Tromso Norway Trip Report

[dpitt]

On a trip to Norway, and one of our stops was Tromso Norway. It's in the Arctic latitude, and got to do some fishing so thought a report would be justified.  

Here's our location.

 

Before getting to the fishing report, wanted to post some pics of the Northern lights we saw.  First time for me. We drove up into the mountains to eliminate light pollution from the city. Very close to the finish border. It was worth the drive.

 

Now to the fishing. Tromso is a fishing port, I believe Sig Hanson from the Deadliest Catch TV show fished for crab in the area.  Interestingly I could not find many guides or fishing charters available.  Norway is in general a very fishy place, Salmon, Sea run brown trout, mountains with trout. So when I got to Tromso I found one fishing specific store, Had some fly tying material, reels and some spey rods.  Talked with a young man running the place who was an avid fly fisherman. He told me about some epic fly fishing in the mountains, miles upon miles, actually he said Kilometers, of fishable streams and rivers. I asked about guiding opportunities,  not a lot of guiding in Norway, locals like to DYI it and not pay the money. Guessing tourism does not bring enough demand.  However, I found a fishing Charter in Tromso. Pretty unique, it does not require any skill per se, but you get a boat ride on the Hermes II which is a 1907 trawler made out of wood.  They take you into the fjords and find schools of shad coalfish , Cod, haddock, and sometimes halibut.  They charter year round and in the fall/winter giant Cod make there way into there waters.   Also, they cook up the fish you catch for dinner on the cruise back to the docks.  Here are some pics. 

 

Here's the Hermes II

 

So, fishing gear and technique was part snagging part catching.  Big heavy rod, giant spoon with treble hook and looked like a plastic worm/swim bait, looked like a 1/0 or 2/0 hook.  Captain would just find schools on the bottom with radar, then we would drift over them.  They instructed us to get to bottom, 4 cranks up then start jigging.  Many where just snagged, but some where caught fair, not much of a fight with the gear, would love to have some full sinking link with a big clouser and just drifted over them, they where 20 to 30 meters deep at times. Like I said, type of fishing for anyone.  The picture below is a fair caught Cod with my wife. 

 

They had their own beer made, and it was tasty, and my wife joined me, she is a good sport.  The crew cleaned the fish, and to get a shock value, resuscitated a fish heart by rubbing it  

On the way back, the crew cooked up the fish, and served with crackers, lots of bones, but tasty. 

The people of Norway like Americans, everyone is very nice, most menus and signage has an english version. Most citizens are bilingual.  

On a side note if you are into true WW2 movies.  There is a movie called "the 12th man", very good, and it takes place in Tromso, during WW2. 

I'll reply to this post with a couple more pics. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_5162 3.HEIC

[Quillback]

That is pretty neat!  

Can you fish the rivers, assuming you buy whatever their equivalent of a non-res license?  Seems like most European trout fishing requires a guide and private river access.

[dpitt]

Here are pics of my wife and the Beer

Jigging 

.. and Snagging BOO!

 

Below Deck

 

Beautiful views...

 

 

 

[Flysmallie]

Cool place, great pics.

[dpitt]

 

@Quillback  Great question.  No license required at all for saltwater.  Most of the river and streams are open to fish, you just need one type of license for freshwater.  Lots of available non private water to fish.  I'm thinking this is a under the radar fishery.  Salmon, trout, pike. I believe the population of Norway is around 5 million, yes just 5 million.   When driving up into the mountains, people where just pulled over in caravans camping, Lots and lots of water in Norway,  did not see any type of restriction or barriers to access. 

[FishnDave]

Cool trip!  How'd you get there?  Fly into Bergen, then drive north?  Trondheim? Oslo?

[dpitt]

@FishnDave  Flew to Stockholm, then flew to Tromso. Flew into Bergen from Tromso, still here, heading to Oslo next by train, Like this country!

[FishnDave]

Wow!  What a trip!  Enjoy!  Norwegians are good folks!

For comparison.... the 2024 population of Missouri is 6.2 Million.    

[ness]

Wow! Very cool trip, experiences and scenery! The northern lights pics are very cool. That’s not someplace you hear much about. 
 

Thanks for sharing. 

[BilletHead]

              Thanks! Nice of you to share Mr. Pitt