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Fishing reports from guests

Anders & Birgitta Rydén, Sweden - August 2008

This years trip to Glomma and Kvennan camping was great with good fishing, relatively good weather and to make something good even better my wife followed me on this trip too (her third fly fishing trip).
Only because we have too little vacation in Sweden :) we made a "short week" Friday 8/8 till Wednesday 13/8, but we made good use of the days with a lot of fly fishing, short trips in the surroundings and a relaxed pace. On the evenings before we left I tied imitations of small ants, dry flies, Superpuppa and imitations of small Baetis down to hook size 20. I also managed to find the colours (rusty brown/black with brown hackle in size 12) on the Superpuppa fly which became the most successful fly on the trip. When we arrived Friday night our spot from last year was occupied, but we assumed they would leave the next morning so we put up our tent just on the opposite side of the road so we easily should be able to move. The weather was so far OK, the forecast said scattered clouds with chance of rain but the overall weather during the days was better than the forecast. Also this year, our second trip to Kvennan, my wife wanted us to camp in our tent, she likes sleeping in a tent , good for me when we will start doing

fishing trips further up north in the wilderness. The morning after our spot next to the river was ours as we predicted. The tent and all other stuff was easily moved and then we were back on "our" spot with a perfect view over the river Glomma . After a quick breakfast we bought fishing licenses for the flyfishing zone, Hein was out guiding so some advise regarding flies and "hot-spots" had to wait until later. The first trip was to a spot in the beginning of the fly fishing zone just a kilometre or so downstream the camping, now we had to take out and on all the fishing stuff, it's unbelievable how much we carry with us....
When ready we crossed the water over to an island and to the main stream on the other side, pretty fast running water but no problem to wade and you could hear activity on the surface even

though one couldn't really see the fish. It seemed as the fish was eating something just under the surface so I put on a Superpuppa (rusty brown/black size 12), the fly landed and followed the stream no more than a 1/2 meter when a grayling of 36 centimetres was hooked. Good start which you can see on the smile of my face on the picture. For my wife it was a bit slower, she didn't wade as far out as I did, but mostly she had put on a small ant imitation which the fish wasn't interested of. We didn't catch a single fish on ant imitations at all during the whole trip regardless of colour or size. That didn't really matter because the Superpuppa was so successful instead. After a quick change of fly my wife also started to catch fish. We continued fishing successfully and caught grayling around 25-38 cm, plus a lot of smaller ones too, until lunch. From the smaller ones it was kind of more difficult to get the fly out, they swallowed further down, a haemostat is recommended. It was really enjoyable fishing when the fish was active on the surface all over around us and one could try fishing on the ones we considered to be of

better size, you couldn't really tell though. After lunch I tied some more of the Superpuppa flies in the "right" colour combination (rusty brown/black with brown hackle) and size during the time my wife took a quick nap. I also went to the camping reception for a quick talk with Hein, the river keeper, for some advice regarding flies an hot-spots. Great that he remembered us since last year. After some tips we continued fishing on another spot where Hein had been dry-fly fishing earlier during the day. Small green dry flies was one of the recommendations, Superpuppan was very successful on this spot too. Here we had company of another flyfisher on the opposite side of the river. After a while my wife said "Is that what's considered deep wading?" - I turned around and saw when the guy started swimming, after one meter the neoprene waders was probably filled with water so he turned on his back and continued with problems. Can't say I recommend swimming with waders if one can avoid it, really scared us a bit. Also tried to take some underwater pictures with my Pentax Optio W20, a camera that can be used under water to a depth of 1,5 meters (I think). The picture quality is better on my other camera but if you have to have the camera in a plastic bag or something equal I would probably don't take any pictures at all... Kind of a challenge to zoom in quick enough under water when a fish is trying it's best to avoid ending up in my landing net, one also don't want to tire the fish too much before releasing it again. Later on we moved further down the river to a new spot. On the way you had to walk through the enclosed pasture-land, the cows moved nicely though. We had a wonderful evening, no activity on the surface so we used Superpuppa and Hares ear with gold head and had a nice fishing. Didn't saw any activity on the surface during the days on this spot either, but it was a really beautiful part of the river. The next day (Sunday), before lunch, we fished the beginning of the fly fishing zone just below the power lines. Birgitta checked the surface and put on a small dry fly with green biot body, tail and hackle in tan and some red tied in just behind the hackle.

