2016 Report
Could this be a definition of happiness - 11.2 kg!
2016 Report
1 to 11 June. How the years fly by – this will be my 6th season running Osen. The good news is that authorities have agreed that the river continues to be healthy and with a good number of returning salmon last year the quotas have been set at the same level as last year.
Much of the preparation of the house prior to the season has already been done which has allowed Millie, my youngest daughter acting as housekeeper, and I to arrived on 8 June this year, a week later than usual. So whilst we have missed the opening week of the season the fishing record tells its own story of an excellent start.
The river was at a magnificent 200 cms on opening night, the first fish was taken on the very first cast at one minute past midnight! By the end of the first day 34 fish had been caught and whilst things slowed down somewhat, nevertheless the tally came to 66 fish caught by family and friends with 19 fish being taken by a particularly keen and experienced angler. The total also included the first salmon caught by Millie. She had caught a few grilse in the past but not a fully grown fish so congratulations to her for landing a fine 4 kg male with a fly from the Ladder pool. She has a little catching up to do as her elder sister Florence took a whopper of 10.4 kg from the same pool last year!
Whilst the river rose after some rain at the beginning of June to 210 cms, there has been nothing but glorious sunshine since. A combination of hot days but cold nights has meant that the river has gradually fallen since then to its current level of 125 cms. It is reported that there is still a lot of snow in the mountains, but not the extraordinary 16 metres of snow that fell in 2014/15 and gave us a high river for most of last season. The long range weather forecast is for a hot dry summer, so we can expect lower water and less productive fishing this year unless we get some rain.
On the positive side, the water temperature has already reached 11 degrees centigrade, a temperature that was not reached until late July last year. As a result, fish are already migrating up the ladder, with some 8 salmon and 100 sea trout passing the counter and now in the upper river system and this bodes well for boat and wading the many pools upstream.
12 to 19 June. Our first guests arrived on the evening of 12 June. The river had come down to 120 cms and a combination of cold nights, thus preventing the glacial snow from melting, and no precipitation, meant that the river fell to 98 by midweek, low for this time of the year. Bright sunlight and warm temperatures during the day meant that the river temperature rose quickly passing the magic 12 degrees centigrade threshold after which salmon start to run the ladder in large numbers. And to make matters worse the long term weather forecast was for continuing sunny weather. It is also generally these low, warm water conditions that mean that the fish normally go straight past the fisherman, intent on finding their spawning beds up river, so I for one was not expecting a good week.
It is always better to be pessimistic about the outlook and then one is pleasantly surprised if events turn out better. So within a few hours on their first evening the guests had bagged 4 salmon and this trend continued throughout the week. Defying the traditional trends, salmon were caught in glorious sun, as well as in the evenings. The guests came with their own BBQ and tent which was erected on the grass and some serious fishing, drinking, cooking and eating was undertaken, with no doubt some sore heads in between.
Whilst the fish overall are probably smaller than last year, two fishermen had large fish on. One of these monsters charged towards the rocks under the waterfall where it tangled round a boulder and snapped the line. After this incident the angler decided to upgrade to 40 lb leader! The second fish taken by another angler said that his fish was completely out of his control as it headed across the river, some 120 meters and despite trying to brake the fish, it just continued like a torpedo until it came off – he was left with the helplessness one can experience of being totally out of control with a big fish. A third incident occurred in Rekevik at the end of the week, just after a localised thunder storm deposited some rain on us. Whilst fishing the “points” below Rekevik Waterfall, he struck a big fish and with the fast current there, had a battle to remember. Some 30 minutes later he brought the fish into a backwater and measured the fish at approximately 110 cms which equates to 13.4 kgs; whilst still in the water the fish was released. This salmon was slightly coloured suggesting that it had been in the river for some weeks; I had checked the camera on the counter and seen every fish enter the river since the 31 May when the counter was installed and had not seen any fish over one metre so it is possible that the fish had ascended the ladder before the counter was operating. This fisherman also had the distinction of catching the first fish up river this season – congratulations!
Despite my gloom at the beginning, this week ended with glorious weather, fantastic fishing and some tales of big fish. A very respectable 37 fish were taken bringing the tally for the season so far to 101.
The other good news is that the run of salmon into the upper river through the counter continues apace. 384 salmon and sea trout have passed through the ladder, with 57 last night of which 41 were salmon. Guests coming later in the season should repair their waders and practice their Spey cast! We leave this week with the promise of some much needed rain forecast for the next few days.
