Hi guys and girls.... yes, I know it's been a long time since I last wrote on here again! Seems to be a trend with my lack of spare time this last year or so....Well, time for a few stories and some updates from moi. Lots has happened since my last post where Marianne and I visited Norway for the first time. First up, there's been a change in job. As of 6th January I started a new role as the parts advisor for Nissan/Jaecoo/Omoda in Bridgend.
I now have a 15 minute trip each way and cut my fuel bill by 3/4! I still don't seem to have a huge amount of spare time but I do at least get Saturdays free now so hopefully I'll get the motivation back to do more after work and weekends soon.
So, fishing wise it's not been that busy to be honest with only 2 trips to discuss since November. The first being a return to Norway but a lot further North this time and a trip with my old mate Evan Rees to the Artic Circle and Lyngenfjord near t0 Tromso.
We headed out from Bristol airport on the 9th March with Easyjet and flew for 3 hrs 15mins into the cold artic air. The flight was spectacular in every way and the the air crew were utterly brilliant!
Anyone who says otherwise about Easyjet has been unlucky because the guys we had were incredible. They dealt with a sick passenger, fed us all, chatted and made a concerted effort to make the flight as enjoyable as possible.
One of the girls even took my mobile to the cockpit to get some inflight footage for me! Spectacular!
On landing we were met by heavy snow storm and minus 10C at Tromso international airport. We got the luggage off the conveyor an grabbed our hire car from the reception area. I left Evan with the luggage and ventured outside into 2 foot deep snow to find our car.....A mission in itself as the car was literally buried! I eventually got the car uncovered and drove slowly to the front of the reception to grab Evan and the piles of fishing kit and bags.
We steadily made our way out of the city with myself at the helm gradually learning how much or how little grip we had! Things went well and after stopping for a fuel station hotdog and seeing a mother Moose and her baby on route, we finally arrived about 10pm. We had a few drinks and grabbed sone rest before an early start to fish from our private jetty at the back of our AirB&B!
We got up to mild clear conditions and donned our warm weather gear to venture out and cast into the fjord. Evan was first up catching 2 lovely codling on lures which was his biggest hope for the trip. The bites were a little low on the ground though and the fishing pretty tough during the day. I managed my first fish mid afternoon with my biggest want from the trip!
An incredible 8lb 12 oz Wolf Fish which took a big old Mackerel hookbait on an 8/0 circle hook. The fight was epic and I had great fun holding a new species! Those things literally just want to eat you! Hilarious.....The day progressed to night and we went insider for some dinner before the tide change and a night session from the jetty.
The fishing on the first night was fairly good with numerous nice codling falling for our mackerel baits and I think we had about half a dozen each. Around 11pm Evan decided to call it a night but I stopped out as there was an inkling of the Aurora Borealis being visible within the next hour. I'm glad I stopped out as around 12.30pm the skies lit up with some incredible scenes!
The light from the Aurora bathed all of the fjord in greens, blues, pink and purple hues from above! To say it was spectacular to witness sat with my fishing rods out, a gin in hand and a lovely cigar in the other! A night I will never forget as long as I live! I had at this point no idea what was to follow in the coming days though!
Day two started fairly similarly to the previous with a nice full English breakfast cooked by Evan before we went to get changed for the outside cold air. I stood in the bedroom changing and noticed some large fins sprouting out the water just beyond our jetty!
Evan and I threw our kit on and ran outside to see numerous pods of Pilot Whales passing through the area! This was incredible to see but to be honest did little for the fishing. We had a few odd nibbles from crabs and smaller fish but by mid afternoon we felt in need to of a change of venue possibly.
We headed into the local village of Sammuelsberg and grabbed some food for our stay from tne local CoopPrix. The food in there was fabulously fresh and we made an instant hit with the locals including a lovely guy called Simen who gave us lots of info where to go and what to see whilst we were there. What a great guy and we still stay in touch now!
Our next day we headed out further north towards Lapland and the Swedish border. We found a couple of mega marks to fish including one right next to a ferry terminal. The tide was spot on and both of us managed some belting codling on lures from right next to the ferry base.
We tried another spot with no results probably due to poor tidal times but also met another lovely local guy who pointed us towards a spot 20 mins further North near Rotsund. Apparently a bit of a hotspot!
The next day we headed over to the new spot which appeared to be on private property next to a commercial fish oil processing plant. We took a chance and drove straight onto the groyne and set up to fish expecting to be asked to leave at any moment! To be honest we saw a few staff members and not one of theme seemed bothered by our being there.
We started to catch some of the best codling of the trip with lots of fish to 7-8lbs. It was a bit snaggy and very deep but the rewards where to catch. We stayed until late and filled our boots! Driving home was very interesting as we had a rather heavy blizzard to attend with. This made driving more fun than usual and the road was barely visible bar the red posts every 10 yards along the side of the road to tell you where to drive in the event of a white out!
After the storm cleared we had a few drinks indoors and headed out to fish off the jetty again. It was okay for about an hour then another blizzard came in and we sat in heavy snow awaiting very little action. I think we gave it till about 2am before retiring to bed. The latter end of the week saw a few clear days and one night we were witness to the greatest Aurora show I have seen to date!
Waves of green lights smothered the sky over the fjord and left us bother totally speechless as seems to be a common trend with my Norway trips! I spent most of the night photographing the light display and the fishing kind of took a back seat.
The trip home was a bit delayed due to a heavy snow storm and we spent 2 hours on the runway having the plane de-iced before we were able to take off into the strong winds and heavy snow. The take off was epic and above the storm we were even able to witness the Aurora yet again from onboard the flight home! I'm hoping to head out Norway again in the next 1-2 months if possible. Not 100% sure on the location as yet but maybe to Bodo/Lofoton. Probably back to Tromso in March if both Evan and I can get a venue to stay in time.
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