Gloma River, Norway 2022

I started looking for information mostly about the flies I would need. I started reading on the websites what kind of flies we need to know what to prepare. All the flies seemed awfully rough to me, I called them brushes. I was convinced that with these flies the probability of being a Rybnik capo was about 95%, but still I tied a Caddis with deerskin, large Klinkhammers, Griffingnut, Diret and 4 pcs. Super booty. The dry flies that I had prepared especially for there were about 50 pieces, and the nymphs about 180 pieces. I had additionally asked Dr. Michaud to tie me three types of dry flies, one a dragonfly nymph, which I do not do well enough according to my understanding of a well tied fly. The last week before we took off I couldn't think about anything but our upcoming trip. I had packed my luggage and every night I was either tying flies or rearranging my luggage and repeating to myself hundreds of times what I would need and whether I had forgotten anything. Although I had already accumulated several fishing holidays abroad, this time I was excited in a special way. We gathered at the airport the whole group and it was like we had taken some pills, we were so happy that our dream was in front of us. After we checked in and stood in front of the plane, apparently there was some problem and our flight was delayed by about 25-30 minutes. This made us a little worried about whether we would be able to catch the next flight. At the airport in Warsaw, everything was supposed to be fine, we went through the checks quickly and boarded our flight to Oslo without a problem. During the flight, we couldn't stop staring at how many rivers and lakes there are in Sweden and Norway. After we landed we were overjoyed. Nothing foreshadowed what we were about to experience. We stopped at the lane to collect our luggage and it turned out that only my suitcase had arrived. The other four's suitcases were missing. We refused to believe it! We went to a counter for information, after a few minutes of conversation we realized that our suitcases were gone and they had no idea where they were. We left a phone number and email to contact us and were told that they would call us as soon as they had information. Even that didn't dampen the spirits of the group, we bought two bottles of 18 year old whiskey and went to get our cars. There they explained to us that there is some additional fee or insurance and they charged us an additional 150-200 euros, which we accepted quite philosophically against the background of the lost suitcases. At this point we decided that the most sensible thing to do was to buy beer. And another shock, at 8:05 p.m., the cashier took my beer from the bar and said that no alcohol is sold after 8:00 p.m. I tried my best not to show my Balkan temper to the innocent girl! This shocked us, I didn't like Norway that much anymore, we had been there for 2 hours and we were already without suitcases, with an extra charge for the cars and no beer. The drive to the campsite was pleasant, on the highway it is exactly 110 km. as much as the maximum allowed speed, and between villages with 60 or 80 km. From the madhouse past the suitcases, we had forgotten to call the owner of the campsite that we would be late, he was quite angry about this fact. After we arrived he gave us a good scolding, and despite our explanation about the lost luggage and the fact that our fishing was about to fail, he did not change his tone. Nasty bastard, although he had some right he pissed me off a lot. We immediately poured a whiskey each and enjoyed the moment that we were 100 meters from the Glomma river. The next morning we still went to buy fishing permits, we believed that our suitcases would arrive either that day or the next day at the latest. After another 20 minutes in the company of the owner of the campsite, we all hated this ass. Our first meeting with Glomma was like love at first sight. She was extremely impressive! We decided while waiting for the suitcases to go around and look for promising fishing spots. There are detours from the main road to the river which has a sign with a fish painted on it. This sign indicated that this was a fishing trail that led to a convenient stopping place. The first such detour took us to a scary rapid that was cut by huge boulders that formed additional small currents. After its end, a huge pool formed, which is perhaps about 500 meters long. On the other bank was a small wooden hut made of cylindrical logs, and in front of it was a table. I imagined the pleasure of drinking your morning coffee on this table and watching the rising water vapor in the early morning. I quickly ended these romantic thoughts, prepared the nymph fishing rod and plunged into the waters of Gloma. The first shock was that all the stones were perfectly round, covered in moss and terribly slippery. In the literal sense of the word, you cannot sit comfortably on your feet. Two meters from the shore and you can no longer wade!