19 to 25 June. For the whole of this week the river maintained a steady 111 cms. The forecast rain did not come to much but at least it allowed the river to hold its height. Thus the rather low water continued and the fishing was in theory not helped by the river being absolutely crystal clear. With this in mind, some success was had with smaller flies, indeed some very small ones as well as the usual menu.
The week was split in two with two parties each taking 3 days with Morten Taule, with over 25 years of experience on the river, acting as guide for the first half of the week and he then has his own group of friends for the second half of the week. The first party of 5 rods took a very pleasing 19 fish, including one grilse with me rowing by boat in Rekevik – the first salmon caught by boat there.
The second group for the week are experienced fishermen – you will seldom see them on the water but when you do, it is not long before they seem to hook a fish. With many fish through the ladder they took the opportunity to fish upstream. It stretches ones skills to fish in the upper river, with spey casting required most of the time, the fish lies being more difficult to predict and the strength of the stream making even small fish a challenge to land. With that in mind, and the fact that the river was low, allowing most of the salmon to pass straight through our water, one of the guests took one fish from the North bank of Åmot and then decided to try the South bank and had success there too – we collectively could not recall anyone doing this in recent years – two fish from one bank on the same day was not uncommon but not a fish from either side on the same day. 31 fish were taken making a combined total of 50 fish for the week, frankly an astounding achievement given the water conditions; one thing is certain: there are plenty of fish returning so far this year and the fish through the counter by the end of the week was around 650 also reflecting a healthy river. Of the 50 fish, 8 were caught upstream, which included two taken by me one in Gamlegjerdet and one in Rekevik on Saturday night and Sunday morning.
The week ended with the river rising to 117 cms after some light rain. The long range forecast included some more rain which was encouraging.
26 June to 2 July. Between guests I managed some fishing on the Saturday night and had two fine fish of around 4 kg each from Gamlegjerdet and Rekevik in overcast/light rain conditions – the fishing upstream continuing to be good.
This week’s party of Norwegians had fine memories of the 12 kg fish caught by them last year and this year there was plenty of evidence of great monsters both on Muren and in the upper river. Whilst rowing in Rekevik, one of my guest had a very large fish whilst harling in the middle stretch opposite the island. The fish took firmly and moved with great surges using its tail to cross the pool. We rowed to the island and played it from there, but unfortunately it came off after a 20 minute fight. The same fisherman had another large fish on shortly after this but his luck was not in as it slipped off the hook after a struggle. A further fish was taken later in the week by boat at the bottom of Rekevik. Large fish taken there tend to head downstream and this fish was no exception, using the weight of the strong stream to take the screaming reel well into the backing, so far in fact, that I needed to stand up in the boat to look over the angler’s shoulder to see if there was anything left on his reel! However the fish settled and it was a long haul up stream to the island but eventually he was elated to land a splendid 5.5 kg fish which he latter described it as the “greatest fishing experience of his life.” Several guests had other large fish on for short periods but these too proved elusive. In the end the largest fish this week was 6.4 kg taken in Rekevik. Rain continued during the week and allowed the river to rise to 147 cms. Thus the fishing responded well to the conditions with a creditable total of 29 fish taken.
Later in the week the river dropped a little and then perked up again so on Saturday night I took a fish 4.2 kg fish in Amot and the next morning could not resist a quick run down Gamlegjeret. Just for the pleasure of it, I chose an old classic single hook Silver Doctor fly, the hook being rather rusty and blunt. In one run down the pool a had three good sized salmon on, one being at least 8 to 10 kg but the old fly failed to bed in properly and I lost them all. So enthused by the good fishing, I decided to give the beat another run down but this time with a modern tube and again had three fish on, one being a large fish which after 10 minutes of careful playing, took off down to the top of Fjolefossen; I have been using a new reel which I have not yet got used to and in the fish’s fast progress downstream my hand slipped from the rim of the reel and I severely bruised my fingers on the handle, such was the power of this beast. I was in the process of inching the fish back up when it took flight again jumping high out of the water to reveal the magnificent slab of its silver belly. Shortly after this the line went slack. Still catching my breath after this epic fight, I found myself into another fish which on landing measured 80 cms and approximately 5.3 kg. For many years Gamlegjeret had a farm silage outlet which polluted the water. This has long since stopped, but I still always have my doubts about the pool, but this evening has I think restored my faith in what most regard as the most classic salmon beat of the river.
3 to 9 July. With the river at 147 cms and overcast, my next guests, also a Norwegian group, enjoyed a good start with Muren fishing well and accounting for 3 fish by midnight on the first evening. Rekevik and Gamlegjeret were both fishing well. The biggest fish taken was an 80 kg whopper – now I have your attention the truth is that this was the weight of the fishermen who caught himself, expertly done straight through the ear. I am hoping that he will send me a picture of it, as it really was very pretty and much nicer to look at than the rings and studs that normally are found on that part of the body. Luckily one of the other fishermen claimed to be a surgeon, or was it a butcher, and after some not so delicate work with a pair of pliers was able to rip the fly out of our angler’s ear, using only whisky as an anaesthetic.
