Dear Salmon Chasers,
After a long cold winter, of tying flies, reliving fishy memories from seasons past, and dreaming of large silver salmon, we can finally say, the season is almost upon us!
In just over 2 week’s time we will be chasing our beloved Gaula giants again and we are excited to get back to the river after so many months away.
Soon we will be chasing these silver beauties again – we can’t wait!!
Please forgive our silence during the winter months, but as you can see, we have been quite busy during the off season working on our new website, which is now live!
We have tried to maintain much of the old information, while adding in some updated content, photos, and maps as well. We have also worked to integrate our social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, etc.) to the site, as these are the best ways to follow us day-to-day, between our weekly updates.
We will of course continue on with our weekly updates and keep all of you eager fishermen in the loop on the latest conditions, results, and a glimpse into what makes the NFC so special.
We hope that you find the new site both aesthetically pleasing, but also more user friendly and easy to navigate. We welcome any and all feedback, as we always aim to improve.
Bended rod on Beat G1 (Photo FFN crew).
Not only have we been working on the website, we have also managed to extend some of our water leases, which means that we can offer the same great exclusive fishing as before.
We are also very happy that we have secured Beat E7a – as late in the season 2017 we found out that this pool has more potential than we previously thought. We have seen many big resident fish showing throughout the backend of the season, and we are positive it will hold big fish from the season start. We are very excited to see how this beat will perform during the 2018 season if we fish it a bit harder.
This year we are pleased to welcome back many of our same staff, as well as welcome some new faces from Argentina, Germany and the US.
We are looking forward to continuing our tradition from last year of the weekly “Norwegian Asado” – Argentine style barbeque along the river bank.
We will also be setting up a fly tying room, for those interested in learning how to tie salmon flies, master new techniques, or to spend some time during down days tying up that one special fly which will catch your fish of a lifetime!
As we all gear up, check our tackle, and put the last few flies in our boxes, here is what has been happening on the Gaula:
The ice on the Gaula broke quite late this spring – on April 16th the ice began to flow, along with the snow melt from the mountains.
View from Bogen Sondre, the ice breaking up on the 16th of April.
As the spring unfolds, and the warm temperatures in northern Europe have reached the Gaula valley and the temperature rose to 25°C – which for this time of year is very warm. This “heat wave” triggered the snow melt, in turn, causing the river to rapidly rise up to almost 800 m3 on the Gaulfossen gauge- signifying the big spring flood.
The Gaula continues to run quite high around 350-400 m3 during the last week and we predict that it will keep flowing quite high, as the warm temperatures continue. The spring snowpack has begun to melt away in the high mountains, so as soon as the air temperatures begin to drop, the river should as well, and we may see salmon start to pass the Gaulfossen quite early this year.
We have high hopes for the season start, as the water level looks as though it may drop into perfect conditions for June fishing below the Gaulfossen, and with a little bit of luck, the fish should pass the Gaulfoss quite early in the season this year. Our fingers are crossed!
Maybe the fist fish of the season might be caught here – Lodge Pool – two days ago!!!
We are full of excitement to arrive to our “home away from home” on the Gaula, and look forward to another great year of welcoming back old friends, new faces and sharing lots of great fishing experiences together along the banks of the mighty Gaula!
All the best,
Your team at the Norwegian Flyfishers Club
P.S.- As we are writing this, the Gaulfossen gauge has dropped significantly, to the point where salmon may be able to start to pass the Gaulfossen already from the season start!
