A New Camera for Norway

July 6, 2010

Part of organizing for this trip to Norway is getting familiar with a new camera. I feel like this adventure will be one of the best ever and getting great photos is a must. The cameras I’ve been using were not up to par with what’s available these days. On that note, even though I couldn’t afford it, I bought the new point and shoot Canon PowerShot G11. Reviews rave about the incredibly clear photos it takes and its ability to shoot both RAW and JPEG format. It also has many features that standard SLR cameras have.

I read the manual the last two days and today it was time to take some pictures. At first I tested it around the yard but then I wanted to test it on some fish. We have terribly high water on most our major rivers so back to the brookie streams I went. Joining me was, Mark Kuhn, better known as Milkfish. Milky and I drove towards Ashton, Idaho and started wetting lines in random small streams. Unfortunately, even the small streams are presently raging and although fishable, they were slightly off color.

My standard fly for blind casting small streams for trout is an elk hair caddis or a yellow sally. I’ve seen a few sallies around lately so I tied one on my 7 ½ foot 4-weight Ross Worldwide youth series rod. Ross sent it to me a few months back and today was a perfect place to test it. By the way, I was very impressed.

Milky did about the same and neither of us had much activity at first. Then, as a pair of sandhill cranes were scolding me from the bank with some God awful cackles, I caught my smallest fish of the year – a 4” brook trout. Such a pretty fish was a perfect test for the camera.

That was the only fish Milky and I caught. This surge of warm weather has melted the last of our high country snow and water levels have risen for the last time. Our small streams are about a week away from being excellent fishing and the major rivers will follow just after. Luckily, our tailwaters like the South Fork of the Snake will be prime in just few more days.

On the way home, Milky ran over a rock. We were backing up through some sagebrush and unfortunately there was a beast of a rock that tore up the bottom of his car. After we thought all was good, we proceeded down the dirt roads and his car was yelping a sound that was very similar to the upset sandhills I met earlier this afternoon. We made it back to Victor but I’ll be curious as to what is really messed up.

I just downloaded all my practice pictures. I’m very pleased with the results and I think with some practice with the camera settings the pictures will only improve. I just hope that next week the viewfinder is full with a huge Norwegian Atlantic salmon!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site