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.....