Many of our regulars have already arrived to start to fish from midnight of the 1st of June like Terry Oldfield from Australia and Ken and Marianne Sawada from Japan. There are also some first time visitors like Andy Murray from Scotland and others from all over Europe - keen fishermen from all walks of life eagerly anticipating an exciting week ahead.

The fishing on our Beats over the course of the first day of the season was quite enjoyable! Several running salmon have been seen in our Lower Gaula Beat on their way upstream. After Johannes Kahrs caught the first fish on our Storen water just 3 ½ hours after the season start, the next fish was caught by Ken Sawada. The famous Japanese fly tier landed a bright 24 pounder (10,9 kg) at 7 pm in our Beat D1 (Rognes) on one of his „Fishing Fire“ tube flies.

2nd June

The second day of the season brought a more refreshing air temperature and the daily rise of the water caused by the melting snow was not so strong as during the opening day.

The new lower Gaula beat produced three nice fish in the afternoon. Fabien Laborde from France caught already his second salmon, this time a fresh, 95 cm long fish that weighed around 17-18lb /8 kg on a Green Highlander Tube.

Yesterday late afternoon the water started to rise again, as it is still quite some snow left in the mountains, and due to the heat on the last day the melt water drains into the Gaula and it’s tributaries so the river still rises in the evenings. The amount of snow left is quite promising and might supply us with additional water a good deal into the season, if the weather is right.

After a very hot day on the 4th of June the water rose during the evening up to 2m at the Frøseth Gauge, but stopped quickly and dropped again until the morning of the 5th of June. The quickly dropping water improved the fishing again and a morning of very good fishing on our Lower Gaula Beat followed, with a total of 7 large fish caught on the 5th June.

The first fish of the day has been caught again by Olivier Plasseraud. He landed it at 9.30 a.m. in our Beat E1 on our Lower Gaula Beat on a Phatakorva tube fly. This beautifull cock fish measured 102 cm with an estimated weight of 24 lb / 11kg. Olivier released as well his 2nd fish in this week carefully.

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7th of June

On the Saturday the fishing has been slower than in the last days, even if the French group lost 3 fish in Beat E2 during the morning. One of the fish, hooked by Bruno Bertod, must have been a very large fish as it was running towards the other bank and the line got caught behind a stone or other obstacle. The strong fish draw out the line, running line and broke with additional 10m backing. Very unfortunate! Michael Dahms caught at noon a 5,5 kg (12.1 lb) fish in our Beat E3. In the evening the weather started to change, it got colder and we had a little rain in the late evening.

8th of June – Fantastic fishing on our Beats!

The new week starting on Sunday at 8 p.m. on Sunday had a great first day. With a water level of 1,20m at the Frøseth Gauge and with the certainty that several hundreds of large salmon have passed Gaulfossen in the night before, our fishing guests were eager to begin the new week. After out start meeting at Sunday 7:15 p.m. Peter Hansen who had just arrived, was the first successful angler and caught a 7,0 kg (15.4 lb) fish in our Beat B2. The weather forecast says the weather is cooling down to 8 - 10 degrees and a lot of rain will fall during the next 3 days. This is should be a welcome end of the tropical temperatures which we experienced since before the seasons start.

In the evening of the 10th the water stopped to rise after very heavy rainfalls at a waterlevel of 1,60m at the Frøset Gauge .Late in the evening our first time visitors David Swain and Ken Boomer from Ireland each caught their 10kg (22 lb) fish on our Beat D1. They both came to the Gaula to catch a fish over 6kg, and both did – even much better!!!

Short before midnight Manfred Raguse caught two fish on a Green Highlander tube fly, these were as well the first two salmon from the Black Pool of our Bogen Søndre Beat (Beat BS2). The very fresh run small medium sized salmon was estimated to weigh 5,5kg (12 lb) and was carefully released. Not long afterwards he caught another fish weighing 7,2kg (16 lb) on the same fly.

Early on the next morning of the 11th of June, Magnus Bäckman from Sweden caught a salmon of 7,6kg (16.5 lb) on our Beat A1. A little bit later Justin Maxwell Stewart from England has been successful on the same Pool and caught salmon of 5,5kg (12 lb). Manfred Raguse caught his third fish on BS1, again estimated to 5,5kg (12 lb) and released the fish carefully – this fish was caught on a Black Night tube fly.

Also Bart Boendermarker from Switzerland caught his 2nd fish this week – a nice salmon of 10,3 kg (22.5 lb).