The dimensions of the river are such that even a casting of 15-20 meters seems like you are casting in front of you. I was pretty confused at this point! The size of the river was quite shocking to me. I decided it was time to buckle down and concentrate on fishing. Fish could be seen rising in the distance, but I had no chance of reaching them. I started fishing some deep rapids with two nymphs. Many people think that fishing abroad is very easy, almost as soon as you set foot you start catching fish after fish, but I knew that this is not the case at all. After about 30 minutes of fishing and a few nymph changes I managed to catch my first Grayling, which got off the hook. The fish was not big, but that gave me hope that the situation would not be critical. We changed the place about a kilometer further up the river. After the first five casts I had already caught three Lipana between 25-35 cm in size. We decided to move again to study the river, not so much to fish. The next place was magical. We left the car about 50 meters above the river, and a stunning panorama opens up to it. I looked at the river and said to myself - "damn it, if there is a master and he made this river, then he was a flycatcher". In the left part of the horizon there was a pool, which is about 5-700 meters long, then the river makes an island and follows a formidable rapid. This was definitely the most beautiful place on a river that I have ever seen in my life. I think I will return to this place in my thoughts many times. I went to the river, in the rapid in front of me I caught a grayling after a few casts and decided to go to the island. I couldn't stop marveling at how beautiful this place was. I stood on the upper end of the island and saw fish gathering dry flies. I immediately tied on a dry fly, I couldn't see the flies the fish were picking up. I put on an imager and after 2-3 casts I already caught my first nicer grayling. I unhooked it quickly and continued casting, two more casts and the next Grayling was on the end of my line. At that moment I realized that Vankata was on the river. He had bought a full kit including shoes, a wetsuit and a fishing rod and had set foot in some rapids. I myself know, in this moment of mental nirvana, how I wished my friends were by my side and together we could catch these feeding fish. I let the fish feed and went to Vankata. He was about 500 meters away from me. I explained to him that he should trust me and come with me. He looked at me with a great deal of disbelief and refused to believe that he had to cross the river, but I was quite persuasive. I was very happy that he trusted me. So, Vankata and I held hands for extra balance and started crossing the river. One wrong step, one slip by one of us and the river would sweep us away. At one point I imagined it as a scene, but I quickly banished those thoughts. There were several very critical moments in the crossing, Vankata's expression was that of a man determined to do anything to reach the coveted spot and hand his fly to those rising Lipans. I could see how my explanation of the Lipani feeding was a great motivation for my friend and I further explained what the place was, how they arranged themselves, from where we should stand to tip them. At the same time, I prayed that they would continue to rise, I didn't want Vankata's efforts to be in vain. After we reached the place, Vankata had a sort of mental orgasm. He raised his hands to the setting sun and said "Jore, look where we are, it's not such fun". The smile never left his face. Luckily for us, the fish kept coming up. I managed to catch another grayling about 35cm and Vankata managed to make a few "long releases" as he called them. He caught a wonderful Grayling about 35-40 cm and was the happiest man in the world. It was a real pleasure for me to enjoy his happiness. After we left the venue, the setting Scandinavian sun was shining on the grinning face of the happiest man on earth. I took out my phone and captured this moment that I will remember for the rest of my life, this is what I imagine fly fishing happiness looks like.

The next day we started fishing from a new location. Me and Vankata stepped on, and Kalin and Dancho were around us. Naturally, after about 30 minutes of fishing in one place, I ran up and told them to leave me, to go to another place to look at the river. Kalin refused to leave me alone, but he knew me very well and knew that there was no one who could stop me at this point. In a terribly thick rapid where the water is going at two hundred, I decided to put two large and heavy nymphs to have a chance of going to the bottom. I had decided that during that day I would fish in different terrain to find out where and how the fish were behaving. For me, it was more important to read the river and get an idea of ​​the behavior of the fish than actually catching them. We knew beforehand that the fish were highly grouped and had to be found where they were. We knew there were stretches where there wasn't a single fish, and then there could be hundreds in one pool. Well, the thick rapid was about 100 meters. I started to grab it from its lower end and worked my way up. I was fishing without an indicator, just two nymphs on the end of my line. I used the cord as an indicator. I like to fish this way. I had just given up hope when my line stopped and went upstream. I hooked and immediately realized that the fish was much nicer than the ones I had caught the day before. In a second, my life came back. My whole being tensed with excitement. I was alone in the middle of a huge river, fighting a grayling in a terribly fast current. The fish was not very big, about 40-42 cm., but it was terribly strong. I took her out and couldn't believe that such a small Grayling could have such power. The fish had nothing in common in terms of strength with the 40-42 cm Lipans that I have caught in Bosnia. In the next hour I managed to catch about 15 Lipana in this rapid alone. The fish mainly pecked at a nymph that I had made just for that. It was on a #14 hook, with a 3.3 tungsten head, a short tail and a body of olive synthetic tape that my friend Cody from Plovdiv had given me. Cody, thank you :) The fish were between 35-40 cm. I was over the moon with happiness, but at the same time I was sorry that my friends were not with me. I had never had such half-hearted happiness. After this rapid, I decided that up the river was not promising enough and decided to go down. When crossing one of the branches of the river, I fell on the slippery stones. I was all wet. I undressed completely naked, wrung out my clothes, put them on and started again. At first I was cold and shivering, but I told myself that I would get used to the cold and there was no point in stopping fishing. I was right, after about an hour I was just slightly uncomfortable. That kind of nonsense had no chance of getting me to stop fishing. I met a German who was hunting with a Tyrolean stick - no such idiocy. At the lower end something like a bombard is tied, for it on a fiber 0.40, there are three wet flies like for a bulldog, and on top there is something in between a bulldog and a plug for a pike. He hadn't caught anything, it gave me a mild form of evil happiness for about 2 minutes. I'm not one to enjoy the misfortune of others, but this German's idiotic method certainly amused me. I continued fishing with variable success catching between 1-3 fish per spot. It was already around 2-3 p.m. and the terrible hunger I was already experiencing was trying to distract me. I decided it was highly inappropriate to waste time calling to be taken back to the campsite for the one meal. I climbed over the river, laid down near some blueberries and began to eat, I ate like a very hungry man. I imagined what a caricature I was if anyone was looking at me, but I didn't care, I just wanted to eat something and go back to the river. At that moment, Kalin called me and offered to come pick me up. With a great deal of internal resistance, I agreed to stop fishing. A few sandwiches at the campsite and Vankata and I went to the waterhole from the previous me. The van caught a few fish on a dry fly, and I decided to go around the island and look for new fish, but without success, and that was the end of the day.

