Big Cods and odd little critters (Norway part 2)

Day 4

After an long trip yesterday we decided to make a “short” trip to the nearby waters. Again we started with Cod in our minds. We had a small issue with the weather at the start. There was no wind nor tide current at all so our boat didn’t drift like it should do. Still I managed to catch a Cod over seven kilos and soon after that something big hit my jig. I had changed to my light rod so the fight was quite interesting. It was Cod again and this time my scales was showing numbers as 15 kilos sharp. Wow, what a fish. This was something we came here for. After that the wind rose and we started to get more bites. I caught one more Cod over seven kilos.

15kg Cod with a light rod was fun!

At some point we drove close to shore to catch some baitfish. But instead of Coalfish we found a small (or very fast) school of Mackerel. I caught one and lost another and Jarno caught two of them. After some more Cod fishing we headed back “home” but on the way we stopped to one shallow and sandy bay to some flatfish hunt. From there I caught my second ever Halibut (600 grams beast) and lost another flattie that I didn’t identified. Jarno caught one Dab from there as well. Our mates had caught some nice Cod and Shakey had his small Halibut too. So, now we had caught at least one Halibut each.

Day 5

It was about nine o’clock next evening when we headed back to the sea again. The wind was quite ruff and driving a boat was not a pleasure but we decided still to head to that small bay again. This was our last chance to make a hole days fishing trip until leaving back home. On the way we stopped at one narrow sound that had a nice sandy bottom. While fishing Coalfish for bait I caught one mackerel too. We were actually quite disappointed when we didn’t get any contact with Halibut from there.

It was a quite cloudy when we left from the house.

So, “our” bay was calling again. We started with live baits and flounder rigs but all we could catch was one Dab each and some small Cod and Haddock. At some point I changed my flounder rig to a small pirk and hooked a small Halibut almost immediately. I think it was the same drift when something bit bigger hit my pirk. And soon I lifted a Wolffish of over four kilos to the boat.

Wolffish of bit over four kilos.

It was 7am and because this trip hadn’t been a success so we were leaving back. But what then happens. The sea calmed down totally and sun was showed up for the first time in a while. And we haven’t try to find any little critters from the depths yet. We found a nice looking place. There was about 150 meters of water under us and just next to us it was dropping all the way to 330 meters.

Jarno got his small fish rig ready before I did and soon he hooked something small. What ever it was it belonged to a cod family for sure. Quite soon after I got my rig to the depths I caught the same species too. Later at the cabin we identified those as Norway pout (Trisopterus esmarkii). Jarno caught couple of nice Haddock too. Biggest weighed over two kilos and there was another almost as big as well. I had my heavier gear at the water too and at some point I had a double of a Tusk and a Rose fish. Yippii, my second new species of the day.

Norway pout, my first new species of the day.

The Rose fish (Sebastes marinus).

I didn’t catch anything special anymore, just couple of Cods. But Jarno hooked again something small and when he was reeling it in something much bigger was suddenly on. We thought that a big Cod had taken the small fish at the hook but no. If you wanna see what happened, here’s a video for you…

6,6 kilos Halibut hit a piece of shrimp on a size 12 hook! It was hooked just from the tip of upper lip. The small fish on the other hook got away but for some reason Jarno was not so upset about that. Then it got windier again and I decided to change back to big shads in a hope of Halibut again. First I got only few careful bites from the small Cod but then my rod bended much heavier. The fish took about 20 meters of line on its first run and within the fight it took several other runs too. We both were sure that I had hooked a Halibut. After a long fight I finally gaffed my biggest ever COD. It weighed 18,1 kilos and although it was a big fish it was still a small disappointment as I believed it was a Halibut.

Fighting a Cod, notice my really relaxed facial expression.

Result of the fight, my PB Cod of 18,1kg.

After my big Cod we took couple of more drifts until we headed back to sleep. On the way back we met Darren and Pete who had just came back to fish after a good nights (or days) sleep. At this point is good to know that we had been out pretty much 20 hours nonstop. At their first trip they had caught seven Cod over seven kilos topped on 9,9 kilos.

Day 6

After a short nap of thirteen and half hours I woke up, looked out a window and saw Jarno at the car getting his whip rods ready for some mini species hunt. I ate a quick breakfast and went after him. We ended up to a nearby harbor where was really good looking rocky shore.

After few Shorthorn sculpin I caught a small sculpin that looked somehow different. It had longer spines on the gill covers. There was no other option than Longspined bullhead. Jarno had shouted to me bit earlier that he had probably caught one as well.

My first ever Taurulus bubalis.

I had caught few more sculpins (shorthorned ones) when Jarno again shouted that he had a Lumpfish just in front of him. He offered his mormuska with a maggot to fish and it hit it immediately. Sadly the fish got loose right away and swam further. But about half an hour later Jarno found it again and this time he got it. What a weird looking but somehow beautiful fish it was.

Jarno and his Lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus).

