Mastery Flyfishing

Jeg var på plass i Rena elva i slutten av 70-tallet og lunket i helæ på pionerene for moderne Nordisk Fluefiske; Kenneth Boström, Lennart Bergquist, Preben Torp Jacobsen, medlemmer fra Fluefiskeklubben Imago med bla. Staffa n Lindstrøm, Pål Krogvold, Tor Skarpodde, samt lokal helt Tor Svendsberget. Moro å være der når Rackelhanen, Superpuppa og Streaking Caddis ble skapt. Også bøker som "Flugbinding på mitt sätt" (LB) , "Dagsländer i öringvatten " (Bengtson/Boström) og "Tørfluefiskeri" (PTJ) fikk sin inspirasjon her. Ble også kjent med fluefiskere som fisket her på 60-tallet; Kjell Kvarnstöm og Hans Åström.

A very cold fishing day, only 0 degrees C in air, but 7 degrees C in water. Water level now 246,88m and easier wading. In spite of so cold weather and no sun breaking through, a very sparse hatch of Emphemerella Ignita! And of course the big grayling lined up for a feast. Hard to fool them with my imitations, but cracked the code when the fishing day almost was over at 4 p.m. The fishing day made me very cold, but also made me thinking a lot of the key factors to fool such selective fish! 

 Foam Capnia pygmea, tied on TMC emerger hook size 15. Lands perfectly on surface every time and floats high and light. Foam Emphemerella Ignita, tied on TMC emerger hook size 15. 

 Waterlevel 247,06m and very hard fishing as the waterlevel seems 0,25m to high and difficult wading. 9 degrees in air, 8 degrees in water When the sun broke through, ten-thousands of small black stoneflies (equally size as capnia pygmea) started dancing and darting over the surface!. Very hard to fool the big grayling then, but managed to land a few. Also a very sparse hatch of Ignita... 

 A magnificent crystal clear day, 6 degrees C in air and 8 degrees in water. Water level 246,82  A lot of rising fish due to a good hatch of mayflies and some stoneflies When I found the right imitation of this, several very good grayling landed.

Deep diving crab, intermediate crab and sili shad, made for next trip; guess where I'm going! Well, Los Roques here I come!

There are so few grilse returning now so the future of salmon fishing in Orkla is very dark. The massive sea-lice belt around the farmed salmon plants in the migratory route by the islands of Hitra and Frøya, have and are still, killing the smolt. The latest trip to Orkla, I visited 3 very famous salmon beats and did not see a single fish. In the catch journals there, I read that salmon caught this season had carried up to 60 sea-lice per salmon! This is the indicator of how massive this problem is. Of course no problem for returning salmon as the sea-lice die in fresh water, but the pore smolts are doomed as they go to sea!

 16th.of August; at last, very good conditions in river Rena. New personal best, grayling 58cm!  River Grimsa, hard to find any fish, but a very nice river.  Views from high country rivers Views from high country rivers   Trout fishing at altitude over 1000m  Trout fishing at altitude over 1000m  One of the more spectacular Orkla beats  The Syrstad beat in river Orkla  A really Orkla "killer"  The Sugustad beat  Too much water, too heavy current, too cold water....  My sons spinning at Sugustad  My sons pike fishing  Erik with a all selfcaught pike  Friends at Mid-summer celebrations, Lindstad, river rena  Packing it in; no salmon seen  Water level indicator, river Orkla  1,5m above normal water level, pea-spoup water!  The develish fly-fishing vehicle; I'm the worlds fastest fly fisher...  Undseth-åa, VERY nice small river  Arrived safely at the Rebergsgjerdet beat, river Orkla

Using traditional material like heron, guinea fowl and golden pheasant; tied on stainless steel needle tubes, gives the flies more "lifelike" movement in water than ever before! Looking forward to make the spey casts with the Salmon Spiders in my favorite pool of river Orkla soon! 

Pike caught on variant of Gurgler. Not the best weather, but action. Water level at Elverum 178,70m

The bike ready for taking me to fly fishing action this season! Visited river Glomma by Elverum today: good amount of stoneflies in air and a few on water, but didn't see any rises. 12 degrees in air and 5 in water. Waterlevel at Elverum 178.21 m

Today the Glomma river had a waterlevel of 178.36; a rise of 21cm since last visit. The rise due to quick melting of ice and snow and the water temperature had also dropped to freezing 2 degrees C. No rises seen and only a few active stoneflies by the river. Had to try the nymph then and in spite of this very cold temperature; a few grayling hooked! Imitation of the Plecoptera nymphs, here a version of the Capnia Pymeae, Knapek hook size 16, are very effective in the spring. This style of tying have a coating of rapid epoxy which a have a density of 1.6 - 2.0 in relation to water. Products like Bug Bond have a density of 1.1. So the epoxy not only gives the finishing touch to the nymph, it also aids the nymph in sinking!

My best pattern for imitating the stonefly Capnia pymeae. Small sizes, hook 15 - 17. This fly allways land upright. While waiting on grayling rising; I use this very effective nymph. Casting this quickly sinking shrimp slightly upstream and across, and then mending as the line floats downstream.