Boat Trip - Skjervoy, Norway late July / early Aug 2007

[arthurg]

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

[Ronald]

Hi Arthur ,I'll be there the week before that ,we went the same period last year and the best fishing seemed to be during the night ,we'd cod to 36lb ,halibut to 28lb ,coalies 18lb ,haddock 7-8lb ,I'll pm you a few directions to some hot-spots we found last year ,as for halibut ,I've still to get one but had plenty follow cod right to the side of the boat that were 3-4 feet long ,the mates in an other boat seen one 9 foot + follow a cod up ,god knows what would have happened if they'd hooked it ,they'd prob still be playing the thing :lol:
I'd recomend the place to anybody ,but be prepared to be knackered at the end of the week , best night we had was 8 30lb+cod plus boated !!

[arthurg]

Cheers Ronald - If I had any doubt at all, you've just convinced me!

Do you travel with the same crowd?

[pete]

Good to see your back Arthur!

[Ronald]

Yeah anglers world ,think the boss is called martin ,its alot of traveling but well worth it ,we're think of getting the fast ferry from tromso to skervoy this year just to get a look around some of the other fjords ,the coach journey is about 3 hrs . fly fishing for the coalies would be good craic as the shoals of 2-3lb fish have to be seen to be believed ,you'd swear it was raining when the break the surface as htey feed on fry ,fishing below them gets the big cod .

[arthurg]

Don't forget to PM the hot-spots!


Oh aye .................. and don't catch all the fish the week before we come!




And Cheers Pete - good to be back.

[Ronald]

remind me nearer the time ,if i'm back before you go i'll be able to give you an update and exact areas /tactics ,but i'l pm last couple of years marks :wink:

[Ronald]

A wee taster of a typical night ,though davy got his 32lb on the baitcaster :lol:

[Davy Murdoch]

its certainly a night i`ll never forget or the whole holiday for that matter.wish i could go again this year but its not to be :cry: