Season Start in Northern Norway
Since Covid restrictions eased down in Spring -22, my open water season started in late April with sea trout fishing on the other side of the border, in Northern Norway. It was pretty refreshing change after a long ice fishing season.
Fly fishing on a snowy shore and ice rafts sailing in the tide didn't give me much expectations. I still managed to hook one small sea trout, but an ice raft ruined my chances.
In early May I really hit the pedal with sea trouts and started focusing on hunting the big ones. Couple of day trips to fjords and the first record of the season was 62 cm with a pretty skinny looking trout.
Also lot of smaller sea trouts and some sea-run arctic chars visited my hand net. If I recall correctly my biggest sea-run arctic char was 54 cm. May was really cold this year and spring was 2-3 weeks late which kind of postponed the trout season. But 50-60 cm trouts were pretty regular even in this chilly May. I also managed to catch one salmon from the fjord.
First day of the season
First 60+cm of the season
Sea-run Arctic Char 50+cm
Skinny Atlantic Salmon straight from the sea. Inhaled my shrimp fly behind the gills.
Personal Best Sea Trout, so far…
In early June I had the most epic evening ever. My friend and I were fishing in the fjord. The surface was dead calm and fishes were feeding just under the surface like crazy.
At first we got dozens of little coalfishes, but then the big guys came to feed. I had a huge bite but couldn't hook it. On the next cast I hooked a nice sea-run arctic char, something around 55 cm.
Suddenly I saw a really big back fin and tail surfacing and made a quick cast in front of it. Couple of strips and it hit like a truck. It felt big but not that massive so I fought it hard and landed it. It was over 70 cm sea trout but not the one that I saw earlier, so I quickly showed this one to my GoPro (that was not on, my bad) and released the fish.
After couple more cast the big one rised again and I cast in front of it again. Couple of fast strips and I just felt huge weight on my line. Couple strong strips and it was on! I shouted to my friend that I hooked a big one and he came to help with a net.
That fierce fight lasted about 5-10 minutes but after all the wrist burning fighting my friend netted the fish! Extremely chunky sea trout, my new PB from the sea, 82 cm and don't know how many kilos. Local Norwegian fishermen estimated it to be around 8 kg. I’m not sure about that and I don't really care about the weight, since it was huge and that's all I need to know. After releasing the PB trout it was time to celebrate!
82 cm chunky Sea Trout
Season continued in Finland
End of June I started my freshwater guiding season with the helitrip to fells. Weather was unusual for Finnish Lapland: extremely hot with sunshine and 26-31 degrees Celcius. We still got some really nice graylings to eat and had a lot of fun, even thought the heat was eating me alive.
July was pretty hectic with day trips to Könkämäeno and lots and lots of grayling and whitefish fishing. Weather was pretty okay all the time. Some hard windy conditions for fishing but nothing crazy.
We also had some really good perch fishing in July. And some quite nice whitefish fly fishing with dry flies.
Biggest whitefish of the season, 55cm
Close to 1 kg perch
Season End in Norway and Sweden
In August we had a week long trip to Norway for trout fishing with my regular customers. Streamer and nymph fishing in the evening was nuts! Got lots of trouts over 50 cm and couple 60 cm ones.
One of the customers lost same 70+ cm trout four times in two evenings on the same exact place. It was insanely big fish, but luck was not on our side with it.
I managed to land one big trout: 62 cm, which was a new trout record for me. In August we also got some really good grayling fishing in Swedish Lapland.
Beautiful Norwegian trout, 50+ cm
60+ cm trout from Norway
Underwater pic of a Norwegian trout by my customer
It’s safe to say this summer was pretty damn nice: scouted couple new places and had some really good fishing. Let's see what the next fly fishing season brings to us!
Season 2023 calendar is now open. So hit me with an email or call me and let's plan something out!
-Ville
ville@wildtrailwaters.com
+358504133746
