As someone more intelligent than me once said: "Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated!" I never got posting much at all last year due to changing jobs and being very busy, but I'm still allowed out of the asylum most weekends during the summer and manage to get some fishing in. Hopefully I'll have more time to drop in the odd report this year ............. and if the past is anything to go by you can bet your life they'll certainly be odd!
Anyway, I've been looking at this trip and fancy giving it a go. Here's what I know so far:
London company - Anglers World - arrange it. Prices are in £ and from Stansted which remains the cheapest option - connections to Stansted are in addition obviously.
Guy I spoke to said that Iceland is very expensive and uses charter boats whereas Skjervoy is self drive boats and the fishing, in his opinion, is better. He described Southern Norway as little better than Ireland - there's a 200 mile exclusion limit for trawlers up north!
Deal is based on 4 traveling and includes flights, connections, cottage and boat for 7 days.
I asked him for the truth about potential catches. He said that 3 of his customers last year caught 50Lb+ Cod, with many in the 30's and some in the 40's. He said that very, very few of his customers failed to get a 20Lb+ Cod.
He said other quarry include Halibut (which apparently theu do not target) with 40Lb+ being relatively common and one of 200Kg being landed there last summer. Coalies to 25Lb with 12Lb+ being common, and Wolfish over 20Lb with 5 - 12Lb being nothing out of the ordinary. Haddock were also mentioned in despatches.
My most probable week would be 24th July, however that week there is only one 'slot' for 4 anglers available. A friend and I are definites if we get a full crew (so only another 2). However we have not asked other members of our club so we might just get a couple there. The following two weeks have vacancies for 2 X 4's so if there was more interest we could change to that week (which would result in me missing a league trip in Lough Swilly!).
Incidentally, Skjervoy has 2,500 inhabitants, 2 tackle shops, 3 supermarkets, one hotel and one pub................. or should that have been one pub, 2 tackle shops and some other bits and bobs!
Weather varies from a pleasant high of around 75 degrees and sunny, to a more Irish 14 degrees and rainy. Bonus is 24 hours daylight so fighing tides anytime!
Fishing is exclusively done on the drift using either one large shad or, as the Norweigans do, one big pirk. Any notion of hokkais or 3-hook traces could result in hooking millions of wee Coalies or a gear-busting treble of good Cod. His quote was "Northern Norway is everything you imagine it could be!"
He recommended 20Lb - 30Lb rods (max), Shimano 20LD or similar, 40Lb braid. Pirks probably best bought over there to save weight surcharges on flights. Very little tackle loss as generally sandy bottom.
Website:
http://www.catch-the-action.co.uk
Price for the above is £586.
If there's any of you interested please let me know. The deal is £250 on booking with balance 8-10 weeks before departure.
Oh, and I've got a wee notion that the craic could be quite good!
Cheers,
Arthur