Mefjord Brygge Sea Fishing Norway Road Ends & adventure begins

The pre-trip information from Sportsquest was excellent and preparations went flawlessly. The problem was when we got to Bardufoss. Our clothes, fishing tackle and all our food did not arrive with us! Due to it being good Friday we could not even go to a supermarket to buy food as they were all shut. Luckily the camp contact, Michael, stopped in a garage and we managed to buy some frozen Pizzas and some eggs for breakfast the next day.
Luckily, Paul Stevens (Sportquest) was already in camp hosting a group of British anglers and after a quick discussion, the lads very kindly came up with some spare tackle and some warm clothes. I also hired a floatation suit from the camp.
The accommodation me and my pal were allocated was basic and small. We had one bedroom with a bunk bed, a small kitchen/living area and a bathroom. It was, however, clean and warm. It could have done with having a microwave and I would advise anybody going to take an ipad or other device for films and entertainment.
The next morning dawned sunny and calm but bitterly cold. Paul Stevens had given us some marks the evening before and off we went. We arrived at the mark at slack tide but started getting hits immediately. Very frustratingly, for the first couple of hours we lost every fish that hit. As soon as the tide picked up we started catching. My first fish was a 53lb cod, beating my previous PB by 36lbs! Over the next 4 hours we had about 25 cod between 10 and 53 lbs.
When we arrived back at camp all our gear and food had arrived and we soon forgot about the first days problems.
The second day went very much like the first. Lots of cod and the odd coley. the most notable fish were a 44, 36, 31 and 30 cod plus many others. The lures that seemed to work best for the bigger fish were a 730g Robocod Westin Big Bob, 270g real herring curl tail savage gear cutbait herring & 560g blue back savage gear 3D herring big shad. I had most of the smaller fish on a blue OTI jinkster 300g jig.
Day 3, again was like the first two days. Again, we had cod in the 40lb class. Most of my fish were caught on a 150g Nomura popping rod with a shimano saragosa 8000 spooled with 60 lb coloured diawa J-braid. Depth finding braid is essential as you can accurately fish at the depth the fish are, as indicated by the fish finder. My other rod was a Diawa kenzaki 30-50 with a Shimano Talica 12 loaded with 80lb coloured J-braid.
Day 4 was a non-fishing day due to the weather. We weren't allowed out.
Day 5 we tried twice to get to the cod grounds but were beaten back by the weather and ended up fishing in the fiord. We caught redfish, coley, ling and haddock which was fun. The last fishing day was also very windy and the boats were not allowed out until 16.00. Again we could only fish the fiord but had about 20 haddock, ling, redfish, cod and coley.
In summary, it was a fantastic trip and I will be going again and I will be going through Sportquest. The problems we had were nothing to do with Sportquest and no-one can control the weather but the 3 good days we had made the trip worthwhile by themselves.

Accommodation as expected!

Fishing much better than expected!

Size + variety in abundance.

All helped by perfect weather.

A great holidays

Better stocked tackle shop at Mefjord Brygge and a bit clearer info regarding hire equipment.

Best part: The amazing scenery and exhilaration of catching my first Cod.

Need to know: The "local" supermarket is very poorly stocked with everything. No variety.

A very enjoyable experience!
The accommodation was excellent (drawer or wardrobe space would be good)
The boats were stable + well designed.
Staff on site could be a bit more forthcoming with what is catching at the time i.e. bait shad or pirk. Also, when they say the shop is open from 7:30 - 5:30 it should be.

Had a great time and the resort was well organised and the facilities were spot on.We did find the cabin accommodation a bit small for 4 men along with the boat I think 3 for the cabin and boat would be better.

When arriving at the airports make sure your luggage is checked straight through, as this will prevent the delay we had.

Would be useful to see a diary log of recent catches and photos.

Mefjord Brygge. Wow Wow Wow. Fantastic fishing and very friendly and clean.

If the wind is in one direction ie strong enough in from the sea there is no chance of fishing. You cannot escape to a side fiord. The freezer room looked like it had broken down at some point and thawed out and re froze again as everything was left covered in thick ice including the floor. A toaster would be handy. Best part was getting out of the fjord just one day and catching some fish.
Tackle shop needs some serious fishing gear.

1, Take a cheap Filleting knife and leave it
2, Take fish back in Freezer bag (Iceland) and put in second hold hard case luggage.
3, Absolutely outstanding place to fish. Caught P.Bs and species unlikely to catch in UK waters. Red Fish, Haddock, Wolf Fish.
4, Loved it and saving up to go back asap

Great fishing, Great time. i have lots of pictures. Please send a memory stick an I will transfer them for you.

