so it was perfect.

One from Penka

Meanwhile Hugh landed nice trout, but that was unfortunately his only fish that day. Hence I was lucky, I was expecting that everybody would have the same success, but no, it was a bad day for everyone except Jegor who landed two nice fresh fish. One day you have a luck other don’t. This was my best day and after it water temperature dropped to 6 degrees and I landed few but also missed quite a lot fish in the last days. In the last days evening I hooked nice fish on the Hollow glass pool and had a fight for 15 minutes. During the third attempt to get into the rapids my owner treble finaly bended and I was fully disappointed. Because of this fish I must return to these places. Others had a little bit more luck, others less, and results was average in general. Finnaly at the last day Jegor landed his fish of the life – 107cm long 29 ponder. Congrats, really nice fish for Varzina.

Flies

People where using different flies here in Varzina, with one similarity – most attractive ones was not overdressed, and was not dense. Varzinas classic is Golden Killer, Snealda, Sunray shadow, Temple dog. Jegor for instance, was using flies from Mickael Frodins stables – nice and typical scandi tubes. For me a little surprise was green color that performed so well her. Bosnian from states Sasha told me that this is his favorite color here, and hence he is here for 4 time, it makes sense. Anyway, guides have some flies and you can by some classic patterns at the lodge, so even if you decide to come without any flies – you will not get lost.

Tackle

Diverse… i know that most of the people who are fishing in Varzina uses 15 ft rod as the main one, and they are convinced that this is the propper choice, because there are pools where you should cast a long line.  In general I can agree with that, but in some places such a long rod can serve a problem. I have mentioned before that in Golden and Silver pools, small rods serve better, so my suggestion is that best choice is rather in between. So, I was fishing mainly with 14 ft LOOP Opti 9-10 and was happy. I think this is very versatile rod in terms of lengths and action.  Distance was not a problem with this rod and it was small enough to fit in compact banks of smaller pools too. So my first choice is 14 ft, but also 15 ft in combination with 12 ft is can doo the thing for you.  Hence conditions change quite fast here, i would reccomend to use med-fast or even fast action rods in Varzina, especially if you are fishing with sinking line and big  fly like the Snaelda for example.  About lines… As it was told before, in Varzina you must adapt quite fast, so for me it was not enough with one line. Where tributary Penka  is entering the Varzina there is no need to fish with super heavy stuff so floater with intermediate tip can serve well. In Fin pool there is another story and i was fishing with intermediate/sink 5 shooting head. In general guides recommend floater with fast sinking tip and i can agree with that. But if you would like to much your line perfectly for conditions, one is not enough.  Mostly i was using LOOP Opti adapted line system with short tips – it is gentle yet robust fly line, that handles big flies with ease in the same time.

Lodge

Camp from above

Yeh, and few words about the lodge. I have heard that this is the most beautiful lodge in Kola, and there is some truth in it. Located up on the high bank, there are scenic view on river Varzina and Penka. You can watch rising salmons in the Penkas moth during breakfast and dinner. What can be more exiting than that! Sauna and houses are clean and tidy so you can have a good rest after the fishing or take a relaxing drink in a bar. To say it short – everything is fitted to focus your mind on fishing.

When to come.

It seems that from15 of June till 15 of July is “hottest” time here in Varzina. You can expect a little bit more silvery and bigger fish at the first week from 15^th of June, while in the July there is more fish, but the size decreases a little. Anyway, whenever you would come, you should be ready for deep bend in your rod. I hope, I will be back again some day!

Biggest thanks to Sportfish tour operator on river Varzina.

Hugh with a fish

Small yet silvery

Sasha and Vladimir - before final battle

500 meters up from Finpool

This fish had a lable from Kharlovka!

Ilja with another fish from Penka

C & R only

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.