2018 Report
A whopper of 10.4kg taken by Florence in Ladder Pool
2018 REPORT
Pre Season. I am pleased to hear that the River Owners’ met recently and have agreed with government scientists that the quotas for this coming season will be set at the same level as last year. This is very good news and broadly confirms that the river is in good health. A small concern is the small number of grilse that returned to the river last year. Time will tell whether this will translate into a reduced number of medium sized salmon this year or next.
To make a prediction on the prospects for this year’s catch is always a dangerous thing to do, however it is useful to do so and then compare this with the results at the end of the season. The snow fall over the winter seems to have been reasonable but a warm spell over the last month suggests that a good proportion of the winter snow has already melted. Per Karsten Wahl, the river owner, has suggested that we may have to rely on good rainfall over the summer months to encourage the salmon to return in larger numbers. Only time will tell whether this assessment is correct!
1 to 12 June. Millie Lewis, the housekeeper and I arrived at Osen on the evening of 6 June to prepare for the season. Those who have been living in Norway will know what I am about to say, but for me it was quite a shock. When back in England I had found it strange that the weather reports were warning of a risk of forest fires and an occasional look at the weather had indicated a warm spring. However, the reality is that Norway has experienced Mediterranean weather for the last month or more. Someone described it as “one day it was winter and the next day it turned to summer.” And it has been like that ever since, with exceptionally warm weather and glorious sunshine. The great grandmother on Osen farm, who is well into her mid nineties in age reportedly cannot remember conditions like this in her lifetime. The grass is consequently parched brown, the farmer has already had his first crop of grass but only 35% of his usual yield and has been taking water out of the estuary to water the fields before it all dies, and the tracks around Osen, usually damp, are now dry and dusty such that our cars look as though they have been driven through a desert.
But enough of the desperate conditions, as when the sun shines in Norway we are normally pleased enough, and on to the fishing conditions. Despite having no rain for over a month, the river started on 1 June at 140 cms, rose to 150 cms with even hotter weather, but since then has been gradually falling and on 12 June as I write it is at 95 cms. It would appear that the bulk of winter snow has already passed through the river and we are faced with conditions normally associated with mid July, with a river temperature around 15 or 16 degrees.
Thus it will not surprise one, that the salmon have started to run up stream incredibly early, with the run starting a few days ago and 20 or 30 fish now going through the counter each day – some large fish of over a metre included. This bodes well for upper river fishing in the coming weeks so long as we get some rain. Talking of which, the weather is due to break on 14 June with desperately needed heavy rain anticipated.
Salmon catches have been somewhere half what might normally be expected, with 27 fish taken in the opening 3 days. But the continuing drought and falling river has made for almost impossible fishing conditions with scarcely no interest in our offerings – a description that allows me to proudly say that I am the only fisherman in the last week to take a fish – a nice 4.3 kg female taken from the rocks in Ladder Pool under the waterfall.
Our first guests arrived two days ago and have so far had three decent sized fish on but have yet to land one, one lost while attempting to net it – so a frustrating time but lovely weather.
13 to 20 June. The spell of glorious weather continues and the poor fishing conditions prevail too. Such has the drought been, that even the house water supply is running dry with a couple of days when the head of water was insufficient to have a shower upstairs. We have brought in some bottled water and the farmer has kindly lent us a 1000 litre water container so that the plants around the house, many of which now appear dead, can have a drink.
The promised rain arrived on 14 June. Light to start with and then increasingly heavy, with such gales that even my hat which is normally glued to my head took off whilst rowing and had to be recovered from the water. Wet weather over several days raised spirits and the hope of salmon. The first salmon to be caught in a week or so was taken in Ladder Pool from the rocks below the waterfall. Then a succession of fishermen who had tried hard all week with no success had their efforts rewarded with everyone in the party landing a salmon, and one guest taking two, including one fresh run fish, an absolute beauty of 11 kg. The family’s 8 year old son also came away with the first fish of the upper river, a sea trout of 0.7 kg taken whilst harling in Rekevik which he was immensely proud of until he saw his father’s 11 kg fish hanging down on Muren – for an eight year old he is very enthusiastic and I am sure his time will come for giant fish.
Between parties, I took the opportunity to have a few casts in Åmot, and on the way back threw a line into Holmen, a pool that is seldom fished. My double spey casting, particularly with the bushes close behind me, is not a pretty sight, but I managed to get my line out in more a less a straight line and my third, longer cast struck something, which from the thrashing in the water felt quite substantial. Whilst the steam appears smooth and quiet, it is actually quite strong and it took some time to tire the fish out and coax it upstream to the only suitable landing place. I was delighted with a 4.7 kg hen and in some respects pleased that it was no larger as I would otherwise have had difficulty controlling the fish. Having released the fish, I took another few casts and had another tug – I have made a mental note to try Holmen more often; it is a deep holding pool and natural stopover for migrating salmon.
