Sandland Brygge, N. Norway

[Beelo]

People: 7 anglers.

Duration: 17th to 26th May.

Results: Countless Cod to 52 Ib, 52 Halibut to 66 Ib, Haddock to 7 Ib, Torsk to 10Ib, Wolfish to 10Ib, Coalfish to 10 Ib.

Travel: Was with SAS airlines as recommended by others. This airline is excellent and easy going on bag weights. I left home at 0500 hrs on the 17th and headed to Dublin for 4 long flights! Dublin-Copenhagen, Copenhagen-Oslo, Oslo-Tromso, Tromso-Alta. Arriving in Alta at 2300 hrs to find my rod tube had been sent to Frankfurt by mistake. We arrived at the Hotel in Alta which was very expensive, both to stay and eat in. I believe 3 beers and a pizza cost roughly 90 euro! So after 3hours sleep it was off in a bus to the ferry for the last leg of our journey. We arrived at our Destination at around 0900hrs on the 18th. This was a long, tough journey. The flight to Copenhagen was not necessary as there are direct flights to Oslo; it was just cheaper at our time of booking. The hotel is very exspensive and we only stayed there for a few hours so in my view not necessary. The rest I’m afraid is par for making a trip to the Arctic Circle. My rod tube arrived 2 days later in perfect condition.

Resort: Sandland Brygge is new for 2011 and we were the second group of anglers to stay there. Our host Steiner was very welcoming and helpful throughout our stay, eagerly awaiting our return each day to find out what we had caught. The resort is ideally located to reach the most productive grounds in less than an hour. There is even talk of a bar on the pier for next year! We hired 2 Dolmoy 230 boats which are excellent, being comfortable, dry and stable.

Fishing: Day 1 we fished the grounds west of Loppa Island with depths ranging from 30 to 90 metres. The excitement of fishing in another country, not knowing what to expect is brilliant. Sure we knew cod were a given but to what size and what about halibut would anyone be lucky enough to catch one. The day was bright with a light N. Easterly breeze. Within minutes we were all catching Cod into double figures, Haddock, Wolfish and Torsk. A move was made further north to 'Halibut bay' starting the drift within 100metres of the shore in 30 metres of water and drifting out to 90 metres. This proved a good move and we caught our first Halibut of about 12 pounds. We continued fishing this area for the rest of the day and finished up with 6 Halibut to 15 pounds countless Cod to 35 pounds.

Day 2 we explored the ground around the North West of Silda Island. The weather was perfect with top temperatures of 10 degrees. The area was just full of cod feeding on baitfish, 2 or 3 cod at a time was the norm. We finished the day with Cod to 36 pounds and 8 more Halibut to 48 pounds. Also catching plenty of Haddock to 7 pounds and wolfish to 10 pounds.

Day 3 we fished the ground around the North West to the North East of Silda Island. Again there was incredible numbers of Cod to 33 pounds and 5 Halibut to 20 pounds.

Day 4 we fished the northeast side of Loppa with again good numbers of cod to 40 pounds and 3 Halibut to 40 pounds.

Day 5 another beautiful day allowing us to search a lot of marks in the area. I say search i really mean stop at a mark or feature and fish for 20 minutes if there was no 30 pounds Cod or Halibut we moved on!! We finished the day with Cod to 35 pounds and 6 Halibut to 25 pounds.

Day 6 we fished the North side of Loppa catching a lot of large cod. Moving down the West side we found a lot of Halibut. We finished the day with Cod to 52 pounds and 10 Halibut to 25 pounds.

Day 7 we fished the North and North East side of Loppa catching Cod to 41 pounds and 6 Halibuts to 66 pounds.

Day 8 we finished up an incredible weeks fishing with another 8 Halibut and more cod to 34 pounds.

We finished the week with 52 Halibut which was brilliant, the average size was small enough but the host explained that later in the year is better for big fish. He also explained that the big Coalies don't come in until later in the year either. Peak Cod fishing was probably missed by a few weeks as most fish had spawned and were probably 20% lighter after spawning. The Cod were very abundant but the shoal of bigger fish feeding on the baitfish seemed to move a lot and just because one drift produced doesn’t mean it would produce on the next drift.

