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It depends what it is you want to catch, which in turn adds a level of seasonality to the whole affair,
which is no bad thing, as it allows those who are less hardy not to have to endure the worst of the winter
weather and still record a string of excellent PB's.
The biggest cod are there in February, March and April, which understandably can be very cold. I was
there in mid May, and still there was plenty of snow lying about. Avalanches too sliding off the
mountains forming the rim of the fjord, which are a spectacular sight to witness from a safe distance in
a boat.
You can find very big cod from forty to seventy pounds inside some of the northern fjords such as
Lyngen. But for a chance of the really big cod in the seventy pounds and upwards bracket, you need to
be at Lauklines, fishing from a large charter boat out over the offshore reefs, which can be a very
exposed wild place in the winter months, and certainly not for the faint hearted.
Still, if you want to be on a trip where people don't even get their camera out for fifty pound cod, then
that's what you must do. Otherwise, stick to one of the more sheltered self-drive locations which still
produce lots of what we in the UK would regard as big cod in the spring and early summer, plus big
coalfish and halibut as the summer marches on.
I fished out of Kappangen, a tiny no shops collection of
houses at the base of Lyngen Fjord. No pubs or restaurants
either, which with Norwegian prices as high as they were
was perhaps no bad thing. We stayed in a property where
people would come in and cook for us, plus we picked up
alcohol en route from a supermarket somewhere way out of
town.
We also fished from a large comfortable skippered boat
called 'Pendlar', which unfortunately is no longer available.
Not that it gave us any advantage over the smaller boats
other than it was warm and had shelter, plus we got a cooked
meal at lunch time, and hot coffee on tap throughout the day.
We would also get a tot of brandy off the skipper Od every
time a big fish came aboard, which on the last couple of days
almost made it a booze cruise, such was the quality of the
cod fishing.
Dave Lewis, decent Norway Cod
Fishing with fast drop pirks in a range of colours, and large
self weighted shads, the fishing early on could best be
described as being patchy. It came in fits and starts with
some very big fish thrown in. But no consistency.
One day for example we were followed by another boat, so
Od stopped 'Pendlar' in the middle of nowhere and told us to pretend to fish seriously until it had passed.
Dave Devine boated a forty seven pound cod at that 'non fishing' spot.
Cod obviously were the dominant species, with enough fish topping thirty pounds to keep everyone onboard
happy. The lads on the shads also had small halibut up to around twelve pounds, plus we picked
up some very good haddock on smaller baits, along with a smattering of wolf fish, and always plenty
of torsk, one of which topped twenty four pounds.
I even had quite a sizeable redfish on a pirk, while a couple of Polish lads fishing baits in deep water
from a self drive close to base brought in a couple of rabbit fish.
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