Geir Espeland from Norway, who just arrived at 7 p.m.caught after 1 hour fishing his first fish on our Bogen Sondre Beat BS2 on a Garry tube fly. His salmon weighed in at 11,3 kg (25 lb).

In the evening the next fish were caught on Beat D1. The first salmon was caught by Dirk Ebeling from Germany – a female of 9,9kg (22 lb). Timothy Ebeling, only 11 years old, hooked salmon in the same pool and after a hard fight the fish was lost – it left the pool and emptied all backing from the reel.

In the night of the 12th of June Bart Boendermaker caught his 3rd fish in Beat A1 (New Pool) on a Night Diver tube fly – he released the cock fish with an estimated weight of approx. 7kg (15.5 lb).

In a cold rainy night it was Lutz Schepers who caught the first fish of the day on our Bogen Søndre Beat at 1.30 a.m. He estimated the weight to be approx. 7kg (15.5 lb) and released the fish. Ken Sawada caught a salmon of approx.10,5kg (23 lb) at 3 o’ clock in our Beat C2 on one of his Green Shimmer tube flies.

During the day the weather changed and it got warmer as in the previous days. The water level at the Frøset Gauge was in the morning at 80cm, so the water is slowly dropping and provides suitable fishing conditions on our beats.

The biggest fish of the day was caught by Peter Ericson on Beat A1. A beautiful cock fish of 13.5kg ( 30 lb)

The end of the week gets closer and some more catches were registered during the day. We still have a water level of 80cm at the Frøset Gauge, which means almost all pools are in fishable conditions. The water temperature is still around 10 degrees.

Yesterday our Norwegian guest Geir Espeland caught his 2nd fish for the week on our Lower Gaula Beat E1a., which measured 98 cm and was estimated to weigh approx. 10kg (22 lb). The fish was carefully released. Also Leo Padrutt caught a fish again on our Bogen Søndre Beat BS2, a salmon weighing 8kg (17.5 lb).

Hans Peter Fehr from Switzerland caught a beautiful salmon, measuring 1,07m and estimated weigh approx. 12 kg (26.1/2 lb) on our Beat D2 on a Sunray Shadow tubefly.

Our week 24 ended up with 58 fish, which is a great number of fish for an early June week. All fish which have been caught during the week have been in an excellent condition, absolutely bright, just perfect June Gaula salmon.

After our start meeting at 8 p.m. the new fishing week began and all fishermen who just arrived could not await to do their first casts. Our regular guest Arve Nilsen, who comes every year with his party of Norwegian fly fishers from the Bergen area repeated his last year catch!!! Just after a few casts fishing our Beat B2 he hooked a fish on a Black & Silver tube fly. Arve told us it has been a great fight and he could not believe himself that the story of last year is repeated almost similar. This time his beautiful cock fish weighted in with 15,2 kg (33 ½ lb)!! Last year he caught his personal record fish just 500 meter up streams in our beat B1, it weighed 15,6 kg (34 lb ) – please see our 2007 season report. The pictures say more than 1000 words….

On Monday the 16th the Swedish author Pelle Klippinge arrived and fished our Beat B1 for a couple of hours and caught a salmon measuring 87 cm and weighing approx. 6 kg (13 lb) on a Sunray Shadow tube fly. Pelle released the fish carefully.

During the early morning NFC’s Daniel Stephan was been lucky and caught 2 nice salmon on our Free for All water at a water level of 65 cm at the Frøseth Gauge, the first fish at 1 o’clock was estimated to weigh approx. 5kg (11lb) and somewhat later he caught a second fish of approx. 8 kg (17.5 lb). Daniel released both salmon carefully. He caught the fish on a mid-sized „Thunder & Lightning“ tube fly.

As well in the morning Masato Aoki from Japan, who fishes his eight season with us, caught his first fish of the week on our Beat D2. His salmon measuring 90 cm, which must have had a weight of approx. 7 kg (15.5 lb) was carefully released.

At 11 a.m. Chris Henshaw caught the first Grilse caught this season on our water. It weighed in at 2,2 kg (5 lb) and was covered in sea lice and took his Green Highlander tube on our Lower Gaula Beat E1. At the moment there are only 4 grilse caught on the Gaula so far.

In the afternoon Fabrice Bergues from France hooked again a salmon on our Free for All water. He estimated the weight to be approx 11,5 kg (25 lb). Fabrice released the fish carefully. We hope to show you his fight in a video clip shortly. During the early morning Fabrice lost after a fabulous battle a very big fish in our Beat B2, after 25 min fight the leader broke unfortunately.

