During the course of our stay at Skarnsundet we all learnt an awful lot about what to do, what not to do and what we would do differently next time. Our preparations involved a fair amount of semi-educated guesses at what we would be likely to need. Some of the things we got more or less right (such as bringing along plenty of lead weights) but with the benefit of hindsight, I would have packed and prepared slightly differently if I knew then what I know now.
Packing
We worked on the principle of having two pieces of hold luggage each and one rod tube between 2. My main piece of hold luggage consisted of all my gear and clothes plus my wash bag. I put all my leads in foot long tubes and put them in the bottom of mine and Ron’s rod tube (Ron did the same). My other piece of hold luggage was a polyester fish box full of frozen bluey that we taped up, wrapped in cling film and attached a rudimentary handle to. When we got to Skarnsundet, the bluey was still largely frozen. The other lads followed the same formula, the only thing I would change for next time is to ditch commercial rod carrying tubes in favour of constructing my own.
My hand luggage consisted of my food for the week. I didn’t do very well here compared to some of the others, Mark brought two steaks with him! My food consisted of stacks of breakfast bars and half a dozen pasta meals. I bought bread, crisps and soft cheese from the supermarket in Straumen and ate crisp butties for lunch every day. Eating such junk is not my favourite way to live but the high calorie intake actually turned out well as the heavy fuel really kept me going! The biggest inspiration though had to be the sachets of instant cappuccino (crappuccino) that Mark and I brought along. The sweet frothy goodness hit the spot morning, noon and night, not surprising as they are 40% pure sugar!
Tackle
We were pretty bang on with our bottom fishing gear, all bringing powerful rods and fast retrieve reels. Some of the fishing reminded us of the Bristol Channel, with strong tides and the odd snag and ledge that you needed to winch to avoid. Straumen Slipway was a very familiar type of mark in this respect. Stu’s Point was a bit more like the sort of bread and butter rock fishing we do in Cornwall, being somewhat similar in feel to one or two spots near the mouths of the Fal and Helford. A lot of the other spots were piers and jetties that presented very easy fishing with lots of opportunity to mess around with lighter gear if you so wished.
For rigs and such, I think we all kept it largely pretty simple. Staple end gear was some sort of pulley rig with a 6oz grip weight. I really don’t know why but I didn’t feel inclined once to change to a pulley dropper style rig to try and get a better presentation. I certainly would have done this at home as I always tend to use a dropper rig over a pulley where I don’t have to worry about trailing hooks catching snags on the retrieve. I did mess around with several more elaborate rigs whilst fishing for the plaice, trying a long dropper style rig, a 1 up 1 down rig and a Portsmouth loop rig (which was what Phill recommended). I was under the impression that attractors worked well over there so I loaded up some of my rigs with gaudy beads and sequins. In the end, what actually worked for me was the 1 up 1 down type rig with a floating bead on the top hooklength. As I have generally found when I fish for plaice from the shore at home, coloured beads and shiny stuff didn’t seem to make much difference one way or the other.
Even before we went over, I had an idea that our standard lure fishing stuff wasn’t going to be ideal for the shad fishing that I was keen to have a go at. Phill’s standard offering is a 4’’ shad rigged on a 60g jighead and this requires a pretty sturdy rod to belt out properly. I brought along a lure rod rated from 15-55g which coped well enough for me to catch fish but wasn’t really man enough for the job. A rod rated to 80 or even 100g would be much more suitable I think, particularly as when you actually hook a fish it will require some bullying to prevent it leading you into a snag. At times I found myself wishing for a lighter rod too as there is a lot of fun to be had with the smaller fish.
As regards line, I brought a few spools of 0.40mm with me and got through most of it whilst I was there. I am a habitual respooler though and you could easily get away with respooling less, particularly if you use better quality line (I’m a buy cheap and change often man myself). I used 70lb leader and 80lb rig body which coped well. Strangely, considering we were often fishing over coarse ground, my hooks stayed pretty sharp during all our sessions. I was expecting to be sharpening and changing hooks a lot but in the end, the points stayed keen everywhere we fished.
Some of our group got through their leads a bit quicker than myself, I finished with a reasonable amount left over. However, I would certainly suggest bringing 25-30 leads with you due to the seemingly changeable nature of some of the marks and the possibility of getting caught with your pants down. I used 6 and 7oz mainly, but we were fishing over very large springs. On smaller tides you could almost certainly get away with using 5oz grippers for the majority of the time, changing to 6oz when the currents are stronger. Phill does sell leads in the on-site shop if you do find yourself stuck and is a very happy recipient of any surplus leads that you want to leave behind!
