Norway baby!

After no less than 20 years since our last couples holiday, Marianne and I finally found the time to book a trip away together! We looked at literally tons of destinations, but just one jumped out on both of us.....Norway! 

We booked a stunning chalet next to Lake Nisser near Vradal in Telemark. The time finally arrived and we flew from Gatwick mid morning, landing at Gardermoen Airport midday. We grabbed our hire care from Hertz and made the 4 hour drive North Westerly, taking in some of the most incredible scenery I have ever seen in my life! 

Each bend in the road gave way to more breath taking views of water falls, ravines, glorious strips of tarmac winding around mountains. We literally ran out of WOW remarks within an hour of being in the country! 

We stopped 3 hours in to grab food from a local store and got our first taste of local living. Finally at 8pm we arrived to our stunning chalet. We got some rest and awoke early to the most incredible view I've ever risen to across the mist covered lake.

 Mountains shrouded the surrounding horizon and all that was audible to the ear were the sounds of running water and birdlife. Utter heaven! 

The first day was spent familiarizing ourselves with the local area and some local sight seeing and hand feeding the local birds at a harbour. 

Marianne caught the first few fish of the trip in the form of minnows off the veranda. We then used a few for live baits to grab some nice Perch. 

Day 2 was spent travelling to the incredible Mount Gaustattoppen at 6770 feet! The weather being nothing short of exceptional! Clear skies to the horizon in a 360 degree panorama! We went up the inside of the mountain in an old train built prior to World War 2. 

It was very special and something I never thought we would ever add to our bucket list. The summit was bathed in sunlight and some snow remanence from the previous nights blast frost of minus 6. After leaving the mountain at Rjukan we took the long road home around the Northern roads through so many stunning, vast regions.

That night we were to witness one of the greatest things I have ever seen in my life! The Northern Lights over our chalet! It was to be our second chance to see them in a year as we were incredibly lucky to see them in vivid animation back in May this year from our small holding on the hill in Wales. 

This time felt different being that much closer to the Artic Circle and the vivid colours electrified the sky with greens, pinks and purple beams of light! Utterly mesmerizing and breath taking! 

Our further few days were spent out boat fishing for Perch and after meeting both the chalet owner Lars Erik and his friends who were holidaying next to our chalet, Sven and Leila, I was lucky to get invited out to net fish with the lads while Marianne and Leila sat drinking Swedish Coffee. 

The trip was a real eyeopener as to how the Norwegians manage to stay well fed through the seasons....

We caught numerous fabulous trout, Perch and a white fish called Sik, which looks familiar to a Grayling. 

After the fishing we retired to Svens cabin for more coffee and to hear his beautiful accordion playing while Leila sang in Swedish! The two sounded unearthly as they played beautiful Swedish and Norwegian Folk. 

We retired to our cabin in the early hours after being given a bucket of freshly picked mushrooms as a gift by our lovely new friends. 

We continued our journeys the next few days, taking in lots of Telemarks incredible panoramic scenery, whilst fishing many rivers and pools along the way, catching endless virgin Brown Trout form the ultra clear waters. We were both in heaven! 

We visited a beautiful lady called Inger who owns a fantastic riding school in Fyrosdol. We had a fab few hours with her riding through a stunning forest on horse back. Marianne got her first taste of riding an Icelandic pony and I rode a lovely chunky cob called Scully. It was the perfect end to a perfect holiday. With just one day left we had to tick off just one more thing off the bucket list....see some Elk! 

We'd tried on a few evenings so far and got close with sightings of fresh droppings and foot prints. Inger reckoned she had a guaranteed spot for us that evening. We spent the afternoon driving to the incredible Giants Kettle falls and even catching a brownie from the pool above the rapids! On the return journey over Skredvatn lake pass we stopped to take in the sunset over the water before arriving at the spot Inger had suggested at her boy friends property. 

We pulled into the field and sat waiting behind a few bails of hay. As darkness started to fall we felt we'd probably missed our chance....then as quickly as we were about to leave, 3 Elk entered the field below us! I honestly couldn't believe our luck! A baby with it's mum and dad! I was utterly speechless and to be honest bloody emotional as the 3 animals peacefully munched away at berries and leaves on a tree in front of us. Just wow! We sat for a good 15 minutes watching them before they finally left the field for other pastures....

We got back in the car and just looked at each other with huge grins on our faces. What a trip! Needless to say we are going back again next year! I honestly can't bloody wait!

Back on the bank!

Hi Guys and Girls! Well, it's been a while since my last edit on the blog....many reasons but for the best part due to work getting in the way as usual and a of course the fact I've actually been out fishing too!

After my last blog starting off with ill health stuff I wanted to just go straight into the good shit this time instead. 

There's been plenty going on during March and April with 2 trips to France and numerous outings on the fly to discuss too. 

So lets kick off with the first trip back over to Nicks beautiful Carp Hunters lake in France during the start of March. 

This trip was a little different to previous one's in that my usual partner in crime Chris wasn't with me for this one. Instead I had my old mate Simon for company instead. 

Simon offered to be designated driver as it worked out far cheaper for us to use the estate car rather than my huge van! 

Simon's done a few odd over nighter's before with a few days out on French public waters but not really any intensive carp fishing. 

This was to be a bit of an eye opener for him! We arrived to our friend Gary already set up and catching and Nick wading through some of the small jobs we needed to sort whilst there. 

