Chasing Norwegian salmon in Mandalselva. Part 2
Day 6. I planned to wake up very early, but due to laziness and lack for motivation, I turned off the alarm and continued to sleep until 8. I almost lost a hope to get a salmon.
But after conversation with friend from the camping, I convinced myself to go fishing.
It's strange phenomenon, I wanted this trip so much, and did a lot of preparation. But now I'm on the river, there's salmon in it, but I don't have a motivation.
In the morning, I continued on that pool, where I spotted fish yesterday. There's rocky island in the middle of the river. The fly I chose was small orange fly on brass tube, sort of snaelda.
I threw my line very close to this rock on the other side, and let it swing across the pool. Suddenly, in the middle of the run, line stopped, and I felt like i'm snagged. It shouldn't be snag there, it's too deep. Whaat? It is there, the fish! My heart rate bursted to 190 bpm from adrenaline, I almost felt like a had a heart attack. Oh shit, that's the salmon, big salmon! Calm down, don't do silly things. I've been waiting for you so long, I must, must land that fish. 5 zero days, and this is the chance which I wouldn't want to spoil.
I ran along the bank, to overtake the fish from downstream side, and prevent it to runaway down the river. If fish will escape so far to the next rapids, that could be the worst scenario, but the pool was quite comfortable to land the fish.
I played it carefully, not allowing to jump. When salmon jump, they often come off the hook.
My Winston iiiTH 14' 8wt has enough power to steer fish where I want. I brought salmon to the shallow water, when fish stuck in the gravel beach, not able to escape to the deep water.
Yeeesss, here it is, my treasure, my precious, my first Norwegian salmon. I'm the winner!!!
It's happened, happy ending of my trip. I was dancing on the river bank, celebrating the victory.
Most of Norwegian fishermen take caught salmon home. C&R isn't a big thing in Scandinavian countries. Taking 2 fish per day is allowed by rules. If I'd caught that fish in the first day, we'd grilled and eat in in the camping with friends. But it was the last day of my trip. I cannot carry frozen salmon in the airplane luggage, either I have no time to cooking it. So I decided to release that fish. The salmon swam away, but memories about chasing that fish will remain for all my life. For the catch report I measured it, and it was 81 cm. Approximate weight is 5.6 kg.
Later in the evening, I checked the report. There was only 8 salmon caught in the whole river for this particular day. Quite low number, so I was lucky.
After that, I didn't want to fish that much. I wanted to check out the place called Holmesland C in Zone 2. There's beautiful wide pool with the island in the middle. If water is low, below 48 m3/s or so, it's possible to wade to the island, fish both sides, hole under waterfall, and riffles downstream from the pool.
I fished couple of hours more, and returned to the camping. I needed to dry out my waders and boots, before to pack it to the luggage.
First meet with Mandalselva was so exciting, so I want to return to this beautiful place once again.
But after conversation with friend from the camping, I convinced myself to go fishing.
It's strange phenomenon, I wanted this trip so much, and did a lot of preparation. But now I'm on the river, there's salmon in it, but I don't have a motivation.
In the morning, I continued on that pool, where I spotted fish yesterday. There's rocky island in the middle of the river. The fly I chose was small orange fly on brass tube, sort of snaelda.
I threw my line very close to this rock on the other side, and let it swing across the pool. Suddenly, in the middle of the run, line stopped, and I felt like i'm snagged. It shouldn't be snag there, it's too deep. Whaat? It is there, the fish! My heart rate bursted to 190 bpm from adrenaline, I almost felt like a had a heart attack. Oh shit, that's the salmon, big salmon! Calm down, don't do silly things. I've been waiting for you so long, I must, must land that fish. 5 zero days, and this is the chance which I wouldn't want to spoil.
I ran along the bank, to overtake the fish from downstream side, and prevent it to runaway down the river. If fish will escape so far to the next rapids, that could be the worst scenario, but the pool was quite comfortable to land the fish.
I played it carefully, not allowing to jump. When salmon jump, they often come off the hook.
My Winston iiiTH 14' 8wt has enough power to steer fish where I want. I brought salmon to the shallow water, when fish stuck in the gravel beach, not able to escape to the deep water.
Yeeesss, here it is, my treasure, my precious, my first Norwegian salmon. I'm the winner!!!
It's happened, happy ending of my trip. I was dancing on the river bank, celebrating the victory.
Most of Norwegian fishermen take caught salmon home. C&R isn't a big thing in Scandinavian countries. Taking 2 fish per day is allowed by rules. If I'd caught that fish in the first day, we'd grilled and eat in in the camping with friends. But it was the last day of my trip. I cannot carry frozen salmon in the airplane luggage, either I have no time to cooking it. So I decided to release that fish. The salmon swam away, but memories about chasing that fish will remain for all my life. For the catch report I measured it, and it was 81 cm. Approximate weight is 5.6 kg.
Later in the evening, I checked the report. There was only 8 salmon caught in the whole river for this particular day. Quite low number, so I was lucky.
After that, I didn't want to fish that much. I wanted to check out the place called Holmesland C in Zone 2. There's beautiful wide pool with the island in the middle. If water is low, below 48 m3/s or so, it's possible to wade to the island, fish both sides, hole under waterfall, and riffles downstream from the pool.
I fished couple of hours more, and returned to the camping. I needed to dry out my waders and boots, before to pack it to the luggage.
First meet with Mandalselva was so exciting, so I want to return to this beautiful place once again.
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