She caught fish on every cast, it just said "slurp" when the fly landed. Just ten meters above I tried dry fly after dry fly but didn't catch anything, I'm kind of half blind too so I couldn't see what was on the surface either. After a while I had to ask what fly she was using, luckily enough I had tied two of the same (I thought), but for some reason I had used brown tail fibers on mine - no fish of course... Ten meters down the "slurping" continued... Finally I put on another dry and I was "back in business".

Fish between 25-35 centimetres were common, kind of fun to take some pictures under water too. During lunch my wife got a serious migraine probably because of the wind that was tough. I tied some more copies of the dry fly that had been so successful. After that i went alone to a part of the river that Hein had mentioned were it was deeper. It was a few hundred meters from the car to this spot and I walked along the river just to discover it, there where nice parts below the stretch Hein had pointed out, but not as deep. When closing up near the spot I made a roll-cast (like a wall behind me) using the dry fly mentioned above which we now call "Birgittas Dryfly" over a slower stretch into the faster stream, and "slurp" - I caught a grayling 38 centimetres long. Now started three hours of what I would call a "dream fishing", in more or less every cast I

caught fish, Superpuppan, Birgittas Dryfly or E12 with green body - all flies were extremely efficient both on and below the surface. The fish was also generally bigger than earlier, the shortest grayling was 33 cm and the biggest 51 cm. Dream fishing...
There were probably some bigger brown trout swimming around also but the streamer-box never came in to use, it was just to much fun catching big Grayling. Couldn't leave my wife alone so I called her and gave her a quick report, it only took twenty minutes until she called back, dressed and ready, and wanted me to come and get her. This time we chose to try to find the spot from the opposite side of the river, It also started to rain heavily but that didn't stop my wife. We also discovered that it was much deeper closer to the riverside so we could only wade one meter out, Bigitta had to try roll-cast for the first time. She did well, seems that girls from my general point of view (wife, daughter and two sons) are quick learners. We caught some more fish until darkness.

Monday, before lunch, was planned for a trip to Røros, a small old town just north of the camping. It was also interesting to see the river above/below the small town OS, last year we didn't even checked the surroundings north of Kvennan Camping. We also made a quick stop at a small wooden suspension bridge just south of Os. Røros is an old mining town where the old mine dominate the city appearance, very charming and picturesque and a visit is recommended, a coffee on one of the small cafeterias was also something we enjoyed. After lunch we went south to the town Alvdal, I wanted to try a spot I had seen on the map in the river (not part of the fly fishing zone) with a small island in the middle of the river  some kilometres above where the river Folla joins river Glomma . It was rainy and very windy but still good fishing... My wife waded deep in the slower water towards the faster part, and fish she caught. My idea from the beginning though was to fish in River Folla so after a few hours we started looking for a spot to fish, we found a dirt road that took us all the way down to the river to a very good stretch, but we didn't caught a single fish, no activity on the surface either. We slowly moved down closer to the outlet in Glomma but still no fish. Tried everything from dry flies, klinkhammer, to streamers etc. After a few hours we left Folla (no fish) and went back to Glomma, just some 1500 meters away, and immediately we caught fish. Kind of interesting what a difference, so close and still so different. The day after (Tuesday) I started reading a Swedish fishing magazine (Fiske för Alla) and found a report of  Folla, looking at the pictures I recognized the surroundings - it was the same places we had been the day before. Felt that I wasn't finished with Folla, the fishing license

was still valid fore some hours too. We decided to make another try in Folla so we returned, but this time further down closer to the outlet. Extremely fine stretches with deeper water and faster and slower parts, but unfortunately we found some garbage that followed us to the trash-can at the local gas station. The water was low so I guess the garbage "surfaces"... Unfortunately the fishing was the same as the day before, tried everything I had but no fish. As mentioned before a very nice river with clear water and easy wading. So, after a few hours we returned to the part in the fly fishing zone where I had so good

