Big Rain, High Water, Hard Day

July 14, 2010 Day 5 It’s tough when your nickname is Monsoon Currier. Norway has had a dry summer up until today. Yesterday I experienced easy wading and clear water on the Gaula River, but today the river was much different. Last night hard rain pounded our camper roof to the point where I just could not sleep. Finally at 1:15 am I climbed into my waders and headed to the river. I don’t know about you but I’m a little groggy getting up at 1:15 am, but did it suspecting I’d have beat 2b to myself. However, when I got to the salmon hut there were several of yesterdays crew and a few guys that fish only at night. This Atlantic salmon fishing must be serious business. After greetings from everyone, I looked around and saw a salmon hanging by his tail. The fish was 5.5 kilo (about 12lbs). It was a gorgeous fish and seeing it woke me up fast. Then I looked to the river to size up my strategy and it looked completely different. It had risen three feet! I had a tough time getting my fly out far enough yesterday, now I would need to make a whole new plan. The new plan consisted of trying beat 2a. For some reason, everyone waits in line to fish beat 2b. It has faster water than 2a and I’m sure more salmon. But, I was up and now after seeing a nice caught salmon, anxious. And beat 2a was vacant so I headed out to it. It’s remarkably light out at 1:30 am, even with a thick cloud cover. As I waded into the top of beat 2a I noticed the water was slightly off color. I didn’t have a lot of confidence as I made my first few casts. Then I saw the occasional free jumping salmon and recalled Vladi's theory on rising water and migrating salmon. He must be right being that the first salmon in days was caught. It wasn’t long before Vladi arrived to me with a freshly brewed hot cup of coffee. He liked the fact that I was fishing beat 2a and encouraged me to make a few passes while no other anglers wanted to fish it. Sure enough, at about 3 am my fly got nailed as is swung behind a rock. Just like yesterday, everyone came running. Minutes later I landed my second sea trout. After a few photos I released him and headed for the salmon hut for my coffee and a break. That was a great start to the day. It was a fish before 4 am. It got me and Vladi so excited that at 9 am I got another 24 hour permit so I could fish until 9 am tomorrow. At about 10 am, one of the East Germans landed another salmon. It was a small salmon of about 18”. Despite its size, everyone ran down to see the fish. It was a salmon and not many salmon get caught. I was glad to see this salmon released. The truth is that even though Atlantic salmon are endangered, rod and reel fishing impact does little to hurt the populations. People keep salmon all the time and believe me, they earn them. It is the commercial fishing in the ocean that does the damage. If I catch a salmon this week I will definitely return him. The rest of the fishing day was slow. It rained hard at times and the river continued to rise. There’s no doubt that the salmon move and get active during rising water. We saw plenty of salmon free jump and there are more anglers here than yesterday. They, like the salmon come out with the rain. I fished until 8 pm without more than a beer break between turns. It was a hard day for everyone but we had a lot of fun hanging out in the salmon hut. These are some great guys and Vladi and I are making lots of friends. Vladi and I are just about to eat a surprise meal he made, Hungarian Goulash. It’s one of his favorites. All I know is I’m hungry and tired and plan to get up early again to use my permit till 9 am tomorrow. Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site

 

Headed for the North Pole?

July 12, 2010  I signed off yesterday just before  boarding a plane from Amsterdam to  Oslo. The flight went just fine but when  I got to Oslo Vladi Trzebunia wasn’t quite there  yet. Unlike me, Vladi did not fly for this  adventure but rather drove all the way from his home in Zakopane, Poland. This involved traveling 1400 kilometers by driving through Poland and Germany, then across the Baltic Sea by ferry boat, and once again driving, this time through southern Sweden and finally into Oslo, Norway. We both knew the schedule of the ferry may cause him to be late picking me up so when I couldn’t find him I wasn’t worried. Sure enough he arrived within the hour. The other slowing factor was that Vladi actually towed along his camping trailer. Yes, all the way from Poland. The reason being is that Norway is one of the most expensive countries in the world. With his camper we can sleep anywhere and prepare all our own meals. Not only will we prepare out own food, but most of what we eat Vladi brought from Poland. It’s a heck of a deal and what makes this entire trip possible. So there we were in Oslo, I flew twenty hours and Vladi drove forty. We were exhausted. Nonetheless, like you’d expect we were so excited we brushed sleep aside and headed north. That brings me to another detail of the trip. We are going Atlantic salmon fishing. Tell anyone that knows much about Atlantic salmon fishing and inform them you are headed to Norway to do it and you are automatically assumed rich. Atlantic salmon fishing is truly one of the most expensive fly fishing habits there is and to do it in Norway is unimaginable for a couple of fishing bums like us. Nevertheless, once again, Vladi makes it possible - he guided here for six years! However, that was not since 1991 which is why we are here. He misses it tremendously and needs to visit some of his old friends. We drove about five hours into the night before pulling over to sleep. As normal with me when I cross oceans, I could only sleep about three hours so at 3 am I had us up and continuing north (remember its light at 3 am). There was some absolutely gorgeous scenery along the way. At about 9 am we arrived in the town of Stören on the banks of one of Norway’s most famous salmon rivers, the Gaula. Vladi may have been more excited then me. We can all relate to returning to a place or time in our lives that we enjoyed so much. That’s what it was for Vladi. We travelled along the river stopping at nearly every pool. Not only did Vladi remember the fish either he or his clients caught over the years but he had a story for each. It was an unbelievable treat and soon became a day I will never forget. We had every intention to fish today but I let the time go by without mentioning it. Vladi's stories of Atlantic salmon were fantastic. In a way I was fishing by listening, studying the water and observing other anglers as we went. After two hours and 100 kilometer meander upstream we came to a roaring canyon fed by a waterfall. Vladi parked and we walked as close to the falls as we could. “Watch my friend”, is all Vladi said. I probably don’t need to tell you the rest but I will. I sat and watched one of the worlds greatest game fish leap the falls. There weren’t many of them, a sad reality, but there were enough that two hours later Vladi had to drag me away. We are presently camped on the outskirts of Stören on the banks of the Gaula River. We just feasted on a spaghetti dinner mixed with half the countryside of Poland. It was delicious. I will now attempt to sleep a whole night and in the morning try for a Norwegian Atlantic salmon. Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site