Exploring New Waters

Posted on 7 October, 2013 by Håvard Eide fishing nordmarka

The days are getting shorter as we go towards winter again here in Norway, but the autumn is a great time for fishing and photo hunting in the forest around Oslo. Yesterday I was out the door early to combine a photo-shoot with exploring 3 smaller lakes that I haven’t fished in before.

The rivers and 100m from the river into the lakes are no-fishing areas now in the spawning season between the 15.september and 15.november, but it is good to see running water before it freezes up soon

The autumn colours are great, photo-hunting on a day like this gives you lots of opportunities

That crispy and clear air on a day like this:

Didn’t do any fishing here, but this is your typical small lake that you will find in the forest surrounding Oslo:

The first lake I fished in, it was dead-quiet in the air and the sun was shining: the perfect moment except for the total lack of fish…. Nothing at all came up to the surface, so after a good wait and a coffee I started testing out different patterns along the ridge of the lake and out into towards the middle. Still nothing!

A lot of these smaller lakes are slowly growing in from the edges: you end up balancing on logs to get out where you can cast ( the floating bog here can be devious! )

Still no fish, so I headed to the second lake, same result here, but the coffee was good, and I enjoyed fishing in nothing but a t-shirt ( which can be rare at this point of the year around here! )

Final place I tested out:

So: no fish this time, not even the sight of a small one out where you can never reach it! The conditions was great, but it was one of those days you just have to enjoy the weather, the fresh air and the 20km walk in solitude. I now have 3 more lakes to target for fishing when the 2014 season begins.

Nordmarka Trout Trip

Posted on 12 July, 20136 July, 2013 by Håvard Eide nordmarka trout

Working in Oslo as a software developer one of the things that I really look forward to and enjoy is the trips I have in the forest 30min north of downtown Oslo. The trips are part getting out into the forest, part workout and of course: I always bring my rod. Some of the trips can be 6 hours where 5 hours is walking and 1 hour is fishing, other times it is 2hours walking, 5hours fishing and return. The important thing is to get out in the forest to relax and rewind.

This time I took a trip from the south-end of the forest towards a small lake I visit every year.
Some steep hills, but this particular path is not that much used, so you get to walk alone for much of the time in beautiful nature

First glimpse of the lake: dead-quiet on the surface, not a breath of wind. It is surrounded by trees that makes it particular difficult to get your line out, this is the time for technical casting. Sat down and listened to the nature: all I could hear was the steady rising and jumping of trout – the activity level was really high. I saw the classic head-tail rise of several large trout, but they were too far out to be able to get to. I did, however, see trout come up and jump 30cm off the water to target butterflies and insects just 2m from land where I was standing!

This is a place I target every year, the trout here is large, but is hard to get to (most is far out in the middle where you cannot get to). This time I landed only one trout on a dry pink-tag, but I will be back later this autumn and spend a night tenting close by.

Sneaky casting laying low in the grass is important – the trout took just 2 meters out.

Oslo Dryfly in June

Posted on 9 June, 2013 by Håvard Eide cdc dryfly nordmarka oslo trout

Saturday was a great day for heading out into the forest around Oslo: 17-18 degrees and the forecast said sun. The forest is very accessible, but for those lakes a bit in you really need a bike to be able to cover some ground in a single day, so about 20km in and I set up on a new lake that I haven’t fished before. First of was the river going into the lake: some small brown trout in the river aggressively going on my flies.

Standing on top of the last little waterfall before the lake, this was my first stop and I could see the trout rising out there: I didn’t stay too long here.

Turn around and river was filled with small trout, good fun, but was too small to keep.

I packed up and headed for a place I had spotted on the map before leaving: a small headland that reached a bit into the lake. As I approached the lake I could see the trout rising steadily and within 2 minutes I got my personal best on dryfly in the forest surrounding Oslo: 400gram of beautiful trout that landed easily in my net. The position I had made it easy to cast on rising trout, so it was a great day with a fair bit of trouts landed and a couple of larger ones that just didn’t want to hook properly. Most took on a CDC & Deer hair dry, but also on mayfly and emerger.

Beautiful trout:

The day was a good mix of sun, summer-rain, a bit of wind and periods of dead-still water. Not too much hatching going on, but some mayflies and midges was observed on the water.

The 4 trout I did take home ended up as night-snack, fried up with lots of butter and served with potatoes and a beer.

nordmarka

Exploring New Waters

Nordmarka Trout Trip

Oslo Dryfly in June

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