My first fishing experiences in Norway in June and July in 1994 brought the great fruits to my salmon fishing and fly fishing. As soon as I came back from my second fishing in the end of July I was completely absorbed in making the plan for the next year. How should I tackle with rivers in Norway and silvery salmon there?
I felt I could not wait for the next year. I knew I had no more chance to go to Norway in that year because the fishing season was going to be over in August there. I had to wait for nearly half a year for my routine fishing for Sailfish in midwinter. Then it occurred to me to go fishing in Scotland, where I had frequently visited for years. It was good timing to prepare for fishing there because the dry season was over and the river started rising in September. I planned to go to the River Spey and the River Tweed then.
I Stood on the Bank of the River Spey Again
The River Tweed in the middle of September had terribly lower water than the last year. Then my fishing was over without seeing a mere shadow of fish. On the contrary, the River Spey flowed down as widely as usual. It has never betrayed our expectation. (I know that we have been lucky.) To be more precise, it had rather high water but looked a bit calm because we had just seen snow melting water in Norway.
Many salmon came up there just like the last year as I had expected. Whatever a big difference of salmon number there may be from river to river and from season to season, I have never worried in the River Spey. I knew that at least several tens of salmon were always in each pool and more than a hundred in large pools. It is completely different from the snow melting water in Norway, where I always worry that there is not a single salmon in a vast pool. Therefore, it is quite natural that the type of flies and the way of fishing are completely different between those two countries.
It is very persuasive that Britain has got a huge number of salmon fly patterns. If a salmon jumps in front of you without biting your fly, you will definitely try your flies one after another. Then you will find that the particular fly always attracts fish. It turned out that we visited the River Spey just to make sure that.
I hoped to come back in the thaw in spring the next time. I did not miss asking Anderson, ghillie, what spring river was like there.
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1995, my Second Year in Norway
with Hope in my Mind
What should I do to get bigger results under such various conditions as I experienced in 1994? I was thinking over it again and again during winter. I made various tactics and tied suitable flies for each tactic. When my long-awaited season finally came, I had already tied some hundreds of flies. I was sure that I would catch some silvery fish jumping from the snow melting water and others swimming upstream as if they ripped the water in the tail of the pool.
At the end of June I left for Norway with my confidence in my mind. After the long flight I have never got accustomed to, Mary Anne and I arrived at the Trondheim Airport. When we dropped in at our old car-hire company office to receive the key, I asked them about the weather. They said that it had been kept very clear and hot like summer, then turned to the rainy weather a few days before. Thank God! The weather seemed to change as I hoped. While I was driving the car with my drowsy eyes, I felt excited little by little.
After 40 minutes' drive from the airport the dim outline of the River Gaula finally loomed up by the road out of the mist. It was nearly at the midnight and it was damp after rain. I felt something unusual. After another several minutes' drive the River Gaula appeared among the trees, swollen much larger than I had ever seen. The banks disappeared and tree roots on the embankment appeared. As we drew nearer, we saw more clearly the river flowing at high speed. Feeling uneasy, we arrived at the hotel to learn that the river condition was much worse than I was thinking. They said that they had not gone fishing at all for these several days because the river suddenly rose and was still rising.
Under such circumstances, it is the best way for anglers to be optimistic. I tried to reassure myself and said to myself that within a couple of days the river would start falling and we could go fishing. Then we fell asleep.
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