fishing on Sunday. Now we had a great time, Graylings round 35-45 cm regularly. Birgitta had a nice time and the camera was used frequently. She actually can speak in her cell phone, take pictures and catch fish on the same time - I promise... The landing net had be used on the big ones, but normally it was easy to release the fish using barbless hooks. Then she had to take a nap too, sleep when big fish was biting!!?? It was so sharp stones she had to use the landing net as a pillow. During the time I was catching fish, 40 cm plus, regularly. The camera came more frequently into use, kind of fun to try take pictures under the surface, one has to be quick though. It's difficult to get the fish in focus, the successful Superpuppa fly can be seen in one of the pictures. Some hundred meters further down there were fish hunting on the surface so we went downstream after Birgitta awakened, thought I was fishing for grayling of approx 25 cm but we caught fish between 35-40 cm. The fly I now call "Birgittas Dryfly" was very effective on the surface. Later there was heavy rain coming, before the rain there were some interesting clouds, at least in my wife’s opinion who took the picture. We went further up the river before the rain that didn't came, it stopped over the high mountain "Tron" further south.
Now started dry fly fishing in the fast riffles, small green dry flies was effective, incredible big fish swimming around in depth of just one decimetre (10 centimetres/ 3-4 inches). Birgitta managed to catch a grayling on a small Baetis imitation size 22.

We continued fishing until sleeping time before travelling home the next day. The next day was really grey and it was raining heavily, felt good that the bad weather came when travelling home though. It was so rainy we didn't even used the camera. Just above the Swedish border the sun was back again. Six hours later we were home again, now we have a long and boring winter ahead of us until the next visit to Glomma.

During our stay we didn't kill a single fish - 100% catch-and-release. It's simple - We have no use for the fish we catch during these trips, we have use for the experience the fishing gives us.

Birgittas Dryfly
Hook: Regular dry fly hook in size 14-20
Body: Olive Biot ("the notch" facing forward so you get a hair-ribbing), just behind the hackle some red flyrite or squirrel or equivalent
Tail: Some hackle fibers, same as the hackle used
Hackle: Whitings Rooster saddle, Light Tan Dun

Some webpages describing Biots (and the notch):
http://www.sexyloops.com/flytying/summerbiots.shtml http://www.invictaflies.us/Articles/all_about_biots.htm

Anders & Birgitta Rydén, Gävle Sweden, August 2007

Short travel report from our fly fishing trip to Glomma river in Norway , extract from mail to friends.

My wife and I decided after a very short discussion to go to Norway and the Glomma river for a few days of fly fishing, a place we had never visited before. My wife is a true beginner so we bought new waders for her and borrowed the rest of the gear from our oldest son. We also bought a new tent to camp with just for the fun of it.
When arriving to Kvennan camping, beautifully situated between Tolga and Tynset we met Hein Van Aar, a gentleman from Holland who is the river keeper and also the driving force behind the new fly fishing zone. The recommendation was to use whatever fly we wanted as long as it was BLACK and preferably small dry flies. He also recommended a stretch a few hundred meters above the camping, not part of the fly fishing zone, but still a good place for my wife to start with. Strongly recommend everyone to take advise from Hein before fishing.

We started fishing in the evening around seven PM, first trying a little bit below the recommended stretch. No luck at that spot so we walked to the recommended place a few hundred meters further upwards. There was no activity on the surface but still we tried with black klinkhammers size 14 according to Hein's recommendation.
We continued fishing until darkness and we caught about 15 graylings (approx 2 hours). We would probably have caught more fish if we had walked further out in the river trying other spots but I considered it was OK not to walk around to much with a wife that was out wading for the first time.

The biggest fish we caught were about 45 cm, caught late at night just below our tent in darkness on an E12 with black body. Just could not sleep while bigger fish were hunting on the surface just 3 meters away...
We fished two days in Glomma (Saturday 4/8, and Monday 5/8 2007) before returning home, the rest of the time we checked out the surroundings and made trips to the Tolga and Tynset communities plus the Folla, Unsetåa and Rena rivers.
We had a really pleasant stay at Kvennan camping, the surroundings are very nice. Next year we will be back to explore the fly fishing zone!

Best Regards - Anders & Birgitta

  last updated : 18-05-2010

contact : kff@kvennan.com                                                copyright 2007-2010 : Hein van Aar