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Flood and Dry Weather  --Vol.9--

Return to the Gaula

In the 2nd week in July Mary Anne and I came back to the River Gaula as usual. During our first stay in June the record-breaking flood had hit the region. Fortunately, I had managed to catch fish. It deserves to be called a miracle. Now that the worst condition had gone, we expected a lot of summer fishing with no worry about terrible low water.

Nevertheless, when I asked about the river condition at the hotel, I felt something strange. There might have been something unusual. Anyway, I heard no salmon had been caught yet. The next morning we met our old guide, Simon Kitcher. First of all he said,

"What perfect timing, Ken! You are very lucky to come back now, indeed."

He taught us the river condition and his explanation resolved all my doubts.
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New Tilseth Pool. Countless big rocks were thrown into the water to build a new embankment.It will never be washed away by the flood. A road was running through the grassland.

His story was beyond belief. While we stayed in Japan after our first fishing in June, they had unseasonable weather. The cold water kept rising in the river and salmon did not come up Gaulfossen. But that did not mean there were a lot of catch down Gaulfossen. Both the change of the season and the arrival of salmon from the sea were behind. The fishing situation had been hopeless for many days.

However, a salmon passed Gaulfossen only 3 days before. The first salmon was caught at the upper reaches of Gaulfossen on July 8th, which was the latest in recent years. From now on the condition must be improved. So he said and added enthusiastically, "Well, I really hope so."

What on the earth happened? I felt as if the river had poured cold water on me, just as in June. Nevertheless, we were in a good mood, believing his words that we came back in perfect timing. We prepared for fishing.
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I fished from the left bank of Tilseth at high water. The sky was pure blue.

Silence

Our first beat was Langoy Pool, which was flowing in B beat in NFC. On the way we passed by our old Tilseth Pool. The scenery was completely changed. In June we saw the bank slope worn away by the flood with our own eyes. Traces of the damage remained fresh. A grassland of about 50ares on the bank was said to be washed away. Surely the bank used to curve largely but now it ran straight and a new road was running through the surviving grassland.

Looking down from the road, we found a new bank that had been built by throwing big rocks into the water. As countless rocks as big as small cars were thrown from the field, the bank took a look of traces of a lava flow. Walking on the newborn bank needs a lot of attention.
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The stone bank was still unstable and we had to pay the closest attention for walking.

Although the bank was in bad condition, the inside of the water fascinated me. There were some big rocks that had vigorously rolled down into the river. They must be ideal hiding places for fish like coral reefs in the sea. When I tried to keep the place of some main rocks in my mind, I found that the water colour was a little different from usual.

Usually the River Gaula is very transparent and its water colour is thin coffee-like brown. So white pebbles on the river bed look yellowish. That is why it was named the River Gaula, that means the yellow river. But now it was shining greenish. Did that have something to do with the flood?

We reached at the bank overlooking Langoy and prepared for fishing, looking down at the large pool. While I put the line through the rod and put the fly to the line, I kept staring at the water surface very carefully but could see none of salmon jump. I had not seen one in Tilseth, either. That meant I started fishing without seeing a fish.

That was very common in ordinary fishing and if we see salmon before fishing it is very lucky. But now where is a shoal of salmon that passed Gaulfossen 3 days ago? They had been kept waiting downstream until the 1st week of July. Isn't a large shoal of salmon now expected to come upstream around here?

Those fish do not appear themselves but a lot of fish must come upstream in front of us. So we said to ourselves and continued to fish until evening. Ah, we had no bite or saw no fish, either. On our way back, we dropped in at Club House to learn that there was no catch yet in the 2nd week of July. It was strange. There was something abnormal.
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Midnight Tilseth. The sky was light and there was no sign of fish.

An Azure Sky

Nearly a week had passed but the situation was going from bad to worse. I fished only 2 salmon of medium-size. Fish were surprisingly scarce and several days passed without seeing only one fish although we stayed at the river from morning till night.

The weather was also abnormal. The sky was abnormally blue and high. The glaring sunlight was shining day after day. There was no rain. Even the clouds were scarce. The water colour I had mentioned before became more greenish and the most transparent I had ever seen. When we looked down at Bridge Pool from Rognes Bridge we could clearly see the pebbles on the river bed. But no fish crossed there day after day.

There had not been a drop of rain for those 10 days. Although the river had high water when we arrived, the water level dropped by 10cm every day. Now it took a look of low water in summer. Mountains had been thickly covered with a huge amount of snow but now only a little remained on its tops.

-- To be continued --
2003/01/27  KEN SAWADA
Tranlated into English by Miyoko Ohtake