The highlight of the week was a beautiful 8.6 kg male fish taken from Gamlegjeret by the most experienced angler of the party. Taking a big fish from this pool, handling it with the utmost care and ensuring that it does not go down into the fast water of Fjolefossen is the ultimate salmon fishing challenge and I only wish I had been there to witness the landing of this fish, which he did all by himself and without a net. He described the fight with this salmon which lasted at least 30 minutes as probably the most memorable of his lifetime and I certainly appreciate what he achieved in taking this early season torpedo of a fish, having lost two large fish from this pool myself in the previous week. The same gentleman took 8 fish in total and as the week progressed the river fell to 100 cms but despite the low river the tally by the end of the week came to 24 fish.
10 to 17 July. In the gap between guests, our new maid, Flora was introduced to salmon fishing. After some dry instruction on the grass, she had a go on the Wall. She did a few casts and I was about to explain what to do if a fish should take when the line went tight and a largish fish took off down stream. I shouted instructions like lift your rod and keep the line tight but the fiendish fish must have recognised inexperience and came back towards Flora when of course the line went slack, and shortly after, all that was left was to wind the reel in with I think some shock at the power of the fish and disappointment at a missed opportunity. A further trip in Ladder pool by boat the following morning resulted in another powerful fish and unfortunately a similar result.
Our next guests, a returning British group, arrived to very different conditions to last year. Then, the river was at 200 to 250 cms with virtually no salmon upriver. Whereas this year the river was standing at 90 to 100 cms, with wading possible almost everywhere and some 1700 fish through the ladder. The downside, however, is that with a water temperature of 14 degrees C, salmon are keen to get upstream and are more difficult to catch.
It was with this background that this group commenced fishing. Included in the group were two experienced fishermen who were able to make the most of the wading opportunities and spey casting. But with no rain in the forecast, the river steady in height and the water gin clear, no fish were tempted by anything presented to them. However the gin clear water was replaced by another type of gin which lifted the spirits.
With no fish taking, it was with some surprise that Stein Georg, one of our guides, announced that he was going to row any volunteers on Lower Bank. Lower Bank normally fishes well when the river is at 160 cms but at 100 cms there is no stream and it does not hold salmon. Those with any experience, looked at the flat water of Lower Bank and declined his offer, but two of the ladies of the group not knowing better, I suspect, went with Stein Georg, for what was clearly going to be a sight-seeing tour. All expectations were confounded when news of a magnificent 7 kg fish was caught. The battle must have been awesome as the fish took on a trout rod that Stein Georg had rigged and by all accounts, the fish took the whole of the backing out twice and was only held by the knot at the very end of the line before it was eventually landed. The trip to Lower Bank did not end there, as their efforts were rewarded with a grilse too.
Amongst the men of the group there was consternation that the ladies should be ahead in the tally. It is not unusual for fishermen to exaggerate their catches, however the fishing upstream was proving difficult. Two of the more experienced fishermen were overheard complaining about the lack of success they were having. “I caught a brown trout today” he said whilst indicating with his fingers a fish of about 10 cms. “You were lucky” said the other, “mine was about half that size!”
The next day 2 of the girls were harling in Skjaerer and took two fish. At supper that evening, much was made of the ladies showing the remainder of the group how to fish!
Under pressure to show their expertise, this state of affairs was rectified by the gentlemen with a fish taken on the far side of Gamlegjerdet, another two including one of 7 kg taken on Muren and a further one by boat in Skjaerer which gave a good fight.
One of our lady guests spent many hours fishing Muren and finally her perseverance paid off, proving the maxim that you have to have your fly in the water to catch a salmon.
Non fishing activity included a re-visit to the automated bottle bank in Bygstad, which clearly holds special fascination and a trip to the local tip, not everybody’s cup of tea but this party are easily pleased. One guest had to return to England on Thursday for an award from the Queen no less, and planned to return on Friday. In order to do this he arranged to be picked up from Osen by helicopter and was back and fishing within just over 24 hours!
After at least 80 years lying derelict, the work on the old Osen shop’s conversion to residential use by the farmer’s youngest son was completed and a party was held to commemorate the event. Some high spirits including naked bathing in the early hours were witnessed. I was subsequently assured that such events will be scheduled outside the fishing season!
