Sandbakken, Norway 2012 fishing trip advice!

Hi guys me and a few friends have booked a weeks long trip to Norway in search of their huge cod in April 2012. We booked a guided group trip with angling holidays direct where we meet up with a group of people and head to Norway. Has anyone been on a similar trip and got any advice on their experience on tackle needed etc?!I've been advised to bring a cooler box full of meat as it really expensive to buy up there!all help is greatly appreciated cheers!

I think perks are the main method of catching from a boat up that direction. Monster coalies and cod. I'd say a flask of hot whiskey might be worth taking on your trips out to sea.

best of luck

There are so many Sandbakkens in Norway that it's not at all clear where you're going (Sandbakken means "Hill of sand", so it's not particularly unique).

I've never tried Norway in April, but it'll be really cold! You'll definitely need a survival suit and warm clothes and boots and gloves and a wooly hat. The #1 lure that outfishes everything else is the Norwegian Pirk, a 3-sided curved pirk that the local fish can't get enough of. I don't know where to get them here, but there are plenty there. You'll probably need a bunch of them, ranging from 250g up to 750g or 1kg. Bring a 30lb-class rod with a reel loaded with at least 300m of 50lb braid as well as a lighter spinning rod.

To give you an idea, I'm heading over in a couple of weeks, and I'm bringing 4 rods: 2 x 30-lb class boat rods, one with a Penn 4-0 loaded with 500m of 70lb braid and an Abu BG1000 loaded with 300m of 50lb braid, an uptider paired with a Shimano Navi 8000PG loaded with about 400m of 30lb braid, and an 11ft spinning rod with a fixed-spool reel loaded with 20lb braid. I also have a range of pirks from previous visits, but only 2 of these are Norwegian pirks, the rest are things that I bought in the mistaken belief that they would be as good. Sometimes, big shads work well too, so you could consider these.

Yes, it's expensive there, but presumably you'll eat fish all the time - it's only a week, so you'll have a chance to try cod, coalfish, halibut, redfish, wolffish, haddock, etc. - plenty of variety there. In any case it's extremely illegal to bring in foreign meat, just like it is here. If you want to bring something with you that's really expensive, bring your adult beverages - beer is not cheap, and spirits are shocking.

And the thing that will entertain you the most is likely to be the wolffish - the most aggressive, nasty, vicious fish I've ever caught - makes a conger seem like a pussy-cat.

Hi bpmurray thanks for the advice. The resort we r staying in is close to badrufoss,u know it?!the trip is the last week of April so hopefully it won't be too cold!can you recommend any good sites to buy the tackle needed for this trip as I'm having trouble finding a site that ships to Ireland at reasonable rates!

if you are looking for tackle on line
try VEALS TACKLE
they will ship into ireland and prices seem ok

Actually, where we usually go is not far from there - Lyngseidet on Lyngenfjord. Here are a few selected pics: http://www.flickr.com/groups/nlsa/ - there are pics from last year too.