Great Holiday

All facilities were good, staff friendly and helpful. Weather was glorious!

No one to meet us on arrival. No information about sheet or towel exchange. The staff in the bar restaurant were very good and friendly.
The rooms were clean but kitchen needs a toastie.

An excellent holiday ruined by the incompetence of Norwegian air - very long delays both ways with no apology or explanation.

The boats and camp staff were both excellent with superb weather and scenery.

We caught all our target fish speciesand enjoyed the Sea Eagles but the real highlight was seeing the Northern lights on three nights.

I would suggest in regards to tackle that customers bring lighter tackle as the main 30lb class is a bit OTT for some of the fishing, lighter rods, reels and even LRF gear would mean you could get the most out of the sport on offer around the camp and on the boat.

Excellent holiday

Thank you Sportquest

Great holiday thank you

Firstly I would like to say a big thank you to you and your associates for all your help and information in the planning of this trip.

After a tiring journey it was great to find that The Northern Lights Apartments were exactly as described, well appointed clean and warm .
Day one the weather was against us so no fishing but it gave us time to explore the resort do some shopping, register for our boats and test the bar next door . Next morning the sunrise was amazing as was the weather for the rest of the week, T shirt and shorts ,all the thermals left in the suitcases.
We managed to fish every day and caught up to eleven different species some of which we ate and others returned , unfortunately we didn’t find the elusive Halibut. I could go on at length with all the adventures and anecdotes but suffice it to say we had a fantastic holiday Thank you.

As always there are a couple of buts and ifs which I feel you should know about .
Firstly as mentioned above, after a tiring journey I as the organiser was astonished and somewhat annoyed due to tiredness that (you may have all ready heard about this) on our arrival there was no one to greet us and we were stood in the rain like a bunch of idiots . Eventually after ringing the local contact number without success, I had to ring back to the UK and your chap sorted it . I can’t remember the name of the chap who eventually came to show us to our apartment but it almost seemed that he was annoyed that we had disturbed his night . We had been delayed at Bardufoss due to missing and damaged luggage ,another story. Surely he must have known that we were due to arrive and should have waited for us to arrive ?
I guess my dissatisfaction must have fed back to management as we were offered a free meal in the restaurant later in the week to compensate .
Rant over , after a good nights sleep the incident was soon forgotten .

This may be beyond your control but a welcome/information pack of some sort in the apartments would be helpful .

Regarding lost and damaged luggage again not your responsibility but might be advisable to instruct people to use more robust cases to avoid damage .(I don’t know if Norwegian luggage handlers are worse than any other airport but having witnessed them at work I was shocked)

I believe this has been said before but if leaving at three in the morning and then a long wait in Oslo could be re scheduled ,even if this meant a further cost it would be better..

Once again thank you for a fantastic experience

Overall an excellent Holiday! Information on fishing marks, weather and tides very sparse. Advised Plaice fishing available in Fjord, not the case and only accessible by motoring to the next fjord which was not possible during rough weather. Flights out to Norway excellent return flight excessive connection time in Oslo (6-7 hours)

The flights were great
Transfers were great
Accommodation was great
The food was Great

Charter boat experience not great
Quality of assistance paid for not great

There were 2 issues that i would change before I would visit again in the spring

The big boat is Ok as a touring boat but not good enough as a fishing boat in poor weather

Outside the fjord areas are netted and very heavily trawled.

I enjoyed the holiday a lot and found Matt and Mark very helpful.

In general the assistance provided by Sportquest was excellent and I cannot fault the travel information provided, the flights or the transfers. The ticket wallet, luggage labels and hat are a nice touch.

The fishing camp at Mefjord is one of the best I have seen, i especially liked everything being very close together so that there were no long walks to get to the boats.

The 4 of us shared 2 4 man cabins so we had a bedroom each but if all four of us had shared the same cabin it would be a little snug, especially as there are no wardrobes/ storage upstairs to allow clothes etc to be put away.

We used the on site restaurant a couple of times and we thought the food was excellent and not overpriced (by Norwegian standards) and it was nice to see that it is heavily used used by the locals. We went of- menu for the last night having ordered King crab which was excellent.

It was unfortunate that the weather was extremely windy during our trip however, having booked the big boat we were able to get out fishing every day. For the first 2.5 days we fished the end of the fjord and managed to catch a 35kg Halibut but otherwise we were only catching small cod to 15kg.

There didn't seem to be any of the very large Skrei cod I was hoping for and the boat skipper seemed to think 20kg was as big as they got.