Despite the slow start to the week, the low water and rather shy salmon, the party finished off with a very respectable total of 19 fish – not the bonanza of 37 fish of last year, but enough to call it a satisfactory week.
18 to 23 July. This week saw the return of our regular German family who currently take the first week of the season and this week too. Generally there are few fish in the river in June although one of the family took a fish estimated at 110 cms long in Rekevik, so with the migration of fish starting early this year there were now a huge number of fish in the upper river (approx 2000 through the ladder). At the beginning of the week, the river rose from 117 cms to 150 cms following some rain.
It was very pleasing to see the young lady of the family, in her mid teens who I have seen progress from child with little hope of catching a fish to fast becoming an accomplished fisherman, take the first salmon on Muren and to prove it was not luck, she took another two days later. During the week she took the trouble to begin to learn to spey cast – which would allow her to better fish the upper river – it is a well worn phrase of mine but towards the end of the week her spey casting was good enough that it was “now only a question of time” before she took her first salmon with a spey cast. These guests have come back to Osen for a number of years and are familiar enough to fish with little input from me, so many of the fish that they took this week I was not able to witness, however, by Saturday the party had taken 18 fish and had lost some big fish too.
At the end of the week Flora and I had a quick go on Muren. She went first and I followed. She did not have any joy but I took a fine grilse and frantically called to her to take the rod to get feel for playing a fish. After lots of shouting and gesticulating she eventually got the message and joined me whereupon she took the rod and after handling the fish nicely beached the fish on the grass below Muren.
24 to 30 July. The last guest week of the season saw the return of an English family, mostly novices with one serious fisherman in the group. The river had fallen to 120 and continued to fall to 110 before rain allowed the river to rise again to 150 cms and then decline to 138. Fish tend to pass straight through Muren on their way upstream in the warmer, late July conditions and salmon are more difficult to catch. However, the variable river height allowed some good sport to be had. The first night I took two of the ladies rowing in Skjaerer, both complete novices, Notting Hill, London ladies, having arrived completely unprepared for the Norwegian weather or even a pair of wellington boots between them and in their minds certain that no salmon was going to entertain them. It is sometimes a bit of a challenge when faced with such sceptical guests and always a pleasure to prove them wrong. After taking two small trout one of the ladies’ rods bent to a bigger fish. After the initial shock as the line raced out she handled the fish well. We were lucky to land a nice 5.8 kg fish, particularly as the fly sprang out of the fish’s mouth and embedded itself in my hand just as the fish was beached. The 20 minute fight with this salmon left her physically shaken and exhilarated by the experience and she could now fully understand the attraction of salmon fishing – and she even managed to land this fish without getting her bootless feet wet!
On another night I was rowing in Rekevik when the fisherman said that he had felt a small nibble – probably a small fish. Several other nibbles were felt over a space of 20 minutes or so but no fish were taken so we rowed back empty handed winding the line in as we went. In the semi darkness as the fly came out of the water we noticed that a parr of about 5 cms long had taken the fly and this probably explained the nibbles felt earlier. On return to the house we were able to explain that although we returned empty handed we had had some sport having had a fish on for at least 20 minutes!
Our experienced fishermen had little success for his efforts in the first few days until he found a 6 kg fish lying in the grass on Muren – how it got there remains a mystery with some explaining that an otter or a larger fish might have chased it, possibly at high tide when it is possible for a fish to slither over the wall and become stranded on the lawn. An alternative explanation was that there were now so many fish in the river that there was simply no room left in the river! Others suggested that the salmon were giving our one experienced fishermen a helping hand with his poor average. However this act of God was gratefully received and served up for lunch the next day, and our experienced fisherman need not have worried as by the end of the week he had taken 16 of the 20 fish taken by this party.
31 Jul to 2 Aug. With the river standing at 128 cms, I had an opportunity to fish after the guests had left and before returning to UK. I can only describe these two days as the best fishing in my life. I caught and released 8 fish which I took in Amot, Walter’s Hole, Gamlegjerdet and one on Muren. I also had at least that number which I lost after a fight, some of which were large ones.
