Back in Trøndelag! Hembre Vald – Stjørdal

Sunday – Tuesday

I've missed the rivers of Trøndelag, especially Gaula and Orkla, for quite some time since the rivers of Western Norway took over much of my salmon fishing a few years ago. So when my friend Mattias asked if I wanted to join him at Hembre Vald in Stjørdal, I said yes right away. It felt exciting to return to the area. I saw that my fishing schedule for week 28 was empty, and since I was going to spend the weeks before and after in Western Norway with usually hard fishing every day, a more relaxed week with Amanda and Viggo — sharing one rod — sounded perfect.

After driving for 12 hours at a calm pace, we arrived at the accommodation at 9:00 PM. We were then told that we had the "hot" beat straight away. Here we fish a long stretch freely and rotate on a smaller but incredibly productive section. That rotation beat is fished in 3-hour sessions about 1.2 times per day at different times. Our lowest stretch, the one most people fish and which we can fish whenever we want, was unfortunately coloured by clay where the river is cutting into the bank just upstream of us. But the rotation stretch was clear and wonderful to fish.

We didn't even have time to unpack the car before changing directly into our fishing clothes and rigging up the rods. Out on the beat, Amanda went first. She had my rod and only fished half the stretch since she was going to switch to her own rod afterwards. She told me I could continue through the deeper section, so I took an I/2/4 line and moved down.

Just 5–10 casts later, a fish smashed my Sunray! A really strong fight followed, with two jumps and several long runs. I had to back up onto a shallow gravel bar and beach the fish before Amanda arrived with the camera. An 88 cm sea-liced hen salmon — my very first Stjørdal salmon — was a reality.

Since then we've fished at a relaxed pace. Amanda has had a few nice pulls, and I didn't feel anything more until last night. More on that later.

Hembre Vald in Stjørdal

Oskar Ganemyr with a 98 cm silver salmon

Also fishing with us are two families, the Olssons and the Ganemyrs. Each family has two sons who are absolutely crazy about salmon fishing. All of the kids have caught fish, and yesterday it was 15-year-old Oskar Ganemyr’s turn. He had caught a few salmon before, his biggest around 7 kilos, but never on fly. So this year the goal was clear: catch a salmon on the fly. It didn’t end with one — he landed three! Two grilse on the rotation beat and last night one big salmon, 98 cm long. Oskar released his first two salmon, which not many people would have done. Very well fished, Oskar! You can tell he has learned and absorbed a lot about fly fishing. He talks about fly fishing like someone who has been doing it for years.

The other kids have also caught beautiful salmon. Olle and Gustav did well, and Vidar landed a fine grilse this week. Mattias’ wife Anne-Liese also managed to catch a nice salmon on the fly last week. Congratulations to all of you!

Viggo helping me unhook the salmon

Amanda keeps pushing on

Wednesday

For three days I had seen a big fish — a lightly coloured male — show itself in exactly the same spot on the rotation beat. After many attempts during the day and evenings, I decided to make a proper effort for the salmon in the dark. At that point I estimated it to be around 8–10 kg. So it suited me perfectly that we had the rotation beat from 00:00 to 03:00 yesterday.

Amanda and I arrived a bit early to see if there was any activity. The “big” fish jumped just as we got there and I thought, great, it’s still here. I drove Amanda home around 1 AM and returned alone for two hours of concentrated salmon fishing in complete solitude.

After 1.5 hours of fishing with several combinations of lines, flies and presentation speeds, the fish gave a slight pull on the fly. Damn — there was my chance, I thought. With only 20 minutes left, I switched to a fly one size smaller, around 5 cm long, tied by my friend Thrond Spets. On the very first cast over the holding lie, it hit brutally hard. A 96 cm angry male salmon was landed at 02:40 after a dramatic, nerve-racking fight in the dark. Some fish are simply more memorable than others. This was definitely one of them.

My male salmon landed at 02:40

Thursday

The river rose last night to a full 75 cubic meters, so it was time to put on some heavier lines.

After a nice sleep-in, Amanda and I headed up to the rotation beat and fished hard through the whole session. I waded very aggressively and ended up taking a short swim… but nothing happened. We didn’t even see a fish. It seemed like the salmon that had been holding there earlier had moved on when the water rose.

So we decided to fish a tributary called Forra. I asked Mattias where we should go, and he pointed out a good spot for us. When we arrived, a man was already there rigging up. After we parked, another car pulled in and it turned out to be his son. I recognized both of them and realized it was father and son Granbo, well-known anglers from the area. I had seen some of their videos online. Since the spot felt too small for four anglers, I asked Jan-Erik if there was another good place we could try. He pointed out a location about a kilometre upstream, so we drove there. Two deep pools were waiting for us to fish.

I had only made 4–5 casts when an 87 cm male salmon was hooked. The rest you can see in the video.

After we finished fishing, I left a note on his car thanking him for the tip. See the photo below.

Wonderful to catch a salmon in a new river

Friday – the last day

When I took Viggo out in the morning, I ran into the Ganemyr family (Oskar and Johan), who had each landed a fish. Oskar’s fourth fish of the week! On top of that, they had both lost one each. Incredible!

Amanda and I took it easy and didn’t start fishing until the afternoon, when we headed back up to Forra. Unfortunately, there were cars parked at all the best pools, so we only fished one of them. Then we drove down to the Triangle Pool and had it all to ourselves for two hours, but there was not a sign of life. I didn’t hear any more reports of fish being caught either. Strange that the fishing had gone quiet after the Ganemyrs’ great morning session. The day before, Thursday, the group had landed nine fish in total. A really good day. I then fished hard for two hours during the night on the rotation beat, but sadly it was completely dead.

Now Amanda, Viggo and I are on our way home. I’ll be home for two days, then I’m heading off for 2.5 weeks to Nærøy and Lærdal. It’s going to be wonderful.

Thanks to the Hembre crew for a really enjoyable week. I hope we meet again soon on some river somewhere.

Mattias, Amanda and Viggo

Viggo is also waiting for a take

Amanda fishing the Triangle Pool