The new fly fishing season at river Glomma has started with unusual warm weather, kick starting the insect life in the river. Today the water level is 588,17 (meters above sea level) and this means that several good spots at Kvennan Fly Fishing can be reached. I have seen several rising fish, grayling of good size. I've seen them, but I have not fished for them yet, I've been too busy with the Dutch Fly Fair last weekend (see picture below) and after that my yearly migration North .......... 😉   

The picture shows the Eidsfossen falls today. The flow rate right now is about 110 m3 per second.

KFF guide Marius reported good fishing at the Hodalen lakes using streamer patterns for grayling. He got a good bunch of them up to 1 kg, and also landed a nice trout of about the same weight. See the pics below.

Beautiful weather during the weekend, almost no wind, so great days to go fishing ! Marius and me were out all weekend and tried several hot spots in the Fly Fishing zone and some other places.

Best fish was a 1,7 kg / 53 cm trout (nice and fat fish) that could not resist my streamer. This fish was my first fish of this season, I took it on the third cast ... Then there were a good number of nice grayling up to 45 cm. Most of them we took on a nymph, but there were a few on dry flies also.

In the Fly Fishing zone we spotted large stoneflies (ty them like this), small stoneflies #16, midges, and some upwinged flies we couldn't identify.

The river is falling quite fast now, and the weather forecast says it will be dry for some time, so the river will fall more. Looks very promising for next weekend !!  

The weather has changed, and now it's a bit cold and windy. A bit dirty weather, and so the first Baetis hatches can be observed in the afternoons. The water level is very low for the time of the year. For the weekend the weather forecast is rather good: hardly any wind, so almost perfect fly fishing conditions!!

The water-level is very low for this time of the year. In fact, I haven't seen it so low. It makes wading really easy, and all good fishing spots can be reached. Insects that are hatching: stone flies, both larger grey ones #10, needle flies #18, midges in all sizes, a few Baetis may fly species, a few caddis in different sizes and some alder flies (looking like a caddis, but different species I've been told ...) The weather conditions are good for fly fishing, not to much wind, a bit of sun and some rain. During rainy periods there are Baetis hatches, look for them in the riffles.

Today I place a video I shot yesterday, it shows 2 fisherman and rising grayling. I filmed it from Telneset bridge,  and it gives a idea of the fishing conditions right now. This video was filmed in 4K, and I edited it into full HD - if your internet connection is fast enough, click on "HD" and choose 1080. Enjoy.

Stable water level, unstable weather. The last days were quite nice with some sunny spells, the forecast for the weekend is not so nice. Cold, wet and windy. Yesterday I fished with Kai and Andreas from Berlin in the Fly Fishing Zone. The fishing was not exactly easy, there were not so many insects on the water. Best dry flies were brown caddis #14, midge #16 and brown goldhead nymphs #14. During the last week Kai and Andreas fished the Hodalen lakes and reported good fishing with grayling up to 49 cm, mountain whitefish up to 45 cm and perch up to 44 cm.
Jean Philippe told me about a Belgium fly fisherman landing a 54 cm trout, Øivind from Oslo reported a grayling of 53 cm that took his nymph.

When I was working on this update I got an email from Sweden : "Hello Hein! Anders here. I have to tell you about our great fishing in the fly fishing zone from last Thursday until this Tuesday ! The fishing conditions were perfect with great hatching of stonefly, caddis, midges and Baetis . The water level was too good to be true !! We were with three guys and we only fished dry flies. We caught 336 graylings and 81 of them was between 40-47 cm and 5 trout’s between 40-56 cm. My son Simon caught the biggest on 56cm and 2kg, a beautiful fish, on a small “superpuppa” size 14 with only black thread as the body and grizzle hackle around ! It was a great fight !! Jonas a friend of mine and I caught the same grayling on 46 cm with two days in between…..we recognized her on a broken dorsal fin (small brain!!!). Ants, Superpuppa with green body and your stonefly pattern and some grey caddis pattern with green bodies worked well for us !! We have been here for 20 years and this was one of the best times. No 50+ grayling this time but it was ok anyway 😉   Thank you - Anders, Simon and Jonas"

