2020 Report
5 May 2020. I usually start my fishing report after the season has commenced in early June. However, I hardly need to tell everyone that this year is like no other.
Due to coronavirus, we have had to make some difficult decisions about the running of Osen this year. Normally the housekeeper and I travel out to Norway from England to run the house and river for June and July but Norway has closed its borders to foreigners and even if one were able to get to Norway (I have even considered sailing there in my brother in law’s boat) it would result in being placed in quarantine for two weeks.
There are other issues, such as if any of our guests did have coronavirus the likelihood would be that we would have to disinfect the house and those including me and the housekeeper would have to self isolate for 2 weeks. It would make it very difficult to run the house and river under such circumstances and give our guests the service that we normally provide.
Restrictions in Norway do allow leisure activities and providing one maintains social distancing rules it is possible to go fishing. As such we are offering the river only for this season and we hope that as many of our existing guests will take up this option. However, we expect some of our guests will not make it and this will free up some days or weeks for others.
Bookings for this Season. If you are interested in booking some fishing only on the river this season (June or July) you should contact the owner, Per Karsten Wahl on pkw@osen-fishing.com or +47 97792070. Afternote: As at 27 May we are now fully booked for the season.
Quotas. Quotas for the river for this season have been set at the same level as last year.
Weekly Reports. Over the last decade I have taken some pleasure in reporting news on how the fishing for each week of the season has been. Clearly this year I will be unable to do so in the usual way.. If any guests are able to report on how their days or weeks at Osen went – good or bad, large or small, english, norwegian or any other language, I will happily publish the articles on this page. We are all particularly interested in stories of large salmon even if they got away but no exaggeration please! Send pictures or stories to john@osen-fishing.com.
1 to 8 June. Fish took throughout the week in excellent conditions. The river started at 165 cms and rose to 195 cms. A total 46 fish were taken with an outstanding average size of very nearly 6kg. The largest fish taken was an impressive 11.2 kg and 108 cms long – apparently it fought like an even bigger fish!
7 to 13 June. I have heard from our guest this week who said that they had good fishing but not much more detail a this stage. Somewhat frustratingly the fish counter at the top of the ladder has been in place since the beginning of June but has not been working properly. We hope that it is going to be fixed soon to give us some indication of migrating fish entering the river.
I have now seen the fishing book and it reveals that a very respectable 19 fish were caught this week with 7 of these being taken on Lower Bank rather than Muren. The River was at a very large 210 cms gradually falling to 190 cms and the water temperature was between 9 and 10 degrees.
14 to 20 June. Looking at the enormous water levels on the internet it suggests that the fishing should have been excellent, especially on Lower Bank. I hope to confirm this shortly.
Again, I have now seen the fishing records. The river was fantastically large with it starting at 190 and rising throughout the week to 230 cms. The temperature started at 10 and rose to 11 by the end of the week. A small number of fish will start to migrate up river when the river reaches 10 degrees but the main migration will not usually occur until the water temperature reaches 12. Without the fish counter in operation it is difficult to determine whether there are any fish going up the ladder but with such a large river maybe the fish will wait until the river gets a little smaller.
In the first half of the week 12 fish were caught and with a mid week changeover of most of the guests in the second half of the week 23 fish were taken with one or two at 8 or 9 kgs but most being in the 3 to 5 kg range. With high water, Lower Bank has a good holding stream and many salmon drop down to here rather than enduring the raging torrent that would be found under the waterfall and on Muren. However, rowing on Lower Bank in these conditions is hard work – Morten sent me an email after the week telling me that he was totally exhausted having spent a lot of time rowing on Lower Bank! I can believe it and the catch tally confirmed this – the total for the week was and impressive 35 fish and given that the river was so large, Lower Bank accounted for 22 of them.
21 to 27 June. The spectacularly high water conditions continued with the river at 230 cms gradually falling to 215 cms by the end of the week. 8 fish were taken on Muren, and reflecting the large river 6 taken on Lower Bank. Water temperature rose from 11 degrees to 12. The problem we had with the salmon counter in the ladder was resolved on 25 June – just in time as the main run of salmon usually starts when the river reaches this temperature. Most of the salmon were around the 4 kg mark with the largest being a nice sized hen of 6.3 kg caught in the small hours of the morning on Lower Bank. A total of 14 fish were taken during the week. Approximately 30 fish went through the ladder from 25 to 27 June. We will not know how many passed before this date but judging from previous years it is unlikely to have been more than 250 fish, probably mostly sea trout.
28 June to 4 July. After such a high river the level gradually fell during this week from 215 to 155 cms and the water temperature was 13 centigrade. No huge fish were caught this week although a couple were around 6 kg but the number of fish taken was an impressive 43 with 13 of these on Lower Bank and the rest on Muren. 90 fish passed the ladder.
5 July to 11 July. Another fine total of 32 fish were caught this week. The river came down from 155 to 128 cms. A number of fish were caught using a spoon, with 2 over 6 kgs. Morten caught the first fish upstream in Gamlegjerdet a hen of 5kgs taken on 11 July with a Munro Killer. 115 fish passed through the ladder.
12 to 18 July. The river fell again from an ordinarily respectable 128 to 118 cms and then rose back to 130 cms. This was the first time in the season that the river has fallen below the magic 130 cm level. Above this level the stream is greater on our side of the river and we generally see better fishing conditions on Muren. Fish also cannot get up Rekevik waterfall above this level, so I am surprised that no one has taken fish at the bottom of this pool – maybe no one has fished it? With a lower river for the first time this season there was a good run of 330 salmon and sea trout through the ladder. A smaller river reflected more difficult fishing conditions with only 7 fish taken.
19 to 25 July. The river was fairly steady at 130 cms rising a little to 136 towards the end of the week. 230 fish passed the counter during this period. As a rough guess, given that the counter was not working until 25 June, we now have approximately 1000 fish in the river, which seems a reasonable number.
A total of 6 fish were taken in somewhat light fishing with few attempts if any attempts to catch upstream; only one fish was taken by Morten on the Furnes side of Rekevik – I would image from this description that this fish was taken from the far bank down in the “V” at the bottom of the beat. At 1.1 kg, I am sure that it will readily fade in Morten’s recollections but it was the 199th fish to be caught since the beginning of the season, comfortably surpassing the 10 year average of 155 fish usually caught by this stage.
Summary. It has been a strange season from my perspective, trying to write something worthwhile whilst sitting at my desk in England. Technology and the internet helps as one can see at any instant of the day a video of the salmon going through the counter and a different website gives the water height of the river. From a water level perspective, it has clearly been an outstanding season with high water until almost mid July. 200 fish is also an excellent record. Some weeks were under-fished; had it been a usual year with our usual guests and arrangements, I feel certain that we could have added many more fish to the tally. I for one am sorry that I could not have been at Osen this season to prove this point!
We have not discussed plans for next season but I look forward to returning to Osen and hope to see you all then. In the meantime, keep safe.
