Back on Top. Return to Skjervoy, Northern Norway

Dave with the weeks biggest at 31lb

It's been a month since my last post on here and during that time I've enjoyed a couple of successful trips to the River Wye where I've caught barbel to 9lb 8oz and chub to nearly 5lb. The highlight of the last four weeks though has to be the holiday to Skjervoy in Northern Norway that my friend Dave and I have just returned from. This was our second visit to this part of the world and we had six days to catch a few fish. Day one and after only five minutes we were doing just that! Cod to 10lb, coalfish and a small ling were soon boated which meant we had dinner sorted! Day two saw some bigger fish to the boat. I had cod to a new personal best weight of 19lb and Dave caught his first ever halibut, it weighed 14lb. The next couple of days saw lots of fish caught. Plenty of cod, more coalfish, a small halibut for me and a torsk. We were however struggling to find the bigger fish that Norway is famous for and so we asked for help from a friendly bunch of Geordie lads that were staying in the camp. They had been doing well catching cod to over 30lb and a 60lb plus halibut and were more than happy to offer advice, even suggesting that we follow them out to a couple of marks that they thought would produce a few lumps. We were quick to accept their kind offer and the evening of day five was spent drifting over a plateau some six miles out. We were straight in to fish and they were, as hoped for, bigger! Cod of 18lb and 19lb kicked things off before Dave hooked in to something clearly a lot bigger. Stripping line and fighting for a long time, the fish turned out to be a cod of 31lb. What a result! I soon found myself in a similar arm aching situation and after heaving it up from the depths I was holding up a new personal best cod of 28lb. I was very happy! More good cod followed but these two fish were to be the biggest of the day and indeed the week as day six produced only smaller examples. A great week! We arranged our trip through Anglers World Holidays and flew with Norwegian.

My biggest cod weighed 28lb

A 14lb halibut for Dave

Barbel Fishing on the Wye at Bishopswood

Its been a while since I have fished the River wye , And its was certainly nice to be back to this lovely part of the country, I would be fishing the Worcester Angling beat at Bishopswood, with Friend Roy ,
we travelled up after lunch arriving at the River at 2'o'clock, giving us time to walk the stretch,
after an hour of searching we settled on a couple of swims a 100yds apart with deep water and settled in , I for one was not expecting any action until later in the evening and usually for me set up 2 rods to start with on feeders with Halibut pellets ,

A view Down Stream

 Around 5.30pm I had a text from Roy he had caught 2 barbel a small one of 2lb and one of 8ish just goes to show they will feed all day in the right swim , as I had had only one small chub of around 12oz's I decide to give my swim half an hour then move , packing down 1 rod I moved along the river looking for faster water which I found nearing the end of the beat a long walk but it was to prove worth the effort , between 7.30 & 9.30 I caught 4 Barbel and 3 chub all which fought really well in the fast water reminding me want I had been missing ,so in all a very successful day cannot wait for my next session in September,

The first of 4 Barbel