The mornings were quite chilly, me, Dancho and Kalin decided to go down the river after camping. In this area, the river divides into many arms and straight islands, on which there are huge cultivated fields. The scale of the river is very, very impressive. After a quick survey of the nearby location, I decided to head upriver and reach a particular location that our new friend Theo from Holland had told me about. Theo and I met the day before at the campsite. He is a 76-year-old Dutchman who looks better than 90% of 50-year-old Bulgarians. Extremely tight and sinewy, only the wrinkles on his throat hint at his actual age. Well, Theo told me about this place the other day and told me he had some great fishing for a big black Clinkhammer and a Super Puppa. He only fished with a dry fly. You look like the kind of person who wouldn't hunt a nymph even if they had a gun to their forehead. There were about 500 meters to the place, which I decided not to skip and hunt them down, but without giving them much time, but I had no success. At that time I got a call from Kalin that they had been called from the airport and that three of the four lost suitcases had been found. Everyone went to Oslo, and I stayed on the river. This information made me very happy. I reached the place I was looking for, it was painted as for many fish. About a meter deep, about 50 meters wide, all full of stones of different sizes, which are a great hiding place for fish. I went all over the nymph spot, lined up my box, and had no hits. My despair was overwhelming, I had no idea what to do. I used three different rigs to guide the nymphs, had changed at least 20 lures, got down to 0.10 line thickness and had no feelers and so went all over the place. Up the river did not look promising to me and I decided to go down again. At that moment, I thought of Theo's words that he was fishing on the Super Pupa. It was with a great deal of trepidation that I decided to put this fly on, but I had no expectations. As soon as the fly fell, a fish, about 20 cm, bit it as if it were the last fly in the world and its life depended on it. After the first grayling which I barely saved I continued to fish and every pass of the fly I had either a fish or a strike on the fly. I couldn't believe my eyes and what was happening to me. After about 20 fish I decided to change the fly to see if others worked. I may have traded 7-8 flies for one fish caught. I was already caught up and was more interested in finding out what was going on. I put the Super pupa back on and everything started as before. The fly was picking them up like I've never seen before. There was not a single rising fish to be seen in the whole place, while my fly was not being missed. I caught about 40-50 fish at this location, again changing flies, but definitely only one of them all worked for me. I also tried Diret, which is also very successful, but without any success. At one point, Dancho called me and said that they were going home and that Kalin had run out of luggage. Shit, as ugly as it sounds, I was hoping that Ivelina was left without luggage, but alas. We got back to the campsite, ate, Dancho put on his overalls, Vankata too and headed to the river for one last handout. We did some great wet fly fishing. It was great, you cast to as many as you can cast, then take out more line and start pulling it like a streamer and the graylings take you with a great strike. They either wanted you to prop up the fly or for it to drift, does it drift naturally with the current, they don't want it. Wow what a day that was. We got back to the campsite and shortly after Vancho Barabancho arrived with his wife and their baby. I was slightly biased towards him, he wasn't my type, I thought he was an ass because of what he commented on the groups, but it turns out I got the wrong first impression. He was a dude, even though he knew nothing about fly fishing, he was cool. I was pleased that my initial judgment of him was wrong.

That day was pretty colorful, it was me, Kalin, Dancho and Vancho Barabancho on the river. Vankata decided to pass the morning's fishing because he had enjoyed his evening whiskey. The fishing was pretty tough, we changed lots of spots and didn't get any memorable fishing anywhere. The night before, I had told the others about what I had done with the Superpupa, and Dancho had sat down to tie some flies. Most of our fish were on it. All in all it wasn't our day. After we got back to our campsite we organized a great evening. Ivelina took wonderful care of us. We decided to invite our new friend Theo to dinner too. We had a great evening topped off with lots of fish stories and good whiskey.