Bait
Reading media articles, you could easily be forgiven for thinking that all you really need to take with you is a healthy amount of frozen bluey. This may be accurate at some times of the year or if you are just interested in going after big fish, but during our email correspondence, Phill advised us to bring ragworm. Initially, I thought that the rag would just be used for chasing flatties but once there, I realised that it was considered the top bait for a much wider range of species from haddock to ghost sharks. Truth be told, we didn’t bring even half as much as I would do next time. We worked on bringing a pound of worm each but for my next trip, I would want more like 4-5lbs just for my own use.
There was some frozen black lug in our bait supply and I did spend some time using it when the dabs were on. I personally don’t remember catching any dabs on the frozen blacks, all mine came on fish baits, rag or blow lug. It seemed to me that you were almost as well off carrying on with larger fish baits on decent size hooks for the dabs as when they were really feeding they would manage to impale themselves regardless of hook size and these often seemed to be the better fish.
We opted to take along a good amount of squid. Although some guests told us that they had caught some nice haddock using it, we generally found squid quite ineffective compared to other baits. We also brought plenty of frozen mackerel fillets but at the end of the week, the general consensus was that the mackerel did little the bluey didn’t do better. I do prefer mackerel as a tipping bait as the skin is a bit tougher and easier to make a nice strip out of, but as a stand-alone bigger bait, the bluey seemed to be a superior option. At certain times of the year or perhaps at certain spots, maybe mackerel would be more worthwhile but overall I would probably take much less of it next time in favour of bluey.
We had a good amount of peeler crab for the journey and, on paper, this seemed a smart move as the cod were feeding on crabs during the time we were there. I personally caught a few codling on crab and I know Mark did too, but the crab was also super attractive to the smaller coalies at times and they were very quickly onto it. I don’t recall crab accounting for any more than one of the cod over 6lbs that the group caught. Still, I would definitely take some again as I’m sure if you had a day with plenty of feeding cod in front of you, the crab could help you bag a hatful.
Fish Species
The prime draw for most will always be cod and halibut but there is an awful lot more to go for. Our group managed 21 species for the week and Roy alone must have had a personal count of nearly (if not) 20. It was interesting to learn more about fish species that we have never come across before and also species that are present in our native waters but are less commonly caught from the shore (at least nowadays).
The first ‘different’ things we encountered were the small shark species that could be readily caught from the pier outside the digs and other spots with a good depth of water. The black mouths and velvet bellies were handsome fish although pretty benign to catch. Spurdogs regularly passed by the pier after dark and having never caught one before, I was keen to get more of an idea about them. We were all bitten off by spurs at least once and I was interested to note the small but razor sharp teeth these fish sported. All these fish responded best to fish baits although we did take black mouths on other offerings too. We only caught two ghost sharks but these were the most fascinating of the lot, looking a bit like what might happen if you asked Tim Burton to design a fish based on a gurnard. This species prefers ragworm although I’m sure Mark caught his on bluey.
I found haddock a fun species to catch (they actually fight well) but frustrating too as they almost never seemed to survive capture. They also seemed to be prone to disease and deformity with a good proportion of them looking anywhere from a bit sickly to pretty buggered! There were plenty around during our stay, I didn’t see any particularly big ones but they do run to nearly 10lbs here. Ragworm seemed to be the most reliable bait for the haddock but we also caught plenty on the bluey. They have a smaller mouth than the cod and coalies so it’s worth downsizing your hooks a little bit if you want to specifically target them.
The cod that we caught mostly seemed to follow a template of a very large head and a long body with medium to slim girth. I don’t remember catching or seeing any that had the smaller head and the stockier bodies that I’m more familiar with. Still, anywhere you go cod are cod and there were plenty of them in the Skarnsundet area. We caught them from a variety of year classes, from tiny codlets to fish of a pound or two, to fish of 4-6lbs and then on into double figures. There were three landed in the high twenties during our stay. The biggest of 29lb was landed by a gentleman in his 60s - well done him!
