28.04.2015

Scream for Skrei

Well shaken but not stirred the small Wideroe airplane lands safely at the airport from Leknes – strong bush pilots could not have done it better! We are already eagerly awaited on the famous Lofots. The reason for the delay: Our flight from Bodoe postponed hour for hour caused on very strong gusts with more than 18 meters per second and strong snowfall – that is the beginning of April and real Skreiweather. Geir Sivertzen Mustad-Teamangler, an north Norway expert and our host at the Nusfjord, welcomes us after a spectacular landing and leads us a bit nearer to our dream, the Skrei over 15 kilogram. Curiously we are looking at the snowy landscape. With every imposing top, the mountains rise up out of the sea more than 700 meters, we are getting closer to the Nusfjord. Just after 20 minutes with storm and snowfall, we arrive – a brilliant destination in Norway and a Skrei-Mekka! The weather makes us worry anyway. But we are lucky and our determination should be rewarded – the following day we go out to the norwegan sea with the big boat MS Elltor and an English, Welsh and Irish movie team. The trip to the catch area only took 10 minutes and as we arrive the Capitan sais, ”there are big fishes 15 meters over the bottom of the sea, put your lure into the water!” At the same time we all let our big rubber shads down to the bottom of the sea. Just after a minute the first joy cry comes from the left side “the Irish lady got one”, and her 30 pound class rod is extremely bented. The rubber shads from Sven and me not even reach the ground we directly have a hard bite in the middle of the water.
One Skrei after another is landed with more than 10 kilo on board of the boat. But the last Cod catched by Geir was the biggest of the day with 22 kilo, that will be hard to beat!
The second day shows again you should never trust the weather forecast! The weather changes a few times throughout the day, but we can go fishing again for a short time and catch some nice Skreis. Julien Lewis Jones catches his new personal best with 16 kilograms, Endre Hopland gets even his new personal best with 17,5 kilograms - the others catch cods between 10 and 15 kilograms!
Unfortunately we have to leave the Nusfjord after two great days and take our way back home. It has been a short but unforgettable trip to the north of Norway and everybody who wants to catch big fish has to visit this destination!
Since Saturday the 04.04.2015 my team colleagues Betti, Flo, Sascha, Andre and Sven are at Heilhornet/ Norway. They even have to fight the weather and can only fish in the fjord near the harbor of Heilhornet. We are hoping the weather will become better for the next days and wish them lots of fish.

Best regards from the Lofots
Ares Prien