“This is hard core fishing,”
said Tom Tveitan, one of the younger breed of guides who
have helped transform Norwegian salmon fishing from a sport
dominated by spinning and worming to one where the fly now
prevails.
Wading against a frighteningly strong
flow just a hundred yards upstream of some foaming falls
seemed pretty suicidal to me, but Tveitan was insistent
that we needed to get well out in order to cast in to the
deep water under river cliffs where the fish would be running.
Ever since making a brief and unsuccessful
visit to the River Laerdal in 1996 I had wanted to return
to one of Norway’s big rivers for the opportunity
to catch one of their big salmon.
At that time some of Norway’s rivers,
already reeling from the effects of acid rain, had also
succumbed to the deadly parasite, Gyrodactylus Salaris,
that has infected 44 rivers to date. Most of the affected
rivers have used Rotenone, a poison that kills all fish
in the river, to clear their systems so they can start afresh.
While 20 of the affected rivers, including the Laerdal,
are fishing again, the parasite has reappeared in five rivers
after treatment. Now some rivers are experimenting with
another chemical, aluminium sulphate that appears to kill
the parasite without killing the salmon host.
The best treatment, however, is prevention.
This is why the first thing I experienced when walking down
to a beat on Numedalslagen, one of Norway’s largest
rivers, was the disinfecting of all my kit. The Lagen is
clear of the parasite and wants to remain that way. It is
a small inconvenience. Why don’t they do this in Scotland?
The fish had been running in numbers but
in hot weather they were speeding through the river without
lying up much. Anglers were there in numbers too. At one
stage, moving down the pool I found myself part of a small
procession of fly fishermen, each of them shooting heavy
lines from powerful rods. Tveitan did his best to explain
the arm action that hurls a 40-yard cast to the far stream
but I could not match his distance.
For all these big casts, however, few of
the anglers seemed to be catching fish. The fish were moving
up the river sure enough. I spent a night in a fish netting
hut with Ingar Aasestad a salmon scientist and farmer who,
unusually for a fisherman, believes that there is still
a place for these small netting stations on the river.
“This is a traditional way of fishing
that dates back to the late 13th century. It should not
be allowed to die,” he says.
Tveitan disagrees. “The nets take
too many fish and contribute far less to the economy than
the rod and line fishers,” he says. I can understand
both points. In the night I spent at the trap the net took
three salmon but up and down the river the total annual
net catch is measured in tons. That said, about 60 per cent
of the fish that are caught in the river these days fall
to rod and line, a reversal of the rod/net ratio of just
a few years ago. The various traps, nets and rods together
take about a quarter of the fish returning to spawn which
Aasestad insists is a sustainable level.
All the same, it would have been encouraging
to see a few more catches recorded on the board at the Brufoss
fishing centre which manages some 12 kilometres of fishing
on behalf of farmer owners. To the end of the season I counted
12 fish caught over 10 kilos (22 lbs), including one topping
30 lbs.
For an outsider to turn up and fish a
river like this it is best to use some kind of “Mr
Fixit” who can explain the permit systems and guiding
arrangements. I was helped by Harald Oyen whose business
works to make Norwegian’s rivers more accessible to
anglers from abroad.
If you like to wade it might also be advisable
to take out a life insurance policy before you go. Numedalslagen
is a big river. At the very least take a lifejacket although
most Norwegian fishermen appear to regard this and the wading
stick as somewhat wimpy accessories.
I ended my week with a sea trout but had
the consolation of a back-to-back week on the Aberdeenshire
Dee in Scotland where things went much better. Eight salmon,
including one of 19 lbs and one of 17 lbs, and a lost fish
that must have been near the 30 lb mark, more than made
up for the lean time in Norway.
But Scottish salmon fishing is quite different
and the Dee is a far smaller river that happens to have
some very large fish. Another difference is that on the
Dee, for the sake of conservation, we return our salmon
catch. If the Dee catches continue to recover I hope there
will come a time when we can take a fish again. But it must
be no more than a single fish, two at most. The days when
anglers killed most of their catch, on this river at least,
are probably over for good.
Those who dislike catch and release must
ask themselves: would they rather catch fish in numbers
or the odd one that they eat? I love to eat wild salmon.
Catching them is even better.
Information about Norway can be found
at www.visitnorway.com/uk.
Harald Oyen at Norway Game Fishing, www.anglingnorway.com
can arrange fishing in most Norwegian waters. The Brufoss
web site is www.brufoss.no.
Good Dee fishing can be found at www.fishdee.co.uk.
