Fishmaster Trip Report - Gaula Flyfishing Season 2003

The season 2003 started well with very good conditions. The water temperature varied between 9 and 11 degrees and the water level was medium-high. From the beginning of the season the fishermen had excellent fishing for very big salmon: Mr Viitanen caught two 15 kilos plus 9 and 7 kilos, all from Gyllsaga pool.

Those 15 kg salmon remained to be the biggest salmon caught from our Gaula Flyfishing beats year 2003. The June continued well and very good number of big salmon was caught every week. For example Mr Harila caught 14 kilos salmon from Sanden pool with tube fly. During the June a great number of big salmon between 6 and 11 kg were landed.

In the beginning of July we had some scattered rain showers but the rest of the month we had very warm weather and towards the end of month the water level dropped from medium to a low. Despite the low and warm water conditions the fishermen enjoyed good fly fishing for salmon and seatrout. Some of our pools proved to work excellent even when the conditions are difficult. This July we caught good number of seatrout, grilse and big salmon as well.

The August started exceptionally dry and warm and the water lewel stayed low but still we caught several nice salmon every week. For example Mr Ihalainen caught a 12,7 kg salmon from Bruahölen pool and Mr Mellanen caught 10.4, 6.4 and 2.7 kg salmon.

In the middle of the month heavy rain started and lasted couple days. The Gaula raised to be very high and brown. After couple days when the water started dropping we had tremendous fishing when huge number of salmon started to run up and stopped in our pools. During the last two weeks of the season, altogether 53 fish was caught from our pools, the biggest one was 12 kg salmon caught by Mr Seppänen.

During the season 2003 there has been caught 139 salmon and 50 seatrout, altogether 189 fish from our beatiful Gaula Flyfishing beats. That season can be described as a very good season, our average is round 150 fish per season. Gaula proved to be the second best salmon river in whole Norway in 2003 with total catch of 38,6 tons of salmon and seatrout.

Written by: Jouni Rauha