Leginfisher
Well-known member
I’ve had two trips to our usual camp at Sandøybotn on Soroya this year. The first early July and the second mid August, both with 10 days fishing. With the fishing generally being poor on the boats in Kent and Sussex over the last several years, undersized turbot, few if any codling and small and fewer pollack I’d prefer to focus on Norway.
Halibut are the main target and we have been used to seeing 50-60 on a trip between 3 on the boat. This year was very different. Reports had indicated few fish but those caught being a good size. This played out for our July trip with 2 of us in one boat getting 13 with 6 being a good size of 126 - 160cm c.59-127lb which do test the drag! We did miss a few bites and my crew mate Austin had a contact with what we feel was a very big halibut that grabbed his 74cm halibut. This was hooked on the circle hook and after a locking solid on the retrieve it came free after a couple of headshakes and the stinger hook had gone. I also was done by a decent fish that ran back up the bank and the leader line parted before we had a chance to start chasing it.
The other boat had 15 between 3 up to 128cm. So it did fish hard.
The August trip saw 8 of us fishing from 2 boats and we had 18 on our boat and 4 on the other, as they spent more time on other species as the halibut fishing was tough. Best fish was 142cm but a lot were smallish.
We had the usual species between the 2 boats - plaice cod wolffish haddock and a lemon sole which was a first I’ve seen in Norway. The scenery and wildlife was great as usual with the whales, porpoises sea eagles, arctic hares and reindeer. Whilst a bit disappointed with the numbers I think on reflection we did ok as many reports and first hand accounts from friends who have been to Norway this year have really struggled with some not seeing any halibut. High water temps have been said to have pushed the fish deep but I’m not convinced as the commercial longlines have increased dramatically in the last couple of years. If it is the temperature then that doesn’t bode well given I’d bet that we will continue to see temperatures increasing in the coming years.
Anyhow, I’m already counting down to next years and 2026 trips as a hard trip in Norway is still very much better than most boat trips you will have in the UK.
Pictures to follow.
Halibut are the main target and we have been used to seeing 50-60 on a trip between 3 on the boat. This year was very different. Reports had indicated few fish but those caught being a good size. This played out for our July trip with 2 of us in one boat getting 13 with 6 being a good size of 126 - 160cm c.59-127lb which do test the drag! We did miss a few bites and my crew mate Austin had a contact with what we feel was a very big halibut that grabbed his 74cm halibut. This was hooked on the circle hook and after a locking solid on the retrieve it came free after a couple of headshakes and the stinger hook had gone. I also was done by a decent fish that ran back up the bank and the leader line parted before we had a chance to start chasing it.
The other boat had 15 between 3 up to 128cm. So it did fish hard.
The August trip saw 8 of us fishing from 2 boats and we had 18 on our boat and 4 on the other, as they spent more time on other species as the halibut fishing was tough. Best fish was 142cm but a lot were smallish.
We had the usual species between the 2 boats - plaice cod wolffish haddock and a lemon sole which was a first I’ve seen in Norway. The scenery and wildlife was great as usual with the whales, porpoises sea eagles, arctic hares and reindeer. Whilst a bit disappointed with the numbers I think on reflection we did ok as many reports and first hand accounts from friends who have been to Norway this year have really struggled with some not seeing any halibut. High water temps have been said to have pushed the fish deep but I’m not convinced as the commercial longlines have increased dramatically in the last couple of years. If it is the temperature then that doesn’t bode well given I’d bet that we will continue to see temperatures increasing in the coming years.
Anyhow, I’m already counting down to next years and 2026 trips as a hard trip in Norway is still very much better than most boat trips you will have in the UK.
Pictures to follow.
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