Latter that evening I took Millie in the boat below the Fos. Despite being a complete beginner, she had picked up the casting technique very quickly and before long she felt the first tug of a salmon. Although we had practised catching salmon on the grass and I had explained the need to raise the rod on feeling a fish, the power of the fish nevertheless took her by surprise, she panicked letting out an almighty scream loud enough to echo down the whole valley, the rod remained in the horizontal position and of course the fish was able to spit the fly out. Later by boat she had two sizeable fish, the first for 5 minutes before losing it and the second for 10 minutes; having learnt to played the fish well, she handed me the rod whilst she got out of the boat and whilst I was holding the rod the fish took off and then the line went dead. (She had probably played the fish rather lightly up until I took over so when applying what I regarded as normal pressure, the unspent energy of the fish resulted in a great charge towards the Lervik bank). I felt bad about losing her fish, but somewhat consoled that by the end of the evening between Morten, a guest of his, Millie and I we had lost 8 fish – it was one of those evenings when the salmon were simply not taking well.
The next party, with Morten as guide/guest, stayed for 3 days from 17 to 20 June. With the river now up at 140, it continued to rise, going brown for a period and peaking at 195 cms. Fine sport was had by all with a total of 15 fish, the largest two at over 8 kgs. The first salmon was taken at Rekevik and another taken in Skjaerer. Colder weather and rain resulted in the temperature of the water coming down from 16 to a more normal 12 degrees and for three days we saw no salmon pass through the ladder which was a disappointment as in fishing the upper river there is always a better chance when 20 or so salmon are passing through the pools.
20 to 27 June. The second half of the week saw the same guests as last year – mostly local gentlemen, all highly experienced fishermen and friends of Morten’s. Salmon through the counter continued to be small in number, maybe as a result of the drop in water temperature, it now being 12.5 degrees, otter activity in the ladder, or the rapidly falling river; in these 7 days it has fallen from 185 cms to 90 cms. The fishing was excellent in the first four days of this period with a total of 16 fish taken, 7 of which were large salmon in excess of 7 kgs the largest being 11.9 kg. A memorable evening was had in Rekevik where I rowed one of the party who caught 3 fine fish, one half way down the island and two in the V at the bottom of the beat. Another guest kept losing his fish, but eventually struck gold with a handsome 10 kg fish that put up a grand fight, so much so that it had to be landed on the Lervik side of the river. One unlucky member of the party went without catching anything but the remainder had good sport.
Between parties, Millie, the housekeeper took her first fish from the wall, a 0.7 kg sea trout, followed by a fine 5.5 kg male. Stein Georg claimed a classic, torpedo shaped Gaula salmon from the wall too, weighing in at 9.5 kg and 105 cms long, still with sea lice on it and I had a fine fish of 5.5 kg fishing from the rocks in Ladder Pool.
On Sunday evening, the river was down to 115 cms and falling quite quickly to the current 90 cms. The weather has turned sunny with the prospect of little or no rain in the future. This, combined with few salmon entering the ladder has seen a return to poor catching conditions both below the waterfall and up stream.
Our guests this week, a family from Bergen had been fishing in another river earlier in June. Such were the conditions that for the first time in his life one of the guests had not caught anything during his stay there. So he arrived in Osen with hope that his blank record would be saved by the River Gaula. He was going on to fish the Laerdal and had promised his friends that he would provide a fresh Gaula salmon for dinner during his stay – dare I say that such a rash promise guarantees no fish will be caught! However, with this challenge set, I rowed him in Rekevik and he was into a reasonable fish judging by the heavy and slow thuds of his rod but the fish had not taken properly and slipped away. Later I took him by boat in Ladder Pool and he struck what seemed to be a good sized fish but lost it after 2 minutes of play – I learnt some new Norwegian words such was his disappointment! Regrettably this guest left empty handed – a first for the him from our river too. By chance we had a spare salmon in the freezer which he gratefully took to save the ignominy of having to buy a salmon for his Laerdal friends from the supermarket!
Overall, the season so far has returned 68 fish, 32 of which were caught last week (Week 25). This tally is very respectable considering the drought conditions experienced at the start of the season. 228 fish have passed through the counter, about half being salmon, the remainder being sea trout and a few grilse. The small number of fish through the counter in the last week is of concern but not serious yet as the main run of fish usually occurs in late June or July, however the lack of snow in the mountains and the current fine weather leaves us praying for some more rain.