During the last night it rained very strong, also up in the mountains, so the water level of the Gaula rose during the night from 60cm at the Frøset Gauge up to 110 cm in the morning of the 18th of June.

As the water stopped to rise it was Fabrice Bergues who saw the big chance of catching of fish now on our Beat D1. During the first 2 hours he has not seen a fish, but suddenly salmon showed up everywhere, he said he has never seen so many salmon in this pool. Also very big fish were „head & tailing“ all over the place. It did not take a long time until he hooked a fish on a Phatakorva tube fly. The fresh salmon weighted in with 6,8 kg (15 lb) and was sealiced.

During the last day the water rose to a level of 90cm at the Frøset Gauge, so we expected some catches after the rise. I did not take a long time and the first fish was registered in our statistics. Frederico Malipiero from Italy was able to release a smaller salmon of approx. 3,5kg (7.5lb) on our Beat D1. On his next rotation pool in Beat B2 he was lucky again and could land a beautyfull fish of 10.5kg (23 lb).

During the night our Norwegian guests Jon Anders Schei and Jostein Ueland where fishing our Beat D1 – and it should be an exiting adventure….

The waterlevel on the Froseth Gauge on the morning of the 21st showed 85cm, which means the water dropped slowly during the night. The water temperature has been measured with 11,7 degrees.

On the morning we have seen in our statistics that 2 more fish have been caught late in the evening. Fabrice Bergues and his friend Frederic Andre were again successful in Beat D1. Frederic Andre was able to release a salmon of approx. 10kg (22 lb).

The last day of the week has been a bit slow, part of the reason is certainly the fact that many of our guests stopped fishing already in the evening before as the are early on Sunday morning. However, Johannes Kahrs caught last evening at 22:30 a very nice fish weighing approx. 12,5 kg / 27 !/2 lb. on a Black & Silver tube fly in our Beat B 1. He released this fish carefully. Manfred Raguse, who used the chance to make a few casts was able to land a small salmon of 4,9 kg (11 lb) on our Beat B2 fishing the last 20 minutes before the change of pools. Unfortunately this fish was bleeding badly and was kept for the kitchen. Finally Donald Mowat caught at 17:30 a medium sized fish weighing 6.7kg/ 14 ¾ lb. in our C2 Beat. This fish was carrying heavy marks of a seal attack and to release it was out of the question.

The new week 26 started with a water level of 65 at the Frøseth gauge and a water temperature of 11,7 degrees. The first fish of the week has been caught late evening from Hannes Kratzmair from Germany on our Beat B2 on a Highlander tube fly. The fish weighted in with 7,8kg (17 lb) and was heavily marked during a seal attack, the fish was kept as a return would not make sense. Also Ronald Windl from Austria has been successful and caught a salmon of 6,2 kg (13.5 lb) during the night on the Lower Gaula Beat E4.

The weather forecast promised a lot of rain during the next day, but until the morning it has not started to rain and Franz Hochecker, as well from Austria, caught a fish weighing 8,5kg / 18 ¾ lb., measuring 90cm, on our Beat B2 on a Green Highlander tube fly.

The water level on the Frøseth gauge this morning at 9 o’clock was at 75 cm, this is prrox. 25 cm above “normal summer level”. The water temperature was 11 degrees.

A Gary Dog tube fly hooked the first fish of the day. Paolo Miurin from Italy caught a salmon of 6,9kg (15 lb) on our Beat B2. His fishing companion Karsten Kruhl from Germany hooked a short time later in the same pool a fish of 6.5kg (14.5 lb). After the change over of pools Ronald Windl from Austria was able to land another fish on Beat B2, his medium sized salmon weighed in at 5,3 kg (11.5 lb).

On our Beat C1 Michael Dahms caught a nice fish of 9,1kg (20 lb).

During the night Norwegian angler Rune Jensen caught a nice cock fish on our Beat D1 - the salmon weighted in with 9,7 kg (21.5 lb). As a professional cameraman was close by to produce footage for Ronald Windls new DVD about salmon fishing, the whole fight was recorded and we might be able to show a clip of it here on our website at a later stage.

Also Ronald Windl had again a very successful day. He caught 3 fish, 8,5 kg (18.5 lb) on Beat D1, 8 kg (17.5 lb) and the biggest fish weighted in with 11,1 kg (24.5 lb) on our Beat B2. It looks like a lot of good footage was produced for his film.

Michael Dahms caught two fish today, the first on our Beat B2 weighing approx 10kg (22 lb) which he carefully released. The second fish for Michael today, which was caught on Beat D1, was weighed in at 9,0kg (20 lb).