The last days there were no major changes in the fly fishing conditions at river Glomma. There can be large caddis hatches: best conditions for this to happen seem to be during rain showers in the afternoons, there can be some may fly hatches with Baetis Rhodani and Baetis Niger. I've seen a lot of daddy long legs, and already quite a few wasps and bees. It really is a strange and early summer with warm weather and very, very low water level. The fishing can be great right now, there are a number of reports with catches of big grayling. Bernd from Germany reported a 53 cm grayling on a streamer, Borre - a Norwegian NINA biologist - landed a 50 cm grayling that took his small may fly imitation, Martin from Holland had a 50 cm grayling on a nymph and I landed a 50 cm grayling on a #14 brown caddis.

However, there can be times during day time and evening when nothing much is happening, and the river seems empty. Switching between techniques helps a lot to get some decent fish, I suggest to try a bit of nymphing with pheasant tale nymphs size 12-14. Fish it active ...

A little report from Bernd Ziesche : "All year round I am hosting different educational fly fishing trips. Right now we are fly fishing the Norwegian river Glomma and it's tributaries. Grayling, Brown trout, pike and perch are on our list. For me this is a fantastic area to teach fly fishing. Simply a lot of (only wild) fish are available ! "

"The last days we had great fly fishing with the dry fly, the nymph and the streamer as well. We learnt to fly cast and how to present the fly using several different techniques. Moving our new fly casting techniques from the grass to the water many fish directly proved us to have seriously improved our fly fishing techniques. The river Glomma is a perfect base for a fly fishing teacher. Many thanks to Hein van Aar and Gudmund Nygaard for supporting us with lots of great information about the Glomma and all the water of the area. If you will ever be fishing these places I recommend to check:
Kvennan Fly Fishing Zone (Hein van Aar) and Fishspot (Gudmund Nygaard) for the perfect information and for excellent support in fly fishing all waters available here. Glomma mainly holds grayling - lots of them. We caught several excellent grayling between 40 and 50cm. Decent sized fish though. Simply we are having a fantastic fly fishing trip. It couldn't be any better !? "

Bernd Ziesche - first-cast fly fishing school, Germany  

Reports from the river are mixed: some German fly fishermen had very good results on dry flies, Martin and Piet from Holland told me their fishing is a bit tough right now, a group from France reported quite good dry fly fishing in the Telneset bridge area.

Saturday I fished with Marius and we also had mixed results, and sometimes a bit strange fishing. I used may fly nymph imitations and had good fishing while Marius used may fly spent patterns. The duns where not taken by the fish ... But we had a great day fishing with a few big grayling and some nice trout also.

Yesterday I guided two guys from Stockholm, Magnus and Nils. We started in the lower part of the Fly Fishing zone. There were caddis active and a few may flies on the water. And so rising fish - we landed several on dry flies. I showed them the whole stretch of the Kvennan Fly Fishing zone and we fished on a few hot spots, catching fish in fast and slow water. Not so big grayling, but we had a very pleasant day on the river anyway.

Some reports from fisherman: Jaco from Holland was here last week. In an email he reports: "The amount of grayling in the fly fishing zone is unbelievable. In five days I landed 160 fishes, 80 % of them on a brown caddis #14. I did notice that the grayling is getting a bit educated, and sometimes I really had to try hard to catch them, but I think that's good fun also" .

Per from Sweden reports a 49 cm grayling on a size 12 brown caddis. Per has been fishing dry flies at the Kvennan fly Fishing stretch since 1963...  (Read more in an interview I had with him) Another Swedish gentleman who I met today during an inspection tour, told me about the great fishing he had yesterday in the center of the fly fishing zone. He used CDC caddis patterns in size 14-16 and landed several grayling between 45 and 50 cm. Marc from Paris reports difficult fishing, and he said he didn't see too many rises.

Please help us with filling in a catch report: if you leave your email address when buying a fishing license, you will get a request by email to fill in an online report: "Catch report - In an effort of making the governing and management of our fishery resources better, we need your help. Through better management we will increase your chances at catching the fish of your dreams. 

