Arctic Sunshine

Oh boy, this is a humungously long post! The short version is that the fab four hit Arctic Norway for a week’s fishing, picking up a suntan and some nice fish along the way.

Our destination was the Norwegian island of Soroya, which lies around 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

The A Team

Me, of course 🙂 The supporting cast included Trevor and Ian, both of whom appear regularly on this site. Newcomer would be Tony, although that’s hardly fair given he was the main organiser of this trip. When I think about it, it’s really me that’s making up the numbers 🙁

I kicked off at 3 in the morning, picking up Ian as we headed north to Aberdeen to meet the others. We’d three flights in total, via Bergen, Tromso and Hasvik, before a final mini-bus ride to Camp Halibut at Breivik. Total population in winter: 5 🙂

The setup at Camp Halibut is run by Daniel Erikkson who has half a dozen 24 foot boats powered by 200hp Yamahas, all of which are pretty new. Nice!! Accommodation was in twin rooms with a shared lounge and kitchen, all right on the seafront and close to the boats.

After a quick run round the boats we’d the choice of a lie-in or joining the rest of the boats as they left at 5.30 next morning. They were heading way offshore to the famous Skorskalltaren reef, some 35 miles away. By now it was nearly midnight and I’d been awake since 3 in the morning. The prospect of getting up at 4.30 to get our gear loaded for a 5.30 start wasn’t that appealing! On the other hand this could well be our only chance to get that far offshore. A no-brainer really, so we staggered off to bed to get a few hours kip…

Storskalltaren

Miraculously enough we were all awake by 5 and joined a veritable convoy of Camp Halibut boats heading out into the Norwegian Sea. The Arctic swell hit us as we left the shelter of Breivik, so it took around 1 3/4 hours to reach Storskalltraren. Trevor ably skippered our boat despite the unfamiliarity of the fly by wire throttle on our 200hp Yamaha.

Out on the reef we quickly caught bait sized coalies and fished a mix of artificial lures and large deadbait rigs. Our drift was slow and fish were scattered, but a couple of sub-10lb cod appeared, together with a few torsk. (In this case the Scottish torsk = Norwegian brosme, rather than the Norwegian torsk = Scottish cod)

Eventually I hooked into something a good bit chunkier and played a nice fat cod to the boat. Easily my best ever, it weighed in at a very satisfying 36lbs and was returned after a few photos.

A while later my coalfish deadbait was hammered again by another good fish. This felt appreciably larger and put up a fine scrap (for a cod, anyway 🙂 ). Hauled aboard and posed for a pic with its smug captor, this one went 48lbs. I almost struggled to get it back over the gunwhales but it was safely returned.

It has to be said that the reef was rather underwhelming. Apart from the 2 big cod and a scattering of other fish to the low teens, fishing was slow. One Swedish boat had a decent haul of cod to the mid 20s, but mostly the other groups struggled too.

However it was definitely an experience to be so far out and in such good conditions, so I’m glad we made the effort.

Arctic Heatwave

Wednesday was clear and calm but we allowed ourselves the luxury of a late start, and it was 10 o’clock by the time we slipped moorings. Today we were fishing much closer in, on the reefs off Sorvaer. The scenery en route is fabulous, with the treeless cliffs plunging into the ocean reminding me of northern Scotland. Just two to three times the size and with snowfields hiding in the distance.

We picked away quite nicely, with better quality coalfish to the low teens and some respectable double figure cod.

However, it was Trevor who undoubtedly caught the fish of the day, with this “lovely” angler fish.

It’s the first sizeable one that I’ve come face to face with and they are impressive creatures. This specimen was returned safely, but not before Tony tested out how just how sharp it’s teeth were. Conclusion: very sharp 🙂 🙂

We plucked away well into the evening, mainly with coalies but with some decent cod appearing too. Best was this 16lb fish for Ian.

The weather was unbelievable, warm and still, and it was hard to believe this was the northern tip of Norway. Simply fantastic!!

Thursday

By Thursday we were starting to run low on supplies, so it was time to head into Sorvaer for a top up before heading out again. Along the way we encountered a this little gang of reindeer steaks…

Shopping chores complete, we cast off again and headed back out towards Sorvaer. Loads of coalies this time, mainly too big for bait, so we switched to single lures to make the most of them.

Fewer cod this time, and we finished off with a couple of hours drifting close in for plaice and wolf fish. An odd combination, but that’s exactly what Tony caught, one after the other. And some monster dabs too.

