Jan Gunnar Furuly's Salmon Fishing Pages - Salmon News From Norway

GOOD SALMON START IN MID NORWAY RIVERS

- historic buy-out may give salmon bonanza

A good winter with lots of snow and slow spring melting in the mountains gave nearly perfect conditions in many of the Mid Norwegian rivers during salmon season opening 1st June.

Now sports fishermen in the rivers along the Trondheim Fjord awaits a solid wave of salmon after a historic buy-out deal with net fishers in the ocean.

Four hours of good salmon fishing: The lucky fishermen at Gaulfossen, Gaula, 1st June 2005. Eight salmons from 16,3 kilo's to 8,8 kilo's taken between 02.00 and 06.00 on tube flies. Photo: Dan P. Neegaard.

Finally came 1st June, and gone was the agony from the unusual hot and dry 2004, the worst salmon year in many years.

From most of the Norwegian rivers came excited reports of good catches of big salmon. Unusual many of them in the 15-20 kilo range.

Fishing seemed to be best in the rivers that runs out in the Trondheim Fjord - where 70 of 120 net fishermen in the ocean are bought out in a historic deal this year.

The majority of the net fishermen have agreed to not fish the next five years. They get a compensation of 70 NOK's per kilo from the average of their seasonal catches over the last five years.

The deal , inspired by the Icelandic salmon saver Orri Vigfusson, covers apprx. 80 percent of the salmon catches on net in the ocean. Last year net fishermen took a total of 98 tons in the fjord.

Experts says the fact that most of the net fishers are staying on shore can give an annual extra 12.000-15.000 wild salmon in the rivers along the Trondheim Fjord. Among them, the four well known salmon rivers Orkla, Gaula, Stjørdalselva and Verdalselva.