One fish stands out which I shall recount: I had agreed to take Flora, the maid, fishing in Rekevik at 7 pm on our second last night, she having lost two 5 kg plus fish earlier in the month. There was some pressure to get her a fish before departure. It was with this background that I decided to fish Gamlegjerdet before taking Flora to Rekevik. Gamlegjerdet had been fishing well this season so I started with a small single hook brown fly, a style that I have found works well up river in smooth, fast water. I had a couple of bites and soon found myself into a grilse which I landed and released. I took a quick break and then commenced again working my way down the beat. I was opposite the boat when another fish struck. The fish settled in the middle of the river seemingly in no hurry to go anywhere. I used this opportunity to work my way to just below the fish so that I could get a better purchase on it. By increasing pressure on the salmon one can normally feel the movement of the tail as it endeavours to maintain its position but in this case despite cranking up the tension on the line this fish was not moving and I could not even feel the thump of the tail. After about 20 minutes it was nearly 7pm and I decided to phone Flora to tell her that I appeared to have a large fish on and that I would be late rowing her in Rekevik! By this stage my arms were aching and I waded to the river’s edge where I lay with my feet in the water and my back leaning against the steep bank which was more comfortable. Still the fish sat in the middle of the river and I could feel no discernible movement, just a great dead weight. I am always worried about pulling a large fish too hard too early – once a sizeable fish gets spooked you cannot control it and it either heads up or down stream ending almost certainly in a lost fish. The perplexing thing was that I could not feel any movement in this fish. So I applied more pressure with the rod almost bent double; I was beginning to think that I was stuck on the bottom or that the line was caught under a rock with the fish still on. In lining up the line with trees on the far bank the line was suspiciously static moving less than a foot up or down stream despite applying as much force on the fish as I dared. After 30 minutes I felt the fish shake its head – a great relief to know that it was a fish! Then my phone started vibrating and I struggled to extract it from my wader’s pocket but realised that it wasn’t my mobile but my line being so taut that it was singing with tension. It had started to rain so having extracted my phone, I made two phone calls, one to Flora to persuade her to get on her bicycle in the rain in order to bring a camera to witness the fish and another call to Stein Georg, our guide of the previous week, asking for help. Both arrived within a few minutes of each other but had some difficulty finding me lying flat against the bank amongst the trees, my knees bent, with the butt of the rod braced against my knee caps and both hands pulling the rod back as hard as I could. Stein Georg had wisely brought a net with him. At this stage the fish had moved up stream about 3 metres, the line was still singing and the only other noise was the line sluicing through the fast water. There was still no tell tale movement of the fish – it seemed that the fish was simply angling its body to the stream and I concluded that such a fish had to be huge to be able to do this without any discernible stroke of its tail. Stein Georg and I then had a discussion about what to do; he suggested that we change the angle of pull by going upstream, something that I was reluctant to do as I had a good angle on the fish, whereas his argument was that we were too close to the fast water of Fjolefossen at the bottom of the pool and if the fish went downstream we would certainly lose it. About 5 minutes later for no apparent reason, the line suddenly went slack, resulting in the immediate sinking feeling of a lost fish. Strangely, the line under such tension would normally end up in the trees behind me but instead I reeled the line in to find the fly in tact with some weed on it. Maybe the fly had picked up some weed in the fight or in snagging a rock as the hook came out of the fish’s mouth. As we commiserated, Stein Georg kindly gave me a bottle of champagne thoughtfully tucked in his car when he came to my rescue which softened the blow of losing what was certainly a large fish.
The largest fish I have caught in the river was 14.4 kgs. I recall this fish sitting mid stream for close to one hour but in this time I could feel the tail moving whereas this fish appeared so large that even tail movement seemed unnecessary for it to maintain its station – whatever the size, it was the culmination of a remarkable season with a river packed with fish, providing as I said earlier, probably the most exciting fishing I had experienced in over 50 years of fishing on the river.
The season is not complete without the maid catching a fish, so after my epic battle and whilst up river, I took Flora in the boat in Rekevik and covered the upper part of the pool which had been very successful hitherto. We had no luck there and were covering the middle stretch which usually is not so productive when a fish struck. Flora, having played one fish and lost two good sized fish up until now, was determined not to let this one off the hook; I rowed to the island whilst she played the fish with considerable skill and total concentration, maintaining a tight line at all times. The fish came in several times only to charge out again putting up a good fight but eventually she beached the fish in the grass – it had taken a month but it was clearly a proud moment and she said something about showing her father and brother, both keen fishermen, how it was done!
Season Summary. In summary, the season has been an exceptionally good one with an early run of salmon into the river, resulting by the end of July in 2800 salmon passing through the ladder, which is nearly double the average and four times the total for this time last year. The counter normally stands at between 2000 to 3000 salmon by the end of October, so 2800 now means we could have more than 4000 fish in the river by season’s end, not bad for the 14 kms of navigable river. The total catch up until the end of July is 272 fish – I will have to check the record book but this total marks the season as exceptionally good. Whilst the size of the salmon have been smaller this year compared to last, the pundits tell me that the salmon will be larger next year – how they can tell that I do not know, but fishermen are optimists and I believe them!