The pollack that we caught were all from piers and similar structures. There seemed to be less of them than there were coalfish although perhaps this varies with the seasons. They run big in the fjord and a shore caught double is very much on the cards. Freelined ragworm, mackerel strip or lures seemed to be the way to go for the pollack for us although big fish baits on the bottom does account for good ones too.
Coalfish were everywhere, mostly in the 1-2lb class but the bigger ones also came in range, particularly off the pier outside the digs. Coalies are great fighters and seem to have more crash dives in them than pollack. Again, these run big and the boats take the real monsters. Small coalies can be a bit of a nuisance when bottom fishing, taking any and every bait. Phill’s advice was that if we were getting pestered by these to just leave them out there as eventually something big would come and nail them. Although we all dabbled with it, I don’t think any of us invested any serious hours in livebaiting through the trip but this would definitely be a frontline approach if you were after a lunker cod. Phill said that all his biggest had come using this technique.
As far as flatfish went, apart from the mighty halibut, there are plaice, dab and flounder commonly available. It is also possible to catch megrim and lemon sole. The only major difference in the plaice and dab fishing is that the fish are of a larger average size than back home and are darker in appearance. I think we only caught 4 plaice between us but they were all over a pound, Phill said that it is rare to catch one under this sort of size. The dab were plentiful and we all had fish over a pound with the best ones being about 1.6. A 2lb dab is definitely up for grabs here. We only caught one flounder during the trip although we didn’t really have a proper try for them. As far as the halibut was concerned, the only one we saw was the small one landed by Roy from the pier. This gave a cracking bite with a good run on the ratchet and sported a serious set of gnashers! I would love to get stuck into a decent one as I’ve read and heard plenty about their power and the potential for a big fish to go on an unstoppable run that empties your reel and leaves you well and truly beaten!
Time management
This is one area where I really can’t fault our group at all as we fished all day every day and just about every night too. I think we averaged about 5 hours sleep a night each through the week. It was astounding to me to see that some of the other (perfectly able) guests put in nothing like as many hours and seemed to spend as much time watching TV as actually going out fishing. One chap didn’t even fish at all on his last full day as he was disappointed with his catches for the week. I couldn’t relate to that at all.
I would strongly recommend that if you are thinking of a dedicated fishing trip to Norway (or anywhere abroad really) then you should be prepared to fish at least one good session a day and preferably 2 (or even 3) without fail. There is so much to see, do and learn that you can’t hope to cover it all in one trip, even fishing like a man possessed. The way I see it, you can watch television at home, if you have paid good money to go somewhere to fish then you should get out there and fish ‘til you drop!
There was a couple of items on our ‘to do’ list that we didn’t get to. Included in our package was the use of a 15 foot aluminium boat and with excellent fishing to be had under the bridge near the camp, we had intended to get out there one day and have a go. Truth be told, I think we had originally meant to go out on the boat the day Phill took us up to the coast to fish for halibut. It was an easy decision really, a couple of hours drifting for coalies versus a whole day’s shore fishing with the chance of a halibut… the monster flounder wins! We also talked about doing some lure fishing for pollack at a spot Phill told us about. It’s a pity we never got round to that as I reckon we would have done reasonably well there. Definitely one for next time!
Expectations
It seems to be a fact of life that some anglers visiting places like Skarnsundet fall into the trap of believing that bagging the fish they want is a foregone conclusion. This is a skewed perception, the beauty of fishing somewhere like the area around Skarnsundet is that you know the place is stuffed full of fish and the ones you are after are highly likely to be among them somewhere. However, just because they are there, that doesn’t automatically mean you are going to catch them. Sometimes the fish will just be not having it at all and you will have to put some thought and effort in to winkle something out.
Phill did talk about how he often sees anglers come over fully expecting to clean up only to suffer crushing disappointment when the fishing is slower than they would like. His take on angling in general was that there is nothing wrong with having targets and chasing goals but, unless you want to end up disillusioned, you shouldn’t expect anything. Just because you have paid to come to Norway and fish, that doesn’t mean you are owed whatever you believe to be your share.
However, I think that it is fair to say that one thing you can expect is that the overall quality of fishing is greatly superior to what we are used to back home. Even on slow days, you can always find some sport with the 1-2lb class coalfish that are literally rampant in the fjord. These fish are brilliant fun on light tackle and next time I will be bringing my LRF rod to maximise the enjoyment that such spirited scrappers provide. Pottering around with small coalies might seem like small beer when compared to halibut and giant cod, but realistically, if the big fish are sulking, catching a load of small ones will turn a duff day into an enjoyable one.
