Sorry for the delay. After the trip i have been quite busy, and this is why the update has been delayed. but anyway here it comes
Greetings from the beautiful country of Norway. This years salmon fishing trip took me, as so many times before, to the river Neiden in the north-eastern part of Norway, around 40 km from the town of Kirkenes. The River starts from the Finnish lake Iijärvi as "Näätämö" and runs down to the arctic ocean in the Neidenfjord, switching name to Neiden at the Norwegian border. The river is around 100 Km and runs for the most parts on the Finnish side of the border, only the last 20 Km or so being on Norwegian soil. So as said before this text is about the Norwegian part of the river.
This year the conditions were a bit tricky for fly fishing as water levels were higher than anyone I met had ever seen this time of year. This could be expected though as the weather forecasts had shown a lot of rain in the area during weeks before the trip, and as it were also during the trip (2-days without rain during the 2-week trip, yay). Water temperatures were good though, varying between 11-14 degrees Celsius, rising to 14 in the first couple of days and then dropping rapidly to around 11 and staying there the rest of the trip.
The weather varied between 11-14 celsius and rain showers and 11-14 celsius and constant rain, with a few sunny moments in between for the rest of the trip.
| The upper part of "Korbiniva" |
The salmon run this year was about a week to a week and a half later than usually, as the grilse started to run only in the last 2 days of the trip.This meant fishing for big fish, mostly in the areas down of the bridge, the first week and most part of the second week. The biggest fish caught in the time I was at the river was a huge Salmon
of 18,2 Kilos(over 40 lbs), caught in the "Korbiniva" area. The fish even caught the attention of the Finnish press as the Finnish newspaper Iltalehti wrote an article about it (the Finnish
article can be found
Here).
Most of the fish caught during the time I was at the river, were caught either
in the crowded fly fishing zone (300 m of river below the bridge), or by
fishermen trolling with wobblers (neither of which I fancy)
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| Some guys trolling |
Even though the conditions were tricky for fly fishing in other parts of the river, I managed in the two weeks to hook some fine fish, landing two (the bigger one being a 97 cm long beauty, fresh from the ocean), loosing one around 80cm and having some really steady takes.
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| Releasing the bigger one |
I mainly fished with floating and moderately sinking lines and flies varying from 3-10 cm. Most of the bites coming on floating line and a number 4 size (around 5-6 cm) flies, but also sinking lines and bigger tube flies (up to 10 cm) gave good results (conditions considered). Fly patterns that worked well this year were for instance "Sarvijaakko", White Heckled Green&Silver and my own "Hopeanharmaa"
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| "Hopeanharmaa" The recipe will follow in an other post |
This year I also added a fishing day on the arctic ocean to the trip. We hired a guide to take us out on the ocean by boat, to fish after Cod, Pollock, Atlantic Wolffish etc. On the trip we caught 4 different species of fish plus Kingkrab an saw some amazing vistas and had a totally fantastic time, so money well spent. Here´s some pics from the ocean
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| In the middle of a huge Pollock school |
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| Some Porpoises hunting in the Pollock school |
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| Snow on the Varanger peninsula |
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| A Steep descent |
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| King of birds | |
Here´s some additional photos from the river
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| The neck of "Grytfossen" |
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| Where could they be (photo taken around 2 a clock in the "night") |
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| "Korbiniva" with the fly fishing zone in the back |
