Norway-Nightmare or Nirvana?

[zephead]

I have been looking very hard into fishing in Norway next year as opposed to Russia etc and,despite the poor season lots of salmon fishing countries seem to be having generally,I have heard nothing but horror stories this year about trips to Norway,with no-one saying they have had a good trip with decent numbers of fish for the beat they were going to.

These mostly centre on being turned over on extra costs for food,lodging etc upon arrival,blatant lies told whilst booking re the fishing rotas,competition from snake drowners and cutlery chuckers on the opposite bank when it was supposed to double bank fishing,limited rotas for the "good" river where a two river holiday was booked etc.The list of serious misdescriptions and erroneous terms is endless but you get the flavour.

To make matters worse,none of these have been "cut-price" trips,albeit one was sponsored by a leading tackle manufacturer who really should have known better,with a lot of terse correspondence now being fired about upon the boys return to Blighty.Some of these tours were arranged with reputable outfits-others privately thro known sources and all with the same dissatisfied result.

So,in this context does one wait til the lottery comes up/rob a sub-post Office and pray for a miracle invitation to the renowned Alta syndicate or look to go elsewhere for ones none-UK salmon fishing?

Any info on reliable Norwegian fishing gratefully recieved-surely it can't all be a nightmare.

ZH

[robbie]

Hi ZH,
I have recently posted a couple of times about my visit to Norway and while fishing was poor because of the lack of water, I am glad to say that I did not experience any of the other negatives you speak of. My trip was supposed to cost £2,250. This was a complete package, flights, food, accommodation,permits,transportation to and from the rivers. The trip was meant to be a"safari" in that we would fish 5 different rivers in 6 days. sadly due to no water we were limited to one river, the Namsen,and also elected to spend a day fishing in a fjord for sea-trout. Also included in the trip f.o.c. was the constant presence of Clive Mitchelhill AAPGAI,(not fishing himself) who spent hours at a time helping myself and fellow guests improve our casting. I can not speak highly enough of our guide, Mike Waszek, who spent hours and hours on the phone trying to find rain and fishable water for us. He was also a maestro at cooking fabulous BBQs riverside ;D. I did not pay full price as I managed to book a cancellation place and as I have written before, I felt that at worst I had just been on a fabulous holiday, in great scenery,with good friends and had a week of casting instruction. Now that the pain of "blanking" has worn off I am seriously thinking of going back. This time maybe I will be luckier with the weather

[tynetraveller]

I haven't done Norway yet, although plans are afoot for next year. There is a huge difference though between Norway and Russia- In Russia all the best weeks on the best rivers are freely available to anyone with the money to go, In Norway most adult males seem to salmon fish and the locals tend to (quite rightly) take the best beats at the best times for themselves and these rarely if ever become available to foreigners. I am hoping to go next year on an insider trip wth a Norwegian friend, and I am also getting a tranlsation of the application for the Alta lottery, which is open to anyone. It is also a place to chase one or two great fish( on most rivers) as opposed to many smaller ones, and inevitably there is a high chance of a blank.

[zephead]

Hombres,

many thanks for your useful tips and advice on the Scandanavian scene.

Much appreciated.

ZH