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North
Norway country offers huge chances for great freshwater
and saltwater fishing.
One year ago my friend Giovanni
and I went for a fishing
trip in North Norway well over the Polar Arctic Circle for
an enrapturing adventure of fishing either in sea or lakes
and rivers in the Tromso region. We were so happy and
enthusiastic of this trip that during the flight back to
home we were already planning a trip for the next year.
So after 11 months spent to project and to prepare it, in
mid August we were ready to depart for our new fishing
trip in the remote and extreme North of Norway.
This time we decided to spend 10 full days fishing
because reaching these places is necessary a long journey
and also because we wanted to explore different waters
with different techniques.
Also, this trip we booked through Din Tour, a Norwegian
fishing agency specialized in renting a small house and a
fishing boat.
Our first destination was the island of Uloya, at about
150 kilometers from the town of Tromso, where we planned
to spent a full week. Then we planned to move to the
Lyngen Hasviskesenter, in the West part of Lyngen fjord
wHere we spent wonderful days just like we did the year
before (2004).
A LONG JOURNEY
 So, one year after, we flew to Oslo and then we took a
connection flight to Tromso. At the airport we rented a
car and alternating driving at 3 ferry boats to cross the
fjords, we reached the town of Havnnes on the island of
Uloya.
After we arrived there, unfortunately we had a bitter
surprise, because the owner of the house advised us that
the 23 feet boat that we booked had its engine broken. It
was impossible to repair it very quickly, due to the
remoteness of the area, that is 400 kilometres over the
Arctic Polar Circle.
So we had to move around on his old 20 feet fishing boat,
a little bit battered and in poor conditions, but that for
all the week worked fine.
The island of Uloya is close to the East part of the
Lyngen fjord, so a strategic zone for a fishing trip. Here,
in fact, when there are conditions of big waves or strong
wind it is always possible to find a shelter. This island
is quite small; in Havnnes there exists only one road of
about 5 kilometres, surely a far place from classic
Norwegian tourist destinations.
Back at the fishing, here we spent days in the channel
between the island and the main land and days where we
went, in an hour boating, close to the East part of the
Lyngen fiord.
 Near Uloua Island the bottom reaches a maximum of 40
meters with mainly zones of shallow water; here we mainly
fished in zones of 20-25 meters where we had good actions.
The main preys here were cod from 2 to 4 kilos with a mix
of 1-2 kilos coalfish. The advantage of fishing here was
that the fishing places where very close to the pier,
maximum 15 minutes by boat. Also fishing in these shallow
waters allowed us to use light gear and jig from 40 to 70
grams. With great fun, of course!
The other days we searched for fishes in deeper water near
the Lyngen fiord and we caught them from 60 to 140 meters
using metal jigs from 200 to 300 grams and some big
silicone imitations by Storm that were very effective on
bigger fishes. Other than cods, we found huge schools of
coalfish and also some ling, haddock, some nice torsk and
a big amount of redfishes.
Very close to this fjord, where the water depth range from
15 to 25 meters it was almost impossible to stay on the
bottom with our jigs for more than 30 seconds; these
places were full of school of cods of small size from 1 to
2 kilos.
Anyway, the biggest fishes we caught here during the
fishing week were cods of 8-9 kilos.
SECOND DESTINATION
 Very happy with our first fishing week, we moved from
Havnnes to Nord Lenangen on the top of Lyngen fiord, where
there lies the Lyngen Havfiskesenter. This fishing centre
was almost completely new because it had been opened only
the previous year. The Lyngen Havfiskesenter has 5 cottage
that can accommodate 6 anglers each. The boats had the
same high quality of the accommodations: centre console
Uttern boats powered by 40 HP outboards and with GPS and
fishfinder.
This fishing centre is placed in a crucial position for
the sea fishing because the best fishing area are not far
more that 10 minutes by boat. Furthermore, the rich river
Botnelva is placed very close to cottages and can easily
be reached by boat. At 10 kilometres, by car, it is
possible to reach several other rivers and the big lake
Jaegervatnet.
