The peak season is from mid July and into August, when the main run of salmon, has entered the river. The larger salmon enter the rivers in June and July, followed by the grilse. Fishing is permitted, using all lures beside prawns, which have been banned. The fishing in the large rivers involves trolling methods called ‘harling’. Salmon flies, of which tubes are popular, are large in the early season, often 1-2 inches with smaller flies towards the end of the season during the grilse run. All fishermen must be in possession of a Norwegain salmon licence in addition to a permit for the local river. Norwegian rivers have both private and public beats, the former are more expensive but offer more exclusive uncrowded fishing to the public beats which may become crowded in area's with the greatest fishing pressure. Norwegains are remarkable courteous and usually fish a beat punctuate by resting for a period before re-fishing the beat. Other fishermen are not excluded in this way from fishing down the pool, and as one Norwegain remarked it 'is a question of honour' to allow others to equally fish the beat. Many of the rivers offer a raffle system to allocate the 'best' beats on a daily basis, which is only possible for those present at the time of the raffle.

The annual Salmon catch is approximatly 300,000 salmon ( although these are frequently referred to in kilos of fish) in only the few months of fishing. A third of these are caught in Finnmark alone.There are many well known river systems in Norway. Many of the these drain into specific fiords as in the Trondheim region of central Norway which drains the Gaula & Stordal rivers. There is less fishing pressure in arctic Norway where some of the most well known Norwegian rivers are found and these are some of the most productive rivers. The most renowned are the Alta, Tana and Maselva, but these are also the most expensive, and are hard to fish from the bank.  There are however smaller wilder rivers with good catch statistics, where fly fishing for salmon and artic char are possible.

Fishing Tackle. Norwegian rivers are generally large, powerful rivers which usually demand double-handed rods, and for all but the warmest periods, sinking lines and strong leaders. It is common to use 16kg strength nylon particularly in boulder strewn rivers above rapids to control the fish in the pool.

Mosquitoes and Midges Fishermen and Caribou alike are plagued by these pests. A mosquito net is essential as the deterrent midge-sprays are only partially effective. Midges are far smaller and will pass unhindered through most normal mosquito nets, so it is essential to use a fine mesh. These are abundant in central and southern Norway but are not present in the arctic north, where the Mosquitoes prevail.

Flies Norwegian flies are rationally large hair-winged flies, preferably tubes often 2-3inches long. However the adage that most salmon flies used are generally over-sized, rather than under-sized is very true and smaller flies work extremely well. The most notable are those of the Francis Cone Head

www.frances.is

Gyrodactylus Salaris has been a serious threat to Norwegian salmon. The parasite which is less thar 0.5 mm in size infects the skin and gills of both salmon and trout killing the fish. It is endemic in Finland and Russia where the salmon are resistant to the parasite. It has proved a catastrophe to over 20 Norwegian rivers which have been destroyed of salmon stocks and was probably introduced by imported fish. All fishermen fishing different river systems must have there equipment sterilized before fishing and then posses and sterilization certificate. As yet there a no cases in the UK.

	A fresh Norwegian salmon caught on a cascade tube

 

Arctic Char (Salvelinus alpinus) belong to the same genus as Brook & lake trout and Dolly Varden. They are distributed along the Northern Atlantic coast from Russia in the East to Alaska in the West .There are a few land locked char in the U.K. left over from the last ice age. In Norway there are 2 forms. Those in the south are the freshwater variety, which live deep in lakes, and the sea run variety, found in the north, notably in Troms and Finnmark, which behave like sea-trout. These are only found in the cold water area's. These feed up to 100 km off shore and enter the rivers in shoals, from the end of July, to the end of the season. The normal weight is 1 kg, with the Norwegian record of 6.5kg. As with all char, they are spotted. The sea run variety appear, as a light grey-green with white-orange spots on the back turning to a deep orange-red near spawning. Sea run Char can be caught in the river mouths, and at streams junctions, with small shinny spinners, or small flies, either small dry flies, of nymphs.

Norway also has large numbers of sea trout, which are normally caught in the sea, along with Pike, and Perch in the rivers and lakes.