In the afternoon our guest from British Columbia, William J. Harrisson, caught his first Gaula salmon of approx. 7kg (15.5 lb) on our beat C2 on a Green Highlander tube fly and released the fish after a good fight.

The nights on the Gaula are still very cold, which does not really improve the fishing during nighttimes, but our friend Chris Henshaw showed us that even then it is possible to catch fish. Just past midnight he was able to land a nice cock fish of 9,0kg (20 lb) on our Beat D1 on a Black & Green tube fly.

With a water level of 40cm on the Frøseth Gauge Margarethe Yorke from England landed her first Gaula Salmon this season on our Beat C2 on a Black tube fly.

Manfred Heyderer from Austria was able to land a salmon of 6,5 kg (14 lb) on our Lower Gaula Beat E2.

Kent Håkanson and Michael Dahms have been out again, fishing our Beat D2, first Michael hooked a big fish, which he lost after a short while, then it was Kent’s turn: he hooked another fish which he lost after 30 min hard fight, the salmon has been almost landed and he estimated the fish approx. 15kg, but suddenly the hook came of and the fish has been „ long-line-released“.

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After the weather cooled down last weekend with an immediate positive effect on the fishing on last Sunday stronger rainfalls started resulting in a nice rise of the water level of 70 cm from 0.30 to 1m at the Frøseth gauge. During this rising water first Siegfried Schneid from Munich caught the first fish of the week on Beat C2 - a small salmon of 2,8 kg. Douglas Beveridge fished our Beat D1 and lost a fish after 2 hours fight during the night, the fish left the pool and was lost 400m downstream after he ran the „gauntlet“. Douglas estimated this fish to weigh over 20kg, he said this fish just has been huge!!!

On Sunday evening the new fishing week has started with heavy rain falls during the day, so the Gaula rose up to water level of 40 cm at the Frøseth Gauge during the night. The first fish has been caught by Humbert Henzler – his fish was weighed in at 5,3 kg (11.5lb.). Just 20 minutes later Dr. Werner Brinker caught the next nice fish on the same Beat – a salmon of 7 kg (15.5lb).

Prof. Albrecht Eggert has been successful on one of our „free for all“ beats, the Railway Pool. Short before midnight he caught a salmon weighing 8,2 kg (18 lb).

Also our French party around Fabrice Bergues arrived again for another go this season on the NFC water and it did not needed long time to catch the first fish. Fabrice caught a salmon of approx. 10 kg (22 lb.) on our Beat C2 at noon on his first day and released it carefully.

The weeks 30 and 31 has been very hot with temperatures up to 30 degrees, the water temperature was going up to 22 degrees which effected the fishing badly. Anyway, it is just during such difficult periods that the quality of a fishery is verified by the fact that it is still possible to catch fish in the most adverse conditions. So some of our guests managed to land some nice salmon and a number of grilse during these weeks. For example Matthias Ziercke, he caught a salmon of 7,3 kg (16 lb.) or Peter Spittal who caught his first salmon ever on our Bogen Søndre Beat, a nice fish of approx. 5,5 kg (12 lb.)

Despite water levels dropping quickly back after a nice spate which increased the water flow up to 72 m³/sec. at the Gaulfossen gauge (14th August) after some nice rain, the fishing was quite productive, supported by nice air temperatures around 13 to 18 degrees. Most of the week we had a cloudy sky and some rain. The water temperature was between 12,5 and 15 degrees.

Fish were caught on almost all our pools, which means that the fishing has been good for us on all our Beats, which are spread over the lower, middle and upper Gaula. The first fish in week 33 was been caught by Andre Scholz on our Upper Gaula Beat. The fish carried a tag and weighed in at 9,5 kg (21 lb.) .

Week 34 started on Sunday with a nice fish weighing 5,3kg (11.5 lb.) on our Beat D2 for Joachim Ruthman. Regular rod Winfried Holtkamp caught a very fresh and beautifull salmon weighing 4,8 kg
( 10 1/2 lb.) on our Beat C2. Also Dirk Brumund-Rüther, did well on the same evening and caught a salmon with a weight of 8,5 kg (19 lb.) on our Upper Gaula Beat .

The last week started with promising weather fore casts with a lot of rain for the next days. On the last weekend some new guests and friends arrived on the Gaula to enjoy the last week on the NFC Beats. On Saturday evening it started to rain already, so that the water rose over the night around 20 cm. So it did not take a long time until the first fish of the week has been caught. Chris Henshaw managed to land a salmon on our Beat D1, which has been carefully released. Chris estimated the weight of his salmon about 10 kg (22 lb.)