Welcome back guys. The first video report of this season shows the extreme ice conditions of last winter, and the remaining ice on the river bank in the Eidsfossen falls.

Instead of a Hodalen Lakes - fishing report, I'll show you the effect of heavy rain fall in the Northern Glomma valley. A little film about Vangrofta and Kvennan Camping.

Glomma water-level at Kvennan Fly Fishing is below the normal level again, and fishing conditions for the opening weekend are good. I haven't seen many insects yet, but soon the first stoneflies (size 12, grey brown) will be on the water and midges will work just fine also.

On the west side of the river the water still can be a bit dirty, on the East side it will be (almost) clear. Let the fun begin!

The water level is quite stable at the moment, and fly fishing conditions are rather good for the time of the year. Tomorrow the season opens, and I am really looking forward to my first Glomma - fly fishing day of this season!

This week's video shows how Hans van Klinken ties his famous dry fly - the Klinkhamer.

Yesterday was opening day at Kvennan Fly Fishing. I fished with Marius for about 6 hours, between us we landed and released about 40 fish, measuring between 25 and 42 cm. There was one nice trout for me, about 40 cm long. Most fish we hooked on nymphs (50 %), we also used my special grayling streamer, the Glomma Dog. This fly was good for 25 % of the catches, the last 25 % we caught on dry flies. For me the best working dry fly was a Zebra, size 16, I think the grayling took it as a midge imitation.

There were quite a few stoneflies on the water, grey brown, size 12, but we haven't seen a single fly being taken. Then there were countless needle flies (tiny stoneflies, size 18-20) , mosquito's and a few caddis flies I have never seen here before : about size 14, cream coloured. Strange. We haven't seen a single may fly yet, but they will hatch soon.

The water level was rather low for the time of the year, the water temperature quite high for now (it has been lovely weather in the past week), the water was clear and we had great fun being in the river again after a long winter!

Two weeks ago Marius and me fished the Hodalen lakes. We tried for pike and we did some early season streamer fishing for grayling. We used my bullhead imitation, the Glomma Dog. It's an ugly fly, terribly big also, but grayling don't mind at all, as the video will prove. Later on I will show you how to tie this highly effective streamer. The Hodalen lakes can offer good fly fishing when the water level in river Glomma is to high, from Kvennan Fly Fishing it will take about 15 minutes by car to get there.

In the mean time Glomma has come up a bit caused by yesterday's rain. This afternoon the water was completely clear again, and I expect the level will fall quickly, so the prospects for the weekend and not bad at all - as long if the rain falls somewhere else.

This weekend I fished with Gudmund, the guy behind www.fishspot.no . The fishing was not that easy, we found only a few fish rising for small may flies - Baetis rhodani  - and the grayling we landed took our nymphs. This one Gudmund is holding measured about 50 cm - a beautiful fish to start the season.

I recommend the GraylingZones, described on the fishspot website . All these places can give you really good quality fly fishing for grayling  - the best Eastern Norway has to offer !

Just before the weekend there were heavy rain showers in the area around Røros, so Glomma came up, and on Saturday the river was rather dirty. Today the water is almost clear again, and the level is falling. There are still many stoneflies on the water, and the first may flies (Baetis rhodani) are hatching. In the Femund area I saw a few Danica may flies, the Hodalen lakes will follow one or two weeks later because they are 100 meters higher in altitude.

Yesterday I landed this nice trout in the fly fishing zone. It took a size 16 Zebra dry fly - for the tying pattern see the video section. The grayling were not rising much, it seemed that the best time to see rising fish is in the middle of the day. Not many may flies around yet, but in the fast and shallow water I have seen a lot of caddis - size 14, dark brown.

Not many insects were hatching, but I saw a few caddis, some little may flies (Rhodani) and I had a lot of fun fishing my nymphs - I landed this big grayling - 54 cm. Fish this large need some time to recover, if you land a big lady of the stream like this one, please treat her with great care!

Friday night and Saturday the rain gave us another visit, the result is a high river and not totally clear water. After heavy rain showers like those of the last days, the river will be a bit dirty. I think the best places for fly fishing in these conditions are to be found at the east bank of the river, upstream of the fly fishing lodge. See map. The Eidsfossen zone will be good upstream of the camping, and if you dare - cross the river and fish behind the isles, there is great fly fishing to be found! 

The river will clear up fast now, I think on Monday the water will be nice and clear again, and in a few days time the level will be back at around 588,00 meters above sea level.