It’s worth noting that the sort of ‘down the wall’ pier type fishing knocks spots off the same sort of fishing back home. At the marks I’m used to fishing regularly, the fish would be a quarter to a third of the size and there’d be a tenth as many of them. There’s always a fighting chance of picking up a properly sizable fish (you can often see better specimens moving around the structure) doing this in Norway too whereas at home the chances would be much more remote. There is also the possibility of picking up bonus weirdo species, Roy had a ling freelining at one spot and Phill told us he’d had lemon sole and a lumpsucker just fishing in the small harbour next to the lodge.
Places
For anglers used to rock fishing and storm beaches, the marks at Skarnsundet are really very comfortable. The limited rock fishing that we did was pretty easy-going and apart from a field and the odd boulder beach (which was what reminded me of the Bristol Channel), most of the other marks were fishing from man-made structures. A good deal of the time, we would be fishing within 100 yards of where Phill stopped the van so there was very little toing and froing to be done.
Something that occurred to me from time to time was how clear the water was. Phill told us that the wind, water conditions and clarity didn’t make too much difference to the fishing as the water was so deep and the currents so powerful. However, a good deal of the spots we fished were quite shallow and some did seem to fish noticeably sharper in darkness.
Of course, everywhere we went, the scenery was absolutely stunning and there was plenty of wildlife to be seen. We saw porpoises out front from the lodge pretty much every day, otters were numerous and on the coastal halibut mark, we saw white tailed sea eagles. There also are plenty of moose in the forestland around the roads and you would have a seriously bad day if you happened to collide with one!
People
I honestly think that I could not have been in with a better bunch of anglers. The group as a whole worked really well and there weren’t any squabbles, handbags or jealousy. There were however plenty of laughs, inspired fishing and truly brilliant experiences. There were also plenty of extremely grim guffs once the Norwegian diet had kicked in!
Key to the group functioning well was the fact that everybody was up for it pretty much 24/7. Apart from me wanting to try for a big plaice, I don’t think there were any major goals apart from just fishing as much as possible and trying to get a taste of as much as we could. I have to hand it to the other guys that they put up with me steering us in the direction of plaice three times during the trip and let me get away with using more than my share of the worm in an effort to bag a good one. Thanks guys and I’m sorry I didn’t bag the biggie! Next time for sure!
Our guides for the week, Phill and Julian, were absolutely brilliant and we couldn’t have asked for any more from them. Phill really is a top bloke and, if you are thinking of going to Skarnsundet, I would absolutely recommend going for the fully guided package to get the benefit of his knowledge and expertise. He also has a great sense of humour and likes a bit of banter. Hopefully we didn’t disappoint him on that front!
We didn’t meet all that many native Norwegians to talk to, I think I was the only one that had a proper chat with any locals on the third day when I was fishing Leksvik beach on my own. A few guys came down in vans and started loitering about and looking at me oddly. Eventually they told me that they used the car park to take off and land their remote control airplanes and they would have to find somewhere else as I was in the way. I moved a bit and told them to crack on and they spent a couple of hours happily whizzing their planes around. I had quite a good chat with one of them, a bloke in his forties with a manic laugh and a slightly crazed look in his eye. We got a bit stuck when he had no idea what a ‘dab’ was and I hadn’t a clue what the name was in Norwegian. Still, they and all the other Norwegian people we briefly encountered spoke excellent English and seemed like good folks.
Money
The final word on an adventure like this has to be the economics. It cost us about £400 each for our fully guided week including transport and accommodation. Incidentally, the accommodation itself was top draw, very comfortable with all the facilities we needed, including a brilliant shower! Our flights totalled about £150-£200 each, £100 for fuel and airport parking and our bait bills must have been in the region of £50-£75 apiece. Throw in £50 or so in NOK for sundry expenses and you’re looking at around £800 for the whole shebang. I actually think this figure represents great value for money, you could easily get a lot less for a lot more elsewhere (salmon fishing in Scotland springs to mind!). Of course, now knowing where the marks are and having a good idea how they fish, next time we can opt for the self-guided package which at a guess will equal a saving of £100 or so off (once transport and fuel are accounted for).