I researched lures extensively before going to Norway and between us we had an extensive range to try. For general fishing the Solvroken/Norwegian Pirk is very good but it is an old design of pirk and is very tiring to use. The more modern speed jigs took a lot of fish and is much easier to use. There was several other pirks which worked fine but the 2 above were our favourite designs. Shads worked well catching lots of fish. The giant jig heads with a giant shad worked extremely well for the bigger fish. Our top five fish were probably all caught on either giant Storm or Savagegear shads. We found that pirks were a great way to find fish and then fish with giant shads once a shoal of decent Cod were located. Whole Coalfish did not produce any results for us but i suspect that this was due to the fish were tuned in on Herring and Capelin as food. I would guess that Coalies would be a better bait later in the year.
Terminal gear needs to be the strongest possible and make new traces every day as the line will eventually succumb to so many big fish. There was also a lot of confusion in regards to treble hook sizes. We found that a good quality forged 4/0 or 6/0 is all that is needed and there is no need for the anchor like 10/0 treble hooks that some suggest. Owner makes some nice forged trebles.

Overall it was an incredible holiday and i would definetly recommend the resort to anyone interested in fishing in Norway.

[Beelo]

some pics wolfish and a puffin found in a cods stomach!

[Beelo]

pics of 66 lb Halibut, 52 Ib cod, 40Ib Halibut, 40Ib Cod

[Beelo]

Pics;48lb Halibut ,one low 30's one high 20's, 73lb of cod in one drop, midnight sunset

[yngkmd]

im not jealous in the slightest...those piddly coalies and doggies ive been making do with are all i need......yes, thats a complete lie.

cracking stuff, cant wait till i go next year..........im already as excited as a kid on christmas eve

[evan699]

Great fishing lads. What a way to spend a few days. Great to see the trip went well after makin the effort to travel there. Did ye try using puffins as bait .

[nicefish]

Great fishing lads I must ask Henry to order some Puffin for bait for my next boat trip.

[alby]

looks sh1te

[roger de dodger]

looks cold great report lads i live in hope of winning the lotto

[corbyeire]

good report beelo

see i told you ye would be sooo dissapointed missing the gold medal closed

great effort and great results

[Don]

Wow, some cracking fish there Beelo. Make sure you bring all the photos to the comp in Dingle in Aug. Would love to get some more info on cost etc.

[Stephen8wood]

Wow, I'll have to give that a try. The only thing is what size of a priest do you need to dispatch a cod or halibut of that size? Does it get a bit like a slaughter house on the boat with all those huge beasts coming aboard?

[Seaniebo]

looks sh1te

It was.

looks cold great report lads i live in hope of winning the lotto

€1200 a head all in. Only cost over there was fuel for the boat which came to about 200 a head. Most lads would spend a hell of a lot more than that on a ten day trip to Spain between flights, accommodation, booze and grub.

Wow, I'll have to give that a try. The only thing is what size of a priest do you need to dispatch a cod or halibut of that size? Does it get a bit like a slaughter house on the boat with all those huge beasts coming aboard?

We took probably four halibut and maybe 8 cod for eating everything else went back. All fish kept were dispatched cleanly by good doctor beelo.

[Beelo]

Wow, I'll have to give that a try. The only thing is what size of a priest do you need to dispatch a cod or halibut of that size? Does it get a bit like a slaughter house on the boat with all those huge beasts coming aboard?

We took probably four halibut and maybe 8 cod for eating everything else went back. All fish kept were dispatched cleanly by good doctor beelo.[/quote]

The good doctor gave all fish a check over before releasing into the sea, unfortunately affected fish had to be put to sleep via a hurley like gaff. It was a tough job but somebody had to do it.

[Beelo]

looks sh1te

Whats crap is going from 6 feet long flatties to 6 inch long flatties

[Danny M.]

Great pictures Beelo & Co and an excellent report.

Some fine specimens ye landed there fair play, it aint easy going hauling them up from the depths

Once you pop you cant stop !

Danny.

[suckycalf]

Great fishing lads . Looking foward to hearing more about it over the weekend .

[Stan]

Fantastic fishing and great report!!

[Stan]

Beelo, who did you organise the trip with?

[Seaniebo]

Howya Stan,

It was with DinTur