Welcome to this Exclusive Sportquest Holidays Skrei Cod trip to the world-famous Sørøya in northern Norway. In conjunction with Big Fish Adventures, we would like to introduce you to the best Cod fishing location in the world. There are more Cod over 60lb caught here each year than anywhere in the world. Back in 2013, a German angler smashed the world record which stood for 44 years with a whopping 103lb Skrei Cod caught from a boat on rod and reel from this magical island of Sørøya. As of 2020 Sportquest hosted holidays have seen anglers boat fish up to 93lb and many coming home with Cod over 70lb it will not be long before one of our lucky anglers comes home holding a world record, the question is, could it be you?
Location
The Island is located a few miles off the mainland of North Norway and can be reached by a small aeroplane from Tromso. Once landed on the island its a short 5-minute transfer to your cabins which are located on the edge of a stunning fjord. At the mouth of the fjord is the open ocean which is where you will be mainly targeting the mighty Skrei Cod. If you are looking at smashing your Cod PB then you must visit this little Norwegian Island at least once. As you can imagine, with it being a small island in the open ocean the sea can be fairly rough sometimes so you should expect to maybe lose a day or two to bad weather, but the advantage of this destination is that it is located in a fjord so even in the roughest conditions it may be possible to head out and fish in relatively sheltered waters. If you do lose any days fishing, when you do eventually get out on the Cod grounds you will soon forget any lost days as a few hours catching these Cod will have your arms and back aching.
Fishing
The main season for catching enormous Skrei Cod is March and April. This is when the massive shoals of Skrei Cod travel from the Barents Sea to the spawning grounds located around the north of Norway and with the Skrei fishing grounds only being a short boat drive away you can be fishing in a very short time. The shoals of Cod are like nothing you will ever have seen before and previous years we have had the shoals from the bottom to literally meters below the surface and have even seen the Cod jumping out of the water like free jumping Marlin. It truly is a spectacle that every true sea angler needs to witness.
This trip is based on 12 anglers fishing from 3 boats and 2 guides. The guides will move people around so everybody gets equal times on the boat with the guides. We have 45 boats from 19 feet, 22ft, 23ft and 25ft here is a bit of information about the new boats. The 19ft aluminium boats are spacious, they have 50 Hp four-stroke engines and are equipped with sonar and GPS. 3-4 people can fish comfortably on board and life vests are included of course. we also have 2 upgrade options available first the Kaasbøll 660SC is a good looking, fast and stable 22-footer, and with its delicate and sporty shape, it cuts nicely through rough seas. It has a deep V-bottom, which provides very good seagoing characteristics. This is a solid boat for people who want to move quickly out to the banks, even when the weather is a bit choppy. The second option is the Kaasbøll 760HT which is a large, powerful aluminium boat with a hardtop centre-console. Its modern and sporty design makes it a very desirable boat to fish from. It has a slim and deep V-bottom that makes this a boat that can withstand rough sea at high speed. With four people you’ll have more than enough space.
Both of our upgraded boats are equipped with two Garmin echoMAP 92s and the GT51-M transducer. With this rig, you will be able to use normal sonar and also down view and side view options. With this transducer, you can easily see fish down to 300-400 metres. They will also be equipped with Zipwake which is a dynamic trim-control system, that automatically calculates the weight shift on the boat and compensates for this. What that means in practice is that the boat will remain correctly angled while driving, making the V-bottom work optimally. The system has a very good and reliable automatic mode, so you don’t have to trim it manually. The engines of the models are the trusty Yamaha F150DETX. models, we have had Yamaha on all our boats and have had very few problems during our 16 years. We are confident that this is the engine that is the best for our guests.
Guides
This is a hosted trip so you will have 2 Sportquest guides on the holiday who will be able to help with any questions you may have. Sportquest has been fishing the waters surrounding Soroya for many years so we know where to fish and more importantly how to target the big ones. The hosts will be there to help land fish, how to release fish, how to set up your tackle and more importantly there to advise when it is safe to fish. The fishing is based on three boats and two guides meaning one boat will be driven by an angler that will simply follow the two guide boats out sticking very close by so we can all keep in radio contact. These boats are very easy to handle and the guides will make sure whoever is driving one of the boats is entirely comfortable with the controls.
If you have any questions on our Sørøya fishing trips you can contact us in the office, our sea fishing team will be happy to help you with any queries you have. Additionally, you can request a free brochure.