Suffice it to say, I will definitely be going back to Skarnsundet Fjordsenter. The whole experience really captured my imagination in a big way and I’m sure anyone with a love of shore fishing would feel likewise. To be consumed with nothing but fishing for a week and always wondering what the next bite would bring was just brilliant and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who feels like it might be up their street. Time to start saving!!
Packing
We worked on the principle of having two pieces of hold luggage each and one rod tube between 2. My main piece of hold luggage consisted of all my gear and clothes plus my wash bag. I put all my leads in foot long tubes and put them in the bottom of mine and Ron’s rod tube (Ron did the same). My other piece of hold luggage was a polyester fish box full of frozen bluey that we taped up, wrapped in cling film and attached a rudimentary handle to. When we got to Skarnsundet, the bluey was still largely frozen. The other lads followed the same formula, the only thing I would change for next time is to ditch commercial rod carrying tubes in favour of constructing my own.
My hand luggage consisted of my food for the week. I didn’t do very well here compared to some of the others, Mark brought two steaks with him! My food consisted of stacks of breakfast bars and half a dozen pasta meals. I bought bread, crisps and soft cheese from the supermarket in Straumen and ate crisp butties for lunch every day. Eating such junk is not my favourite way to live but the high calorie intake actually turned out well as the heavy fuel really kept me going! The biggest inspiration though had to be the sachets of instant cappuccino (crappuccino) that Mark and I brought along. The sweet frothy goodness hit the spot morning, noon and night, not surprising as they are 40% pure sugar!
Tackle
We were pretty bang on with our bottom fishing gear, all bringing powerful rods and fast retrieve reels. Some of the fishing reminded us of the Bristol Channel, with strong tides and the odd snag and ledge that you needed to winch to avoid. Straumen Slipway was a very familiar type of mark in this respect. Stu’s Point was a bit more like the sort of bread and butter rock fishing we do in Cornwall, being somewhat similar in feel to one or two spots near the mouths of the Fal and Helford. A lot of the other spots were piers and jetties that presented very easy fishing with lots of opportunity to mess around with lighter gear if you so wished.
For rigs and such, I think we all kept it largely pretty simple. Staple end gear was some sort of pulley rig with a 6oz grip weight. I really don’t know why but I didn’t feel inclined once to change to a pulley dropper style rig to try and get a better presentation. I certainly would have done this at home as I always tend to use a dropper rig over a pulley where I don’t have to worry about trailing hooks catching snags on the retrieve. I did mess around with several more elaborate rigs whilst fishing for the plaice, trying a long dropper style rig, a 1 up 1 down rig and a Portsmouth loop rig (which was what Phill recommended). I was under the impression that attractors worked well over there so I loaded up some of my rigs with gaudy beads and sequins. In the end, what actually worked for me was the 1 up 1 down type rig with a floating bead on the top hooklength. As I have generally found when I fish for plaice from the shore at home, coloured beads and shiny stuff didn’t seem to make much difference one way or the other.
Even before we went over, I had an idea that our standard lure fishing stuff wasn’t going to be ideal for the shad fishing that I was keen to have a go at. Phill’s standard offering is a 4’’ shad rigged on a 60g jighead and this requires a pretty sturdy rod to belt out properly. I brought along a lure rod rated from 15-55g which coped well enough for me to catch fish but wasn’t really man enough for the job. A rod rated to 80 or even 100g would be much more suitable I think, particularly as when you actually hook a fish it will require some bullying to prevent it leading you into a snag. At times I found myself wishing for a lighter rod too as there is a lot of fun to be had with the smaller fish.
As regards line, I brought a few spools of 0.40mm with me and got through most of it whilst I was there. I am a habitual respooler though and you could easily get away with respooling less, particularly if you use better quality line (I’m a buy cheap and change often man myself). I used 70lb leader and 80lb rig body which coped well. Strangely, considering we were often fishing over coarse ground, my hooks stayed pretty sharp during all our sessions. I was expecting to be sharpening and changing hooks a lot but in the end, the points stayed keen everywhere we fished.
Some of our group got through their leads a bit quicker than myself, I finished with a reasonable amount left over. However, I would certainly suggest bringing 25-30 leads with you due to the seemingly changeable nature of some of the marks and the possibility of getting caught with your pants down. I used 6 and 7oz mainly, but we were fishing over very large springs. On smaller tides you could almost certainly get away with using 5oz grippers for the majority of the time, changing to 6oz when the currents are stronger. Phill does sell leads in the on-site shop if you do find yourself stuck and is a very happy recipient of any surplus leads that you want to leave behind!