The fishing might have been better had it not been so windy.

Thank you for your assistance with arranging this trip and I would certainly use Sportquest again in the future.

Great holiday thank you

V good holiday. Main concern coming from 'up north' is only having flights from Gatwick...adds effectively 2 days of travel and an overnight stop....more flexibility with flights. Rest up to normal high standards.

Hump back whales / White tail Eagles, Oh yes fishing was magic

We arrived later on Tuesday and were processed to our cabin but no one was available to show us the boat/gear/hire stuff until the next morning. When we were shown the equipment we on had a very quick run through of the boat/gps/fish finder but no offer of someone showing us the places to fish etc.
Weather was very poor and bad sea conditions. Unfortunately the weather scuppered our ability to enjoy the conditions, two days was not enough time toget used to the marks where we may have found fish in the fjords.

I appreciate the help of the Sportquest team sorting these 2 days at Mefjord but it just didn't work for us at this location.

Lots of commercial fishing activity in Mefjord on the Skrei grounds, this prevented our fishing on the known marks.

3 gill netting boats and 2 trawlers on a single day were fishing these grounds

Sportsquest
Good:
- Great levels of communication on all sides.
- Extras were great: hat, luggage tags, travel folder etc

Bad:
- Nothing bad to say

Mefjord Brygge
Cabin 1 - Boat 17

Good:
- Rooms were good and clean
- The boat was clean and easy to use
- Filtering and freezing facilities were very good.
- Staff were all very friendly and helpful, Michael especially - he seemed happy to go above and beyond his normal role.
- Dominique, the guide was friendly and provided good information even though we were not employing his services.

Bad:
- Engine high-temperature alarm:
The engine often had the high-temperature alarm, the guys at the camp did look at this but the problem was not resolved.
- Shower flooded:
The shower in the room would flood occasionally, this was a bigger problem than it sounds as the last thing you want to do after 12-14 hours fishing is mopping up a flooded bathroom. We made the camp aware of the problem, but this was not resolved.

Fishing:
Fairly slow during our time at the camp, a few nice halibut caught, cod to upper doubles and coalies to low doubles (1 of 18lb) most fish caught on smaller lures, #5-#6 fiiish black minnows and small gummiemacs provided more sport than the big pirks and shads.

A dream holiday that didnt fail to impress. Can not wait to book for next year

Great holiday let down by the weather and lost luggage on transfer. Pre information on tides would help, we had no tide at all and definitely hampered our fishing. No big fish which we guessed was the lack of tide. Overall great time and thanks

Excellent family fishing trip. Well looked after at Mefjord. Lucky with weather, fished everyday. Children were pleased

Flight times were dreadful.

Staff couldnt have been more helpful

Excellent trip. Very good accommodation. Easy access to fishing ground. Long transfer to camp

We caught loads of fish including Cod to 20lb on our spinning gear.

Coalfish to 12lb some on spinning gear, shads and small pirks. Weather fantastic except for one day, what a beautiful place.

Outstandig moment was a 25 minute battle with a Halibutwhich took half a spool on its first run and tried to shake my brother to bits which it kept doing intermittently. We followed it in the boat for 10 minutes it then got off after an extremely violent fight.

Excellent adventure. Please just sort out the weather for next time!!

First trip for 5 years due to health problems (love my fishing) and what a great trip, organisation and communication from Sportquest was excellent.

Fishing experience so good we are looking at booking again for next year so you will be hearing from us soon.

The only downside for the trip was Norwegian airlines mislaid our equipment .

The fishing was good, the weather was great and the staff in the accommodation were very friendly.

Second visit to Mefjord and once again a wonderful experience, lots Cod to 30lbs, small Halibut to 12lb's plus Haddock, Wolffish, Plaice, Dabs and coalfish.

We were upgraded to a larger cabin with separate rooms and this really transformed our stay.

Special thanks to your team in the UK and to Ronnie, Robert and Michael at the resort.

The flight times were a huge improvement over last year.

Being our second visit we knew what to expect and this was better than last year.

A fantastic experience from start to finish. Any queations asked were answered and the whole trip was a trip of a lifetine. Brilliant.

Big thanks to all the team at sport quest fantastic survice and organisers flight and accommodation all firsts class the fishing this year was a little slower but that was due to the weather 23 degrees and sunny flat calm still managed to get some cod to 30lb coal fish to 15lb no halibut this year . very unusual to get the weather this warm in August at the top end of Norway looking forward to our next trip already. Thank you sport quest.