Gomphus

I need to find a cheap source of 6 or 9 oz mirror pirks. Got some 12 oz jobbies, but theyre no fun. Im in Norway here they cost an arm and a leg. Bertie

Im in Norway now - having some great fishing. All i see are Germans/French/Italians - and some others but no English. I feel its very sad as i hear so much about what good fishing it is - in the uk - i would like to know why, and whats more do something about it.(how) Been looking at some of the responses on here and they are very useful - thank you. The ones from Norway particurlarily so. If you are given a hut - a boat - and have some fishing gear you could still have poor fishing - you need to know where the fish are. Skippers in Mid norway are easy to find and prices are not very steep. The hotels and guest houses will know about boat charters) I have been keeping a blog on this site if anyone is interested. Under the name Gomphus. Again many thanks - i really appreciate this.

Quite a few of the sea angling magazines have articles on sea fishing in Norway, but i get the impression the english angler is a rarity in Scandinavia. Can anyone put me right on this - could you also (those who have been) tell me of your experiences please.

Been digging lugworm here at the rate of about 100 per hour. Im the only one. The area is about 200 acres in all. It is only one site of many too. But then im in Norway.

The importance of different languages is that they are different ways of thinking. By publishing the cartoons no harm was done to anyone physicaly. The groups rioting only CHOSE to be offended. (since when did "offence" bruise you?) They were not physicaly touched at all. "our" way of thinking is as important as any language. The cartoons were published in a european country, not in a middle eastern country. Are you happy with people from another country, another religion telling you what you can and cannot do in terms of something as little as an idea? Isnt it time that the sovereign integrety of free thought was realised by the whole world. (look at what America is trying to do - just email someone in the states a few times with comments about Bush) It isnt the "offence"produced by the cartoons that is important, its the very idea that someone in another part of the world can say "HOW" we are supposed to think that is important. Likewise i think the election of Hamas in Palestine is brilliant because the status quo has been challenged. With the old leaderships nothing would ever change - sure Hamas is into terrorism, so were the leaders of the Jewish state, so were many of the leaders of south of Ireland. Everything needs to be challenged from time to time, otherwise we all become complacent and our survival is threatened.

Many thanks - Next year ill be doing another 5 months and would welcome the oppertunity to do regular posts with pics. Talk to me. No 50 lb cod though. The best cod fishing is in febuary. Apparently the sea is usualy dead flat then and the cod come in to breed. A friend told me that below his house last year one bloke had over 300 kg in one morning. Dont really need to try specialy as the temperature can be very low and the roads covered in ice. Funny thing though, the place is full of Germans with very, very few English in sight. Wonder why that is?? One last thing though, i recon there are some very large predacious fish in the area. Surely sharks but also Halibut. Fairly sure with the right baits and paitence the results could be extraordinary.

The wildlife on the west coast of Norway is just fabulous. I have recently bought a house near a village called Farstad just North of Molde. Starting fishing from the shore was a steep learning curve - the specis, where and how to fish. Seing how the locals fished i realised none of them used bait. Hitting a bay with a causeway up the middle i quickly found virgin Lugworm ground. I recon about 100 lug for an hours session was average. Hitting mostly cod it was useful to learn how they behaved, how many there were in one spot and of course the best times to fish. Later on i bought a Boat and had a tremenduous drive back from Kristiansund over night. The geography of the area allows one to go nearly all the way Inland. I tried using the largest of the lures which go down to about 5 metres with great sucess. Catching some good coalfish and pollack. Funny thing though was that some of the fish were foul hooked - through the back or other places. Managing to find the best places for fish is not particurlarily difficult, you just have to keep going. I soon found a very good spot for Haddock. Never caught one before - was particurlarily taken by this fishes beauty. Large spots on both sides, large eyes and a rather unusual mouth. Found several with a slime coming out of the mouth and by a bit of imagination realised they were feeding on jellyfish. The cod has very strong habits - found that there were usualy 2 to be caught in one spot, occasionaly 3. As if they had a territory. In one spot you could catch many so that was obviously a prime feeding spot. There, i caught many with diseases and at one time they all had the crustacean parasite which looks like a black worm with tentacles. I understand the first part of its lifecycle is completed on Flat fish. Catching one cod i noticed what looked like a pair of long worms sticking out of its mouth. Pretty gross i felt, then i pulled them out and lo and behold, a pair of pipe fish. Beautiful little things. Found many of the 9 and ten spined stickle backs; felt sure id even spotted a 3 spined jobby, but at sea? Went out to the island of Ona and stayed with a friend who makes his living from fishing. Pulling up his 9 crab pots he made my try to guess how many from the day before - 30 - his estimate of 200 was nearer the mark. One of the highlights of this trip was seeing mackrel take the bait. Excellent visability i suppose down to about 20 metres allowed me to see shoals on the go. Using his fishfinder we later hit the deeper areas - down to about 100 metres. I was using lug on a huge stainless lure. He was using a similar lure but without the lug. It was nearly fish for fish, but all he caught was cod. I had ling, cod and a orange fish called Ur. Its eyes tend to pop out - poor guy. All of a sudden i hooked a fish which ignored my attempts to slow. I had a good boat reel and couldnt get the drag tight enough. Didnt manage to do more than slow it a bit, then it got free. The highlight of the trip. My friend told me much about the sea life in the area, including finding on several occasions remains of the oar fish - one he said was about 7 metres long. He also said he found a fish a bit like a frilled shark - in one of his pots. One of the outlying islands is home to a specis of ragworm which grows to about 36 inches in length. I looked the fellow up and got all the specifics - mmm what a bait that would make. The best fishing spot was inside the Atlanterhavsvei. This is a series of islands connected by a road, connecting Averoy and the mainland. A very popular tourist spot. Inside the road is a large Fjord which connects to Kristiansund inland. In one corner live a pair of Golden eagles, in the other corner are a pair of fish eagles. If you go inland about 7 miles you will come to Eide. This corner is one of the best spots to see the Sea otters. Supprisingly big. One day i caught no fish at all. Going back, all of a sudden the water parted about 100 yards away and something rolled slowly over. It was part of the back of a whale. Recon about 15 feet was visable, so add about 6 foot for head and another 6 foot for tail. Funnily enough it was followed by one of the inshore Dolphins. I was later told they often hunt together. My friends often do longlining. 2 Local lads decided to fish the summer. They estimated their catch at 500 kilos per day. It mainly went to a local fish factory. 14 hour days or so i heard, but of course the complete professional gear. One neighbour did quite a bit of netting and reconned to catch about 40 kg in a small affair a night. Depending on its position his catch varied from large skate, to cod, pollack, angler fish. Never fund out if he caught any Salmon. The local Salmon river was a very popular spot. I just couldnt get my head around these guys standing there fly fishing with the fish actually jumping in between their legs. Hour after hour, with possibly 2 or 3 in a day. On leaving i tried several spots id marked on my way up country. The ferry quays are really good spots. 3 such places and 14 fish in a very short space of time. The last place i tried was the Quay in Kristiansand waiting for the ferry for Newcastle. Couldnt believe it - the place was heaving with sea trout and pollack. Only managed to hook one and then didnt land it, but the lure was followed in nearly every cast. Next time its a bucket of lug. Im very pleased to be able to post this, but unfortunately i dont understand what posting a Url for an image means. Never mind, just found a spot for attachments so ill put some there - cant even do that.