Bait
Reading media articles, you could easily be forgiven for thinking that all you really need to take with you is a healthy amount of frozen bluey. This may be accurate at some times of the year or if you are just interested in going after big fish, but during our email correspondence, Phill advised us to bring ragworm. Initially, I thought that the rag would just be used for chasing flatties but once there, I realised that it was considered the top bait for a much wider range of species from haddock to ghost sharks. Truth be told, we didn’t bring even half as much as I would do next time. We worked on bringing a pound of worm each but for my next trip, I would want more like 4-5lbs just for my own use.
There was some frozen black lug in our bait supply and I did spend some time using it when the dabs were on. I personally don’t remember catching any dabs on the frozen blacks, all mine came on fish baits, rag or blow lug. It seemed to me that you were almost as well off carrying on with larger fish baits on decent size hooks for the dabs as when they were really feeding they would manage to impale themselves regardless of hook size and these often seemed to be the better fish.
We opted to take along a good amount of squid. Although some guests told us that they had caught some nice haddock using it, we generally found squid quite ineffective compared to other baits. We also brought plenty of frozen mackerel fillets but at the end of the week, the general consensus was that the mackerel did little the bluey didn’t do better. I do prefer mackerel as a tipping bait as the skin is a bit tougher and easier to make a nice strip out of, but as a stand-alone bigger bait, the bluey seemed to be a superior option. At certain times of the year or perhaps at certain spots, maybe mackerel would be more worthwhile but overall I would probably take much less of it next time in favour of bluey.
We had a good amount of peeler crab for the journey and, on paper, this seemed a smart move as the cod were feeding on crabs during the time we were there. I personally caught a few codling on crab and I know Mark did too, but the crab was also super attractive to the smaller coalies at times and they were very quickly onto it. I don’t recall crab accounting for any more than one of the cod over 6lbs that the group caught. Still, I would definitely take some again as I’m sure if you had a day with plenty of feeding cod in front of you, the crab could help you bag a hatful.
Fish Species
The prime draw for most will always be cod and halibut but there is an awful lot more to go for. Our group managed 21 species for the week and Roy alone must have had a personal count of nearly (if not) 20. It was interesting to learn more about fish species that we have never come across before and also species that are present in our native waters but are less commonly caught from the shore (at least nowadays).
The first ‘different’ things we encountered were the small shark species that could be readily caught from the pier outside the digs and other spots with a good depth of water. The black mouths and velvet bellies were handsome fish although pretty benign to catch. Spurdogs regularly passed by the pier after dark and having never caught one before, I was keen to get more of an idea about them. We were all bitten off by spurs at least once and I was interested to note the small but razor sharp teeth these fish sported. All these fish responded best to fish baits although we did take black mouths on other offerings too. We only caught two ghost sharks but these were the most fascinating of the lot, looking a bit like what might happen if you asked Tim Burton to design a fish based on a gurnard. This species prefers ragworm although I’m sure Mark caught his on bluey.
I found haddock a fun species to catch (they actually fight well) but frustrating too as they almost never seemed to survive capture. They also seemed to be prone to disease and deformity with a good proportion of them looking anywhere from a bit sickly to pretty buggered! There were plenty around during our stay, I didn’t see any particularly big ones but they do run to nearly 10lbs here. Ragworm seemed to be the most reliable bait for the haddock but we also caught plenty on the bluey. They have a smaller mouth than the cod and coalies so it’s worth downsizing your hooks a little bit if you want to specifically target them.
The cod that we caught mostly seemed to follow a template of a very large head and a long body with medium to slim girth. I don’t remember catching or seeing any that had the smaller head and the stockier bodies that I’m more familiar with. Still, anywhere you go cod are cod and there were plenty of them in the Skarnsundet area. We caught them from a variety of year classes, from tiny codlets to fish of a pound or two, to fish of 4-6lbs and then on into double figures. There were three landed in the high twenties during our stay. The biggest of 29lb was landed by a gentleman in his 60s - well done him!
The pollack that we caught were all from piers and similar structures. There seemed to be less of them than there were coalfish although perhaps this varies with the seasons. They run big in the fjord and a shore caught double is very much on the cards. Freelined ragworm, mackerel strip or lures seemed to be the way to go for the pollack for us although big fish baits on the bottom does account for good ones too.
