Norway Trip.

[Will Smith]

Right guys, anyone interested (even if only tentatively at the minute) in a trip to fish for the monster Cod, Coalies, Halibut and whatever else is out there resident in the Norwegian Fjords please declare an interest on this thread and lets pool any knowledge we may have on travel, gear, ferries, digs, guides, charters, etc etc .

Will.

[Will Smith]

I might add I have very little else to add to this at the minute as this is not an area in which I have any depth of knowledge.
Just keen to get out there before the opportunities disappear.

Will.

[Kev Berry]

I'm in

[andrew_nagel]

Me too. Lots of lads over here go so I'll put the feelers out for info.

[Mike J]

Ive pulled on most things and have the gear so why not.
As long as its not beyond my budget.

.

[Bob Watson]

Count me in provisionally, cost dependant.

[mattiethomp]

Im interested

[Will Smith]

I think to be fair, initially this is just us showing an interest, clearly overall cost is going to be an issue for most of us I would imagine. I reckon I am going to need some heavier gear so will have to add that into the equation as well.
Or can gear be hired over there, does anyone know ?

Will.

[Smoothound]

I think to be fair, initially this is just us showing an interest, clearly overall cost is going to be an issue for most of us I would imagine. I reckon I am going to need some heavier gear so will have to add that into the equation as well.
Or can gear be hired over there, does anyone know ?

Will.

I'd have to second this. I have some boat gear, owned a boat and crewed for a charter skipper but it's all pretty light from fishing the Channel where one rod and reel does all pretty much unless you want to go superlight!

[Stewlaws]

I'm provisionally in but having Lost my job in July I'm also mindful I need to be working soon .. looking after Xmas with intent! But interested in a trip away.

[Kev Berry]

I think to be fair, initially this is just us showing an interest, clearly overall cost is going to be an issue for most of us I would imagine. I reckon I am going to need some heavier gear so will have to add that into the equation as well.
Or can gear be hired over there, does anyone know ?

Will.

The site I looked at hired out gear...and you will need to hire a survival suit apparently....100 quid for both for the week
If you flying out there might cost extra for the gear

[andrew_nagel]

Just had a look at a camp in Sørøya. A weeks accommodation for 4 (2 twin rooms) with access to kitchen, laundry, filleting room , freezers, lounge etc. Boats are 7.3 metres + 250 HP Hondas and fish 4 comfortably. Come with modern finder, GPS, VHF, AIS. Cost for 4 anglers is between NOK 24000 - 27000, that's £2050 - £2300 divided by 4 = £517 - £575 per man. That's 6 full days fishing. Top quality heavier gear (rod, reel, line) available for hire at £76 per week. Guides available for £255 per day to join your boat. You lot would need flights. I might drive. We'd need to take our own end tackle, clothing, food, drink etc. Could buy food there but it'll likely be daft money. You'll likely need a valid speedboat/motorboat license if you want to take the helm. I have one.

[Iain Gillies]

Will I have been to Norway twice and Iceland once with my dad about 10-12 years ago and we went through a company called Din Tur. They had a rep called Ian Peacock who worked from North East Tackle Supplies in Sunderland. Whether or not they are still in operation is another thing but we found them excellent to deal with and were a lot cheaper than other places like Anglers World holidays.

One thing I will say is that we didn't catch the monster cod we expected but did get a lot of fish. Never had anything over 20lb but caught fish up to double figures one after the other all day which was fun on lighter spinning rods.

I would like to go but there are too many unknowns at the moment to commit. I may be more interested when we know what is going on with Covid and have some prices back. Another option I would suggest is going up to Yell in Shetland and fishing from the charter boat Oberon for a few days. It is similar style fishing for giant cod, coalies and ling but a bit closer to home and cheaper.

Cheers, Iain

[Mike J]

Will I have been to Norway twice and Iceland once with my dad about 10-12 years ago and we went through a company called Din Tur. They had a rep called Ian Peacock who worked from North East Tackle Supplies in Sunderland. Whether or not they are still in operation is another thing but we found them excellent to deal with and were a lot cheaper than other places like Anglers World holidays.

One thing I will say is that we didn't catch the monster cod we expected but did get a lot of fish. Never had anything over 20lb but caught fish up to double figures one after the other all day which was fun on lighter spinning rods.

I would like to go but there are too many unknowns at the moment to commit. I may be more interested when we know what is going on with Covid and have some prices back. Another option I would suggest is going up to Yell in Shetland and fishing from the charter boat Oberon for a few days. It is similar style fishing for giant cod, coalies and ling but a bit closer to home and cheaper.