We got set up and got some rods out. The weather looked like being pretty awful all week with strong cold winds and potential for a lot of rain. We started off with a walk round to discuss spots and talk rigs etc before finally getting the rods in the water just after lunch. I then went off to cut up a fallen tree before cooking evening meals etc.

Things started very slowly for us with almost little to no action much before the Tuesday night. The weather had really put the fish down.....

My first run was around lunch time Tuesday and I landed a mirror called Pinky that I'd had before down in weight to 28lbs. Simon managed a common of high teens before landing a new PB common of 25lb. 

The action was fairly slow and inconsistent at best. As the week progressed we all struggled and it was a lot different to my previous two trips over in November 23 and March 23! All the same we had a great time and Gary caught Louisa at over 40, Simon bagged Scar at 36lb, a new PB and first ever thirty for him! What a highlight that was! I had ten in total including 4 twenties and also Scar myself at 36'4. Oh and a bonus Pike! We all had a great time despite some utterly shite weather.

After we got home I had news that my supervisor in work was being given a new role at one of our new branches and that another of my colleagues had left while I was away! Oh how things were about to change! I had no idea that upon my return to work, it was about to take on a whole new set of criteria for my daily chores. 

I was literally thrown in the deep end and had to take a heck of a lot in in just days! Needless to say that the young team I took the helm of really pulled together that first week and showed how good we can all be when we all pull our weight. Fun times to follow I think! Watch this space.....

A week later I was back in France once more with normal fishing partner Chris and two other pals Kev and Mark. We ventured down to Bruno Simons Seigniuers Lake some 3 hours from Calais. The lake is just a stones throw from venue Molyneux that I fished a few years back. We drew for swims and I came out third. It meant that Mark had the best draw and picked a swim which seemed to hold the majority of the carp. 

Kev dropped in next to him and Chris and I doubled up mid lake. There were very few features visible to go at and the first night we chose to fish mid lake to a fairly obvious gravel bar. This quickly became apparent to me that it wasn't going to hold feeding fish so I opted to go long over to the far bank snags at some 180 yards plus. The far bank snags were for the best part 'BRUTAL'! 

You had to lock the spools and clamp your rods down to stop the carp making their way into under water tree roots. I luckily took an electric out board with me and attached it to the boat provided. This meant I was able to motor out drop bait and rigs before returning to the swim and clamping down on the 6 oz lead.

With 24hrs passed and zero activity I felt this was almost certainly my best option for a bite....I was right as at just before dusk I had my first from distance at 32lbs. 

A stunning fat common that fought like a bastard all the way to the net! Two hours later and I was into another from the same spot, a mirror of 26.8. As I was boating the rod back out Chris had to jump into action and grab my extreme long rod that was now tearing off! 

I quick turned back around to grab said rod and an amazing boat battle commenced in a misty sky. Eventually after a torrid affair, I netted the fish in the boat and headed back to the swim for pics.....On the scales a mirror now sat of 43'4. My biggest carp for the last few years. 

Monday continued much the same for myself and for Mark who was doing very well down in the first swim! Kev had one but Chris was really struggling and just couldn't get into the swim at all. 

He worked at it but just didn't gel with the place at all. I continued to catch at distance though and Monday saw commons of 34'6, 39'2, 17lb and mirrors of 30'4 and 35'3! A decent day. 

Tuesdays weather was utterly shocking with strong 60mph winds and torrential rain which resulted in zero action other than a hook pull. Wednesday was again a 3 fish day with a 31'8 common, 25'8 mirror and a mega common of 38'11 finding the net! Great sport to say the least. 

Wednesday was a little slower across the board and the days were at best hard going with most of the bites coming after dusk. I had just a hook pull on Wednesday and Chris finally managed a common of 23lbs. I felt gutted for him as he was having a stinker of a week, drawing a shit swim with what appeared to be little to go at. 

The week progressed and both Mark and I continued to do fairly consistent with Mark ending on 18 and myself on 15 including 9 over thirty pounds and the forty. Kev had 3 and Chris just the one. A vast difference in catch rates due to the spots we were all fishing!

On my return back to the UK I decided I'd get fully back into my fly fishing after a near ten year break. I purchased a season ticket for my local river and headed down a few evenings after work. It's generally tough wading through heavy undergrowth, proper jungle fishing but I confess that I absolutely love it! The fish are small lively wild browns with the odd stocky lower down the river. 

It lends itself nicely to Dry fly or Euro Nymphing. I've now done about a half dozen sessions after work and had the best part of 20 or so trout. Most on my own tied patterns. I treated myself to lots of new kit including some new rods, reels and waders and so far it's already taken me to new venues I've wanted to fish for many years. 

The last 2 weekends have seen me venture up to fish the River Usk. Another venue I have wanted to fish since moving to Wales in 2005. Both the beats I've fished so far have been nothing short of spectacular on the scenery and exclusivity front with both have 2 miles and a mile to myself respectively. On both occasions I've had some cracking browns again on both dries and Euro nymph techniques. Last weekend was no exception with 3 over 2 pounds finding the net.

I've had a few other trips out to some stunning venues such as the beautiful River Teifi in West Wales with my old mate Ian Oxley...We had a brilliant day chasing wild browns in clear, low water conditions using both dry's and euro nymphing tactics.