October 10th 1998

Few trout... and many

I've been fishing quite a lot for sea trout lately. I've had a couple of weekends almost fully dedicated for fishing and a few odd days on top of that. Most of these trips have been succesful and only a few of them have been totally blank. Generally the fish are small - less that 2 lbs. - but on the other hand there have been many at times.

The trips fall into two categories: almost blank with no fish visible and productive days with visible, often jumping fish.
Usually I consider a succesful trip dependent on seeing fish. I don't feel sure about the fishing when I don't see fish. The most obvious sighting is the jumping trout. Some trips - like one day recently - will be a memorable for the number of jumping fish. This particular we were two persons fishing and saw at least 15 fish out of the water. The largest one was very close to the shore and was seen while we were changing into our waders. We fished for it a few minutes later, but it had obviously left the area.
The day proved fine anyway with one 5 lbs. fish and a few smaller ones - plus a couple that released themselves on a distance. We fished until darknes waiting for the fish to draw closer, but the activity didn't increase with the disappearing light.

Autumn storms

This part of the world and this time of year combine into what we call autumn storms. These are not hurricanes or thunderstorms, but just a few days in a row with rough, typically western winds. They bring rain, chill and clears and freshens the usually hot water. This year has been quite cold so far, and the water really isn't that warm, but the first autumn storms have still brought activity and larger fish. The fjords and esturaries are getting better day for day, even though some places known for their large numbers of fish gathering for the winter seem rather overfished and crowded by fishers - to say the least. Find your own places. That will spare the fish for next season and give you a better time fishing in solitude.