28 June to 5 July. During this time the river fell from 90 cms to 58 cms. The latter level is the lowest I have experienced in the last 8 years and probably is close to an historic low. These conditions present a great opportunity for wading and exploring the number pools and potential salmon lies in the river. This is the river normally expected in August by which time there are plenty of salmon up river and there is a good chance of sport but currently few salmon have ascended the ladder so one has only a slim chance of catching one.
Apart from the continuing fine weather, a further worry is the lack of salmon going through the ladder. It has now been a period of some 10 days with perhaps 10 salmon through the counter. So whilst there are plenty of salmon at the bottom of the waterfall whose dorsal fins and tails can be seen lined up in the white water, they still seem unwilling to enter the upper river. As we speak there are roughly 120 salmon and 250 sea trout though the counter.
One guest arrived mid week with a reputation for being a good fisherman. I took him by car to show him the river and recommended hotspots. I did suggest that he have a go on the far side of Gamlejerdet, mainly because this part of the river had not been fished so far this season but also because a fish had been spotted there. It is a difficult spot to fish because of the trees however he returned successful; it is not usual for a salmon of only 2.7 kg to be met with great acclaim but it saved the week as this was the only salmon caught!
Another party arrived on the Sunday evening and during the week one or two of them resorted to spoons and this has produced 2 salmon and a few lost but otherwise it has been another largely blank week. However, one of the fishermen who is highly experienced arrived up at the house for supper looking shaken and stirred. For someone who has fished all his life this was unusual and we were fascinated to know what had happened. He explained that he had not felt a fish all week and was doing long casts from the very top of the wall using a small fly. The fly was landing beyond the white water and being taken up river by the back eddy creating quite a bend in the line when a fish took. The fish then sat still whilst he was able to take out the slack in his line and apply pressure on the fish. As he was doing this the fish took off up stream into the white water and charged across the very bottom of the waterfall upstream of the rocks that are exposed at low water. Such was the speed of the fish that he described his Hardy Perfect reel as making a high pitched noise the like of which he had never heard before. The fish travelled 150 metres to the far side of the river and looking down he saw that he was almost at the end of his backing when the line went slack and in winding the line in he found the fish still attached and back in its original lie. On applying reasonable but not excessive pressure again, the fish sprinted over to the far side of the river and again returned to its original lie. This happened a further 4 or 5 times before the line must have caught a rock and broke. He later described this as without a doubt the largest fish he had ever experienced (in excess of 15 kg), such was the power and speed demonstrated by this monster of a salmon. Even though he lost the fish, it does demonstrate that perseverance pays off and that there are good fish to be had.
We are expecting some rain this coming Sunday. Let us hope that it is sufficient to liven up the sport a little.
6 to 11 July. The promised rain turned into a few splatters imprinted on our dust covered cars. Another belt of rain that was forecast for next week has also evaporated so the dire conditions continue with the river level at about 50 cms, so low that the gauge is covered in algae and difficult to read.
Fresh fish continue to arrive and one demonstrated its arrival by nearly jumping into the boat whilst rowing last night in Ladder. The waterfall is teeming with salmon waiting for a rise in water, but they cannot ascend the ladder as there is simple not enough water for the larger fish to leap each step. Consequently, there have only been about 10 salmon or grilse through the ladder in the last 10 days but on a positive note, the run of sea trout, about 20 each day, continues. The counter stands at 620 fish which sounds impressive but for the last four weeks this has predominantly been sea trout.
I took a brown trout and and sea trout from Åmot on Saturday night and one guest fishing with a trout rod had some sport in Hargeness beat taking a few sea trout and a brown trout of close to 1 kg. Another guest had a grilse on for a short while in Åmot but frustratingly lost it.
This extraordinary year is best demonstrated by the link below, a graph that shows the water levels in the river since late April when the river peaked with the early snow melt and the current level which if it continues will go off the bottom of the scale! The middle green dotted line shows the average level of the river.
http://www2.nve.no/h/hd/plotreal/Q/0083.00002.000/plot.gif
11 to 17 July. This period saw the end of a British group who had fished Osen in normal conditions from 2005 to 2010. As one guest put it he caught several fish on previous visits including 11 fish on his last time in Osen so he was a good witness to the more normal sport to be had. Apart from the odd sea trout and a brown trout mentioned earlier, they left without a single salmon to their names which I think is a record as I cannot recall this ever having occurred before!
