Norway Fishing Report Hosted Soroya 2014

Norway Fishing Report Wow, what a trip… With some huge Norwegian Cod caught, lots of great new friends made and some hilarious stories told, it’s hard to believe that it has come to an end all ready.

I will start this Norway Fishing Report with the first week, which started on Tuesday 25th March 2014 and would be a 9-day trip for the first set of guys. The drive down to Gatwick over and done with it was time to meet up with the first group of 8 guys in a pub at Gatwick airport. Once everyone had turned up and introduced themselves it was time for me to gee the guys up with tales of the previous year and how exciting the Island of Soroya would be and what roughly to expect, I could already see them getting that twinkle in their eyes the same as kids do on Christmas Eve…..

The first flight on Tuesday to Oslo went very quickly and we found ourselves sitting in the bar at the overnight hotel in Oslo where i started to write my Norway Fishing Report and after several beers it was time to hit the sack as the following day is set to be a long one. At around 5am my alarm sounds and it was time to go down for a quick breakfast then on our way back to Oslo airport for our onward flight to Alta

Neither of these flights are very long so they fly by and before we knew it we were touching down at Alta for the final piece of the journey which is around 3 hours by coach and a quick crossing by ferry onto the Island of Soroya. You may be thinking that this sounds like a lot of travelling but the best fishing is always the hardest to get to

Finally we arrived at the camp at around 6pm on Wednesday and were met by the Guides on the camp, which then showed the entire group to each cabin. Once the guys had settled in and unpacked it was time for the Head Guide and myself to give all the guys a quick chat about safety at sea where the dry room was and how to fish for these Huge Cod. I could see the guys looking very excited about what was going to happen the following day and with the talk over it was time to relax and have a couple of drinks, which I find always helps the guys to relax and open up with each other. The rest of the night was spent talking about life in general and of course, fishing. The guys were very keen to get started the following day so a time was agreed with the entire group that we would be on the water for 8am the next day as the weather was looking very good. So i quickly jotted down a few words for my Norway Fishing Report and then went to bed

Day 2 Thursday

The first days fishing of my Norway Fishing Report was upon us and with all the guys ready by 7:30 we headed down to the boats for what turned out to be a great day. Once we had loaded the boats up with what looked to be an entire stock of a tackle shop, it was time to head out to our first fishing mark. The advantage of this Island is that it is surrounded by the spawning grounds for these huge Barents Sea cod and they descend upon this Island for around 5 – 6 weeks from middle of March to end of April and they come in very close to the Island normally around 20 minute steam

All in all a great first days fishing for all

Day 3 Friday of this Norway Fishing Report

What can I say but “S***T weather” I got the dreaded call at around 630am from the head guide to say that the weather had got really bad overnight and there was to be no fishing for today and possible tomorrow… I hate that phone call as I have to go round and inform my guys of the horrible news, but to my surprise the guys just took it all on board and said that there was nothing I could do about it. With this bad news the guys were looking for things to do, some went and fished the harbour for flatties and some just relaxed in the cabin.

Now this Island isn’t the best place to be when the weather is rough as there isn’t too much to do. So lesson learned, take some cards a good book and maybe laptop, as there is free Wi-Fi at the camp

More bad news, again no fishing day… This is not good news as I know the fish are just outside the Island and we cannot get at them, but again the guys were totally understanding and done their own things which helped pass the time

Floatation suits on and it was time to hit the water, the guys looked a bit nervous of the state of the sea but the guide and myself would never take people out if it looked dangerous. So off we set, riding the waves, which looked very big, but these boats are some of the most stable boats I have ever driven and I knew they would simply ride the waves with great confidence. Once we got out to the Cod grounds and boat set up it was time for our first drift. Now don’t get me wrong, it was rough but fishable and at the end of the day the guys were here to fish not sit in the cabins, so we were out there. After just a couple of drifts I could see fatigue was already setting in and a few people looked a slightly green colour. The guide boat came over the Radio and said his guys had had enough and were heading in so I asked my guys and they agreed that they also wanted to head in. I don’t blame them as it was choppy but there was fish out there to catch, but tomorrow was looking really good with the winds changing and blowing from the east, which will flatten the sea

So with the first shout out of a certain depth the guys all fired their Big Bob’s at this fish. Normally if everyone is fishing at the right depth it will create almost a small shoal and encourages the big fish to feed. Chris Barnes was first into big fish and quickly up popped the first 20 kilo fish of the day, well done Chris

After yesterdays Crazy fishing experience the guys arms were killing so they all decided that it would be a late start and 10am was agreed and we would target the smaller cod and then try for some Halibut.

With the small cod fishing over it was looking good for some Halibut fishing close to the harbour. For Halibut we like a rising tide so with this in mind we tried our luck. The guide boat done a lot better than us and had 2 Halibut one of 142cm and one of 85cm, at this time of the year any Halibut is a good Halibut. We only managed 3 Wolf fish and some sad looking Cod………

At around 4pm I called it a day as all the guys needed to get back to the harbour to clean the boats and refuel, not to mention pack and clean the cabins. On the last day the Restaurant/Bar put on a Thank you meal of normally Pork Loins and fries with salad but is all you can eat buffet style. With this in mind every one was packed by 7pm and was heading for the bar to feed and drink what turned out to be a lot of beer, I think they drunk the pub dry so they started working their way through the spirits.

DAY 8 Wednesday

So with all the guys safely on the coach for their return it was time for me to sit back and relax before the next group of lucky anglers make their way to this little piece of paradise.

So thank you for reading this report and I will post Week 2 up next week.

If you would like to read full details of this destination Click Here

Until then, Tight Lines

Paul Stevens Sportquest Holidays Guide