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It
is not difficult as a very enthusiastic fly-fisherman to
talk freely about favourite rivers or fishing places,
especially for me, coming from Holland where good fishing
places are rare. I always try to help friends and grayling
fanatics with my hot spots in Central Europe and
Scandinavia and I still like it when other fly-fishermen
can enjoy their fishing as much as I do. But what happens
to you when you find a group of 20 fishermen on your
favourite Scandinavian fishing place where you used to
fish on your own? It could be a splendid fishing party
with exchanging ideas and nice conversations but it seems
those times are over. Instead of enjoyable sit-downs
around campfires, like in the old days, I only found more
empty bottles of beer and plastic waste beside the
riverbank. People are changing and are not so friendly any
more. The last couple of years the banks of the upper part
of the Glomma River (Norway) were so crowded that the
otters and beavers were only hard to spot. I even go
through situations where there was a big hunt for the last
few fish on a particular stretch. Situations like that
decide me to go inside the wilderness further than ever!
As I grow older and get closer to the nature and wildlife
the catches are not that important any more and I can
easily sit down for hours watching wildlife and nature and
just doing nothing.
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THE END OF
THE SHINNING RIVER? |
My
most favorite river by far is the Glomma in Norway. In the
past there have been days that I was fishing, walking and
exploring it's banks for almost 18 hours a day. There is
no river in the world where I have spent so much time at
its watercourse then in this Shinning river. I have seen
happen many things. The most worried I am about the large
number of long trotting and float experts who visit this
river each year. They use many flies on complicated but
very effective flies/float systems from which I know they
work well. Several of them only have one thing
in mind: "Catch as many fish as possible". I have nothing
against people who take two or three nice fish a day just
for eating but when you see whole families who take home
large bags of frozen grayling between 15 and 40 cm I feel
very sad. I know several of them will be ending in the
dustbin anyway. Even now with size restrictions it still
happens. With a good friend of mine I count a day catch of
200 grayling taken by only 12 fishermen and put in the
camping freezer with only one purpose; take them back
home. One camping owner told me proudly that in the most
successful week easily between 1500 and 2000 grayling will
be frozen and this in an area where you will find only
wild fish. I also know some people who use small minnows
as bate to hunt after the super trout. They are very
successful with their illegal techniques. I often had
heavy discussions with them but it is hard to convince
those trophy hunters. Killing fish in this part of the
world is a very old tradition and the only exception seems
fanatical fly-fishermen
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I come from
a land which is overcrowded and where all wild salmonides
are disappeared by pollution a long time ago. I know when
you will take or kill every fish you catch, the grayling
cannot live forever. Everyone who reads my Scandinavian
stories know my feeling about the Glomma River and his
tributaries. A river system, which has one of the best
grayling populations in Europe, seems to be falling off
more and more. The Glomma river once called by me as "the
shining river" gets too much pressure during the
summertime and if there will be no better control in the
future I can only say that the end of the shining river is
nearby.
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The fishing
in the north is so much different from the south that is
hardly to understand for people who never made a visit
over there. There are no river keepers and for the fishing
police the distances are simply too far to make controls
effective. The fishing is cheap and there is no stocking
for grayling.
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There is also another problem, which is even more
important and needs not only rules from the government but
also a good control. Holland had real bad liquid manure
problems in the past but I never thought that Norwegian
farmers could have the same ideas as some of their Dutch
colleagues and put their dung in the river when there is a
flood. The Glomma valley has many farmers and we only saw
a few illegal pollutions during the last few years but how
many times it will happen during the year and how many
farmers will do it? My best friend and I once fished a
mile downstream such an illegal pollution. The smell was
not only awful but also brown foam bubbles covered the
river over a long distance. It was like fishing in shit.
We did not catch one single fish that day. Still there is
a good population of grayling these days but how long can
they exist against too much pressure, illegal pollution
and this entire killing.
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THE SECRET RIVER
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But there is some positive news too. Most of my
Scandinavian fishing trips are planned from maps in the
beginning and better organised with all written
information I can get and finally completed with the
notes from my fishing dairies. Unfortunately a good map is
not enough to achieve some success and therefore you
always will need a long walk through the forests or beside
the riverbanks to find your own favourite pools and beats.
With this in my mind I found more then 10 years ago one of
the best wild grayling rivers in east Norway. This river,
which is hard to find and only to reach by some good
footwork and a compass, is probably one of the last pieces
of real wilderness in eastern Norway that I know off. The
best pools are at least a couple of hours walking from the
nearest road. This river has been renamed by my friends
and me as the SECRET RIVER and has given us an
unbelievable good evidence of the importance of catch and
release.
During
the last 14 years we fished the Secret River very
intensively but we put back every single fish we caught.
That was the only rule we made to every one who get
invited in this secret place. Because I am sure that only
a few pools ever fished by locals I can prove that I am
right with my catch and release theories. After all those
years we still catch as many fish as in the beginning.
Especially the last few years when we had some very
difficult fishing in Norway due terrible weather
conditions and extremely high water conditions or
droughts. Conditions, which made our catches almost
impossible! Cold temperatures were the reason that a good
hatch of insects holds off and in an area of 50 square
miles we only had some excellent fishing days at the
Secret River. The same happened with hot temperatures and
low water. Even my wife Ina who fished the last few years
more frequently was extremely successful and caught here
her biggest grayling ever. Many of my friends also can
tell you of their biggest catch too. If I ever will catch
the beautiful black grayling again it will be in this
river. I hooked some BLACKIES every year and some of them
got off and it really did not bother me. I know they are
there. We had many superb days and always got a few big
rewards after those long hiking trips. There are dozens of
attractive pools and you always catch a good number of
grayling. A black variation of my Klinkhåmer Special is my
favourite. The average fish is about 40cm and the biggest
fish easily reach 50cm en over.
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The
secret river also has its own secrets and if you think you
will catch fish a second day in a successful pool you can
forget it. It is impossible to get the same results as a
day before and after our experience it will take at least
three or four days before the fish has recovered from
their fight for freedom. We have made our own rules at the
Secret River and one of them is that we never fished a
pool "dead". This means that we never fish that long until
there are no rising fish any more. This is very important
if you stay in a group and fish several days in the same
area. Personally I am a very active fly-fisherman and walk
several miles even during a normal fishing day. I never
catch more than two or three good fish in a good pool and
maybe a few more in a larger one and when you do this
seriously you can fish for weeks in the same area and
catch fish all the time.
In between I included a small photo session from the
secret river where elk, reindeer, beavers, otters and some
real fanatic grayling fishermen only make "invisible"
tracks. I also hope that some of the Scandinavian
fishermen will read this article and will help to keep
those rivers as they should be or at least try to convince
more and more people the importance of catch and release.
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