There were 6 of us in total - Dale and his son Ronnie, Mike, Brian, Dave and yours truly. We carried the rods over in two bazooka tubes and booked 3 extra checked bags in the shape of cool boxes. Mikes wife kindly did a food shop for 6 hungry men to last us the trip - this came with us in the cool boxes. Food is very expensive in Norway and Halibut tastes great............this proved to be a master stroke of genius!
Our destination was Tverfjord near Loppa in Northern Norway. The trip was booked through Dintur and masterminded by Dave down to every last fine detail...it was this forward planning that insured we had everything covered.
6 fully grown men, as excited as kids on Christmas Eve met at the top of Ryde Pier on Sunday evening to start the first leg of the journey to Norway on the Fastcat! Our first flight was early Monday morning so rather than rushing around in the early hours we booked an overnight stay at one of the airport hotels. After a chatty taxi ride to Gatwick we checked into the Hotel, grabbed a beer or two and made the most of the last real opportunity of getting some sleep!
I took a while to doze off....not sure if it was the excitement or the loud rumbling farts that periodically escaped from Brian's backside but eventually I must have drifted off. Next thing I knew the alarm was sounding....just time for a coffee and shower before we met the taxi to the airport outside.
After checking in the baggage and scoffing a fine cooked breakfast courtesy of Dale, we made our way through security. Mike had to pull out his onions and Dave had trouble with his latex and cannon balls but we all got though with out the rubber glove in the end.
Our first flight took us to Oslo where we had a 5 hour wait and another check in before our second flight to Alta.
To our relief all the bags, rod tubes and cool boxes had made it with us and it was just a simple taxi ride to a Hotel in Alta for another nights stay. After some fun in the lift we made it to our rooms, dumped the gear and spent out on some rather expensive but great tasting pizza that also provided breakfast the next morning! It must have been close to midnight by the time we got back to our rooms and with bright daylight outside it did seem strange.....this time of year, this far North it stays light 24/7!
'The Cowboy' met us at 6am in a minibus hitched up with a trailer to take all of our equipment. From here we had a two hour ride to meet up with the fast ferry in Oxsfjord. The views from the minibus window were around every corner and truly amazing.....
We had a stop half way for a smoke and leg stretch, the air smelt clean and fresh and the water was crystal clear.
The last half of the ride flew by and we were soon lugging all of our gear onto the fast ferry to make the last leg of the trip to Tverfjord.
The ferry dropped us on the dock around 10am (which was literally 50 feet from our house) where we were met by an oldish woman (our host) who showed us the boats, facilities and the house.....it all looked great and everyone was keen to get fishing!
We had two 23ft Dolmoy's powered by 115hp Yamaha's for the week, all situated a stones throw from our house right next to the dock and fish cleaning facilities. The place was extremely well set up and thought through.
First job was to unpack and tackle up......some of us took longer that others and after seeing lots of small Coal fish swimming round the dock I was off with my spinning rod and a mini pirk. Ronnie soon joined me along with Dale....we were all having fun with the Coalies.
I decided to leave one on the treble and drop it down to the bottom to see if anything bigger would take it....after a couple of pull downs I pulled up a large scorpion fish....just the tail of the Coalie visible between it's lips! In the excitement I forgot a photo so dropped another bait down to catch another. Almost instantly the rod started to load and I struck into something very different! The next thing I knew, line was screaming off my fixed spool with the rod bent double. I gained some back and then it took some more.....Dale looked at me and I looked back......we were both thinking Halibut.....but off he dock?.....50 feet from the house?!!!
Eventually it came to the surface and yes....it was a bloody Halibut! No sooner had it came up it then zoomed off again stripping a load more line from the reel.....my legs had turned to jelly by this time and Dale was running round looking for a gaff. Dave had heard the commotion and joined the onlookers now gathering at the dock. I coaxed the fish down towards the lower pontoon where the boats were and when it finally came up again Dale chin gaffed it in....WOW....my first Halibut and we hadn't even started!! Some hand shaking and weighing followed (13lb) before some photos of the beast.....I was made up!
Brian was blissfully unaware of the recent events and it wasn't until he popped his head out of the house to announce that beans on toast was on the table that he clocked the Halibut!
Beans on toast demolished, one Halibut filleted and 5 minutes later we were heading out in the boats!
The planning of the trip was meticulous, even down to who was fishing on what boat for each of the 6 days. The boat rota was a great idea though insuring that we all got to fish alongside each other during the week. Today I was fishing with Dale and Ronnie, while Mike, Brian and Dave took the other boat. The plan was to ease into the fishing today and get a feel for the boats etc… We started on a mixed species mark where we could literally pick anything up in the shelter of the Fjords.
We left the pontoon and shadowed each
other to a mark that Dave had picked from the chart, the weather was great
and the scenery – almost surreal. I sat there taking in the surroundings
with not a care of what time it was or when we would reach our first mark.
I felt relaxed and already content after catching that Halibut from the
dock….the pressure was off and I was able to enjoy the fishing right from
the start.
Our first stop was in 80 meters of water
where we could expect anything. 400g pirks went down to start with and
in under a minute all of us were bent into a fish of some description.
Cod to 12lb and Torsk were the first fish to come aboard. The Torsk or
‘Brosme’ as they are known in Norway are not prized for their eating
qualities and look like big fat Rocklings. They turned out to be more of
a pest than anything else over the next few days and as you do, we developed
our own pet names for each species during the trip - The Torsk later became
affectionately known as the ‘Turd’.
Half an hour of this certainly served
as a warm up and after everyone had had a few fish it was time for a move
to ground known to hold the odd Halibut or two near the tip of Silda. The
depth here was around 30 metres and this time we swapped pirks for cutbait shads and savage gear eels. Cod and the first of the Wolfish started to come to the boat with every drift....
I started to get a feel for how the fish wanted the lure and slowed down my retrieve not straying too far from the bottom....this induced a lot more takes and eventually found me hooked into something a bit more substantial. This one was taking line and giving me the right old run around...I was expecting to see a decent Cod hit the surface but when it eventually came up I was stunned to see another Halibut!!! Dale acted swiftly with the chin gaff and before you could blink she was in the boat....The jelly legs had returned and I was buzzing with excitement! On the scales this one went 17lb.
Dale had one eye on his rod, one on Ronnie and a third watching me.....he wised up to my tactics pretty quick and also started to get more takes.....It didn't take him long before he found himself attached to his first ever Halibut!!!! Gingerly played with a well set drag the fish made it pretty clear it wasn't coming aboard without a fight. Eventually though it came to the surface where I returned the favour with the gaff. These things make an awesome heavy slapping sound on the deck to announce themselves!! Another round of handshaking and a weight confirmation of 13lb before some more photo's!
Brian, Mike and Dave on the other boat failed to connect with a Halibut today but certainly had some fun with the Cod, Torsk and Wolfies.....
As much as we didn't want to admit it, time was getting on and we needed to think about heading back. What a first day though....and we were just getting started!
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