WHEN EXPECTATIONS EXCEED RESULTS.

This is about Norway.   I have been there twice.   I have blanked twice.

First trip was by a private twin engined aircraft owned by my employer at the time and we were off the fish the river Aa  or Aelva as it was known.   A small private river in Norway where it was reputed to be dead men,s shoes to get on.  The flight was interesting. Across the North sea at a fairly low altitude and then literally between the mountains of the Fjords.   To see the mountainside seemingly alongside the window was interesting shall we say not to mention the couple of air pockets we hit with interesting effect.

The airstrip was on a promontory of land sticking out into a Fjord and approached from over the water on to what looked like a very small spit of land at the time.
The landscape was dramatic, as was the river . Very fast and rocky , strong waterfalls and pretty pristine in all respects.  The river was short with an estuary beat and another lake higher up the river where the fish waited to run further on to spawn.  The inflow to the lake was a good place to fish and shoals of salmon could actually be seen lying there.  We had good accommodation, an English Gillie who's name I forget,weather and water conditions.  What could go wrong!

Well pretty much everything as regards fish.  One guest fishing with us had a fish from the lake inflow about 14lbs and that was it.  For myself I did actually hook two grilse both of which came off and left me with just a piece moss on the hook as though they had gone down and rubbed their noses on moss covered rocks   As I say expectations were not realized.   It was damn expensive then too as I understand it is in Norway now.

The other trip was to the famous Guala River on a trip organised by Sportfish.   Again all went well regarding flight, accommodation and two Norwegian Gillies and a party of about ten of us took part.
I will cut a long story short but I think one of the party actually caught a fish and the rest of us blanked.  I think I saw one fish show all week and despite their best effort the two local gillies couldn't catch anything either so that made us feel a little better I have to say.   It was a lovely looking river. big and strong and clean  and great to fish but there seemed to be nothing in it, at least at that particular time.
One of the highlight of the week was a sighting of a wild beaver.  Wow!

I think you learn the lesson that you need to have fish present to be able to catch them and not question your abilities too much.  We see pics of huge salmon in big numbers still from some Norwegian rivers but remember had you been there at the time you may well have caught them too.  The grass as they say is not always greener on the other side of the hill.

A blank visit to the Wye, and there will be many these days, does not mean your not a competent fisher. Most likely there is little there to catch.  No doubt we will still do it though as every now and then it could still happen.

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