Having a house at its own full disposal, with no
obligations of any timetable, we were able to plan our
days as we wanted and fished how often we desired. The
same rules were for the boat that we could use as we
wished.
After we arrived we met our friends and host Geir and
Laila that showed us our house and our boat. After placing
all our bags and equipment in the house, we decided to go
fishing for arctic char in rivers. We moved on the
Stroutscaret river in 15 minutes by car, the same river
where we fished the past year and where we had very good
results.
Our target were arctic char and arctic brown trout.
Arrived at the river the idea of that day was to go
fishing only on the spots we knew to be good. So after 10
minutes walking we were ready to fish. With our big
surprise we spent almost half hour with no fishes. It was
very strange!!! But few minutes later we discover the
reason of our failure.
We meet two Norwegian fishermen that told us they were
fishing that part of the small river from first morning
and they caught 8 good size arctic char and released
numerous small trouts. A little bit demoralized we walked
over them for more 15 minutes and we tried some small
pools. We were lucky to catch 4 small arctic char and few
trouts.
 We spent also half hour at the mouth of the river trying
for sea trout; the tide was good in this moment but we
hadn’t any bite.The call of the sea was too big, also for
the results we obtained the week before, so we decided to
spend the other 4 days fishing inside the fjord in shallow
waters and outside the fjord in deeper banks close to the
rocky shore.
Fishing inside the fjord was almost exclusively regulated
by the tide; best moments were about one hour in advance
the top of the low tide until about one hour after. Here
the best fishing places were far no more than 2-3 minutes
by boat from the house. The sizes of the cods were about
2-3 kilos, perfect fish for lot of fun with light lines
and small silicone lures.
Instead, to reach the hot spots outside the fjord were
necessary at least 20 minutes at high speed with a flat
sea conditions. With the help of a good cartographic GPS
and a fish finder, we found some banks at 15 – 30 meters
that were full of different fish. Here we lost the count
of the hundreds of cod, torsk, coalfish and other fishes
we caught. Also the average size was 2-3 kilos, but often
we found the “surprise” with cods of 7-8 kilos.
In some shallow bays there were so many coalfish that we
caught them also spin fishing with surface poppers
practically at every cast. Fishing for these fishes was so
easy that soon we were bored. So I decide to pull out the
treble hooks of the popper, to cast and see what happened.
Well, in one single cast I had 15 bites - incredible!!!
We didn’t give a try a some far banks, but some Swedish
guy did it with great success and some days they come back
with 10-15 kilos cod. The last day the caught a massive 55
kilos halibut in only 50 meters of water.
Also in this our last part of the fishing trip we had lot
of fun and we caught a big fish. In 11 days of
fishing in the sea, in 2 fishermen, we think to have
totalized a cipher very close to the ton (1000 kilos) of
fish.
No doubt, the north part of Norway is a real paradise for
fishermen.
USEFUL ADDRESSES
For general information about Norway, visit the website
www.vistnorway.com
For specific information about the region of Tromso,
contact the Tromso Tourist Office (Destination Tromso,
Storgata 61-63, Postboks 311, N-9253 Tromso, Norway,
E-mail:
info@destinasjontromso.no ,
www.destinasjontromso.no ) that will send you
usefully information about the area.
Regarding fishing trips, we booked our trip with Din Tur -
a Norwegian fishing agency that offers more than 80
fishing destinations in Norway, either in sea or
freshwater. For any destination, there are indications of
the distance fromthe house to the sea, distance from the
nearest river and lake, distance from the nearest
restaurant and supermarket and so on.
You can also contact Din Tur at: Din Tur, Neptunveien 1,
N-7650 Verdal, Norway, Europe,
office@dintur.no
or visit their web site
www.dintur.no .
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NORTHERN NORWAY,