This week's video shows how I tie the Glomma Dog grayling streamer, and how you should fish it. By the way, I named it Glomma Dog after the well known UK streamer "Dog Nobbler" . In Glomma the conditions for fly fishing are improving slowly, the water level is falling and today at Tolga the water is almost clear again.

Now the conditions for fly fishing are improving fast. The water level in Glomma at the Tolga - Tynset area is about normal, but more to the south the water level is still quite high. The water is clear, the temperature is coming up a bit and the insect life in and around the river is intensifying. During two guiding sessions in the last days I saw several may flies (Heptagenia sulphurea, Ephemerella ignita and Ephemerella mucronata) and caddis flies (light and dark brown, size 12-16). There are many crane flies around (daddy long leg) and they can bring surprising results when fished in the slower and deeper water.

Stein from Oslo reported a big grayling measuring about 50 cm on a rackelhanen, John from Sweden landed a beautiful 52 cm trout on an Ignita parachute. Great fly fishing now!

The water level in Glomma is below normal at Kvennan Fly Fishing now, with this much water you can reach almost all the good places. The water is clear, fishing conditions are about perfect. The wind can be a pain in the ... though. My friends Daan and JP from Holland have been fishing Glomma for a few days and they had mixed results. One day many fish, the next a bit less. There are reports about exiting fishing with caddis puppa during the night. Picture : Daan shows a big grayling that couldn't resist a size 12 caddis dry fly.

Right now fly fishing conditions in this area are good. Very good. In the Hodalen lake system Vulgata is still hatching, and these big may flies bring up also the large fish. The pictures give an impression of the beauty of these lakes. In Glomma the water level is perfect, the water is gin clear, there is more and more insect activity and I get some good reports from several fisherman. This is the time to go fishing !!

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We will draw two winners from the responses in the survey. They can choose from a rich package of fly fishing or spin fishing equipment and in addition they will get a week free fishing in Fish Spot for 2014. All responses to the survey will be treated anonymously. Remember to enter your email address so we can contact you if you are the lucky winner"

Nice and warm days with little wind are alternating with rather cold and windy days. Nymph fishing is difficult, Czech nymphing can be good. Dry fly fishing is quite excellent, not that there are many insects on the water, but the grayling seem very eager to get a caddis, or an ant, or - well - what ever. Search the water with a decent sized dry fly and you may have very nice fishing. JP reported a 50 cm grayling on dry fly, Jorgen from Sweden a 49 cm grayling on dries, I had a 47 cm on a nymph. Great fish !

On the pic : Jochem from Germany.

On the picture : Jurgen from Sweden shows one of his big grayling - this one was about 52 cm. In his week at Kvennan fly fishing Jurgen landed several grayling of this size, all of them on dry fly. Caddis puppa and Klinkhamer were his favorite flies this trip.

Yesterday Marius and me fished the fly fishing zone with streamers. We had a few trout, not very big, but nice fishing anyway. There were also a few grayling that took my minnow imitation, Marius used a sculpin pattern. The latter was the most successful.

The water level is quite stable and rather low, the weather is a bit cold and it can be windy. Over all the conditions for fly fishing are good. I observed some rising fish in the fast water, but the fish are careful, you really must be looking at the right spot to see the rise. Flies that work: Klinkhamer, caddis patterns, ants, daddy long legs, Zebra, super puppa, etc.
Nymphing is still difficult, but Walter and Dennis from Holland had very good results with Czech nymphing (they landed so many fish that I will not mention the number, you wouldn't believe me)

Warm summer weather, no wind, normal summer water-level, a very stable river. Perfect conditions for fly fishing. I think the fast water fishes best now, good flies are ants, small things like Griffith Gnat or Dynamite Harry in the slower water and the best fly for the riffles is still a simple caddis imitation, size 14-16.

Presentation is important, for now that means downstream dry fly fishing is definitely not the best option, old school upstream dry fly fishing is much more effective. It might be that the position of your fly matters, I mean, if you cast upstream, your fly will be facing downstream. If you cast downstream, the fly will facing upstream. Sometimes the smallest details make the difference between catching only a few fish or having a great day fly fishing.

There are not many changes in fly fishing conditions. The river has a normal summer water-level, the water is clear, water temperature is about 15 degrees Celsius. In day time only a few rising fish can be seen, in the late evening there can be a lot of activity. Best flies (for me): caddis imitations # 14 - 16, ants, wasps, etc. Some fisherman report good fishing with small nymphs, I also like to fish streamers in this time of year - streamer fishing for grayling.

