Make your life easy with a guided fishing trip, where the only strain could be a monster fish
Make your life easy with a guided experience and hired kit when fishing the large fjords around Bodo in Northern Norway. The only strain could be a monster fish…
For shore anglers, Norway is one of those bucketlist destinations that will do one of two things in terms of success – either kick it out of the park for you or end up smacking you on the backside. It’s a wake up call for those who visualise the fishing here being a monster every cast. Forget it…it’s far from it.
However, by targeting the right mark with the correct kit and adopting relevant tactics, you give yourself a real chance of connecting with a fish of a lifetime.
After several memorable shore trips to Bodo, I was once again back on Norwegian soil and heading for the Guided Fishing Norway camp. Would I hook another monster fish?
It’s a hosted fish camp that I visit regularly and, luckily, I don’t have to worry about lugging heaps of tackle and kit through airports. In addition, I have the bonus of not having to think about how I’m going to feed myself during my week-long stay. More importantly, I certainly don’t have to stress about where I’m going to fish, or how I will get to these productive marks.
In a nutshell, Guided Fishing Norway takes care of everything and looks after my every need, ensuring that my shore fishing experience is completely hassle-free. They even pick me up and return me to the airport. All I needed to do was pack a suitcase with suitable, warm clothing and get there.
LIKE A KID AT CHRISTMAS
It was still dark as the smell of fresh coffee and the crackle of wood burning on the fire had me jumping out of bed.
I was like a kid at Christmas at the prospect of heading out on my first session of the week, especially as the fishing had been on top form recently.
“What time is sunrise?” I asked John Strange, who was my guide and host for the week. John is a good mate of mine and he’s put me and many others on so many fantastic fish over the years. Handing me a large mug of coffee, he replied: “We’ve got plenty of time mate. It’s light around 9.45am and I’m just about to get breakfast on.”
Peering out of the window, outside was icy and looked bleak as I felt the heat on my legs from the log burner that was now glowing orange. My fishing buddies for the week were Si Clutterbuck from Bristol, Sam Truan from Poole, along with Kent’s Dave Wood-Brignall and Dublin angler Berg Power. It wasn’t long before they too emerged from their beds, and the chatter around the breakfast table soon turned to our plans for the day.
Sam and Si had arrived a few days before Berg and me and had their day planned to fish a deep-water mark. I quite liked that idea and put it to Berg that rather than haversack the other two, we should visit another deepwater venue where we’ve had success in the past. With flasks of coffee filled and trucks loaded with kit, we were off.
A deep-water fjord is a really remarkable place to venture to and can actually send your fishing brain into a bit of spin. You may have your own idea of what deep-water actually means, but I’ll wager that you’re way off the mark. Imagine casting your baited rig out into open water and then having to wait up to and beyond eight minutes for it to reach the bottom!
WHAT A DAY
We arrived at a deserted mark with only the sound of water running from towering mountains echoing around us to break the silence. White-tailed sea eagles circled above us, hoping to catch a glimpse of a free meal floating along in the tide.
Tactics-wise, it’s not too difficult to set up to tackle a deep-water fjord. A Zziplex M4GT rod coupled with a tough fixed-spool reel capable of holding a large amount of braid and a pulley rig at the business end is our preferred outfit.
What you do need to get into your mindset is the possibility of hooking a huge fish. With halibut weighing more than 100lb and cod over 50lb a reality in Bodo, rigs and hook sizes must be used to cover any eventuality.
With large chunks of frozen Bluey, mackerel and herring for bait, it wasn’t long before my rod tip was bending as a haddock pushing 5lb snaffled the free meal. This was quickly followed by another, and another, and another. It was hectic. To be honest, I was happy to catch these all day in the belief there was bound to be a bigger one among them.
Berg was next to hook into a good, nodding bite, and this looked nothing like a haddock.
Slowly pumping the rod, it’s easy to see why such deep-water marks can seriously burn your arms. One thing you learn quickly while shore fishing in Bodo, is not to wind like mad on the retrieve. Trust me!
Eventually, Berg had a lovely ling cradled in his arms: “I think that’s a personal best,” he joked…because it was his first double-figure ling, and weighed 11lb.
Then he broke his PB again on the next cast with a 13lb specimen. Quite remarkably, he did it again on the next cast with a 16lb fish. He even landed a superbly conditioned double-figure cod. What a day he was having.
During all of the ling commotion, I spotted my rod tip start to bend in the tripod before it buckled over, resulting in line being pulled furiously from the spool. “That’s on!” I thought.
This fish felt heavy, especially in a depth of 250 metres. Between heavy nods the fish powered away from me at speed. That banished any thought of cod, haddock or ling, and I began to wonder if I was lucky enough to have connected with a decent coalfish.
Dave and Berg came alongside me to watch the fight develop. Just then, beating the horrible, heart-stopping moments of momentarily being snagged, a huge coalfish surfaced at our feet.
Quickly, Dave lifted it out of the water and held it up for us to admire. “Wow, that’s definitely a PB,” I said.
On the scales, it went 16lb 12oz and it was handshakes all around. A few moments later and it was slid back into the icy water and disappeared. What a fish!
We’d caught fish on every cast, but as the tide slowed, the sport became less active. We gave it another hour, but that was it, no more fish came, so we headed back for hot food and to get ready for another session in Bodo. ■