A couple of years ago I started a thread with pictures from my fishing experiences in my new home (well I've lived here some 6 yrs now), so I thought I could make it into a tradition to start a new thread each year.

Previous piccies http://www.flyforums.co.uk/showthrea...ghlight=norway

So here's the beginning of my 2008 season so far:-

The year started with a purchase of a belly boat and as we have no inland trout season here, my first trip was in january. Very cold at around 6 degrees celsius air temp and after one hour with 4mm neoprenes, woolen long-johns plus two pair of woolen socks, I soon found out that I should wait for the water temp to increase a little.

The lake birds eye view



The lake, float tube view!





I had no real expectations of catching, but they obliged anyway!



No real monster, but I had to choose a safe lakes to start my float tubing career!

__________________
Life is like a box of choclates. Ya never know what ya gonna get.

Forrest Gump 1994

As winter fishing is normally too cold for brownies, we normally turn our attention to sea trout fishing in the salt.

There's a fjord system not far from me that holds some real monsters upto 13lb, my record though is a modest 6lb. This fish was hooked deep and ended up being dinner, a pretty fish, but far shy of the monsters that lurk in the depths.



One a little bigger that regained his freedom.

__________________
Life is like a box of choclates. Ya never know what ya gonna get.

Forrest Gump 1994

Then as spring came, the flies hatched and the trout began to rise from the winter depths.

Here's a picture of the first observed dun of the year:-



Seem to like orange balls for some strange reason

Then with the snow still clinging to the banks of my favourite river, the stoneflies put in an appearence.



My apolgies for the bad picture, but my 2.1mp mobile camera really hates the close ups.

__________________
Life is like a box of choclates. Ya never know what ya gonna get.

Forrest Gump 1994

Then it was time on wednesday to take a trip west to Stavanger to visit a fellow fishing friend. Our plan was to visit a pond/small lake that no one ever fished and questions to others regarding fish there was met with "Are there fish there?".

Well we got permission to fish off the farmer and set up base camp for the next couple of days, inflated the belly boats and went a float with no real expectations.

There was plenty of food for the fish, buzzers, huge water spiders that trout rose to.......and these fellows

Duns of some sort....



Small sedges......



And an abundance of tadpoles.....



So an hour went by. We saw a few rises that saw out to be good fish, but with our confidence failing fast, we decided to have a little lunch break. Then out of the blue this decided to put in an appearence......



Almost 3lb of pure wild brownie.



The day had been saved, and a dram of Jamesons consumed out of joy. Though after many hours of fishing, more than enough bites and two lost fish, we switched our sights to a mountain lake.

With rainbows upto 11lb and a sprinkling of wild brownies for good measure, we were hoping for the best, but that wasn't to happen! Though my fishing collegue saved the afternoon with this little fellow.



A wild brownie of around 1lb-1.5lb.



On the way home we spotted this beside the road......kinda summed up my thoughts of the last two days of fishing

__________________
Life is like a box of choclates. Ya never know what ya gonna get.

Forrest Gump 1994

After wednesday and thursday having been relatively bad for me, I set my sights on building up my confidence on friday before having to work the weekend. It was all or nothing.

I didn't make things easy by choosing a lake I had never fished. It's one of the main lakes for drinking water in my home town and is gin clear. You can see the bottom to upto depths of 20-25ft Not really easy conditions but worth a chuck all the same.

After an hours fishing, my faith was diminshing and then suddenly this fellow grabbed my size 6 Humungus....



With my faith restored, I watched him swim away no worse for wear but maybe a little wiser.



The next installment shall be not too far away, especially when in two weeks I've three fisherman from the forum coming to try their luck. So watch this space!

__________________
Life is like a box of choclates. Ya never know what ya gonna get.

Forrest Gump 1994