The last weeks I see more and more Bibio pomonae (or russeflue in Norwegian). This is a bibio species from the Northern countries, and many Scandinavian fly fishermen have imitations of this insect in the fly box, because fish love this fly. Sometimes it brings up the biggest fish in the river.

A lot of rain caused the river to come up, and right now fly fishing is not really possible in Glomma. During the day there will be more rain in the Røros area, so the water level may rise a bit more today. Tomorrow the conditions will still be lousy, on Thursday things already will improve (I think) with clear water and falling level. If we don't get much more rain, the weekend might be just right with good to very good conditions and a lot of hungry fish in the river 🙂

Flies that work: black streamer (woolly worm or something similar) , black Klinkhamer, black ant, russeflue, small black nymphs, needle flies. A few days ago I fished the fly fishing zone for a couple of hours and what worked best for me was upstream streamer fishing. Not so easy to do it right, but very effective and for me quite amusing fly fishing.

The normal amount of rain for this area in august should be 60 mm. Until today there already has fallen more than 90 mm this month, and the result is obvious: quite high water level in all the rivers and lakes. Nevertheless water in Glomma is clear, and fly fishing conditions are not bad at all. There are small hatches of Baetis during the afternoons, there are small stoneflies - needle flies - active, caddis imitations in sizes 12 to 16 are still productive, and so are daddy long legs, bibio, large black streamers and tiny black nymphs.

I would suggest to fish the area's around the isles, in the Eidsfossen zone fish behind the isles at the campsite, in the Fly Fishing zone all the island groups will be fishing quite well. See the fishing map.

Autumn is near, at higher altitudes the leafs are changing colour, and in Glomma the fishing is picking up nicely. Jaco reported good dry fly fishing using Baetis imitations, Griffith gnat #18, Zebra #16 and other tiny imitations for really good sized grayling. The water level is falling every day, the weather forecast for the weekend and next week is just fine. All in all perfect conditions for great dry fly fishing at Kvennan Fly Fishing!

The film shows Edwin from Holland. He fished for one hour, I filmed him with two camera's, edited the footage for 8 hours and the result is a 8 minutes impression of  Glomma fishing with dries and streamers. Hope you like it!

Last week Marc Petitjean, Barry Ord Clarke, Neil Patterson and Ole Bjerke visited Kvennan Fly Fishing. We had great conditions for fishing: good water level and beautiful weather. I took Neil and Ole to a nice stretch with fast water and a lot of grayling. The pictures show Neil in action and a very nice 45 cm grayling.

The nights are getting colder now, and grayling seems to migrate already from the fast water in the Eidsfossen zone to slower stretched in the Fly Fishing zone, forming large pods of fish in holding pools. Dry fly fishing can be highly effective if you can find a suitable fly. That doesn't necessarily have to be an exact imitation of what's on the water, for one reason or another these days grayling can have a surprising appetite for a bit "strange" flies. Just try.

Or tie on a proven pattern for this time of year: Iron blue dun, Griffith Gnat, Needle fly, small caddis patterns, an ant or a second generation Baetis Rhodani imitation. There are reports of some big fish : Bassam and Henning from Germany had a 55 cm grayling at Drengen (Hodalen Lakes) and three guys from Sweden reported a 50 cm grayling on a small may fly imitation.

For many fly fishermen this might be the favourite time to go grayling fishing, and for good reason, because the fishing is really, really good right now. Water level in Glomma is perfect, of course the water is gin clear, and grayling is rising everywhere.

I haven't seen a good Baetis hatch yet, but I'm sure that will happen quite soon. There are still caddis active (#14) but my first choice would be a to tie on Zebra dry fly - a hatching midge puppa imitation, tied emerger style on a #16 - #18 hook.
Look for grayling in the medium fast water, I think the fly fishing zone fishes better than the Eidsfossen zone now.

The last week we have had lovely weather and good fly fishing at river Glomma. Today these conditions are changing, there is more wind coming, the temperature will drop and there will be some rain. This change in weather puts the fishing completely down. Until now there hasn't been any hatches of Baetis, I think next week this might change, and the fishing will pick up again. Best fly the last days : Daddy Long Legs, #10.

On the picture: Gianluca and his two friends from Italy. They fished our stretch of Glomma last week, and Gianluca reported good fishing: on dry fly (only) they landed about 400 fish in 6 days, a few grayling measuring about 45 cm, quite a few about 40 - 42 cm and many fish between 34 and 38 cm. Right now the water level is very low, fishing conditions are fine and rising grayling can be found on many places.