Coalfish were everywhere, mostly in the 1-2lb class but the bigger ones also came in range, particularly off the pier outside the digs. Coalies are great fighters and seem to have more crash dives in them than pollack. Again, these run big and the boats take the real monsters. Small coalies can be a bit of a nuisance when bottom fishing, taking any and every bait. Phill’s advice was that if we were getting pestered by these to just leave them out there as eventually something big would come and nail them. Although we all dabbled with it, I don’t think any of us invested any serious hours in livebaiting through the trip but this would definitely be a frontline approach if you were after a lunker cod. Phill said that all his biggest had come using this technique.
As far as flatfish went, apart from the mighty halibut, there are plaice, dab and flounder commonly available. It is also possible to catch megrim and lemon sole. The only major difference in the plaice and dab fishing is that the fish are of a larger average size than back home and are darker in appearance. I think we only caught 4 plaice between us but they were all over a pound, Phill said that it is rare to catch one under this sort of size. The dab were plentiful and we all had fish over a pound with the best ones being about 1.6. A 2lb dab is definitely up for grabs here. We only caught one flounder during the trip although we didn’t really have a proper try for them. As far as the halibut was concerned, the only one we saw was the small one landed by Roy from the pier. This gave a cracking bite with a good run on the ratchet and sported a serious set of gnashers! I would love to get stuck into a decent one as I’ve read and heard plenty about their power and the potential for a big fish to go on an unstoppable run that empties your reel and leaves you well and truly beaten!
Time management
This is one area where I really can’t fault our group at all as we fished all day every day and just about every night too. I think we averaged about 5 hours sleep a night each through the week. It was astounding to me to see that some of the other (perfectly able) guests put in nothing like as many hours and seemed to spend as much time watching TV as actually going out fishing. One chap didn’t even fish at all on his last full day as he was disappointed with his catches for the week. I couldn’t relate to that at all.
I would strongly recommend that if you are thinking of a dedicated fishing trip to Norway (or anywhere abroad really) then you should be prepared to fish at least one good session a day and preferably 2 (or even 3) without fail. There is so much to see, do and learn that you can’t hope to cover it all in one trip, even fishing like a man possessed. The way I see it, you can watch television at home, if you have paid good money to go somewhere to fish then you should get out there and fish ‘til you drop!
There was a couple of items on our ‘to do’ list that we didn’t get to. Included in our package was the use of a 15 foot aluminium boat and with excellent fishing to be had under the bridge near the camp, we had intended to get out there one day and have a go. Truth be told, I think we had originally meant to go out on the boat the day Phill took us up to the coast to fish for halibut. It was an easy decision really, a couple of hours drifting for coalies versus a whole day’s shore fishing with the chance of a halibut… the monster flounder wins! We also talked about doing some lure fishing for pollack at a spot Phill told us about. It’s a pity we never got round to that as I reckon we would have done reasonably well there. Definitely one for next time!
Expectations
It seems to be a fact of life that some anglers visiting places like Skarnsundet fall into the trap of believing that bagging the fish they want is a foregone conclusion. This is a skewed perception, the beauty of fishing somewhere like the area around Skarnsundet is that you know the place is stuffed full of fish and the ones you are after are highly likely to be among them somewhere. However, just because they are there, that doesn’t automatically mean you are going to catch them. Sometimes the fish will just be not having it at all and you will have to put some thought and effort in to winkle something out.
Phill did talk about how he often sees anglers come over fully expecting to clean up only to suffer crushing disappointment when the fishing is slower than they would like. His take on angling in general was that there is nothing wrong with having targets and chasing goals but, unless you want to end up disillusioned, you shouldn’t expect anything. Just because you have paid to come to Norway and fish, that doesn’t mean you are owed whatever you believe to be your share.
However, I think that it is fair to say that one thing you can expect is that the overall quality of fishing is greatly superior to what we are used to back home. Even on slow days, you can always find some sport with the 1-2lb class coalfish that are literally rampant in the fjord. These fish are brilliant fun on light tackle and next time I will be bringing my LRF rod to maximise the enjoyment that such spirited scrappers provide. Pottering around with small coalies might seem like small beer when compared to halibut and giant cod, but realistically, if the big fish are sulking, catching a load of small ones will turn a duff day into an enjoyable one.