I do like to confirm the lack of fish by taking a few casts myself between guests. I decided to fish with the smallest fly in my collection, a tiny red and black double. I waded down Holmen, Skjaerer and Kattehøl – there were plenty of parr, smolts and brown trout but nothing bigger seemed interested. I decided to put on a larger single hooked fly, tied by Stein Georg and looking not dissimilar to a Durham Ranger for one more pass in Kattehøl and was heartened by a good tug just above the large tree on the far bank, a usual hotspot.
My German guests arrived on Sunday and much to my surprise one of the party took a grilse of 2.7 kg with a spoon under the waterfall. This saved the previous week in terms of statistics which otherwise would have read 0. I wandered up to the waterfall last night and watched in wonder at the 10 to 20 large salmon sliding in the fast water on the first ledge outside the ladder waiting patiently for a rise in water. The air today is muggy and there is a chance of the odd heavy thunderstorm in the mountains a long way inland in the upper reaches of the River Gaula, however, that is the best that the long term forecast has in store.
The total catch now stands at 77 fish and 760 through the ladder but of late still only sea trout passing as there is insufficient water for the salmon to climb the steps, the cut off river height seeming to be 55 cms. The river now is at 49 cms, so low that of this morning the camera to the counter is out of the water and unable to film the sea trout passing.
18 to 24 July. A small rise in the river from 49 cms to 57 cms probably due to warm weather melting the glacier and the odd thunder storm in the mountains at least meant that the camera was back under water and able to detect fish heading up river. This rise resulted in 3 salmon and 7 grilse passing the counter on 20 July but otherwise it continues to be sea trout with the odd salmon only.
One of my guests was into a large fish from the top of Muren but lost it with most of his spinning tackle. Later that day an angler from the other side got his line caught in what was subsequently considered to be the same line. He unhitched his line from it and wound it in to remove it from the river when suddenly the line took off, clearly with a fish on it. He was only able to play it by winding the line round his arm but to his astonishment found that the fish was of considerable size and very nearly lost his balance and was dragged into the water before the line broke.
Other than this incident, it has been most frustrating on the wall as there is no stream to speak of, but up river is great wading and the odd sea trout was picked up. Again I have to report that so far the only measurable fish to be caught was by me fishing in Kattehøl at dusk on Saturday, a sea trout of 0.7 kg. Thus the wonderful warm weather (the hottest and driest for 70 years) has finally resulted in n0 salmon being caught this week (Week 29). All my guests have thankfully been philosophical that this is what can happen with salmon fishing.
24 to 31 July. Now back in England and trying to recall worthy events – in truth there were none! A few sea trout and brown trout were caught in the last week but the wretchedly fine weather continued and the rain that we so needed did not materialise. Just after my last guests left it started to rain and for a moment I thought that the spell had been broken but it was not much more than a welcome shower. One or two isolated thunder storms must have occurred upstream which combined with an increased glacial melt due to the exceptionally warm weather resulted in the river rising from 50 cms to 69 cms. As soon as the river passed the 56 cms point, salmon started running the ladder again.
In order to try to encourage salmon to ascend the ladder, an agricultural pump attached to a tractor was used to increase the flow of water. The tractor and pump was placed above the boat in Skjaerer and a pipe was floated across the river, over the ladder wall above the waterfall and into the second top step of the ladder. As this procedure coincided with the river rising it was difficult to determine whether the considerable effort in doing this was worthwhile. It was estimated that the level of water in the ladder rose by 2 cms but I could not discern any increase in the salmon run.
The last two days at Osen allowed me the opportunity to do some fishing. Earlier in the season I had cleared some branches on the far bank of Gamlegjerdet and I was keen to have a go there. Late in the evening I had an encouraging two good tugs from what felt like a large fish but other than that the only sport were brown trout and sea trout.
In summary, this has been the driest June and July in living memory and with half an eye on global warming one hopes that this does not repeat itself too often. Even though the river went down to 47 cms, this still represents some 60 cubic metres of water a second largely provided by the Jostedal Glacier. When struggling to stand whilst wading in Åmot, Rekevik or Kattehøl one is constantly amazed by the quantity of water that continues to flow through the Gaula – so despite the drought conditions there was plenty of water to hold salmon. Notably, there was not a single entry in the record book of a fish taken on Lower Bank, yet there was no shortage of fish below the waterfall. It seems that salmon are content to bide their time for the right conditions to continue their migration and in the meantime salmon lie low and are scarcely interested in anything that an angler can throw at them.
The last few days, (early August) have seen considerable rainfall, the river rise to above average and what appears to be a huge run of salmon and sea trout – reassuring for the long term health of the river if a little late for most of us!