Norway June 2013

This was the clubs third visit to Furoy Fishing Camp in northernNorway, and we had high hopes for good fishing this time.

On the trip were 7 club members and a guest angler.

Roy McCoy

Daniel Boyle

Jimmy Silcock

Glen Murphy

Frankie Montgomery

Alan Buchanan

Stephen Montgomery

Stephen Burns (guest)

The journey to the camp requires at least 2 or 3 flights to reach it, we flew from Dublin as this required just the 2 flights. We had a long wait in Oslo Airport for our connecting flight to Bardofuss Airport, the closest to our camp.

As this was our third visit, we came well prepared with a load of tackle, and food to last the length of the trip. We even brought 2 way radios and our own charts for the area. Vicky, our hostess, very kindly did our grocery shopping for us before we arrived, as the shops would be closed when got there.

And so to the fishing. The worrying news for us was that the region had been experiencing an unusual heat-wave, and the fishing had been relatively poor for a month.

On our first day our 2 boats headed down to an area known to us as the factory mark, as there is a large smokey factory situated in the far corner of the fjord. We fished for 6 hours and took some decent fish, the best of which was a 10lb 6oz cod from Glen Murphy, taken on a small pirk, followed by a 9lb 8oz cod from Alan Buchanan. This was Glen’s biggest cod ever, and he was well pleased with it. Alan’s fish was his only fish that day, and fell to an old lead-head and yellow shad, after he had tried just about every lure in his box. The other boat had a nice cod around 8lb for Stevie Montgomery. Overall it was a poor days fishing with some anglers blanking completely, but it was our first day, and we hoped for an improvement as our week progressed.

Over the next couple of days we fared no better, the weather became windier, and the sea more choppy. We tried various marks around the fjord, including the famously productive coalfish ground near a salmon farm. Sadly for us, we never saw a fish on this mark, despite trying it on successive days, all we did was lose gear on hidden ropes, adding to our frustration. We moved round to try the Factory ground again, where Stevie Burns took 7 fish including 2 haddock, on the ugliest pirk you ever saw. His best being a 6lb Wolf-fish. The rest of us on the boat blanked. One bright moment was later, spinning on the jetty, when Dan McMahon caught a nice coalfish around 5lb, and a large herring. Stevie Montgomery took a nice 3lb codling at the same time.

On our 4th day, with an improving forecast, some of us pushed out to a far away mark known to us as “The Bridge”, a road bridge connecting the mainland to an island close to the open sea. This area had produced fish for us in the past, and a party of German anglers, also staying in our camp, had reasonable days fishing close by there, with a catch of small codling, a 17lb coalfish, and a 20lb halibut.

We spent 3 fruitless hours fishing close to the bridge, before shifting to a spot short of the bridge closer to home. This produced the desired effect, with a nice 9lb cod falling to a rhubarb and custard sidewinder for “golden balls” Stevie burns, and 3 nice cod, biggest 12lb, being taken by Alan Buchanan, on a 4oz lead-head, armed with a big orange grub lure. A good fish followed this lure right to the boat, possibly a large halibut, before turning away at the last second. A further visit to this mark after midnight yielded 2 more 6lb cod to Alan, and a slightly bigger specimen to Glen Murphy.

On day 5, the weather once again put pay to our travel plans, and fishing close to the camp proved patchy, with only an 8lb wolf-fish from Roy McCoy, and 5lb cod from Stevie Montgomery on 1 boat, and 2 small codling and 1 torsk on the other.

Day 6, our final fishing day saw the clouds part, and the seas calming down enough for us to once again try the ground near the factory. Alan Buchanan, persevering with his lead-head and orange grub lure, hit a nice cod of around 8lb almost right away. Stevie Burns on the other boat 100 yards away, took a similar sized fish at around the same time. A second drift on the same ground produced an instant take for Alan, which was obviously a better stamp of fish. After a few heart-stopping minutes, on very light gear, a beautiful cod appeared beside the boat, to be skilfully gaffed by Roy McCoy. This fish, a fat female pulled the scales to 21lb 7oz on the boat, easily the best fish of the trip. The other boat tried a final move up close to the bridge area, and lifted a few nice torsk for Jimmy Silcock and Frankie Montgomery, as well as a few more codling.

Overall then, a good holiday, where we were well looked after by our hosts Vicky and Jan-Eric, who once again provided excellent service and accommodation. Ok, the fish weren’t there in the numbers we had hoped for, but we caught enough to keep us munching on fresh fish when we fancied it, and even enough for some of us to bring a frozen bag of fish home. Beautiful scenery, good company and good craic, what more could you want. We will certainly be back again to give it another try.