At night when all the other went to sleep I left out and went to shore for one more try. I caught a small sculpin right away and soon after that a small and dark head appeared under a rock and swallowed my maggot. Finally a Butterfish (or Rock gunnel) I thought. But when I got it to my hands I noticed that it was not a Butterfish. It was some kind of Blenny with a tentacles above the eyes. Yes, it was still a new species. I continued fishing and soon another kind of long and wiggly fish slithered on my hands. And this time it was a Butterfish. What a dream session this was. I was out about an hour and caught two new species. At the house I found the Blenny from my identification book. It was a Yarrell's blenny (Chirolophis ascanii).

A real surprise, Yarrell's blenny

Species number 120. Butterfish (Pholis gunnellus).

Next morning we headed back south and after seventeen and half hour drive we finally got to sleep to our own beds. This was one awesome fishing trip. Seven new species from Norway plus the Alpine bullhead on the way was much more than I expected. We didn’t caught any big Coalfish but the amount of big Cod surprised us all.

There’s still many species to catch at Arctic Ocean but still I think my next trip to Norway will head much more south…..

Norway, land of the thousands fjords

At the end of the July we made a one week fishing trip to the northern Norway. There was four of us. Me, Jarno and two British friends of us, Peter and Darren aka Shaky. Our target was find some decent sized Cod, Coalfish and Halibut. And of course maybe find some new species for me and Jarno. There was still few basic Norway species missing from my list like Halibut, Wolffish and Rose fish.

Day 1

The first day was more like training for the future and didn’t give anything special for me. Only some small Cod and Coalfish, couple of Tusk (or Cusk) and a small Norway redfish (Sebastes viviparus). However it was a little bit better day for Peter who’s first ever fish from Norway was a seven kilos Halibut that followed his pirk all the way up to the boat and striked the pirk after Pete dropped it to the water again. Also, Jarno caught our first nice sized cod of 9,7 kilos.

Peter with his first ever fish caught from Norway

Day 2

On the second night we took a 45 minutes boat ride to the area we have had a hint from the British group at the accommodation just next to us. They had caught plenty of big Cod and some big Coalfish from there. They said that there should be a small bay and the fish should be just outside of it. But when we finally got there we noticed that there was not only one bay but two quite near from each other. So, we decided to split. Because we had two boats me and Pete stayed to the bigger bay when Jarno and Shakey went to check that other one couple of kilometers south from us.

Well, we did quite nicely with Pete. We caught several nice Cod over six kilos. They topped to 10,6 and 10,8 kilos and I was the lucky one to catch them both. But Jarno and Darren did it even better than we did. They caught totally 15 Cod over seven kilos and they both broke the bound of ten kilos twice. Jarnos biggest weighed 12,5 kilos and Darrens 11,2 kilos. As well Jarno caught three Wolffish while fishing Cod with big shad jigs.

Cod 10,8 kilos.

My haul of the day (or night actually) was nine Cod, few small Coalfish, a bunch of Tusk, few small Haddock and two Norway redfish. But now we had found the area and that smaller bay looked very interesting and was worth better studying too.

Haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus).

Day 3

I’m still talking about the days although we fished mostly at nights. At the third night Jarno hopped to the boat with me when Darren and Peter took the other boat. We headed to the same area than yesterday again. We started with Cod fishing. It went quite well, we caught plenty of Cod and my biggest weighed 10,95 kilos. But because Jarno had caught his Wolffishes from the shallower water inside the bay day before I wanted to try from there too. We also had an idea to try Halibuts with live baits. 

The start was explosive when Jarno hooked and landed a nice 8,5 kilos Halibut on our first drift. While our baits were swimming behind the boat we used our pirks for searching the Wolffish. I think it was our second drift when I hooked something bit better. And there it was, my first ever Atlantic wolffish. What an ugly beast it was. But hey, it was my first new species of the trip.

Jarnos 8,5 kilos Halibut with live bait

My first ever Atlantic wolffish (Anarhichas lupus).

Couple of hours later (I caught another Wolffish in between) I hooked something that felt a bit different. And up came a nice Plaice of bit under 1,3 kilos. We also had several bites at our live baits but they were too cautious to be caused by Halibut. The mystery solved when I finally hooked one of these munchers. It was a Wolffish again. After my Plaice we changed our Pirks to a flounder rigs. Jarno managed to catch a small Halibut and an American plaice (species I’ve never caught) with his rig.

Plaice 1,295kg.

Couple of drifts later I had an violent bite at my live bait. The fish took about ten meters of line very quickly and after my strike it just kept going. But after an half a minutes fight it just got loose. It was not a huge fish, but it would be a decent sized Halibut and my first ever Halibut as well. Because we were very close to the shore now, we reeled in our stuff and started one more drift. 

I had just dropped my live bait down when I had a new bite. Now it stayed on and I finally caught my first Halibut. Sadly it was about three times a size of my bait and weighed about 1,3 kilos. But species is a species and a Halibut is a Halibut. What a greedy little flatfish!

Not a monster but still a Halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus).

Jarno caught one more flatfish species on that same drift when he hooked on Dab. After that we headed back to the house. We had been out about 15 hours, so I think you can call that a day. Altogether we caught eight species today. Our mates from England had left several hours before. They had caught few nice Cod (topped on Petes 13 kilo fish) and Shakey had an Wolffish of over five kilos.

To be continued.....