Cheers, Iain

Did you ever catch any Halibut Ian?

Are they even there, does anyone know?

I wouldn't want to bring a box of round fish home but cuts off a big flattie would be something else.

.

[Iain Gillies]

Mike we caught a couple of small ones in Norway up to 13lb in the shallower bays on shads but weren't in the area renowned for bigger ones. There were some massive plaice and dabs caught by some Dutch anglers staying at the same place we stayed on lugworm they had dug. When we stayed near Tromso we caught a couple of angler fish, torsk and wolf fish bait fishing on the deck. We also had haddock up to 6lb and red fish from deeper water which are highly prized as an eating fish.

I'm not sure what the deal is now but we were allowed to take 15kg of fish back each in a polystyrene fish box on the flight home. A lot of the German and Czech anglers there took refrigerated trailers and took a lot of fish home. They literally spent most evenings (its hard to tell time when its light nearly 24hrs a day) filleting and vacuum packing their fish. The Germans were quite friendly and we traded fish for beer with them as they brought a lot of drink up with them presumably some to trade with the Fishkecamp owners. Its worth noting that you can't bring much alcohol in from duty free and cans of lager were about £5-6 each and a bottle of spirits £70-100 in Norwegian supermarkets. Food was expensive too so we tended to eat quite a lot if fish out there.

[Kev Berry]

Mike we caught a couple of small ones in Norway up to 13lb in the shallower bays on shads but weren't in the area renowned for bigger ones. There were some massive plaice and dabs caught by some Dutch anglers staying at the same place we stayed on lugworm they had dug. When we stayed near Tromso we caught a couple of angler fish, torsk and wolf fish bait fishing on the deck. We also had haddock up to 6lb and red fish from deeper water which are highly prized as an eating fish.

I'm not sure what the deal is now but we were allowed to take 15kg of fish back each in a polystyrene fish box on the flight home. A lot of the German and Czech anglers there took refrigerated trailers and took a lot of fish home. They literally spent most evenings (its hard to tell time when its light nearly 24hrs a day) filleting and vacuum packing their fish. The Germans were quite friendly and we traded fish for beer with them as they brought a lot of drink up with them presumably some to trade with the Fishkecamp owners. Its worth noting that you can't bring much alcohol in from duty free and cans of lager were about £5-6 each and a bottle of spirits £70-100 in Norwegian supermarkets. Food was expensive too so we tended to eat quite a lot if fish out there.

How much?

What is average wage in Norway? Seems very expensive

[Kev Berry]

Mike we caught a couple of small ones in Norway up to 13lb in the shallower bays on shads but weren't in the area renowned for bigger ones. There were some massive plaice and dabs caught by some Dutch anglers staying at the same place we stayed on lugworm they had dug. When we stayed near Tromso we caught a couple of angler fish, torsk and wolf fish bait fishing on the deck. We also had haddock up to 6lb and red fish from deeper water which are highly prized as an eating fish.

I'm not sure what the deal is now but we were allowed to take 15kg of fish back each in a polystyrene fish box on the flight home. A lot of the German and Czech anglers there took refrigerated trailers and took a lot of fish home. They literally spent most evenings (its hard to tell time when its light nearly 24hrs a day) filleting and vacuum packing their fish. The Germans were quite friendly and we traded fish for beer with them as they brought a lot of drink up with them presumably some to trade with the Fishkecamp owners. Its worth noting that you can't bring much alcohol in from duty free and cans of lager were about £5-6 each and a bottle of spirits £70-100 in Norwegian supermarkets. Food was expensive too so we tended to eat quite a lot if fish out there.

How much?

What is average wage in Norway? Seems very expensive

Just looked it up..
Average take home pay is £2.4k per month......29k per year
Not a lot compared to uk wages and price of stuff over here

[spincityfan]

I know a group that go, they said to take food as it is really expensive there.

[Bob Watson]

Looks like Skate fishing out of Oban for me then

[Mike J]

Mike we caught a couple of small ones in Norway up to 13lb in the shallower bays on shads but weren't in the area renowned for bigger ones. There were some massive plaice and dabs caught by some Dutch anglers staying at the same place we stayed on lugworm they had dug. When we stayed near Tromso we caught a couple of angler fish, torsk and wolf fish bait fishing on the deck. We also had haddock up to 6lb and red fish from deeper water which are highly prized as an eating fish.