It’s worth noting that the sort of ‘down the wall’ pier type fishing knocks spots off the same sort of fishing back home. At the marks I’m used to fishing regularly, the fish would be a quarter to a third of the size and there’d be a tenth as many of them. There’s always a fighting chance of picking up a properly sizable fish (you can often see better specimens moving around the structure) doing this in Norway too whereas at home the chances would be much more remote. There is also the possibility of picking up bonus weirdo species, Roy had a ling freelining at one spot and Phill told us he’d had lemon sole and a lumpsucker just fishing in the small harbour next to the lodge.
Places
For anglers used to rock fishing and storm beaches, the marks at Skarnsundet are really very comfortable. The limited rock fishing that we did was pretty easy-going and apart from a field and the odd boulder beach (which was what reminded me of the Bristol Channel), most of the other marks were fishing from man-made structures. A good deal of the time, we would be fishing within 100 yards of where Phill stopped the van so there was very little toing and froing to be done.
Something that occurred to me from time to time was how clear the water was. Phill told us that the wind, water conditions and clarity didn’t make too much difference to the fishing as the water was so deep and the currents so powerful. However, a good deal of the spots we fished were quite shallow and some did seem to fish noticeably sharper in darkness.
Of course, everywhere we went, the scenery was absolutely stunning and there was plenty of wildlife to be seen. We saw porpoises out front from the lodge pretty much every day, otters were numerous and on the coastal halibut mark, we saw white tailed sea eagles. There also are plenty of moose in the forestland around the roads and you would have a seriously bad day if you happened to collide with one!
People
I honestly think that I could not have been in with a better bunch of anglers. The group as a whole worked really well and there weren’t any squabbles, handbags or jealousy. There were however plenty of laughs, inspired fishing and truly brilliant experiences. There were also plenty of extremely grim guffs once the Norwegian diet had kicked in!
Key to the group functioning well was the fact that everybody was up for it pretty much 24/7. Apart from me wanting to try for a big plaice, I don’t think there were any major goals apart from just fishing as much as possible and trying to get a taste of as much as we could. I have to hand it to the other guys that they put up with me steering us in the direction of plaice three times during the trip and let me get away with using more than my share of the worm in an effort to bag a good one. Thanks guys and I’m sorry I didn’t bag the biggie! Next time for sure!
Our guides for the week, Phill and Julian, were absolutely brilliant and we couldn’t have asked for any more from them. Phill really is a top bloke and, if you are thinking of going to Skarnsundet, I would absolutely recommend going for the fully guided package to get the benefit of his knowledge and expertise. He also has a great sense of humour and likes a bit of banter. Hopefully we didn’t disappoint him on that front!
We didn’t meet all that many native Norwegians to talk to, I think I was the only one that had a proper chat with any locals on the third day when I was fishing Leksvik beach on my own. A few guys came down in vans and started loitering about and looking at me oddly. Eventually they told me that they used the car park to take off and land their remote control airplanes and they would have to find somewhere else as I was in the way. I moved a bit and told them to crack on and they spent a couple of hours happily whizzing their planes around. I had quite a good chat with one of them, a bloke in his forties with a manic laugh and a slightly crazed look in his eye. We got a bit stuck when he had no idea what a ‘dab’ was and I hadn’t a clue what the name was in Norwegian. Still, they and all the other Norwegian people we briefly encountered spoke excellent English and seemed like good folks.
Money
The final word on an adventure like this has to be the economics. It cost us about £400 each for our fully guided week including transport and accommodation. Incidentally, the accommodation itself was top draw, very comfortable with all the facilities we needed, including a brilliant shower! Our flights totalled about £150-£200 each, £100 for fuel and airport parking and our bait bills must have been in the region of £50-£75 apiece. Throw in £50 or so in NOK for sundry expenses and you’re looking at around £800 for the whole shebang. I actually think this figure represents great value for money, you could easily get a lot less for a lot more elsewhere (salmon fishing in Scotland springs to mind!). Of course, now knowing where the marks are and having a good idea how they fish, next time we can opt for the self-guided package which at a guess will equal a saving of £100 or so off (once transport and fuel are accounted for).
Suffice it to say, I will definitely be going back to Skarnsundet Fjordsenter. The whole experience really captured my imagination in a big way and I’m sure anyone with a love of shore fishing would feel likewise. To be consumed with nothing but fishing for a week and always wondering what the next bite would bring was just brilliant and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who feels like it might be up their street. Time to start saving!!