A Wee Bit of Weather

Friday was the only day of the week where we experienced poor weather, and even then we managed a few hours afloat.

Just a few hundred metres from our berth Ian managed this nice plaice.

Whilst Tony picked up our only haddock of the trip. Apparently haddock are not a common catch in this part of Soroya although obviously there are better specimens to be found elsewhere.

By late afternoon the wind shifted to the west and started blowing with a vengeance, so we took the hint and headed back ashore to a warm lounge and some dinner.

Halibut

Next day saw calm, sunny weather again but with a fair swell still running from yesterdays wind. At first we struggled a little for bait sized coalies as most we either too small or too chunky. The latter not normally being a problem back home!!

Eventually we caught enough and bumped our way another 20 miles around the north coast of Soroya. Arriving at an absolutely stunning little bay tucked away deep in a fjord, we bathed in hot sunshine and marveled at our surroundings.

Our target in this delightful little cove was halibut, although I played more with a camera than my fishing rod.

A couple of hours hard work finally paid off for Ian with our first halibut of the trip. At just under a metre it wasn’t a giant specimen but it certainly beat any flounder I’ve ever seen!

Having exhausted the possibilities of our little bay, we ventured out to try some reefier ground. Sadly, this produced little except more torsk.

Working back round to Sorvaer we tried a few more spots until Tony hooked the seabed – or so we thought. After several minutes of p*ss taking it became clear that the seabed was actually moving… Eventually a weird mess of lines and fish appeared on the surface – definitely a halibut and definitely not tangled in our lines either.

A few minutes later we worked out what was going on. The halibut, a little smaller than Ian’s, had taken Tony’s lure but then become ensnared in someone else’s lost lure and braid. To be precise, this gigantic monstrosity of a lure…

Hasvik

For our final day we decided to head south about 10 miles and try near Hasvik. Fishing started slowly, but then Ian hit into this fine angler fish.

A smidgen larger than Trevor’s fish earlier in the week, this also caused some interest back at camp. Camp Halibut had seen 6 angler fish in the previous 8 years, and we had added 2 to that total in a single week.

A few more cod and coalies later and it was Tony’s turn again, hitting a decent fish over one of the many reefs. Another halibut this time 🙂

This came in at 97cm and was our largest of the trip.

Sadly, I have to report this was the last decent fish of the trip, although Trevor did pull up a tiny redfish to add to our species count.

And Ian did his best to clear the Arctic of torsk/brosme 🙂

Ecstasy and Agony

We flew Aberdeen – Bergen – Tromso – Hasvik with Wideroe Airlines, and they flew us flawlessly. All terrific until we arrived back in Aberdeen to find our hold bags were lost over the tundra.

ALL of them. With all of our fishing gear and a defrosting halibut… (at least that was only Tony and Trev’s problem. Ian and I were happily free of rotting fish 🙂 ) It took a full week to get them all back.

Try Again?

I’m not sure to be honest. The general setup at Camp Halibut was very good and I’ve no hesitation recommending it to anyone wanting to try this area of Norway. Daniel and the his guides were friendly, knowledgeable and approachable.

I think I have two broad concerns. My first is over the quantity of fish rather than the quality. We had some very nice fish, but also very slow spells when we struggled to connect with much at all. Some of this you could put down to our general inexperience of Norway, although other boats and other camps didn’t appear to do any better. In particular there were very few halibut being taken. Maybe we were unlucky and the water really was a bit too warm, but I’m also mindful that there were quite a few longlines set across the halibut grounds. I’d note that Tony fished this area of Norway several years ago, with much better results. Anglers fishing for redfish and ling in deep water were doing fine, but this wasn’t really compatible with our catch and release approach.

My second concern is purely a personal one – I’m just not sure I like this style of fishing any more. I absolutely loved the experience of being in the Arctic, and the fabulous rugged scenery, particularly around the north of Soroya. Fishing just didn’t trigger the same reaction, at least for the most part. I think I felt this most acutely in the beautiful little cove of Indre Oksevika – it begged to be explored by kayak, and offered a perfect little beach camp. I spent more time trying to capture the place on video than I did fishing, even after Ian landed a halibut. Hardly a concern for most of you I guess, but food for thought for me personally. I suspect that next time might see me footering about trying for trout and shore fishing as much as hard core boat fishing.

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