The flow of water dropped very quickly as a result of cooler temperatures and dropped to 221 m³/sec at 4 p.m. on June 2nd and to 142m³/sec at 9 p.m. on June 3rd. On June 3rd the first salmon was caught above Gaulfossen and it can be assumed that before June 1st the conditions had allowed some salmon to pass the Gaulfossen.
The Gaula took over leadership of the three most productive rivers in the Trondelag region early on. The first 312 salmon caught (48% on fly) had an average weight of 8.2kg, but the first two grilse were also caught.
The Gaula also caught the largest fish, caught early in the season. A massive male weighing 22kg and 128cm in length. The fish was caught on a beat just below Gaulfossen on June 4th and was carefully released.
The first salmon caught on the NFC Beats this season was landed and carefully released by Kim Jørgensen on Beat E2 on June 1st. This fish weighed 11.4kg and was 105cm long. Kim was also able to land the next fish from the NFC Beats on June 3rd. He caught a salmon with sea lice on Beat E1A, the female weighed 9.5kg and was 99cm long. Kim released the fish carefully.
The NFC had a rather average season, but with lots of wonderful fish caught, well spread over the season so far. From July 8th to August 4th the coastal nets (Kilenøter, bag nets) experienced a very good season. They only have the right to fish 3 days a week. While in normal years the large multi-sea winter fish are already past the nets before the start of the net season, this year was somewhat different as a larger proportion of this year’s salmon appears to have arrived late, as indicated by the good net catches achieved. The late run could perhaps mean an improvement of the fishing in the final weeks of the season leading up to the end of the season on August 31st.
Good news: the Bridge Pool has been leased on a long term basis
In addition to Bridge Pool, the Upper Pool and Skomakerhølen have also been leased and can also be fished.
David Eaton accomplished his fishing feat: he landed this salmon hooked in the Bridge Pool about 500 meters downstream after an exciting fight.
Of these 3,631 fish, 2,121 (58.4%) were caught on flies; 715 (19.7%) with the worm; 329 (9.1%) with the spoon; 300 (8.3%) with the spinner; 93 (2.6%) caught with the wobbler and 70 (1.9%) with fly on a float.
The sea trout are back!
In the 2023 season, a total of 302 sea trout with a total weight of 502.4kg were recorded by August 8th. The average weight is 1.7kg. 261 (86.4%) sea trout weighing up to 3kg and 41 (13.6%) weighing 3-7kg, were caught. 180 (59.6%) sea trout were caught on fly and 71 (13.6%) sea trout were caught on worm. The rest are spread over the other fishing methods, such as spoons (4.3%), float + fly (5.3%), spinners (6.3%) and wobblers (1%). The sea trout are e.g. Currently protected all year round and have all been released. The average weight of the five largest sea trout is 5.7kg. At least 2 of these were caught on the NFC Beats.