I'm not sure what the deal is now but we were allowed to take 15kg of fish back each in a polystyrene fish box on the flight home. A lot of the German and Czech anglers there took refrigerated trailers and took a lot of fish home. They literally spent most evenings (its hard to tell time when its light nearly 24hrs a day) filleting and vacuum packing their fish. The Germans were quite friendly and we traded fish for beer with them as they brought a lot of drink up with them presumably some to trade with the Fishkecamp owners. Its worth noting that you can't bring much alcohol in from duty free and cans of lager were about £5-6 each and a bottle of spirits £70-100 in Norwegian supermarkets. Food was expensive too so we tended to eat quite a lot if fish out there.

Thank you for your very detailed reply Ian.
Much appreciated.



.

[Iain Gillies]

Not a problem gents, things may have changed there as it was over 10 years ago now the last time I went there. I dont think the prices of food or drink will have gotten any cheaper though. Also its worth keeping in mind that it is a sod of a place to get to, especially the North, and even flying it can mean 2 or 3 flights and a long car journey the other end taking a day door to door. It is well worth going but we never got the enormous cod we imagined we would get in the Fjords. In terms of numbers of fish though you could literally fill a boat of 5-10lb fish. Most of the time you fished a single large shad or a pirk, you wouldn't want to put a set of hokkais on as you would get a fish on every hook and it would be heavy work.

[Squaze 123]

A few of my mates have been three or four times, cost £1000 for a week with boats, they take all their own food as it’s expensive there and the shop could be a ferry ride across a fjord, takes up to 24 hours to get there depending which part you go, they take a proper rod transit case and that cost £80 to put on the plane, they do catch halibut but all take a harpoon, they don’t try and pull it over the side until they’ve harpooned it and let it wear itself out pulling a 25 litre drum on the other end of the harpoon.they have to go to Heathrow, two flights,taxi, ferry,taxi.

[andrew_nagel]

When I go piking in Norway I take all food and just buy extra milk or bread as needed. Apart from that I only need to buy fuel when I'm there. The laws have changed about taking fish home. I'm unsure of the weight limits, but they were put in place to stop the German and Polish parties filling trailers with fish. I've had my boat searched when leaving to check for hidden fish!

[Kev Berry]

Just done some quick workings out to fish the shetland which are very close to Norway.
Driving from Notts to Aberdeen ...about 400 miles 7 hours travelling
Depending on vehicle fuel will be ..............................£100 (for me)
Ferry crossing...14 hours
Vehicle upto 6m and driver ....................£130 + 35 per passenger
Accommodation by boat owner in community hall....£30 night
Boat.....................................................................£700 / 8 anglers

Tackle hire £10 day
Meals self catering or £10 main meal
End tackle can be supplied
Bring own tackle ...must be 50lb class with 6/0 type reel min

[Squaze 123]

My mates have also been to Shetland, they fished with the skipper keggie on the isle of yell and caught loads of big ling and cod, also some big coalies , they had a proper good time but still rate Norway as number one.

[Squaze 123]

Advantages of Shetland are the boat is skippered whereas Norway you run the boat yourself.

[coopercollector]

Check out Sportquest.

Four of us went to A (lofoten islands) in May 2019.
Amazing trip and we caught plenty of fish, including Halibut up to 60lbs
The trip including flights, food, drink (plenty), and fuel for the boat cost £1250 per person.

I took my own tackle, two rods, 20 - 30lb class and 50 - 60lb class, ABU 7000 reels with 60 -100lb braid. I also took plenty of end tackle, lures etc.

For me the highlight of the trip was fishing next to a pod of Orka's.

I will be back asap.

[Alex Fox]

Check out Sportquest.

Four of us went to A (lofoten islands) in May 2019.
Amazing trip and we caught plenty of fish, including Halibut up to 60lbs
The trip including flights, food, drink (plenty), and fuel for the boat cost £1250 per person.

I took my own tackle, two rods, 20 - 30lb class and 50 - 60lb class, ABU 7000 reels with 60 -100lb braid. I also took plenty of end tackle, lures etc.

For me the highlight of the trip was fishing next to a pod of Orka's.

I will be back asap.

Sounds fantastic ... but what was the travelling like to get there

[coopercollector]

Three flights and a 1.5hr minibus ride at the end, all done in 1 day. We arrived at the venue at about 8pm and were out fishing by 9 !
We were there the first week of May and had snow every day and -2.
When I go again I will probably go mid to late June as there are more species to fish for (30lb pollock etc).
In May we had Halibut, Cod, Wolf Fish, huge plaice (4lb) and a pesky fish called a Torsk that looked like a small ling and loved a livebait !

[Alex Fox]

I would love to go, but the travelling is a big ball ache !