Not much has changed in the fly fishing conditions. The water level is very low and still falling, the weather is not very stable, it can be windy at times and I have seen only a few large hatches. During the night caddis can be active, but not every night. It seems that the grayling are spread over the river, and not standing together in big pods. This should make sense, if there are few large hatches why should you share those bugs floating by with your neighbors... So it pays off to have a close look at all kind of holding water, instead of only fishing the normal hotspots ! Tip: try the shallows close to those hotspots...

Some reports from fellow fisherman: Martin from Holland mailed me about his last fishing day that turned out to be the best day of his fly fishing trip, he landed about 30 grayling on nymphs. Grayling up to 40-45 cm.

Peter and Johan from Sweden write : " We had mixed weather with a lot of wind and some rain. Water level in Glomma was stable, a little below normal. No major hatches and only a few rising fish to be found. The first night up in Hodalen was magical for me with aprox. 10-15 trout caught, the biggest 45cm. and 1kg. We used our belly boats there and a small dark streamer with brass head. Later in the week we had good fishing at the Hodalen lakes with several big sik (mountain whitefish), grayling and perch ! Our traditional trip up north did not generate any “biggies” this year but several trout between 25-40cm. This years biggest grayling was a 46-47cm caught in the fly fishing zone on the same little streamer, close to the river bank late at night. I was aiming for trout so it came as a pleasant surprise ! "

Today I finished another little film, this time about the upper part of Kvennan Fly Fishing zone, close to the Eidsfossen falls. A guy from France was fishing there, and I spend half an hour to film what I saw. Play it in 1080p / full HD if possible.

The weather is a bit more stable, and at times the fishing can be very good. Well, of course the fishing is always good - it's the catching that can be lousy... Håkan and his sun Johan from Sweden told me the fishing was difficult, but the grayling they landed were large. Some French guys I met at the river bank reported good fishing. Not so many rises, not a lot of bugs on the surface but good fishing anyway. The weather forecast is not so great, the unstable weather will remain. The water level is still very, very low and I don't think this will change any time soon. But right now the fly fishing conditions are good. Hot flies can be: a size 14-16 caddis will do quite nice.

Yesterday I filmed a few hours in the afternoon, in the centre part of the fly fishing zone. I saw some rising grayling, good sized fish, and I filmed a French dry fly fisherman who had a really good time in the river... Have a look at the video.

Yesterday I guided Niels and Bjorn from Sweden. There was some dry fly activity in the tail of a few pools, and we landed some grayling up to 42 cm on Zebra dry fly patterns and on CDC caddis. A great day it was, not much wind and a little sun.

Jerry from Holland has been a few times at KFF during the last 10 years. He is a fine rod builder working for a major fly fishing shop in Holland, and he is a great fly fisherman. He send me this report:
"Hi Hein, I guess you'll be busy with guiding, but never the less I want to bring you up to date on my fishing experiences from last week. Although the weather was far from ideal, the fishing was great ... The river has changed considerably in recent years, and the fish seem to be more educated and more difficult. What makes it even more fun, of course. Also I noticed that the numbers of may fly hatches are significantly lower than the previous times I have visited Kvennan Fly Fishing, but of course this can have different reasons and it's a snapshot. The caddis flies on the other hand were very well represented and imitations were taken enthusiastically. The average size of the grayling has definitely increased. I had one night fishing - classical style wet flies (the escalator technique) - with 25 fish in two hours landed. I will spare you the daily totals because I did not count, and of course, this is a secondary thing if you ask me. That night I was fishing wet flies stayed in my memory because I landed 12 good sized grayling on 12 casts ... In short, I'm going to have a good conversation with my employer to convince him I just have to come back for a week in early August. Sincerely, Jerry t. W."

Last Saturday Marius and me fished sweet little river Grimsa. Maybe not so much as river Glomma, but Grimsa holds good stock of grayling and trout, and it's a shear joy to fish. We had a nice day with some 45+ cm grayling, a nice trout for me and then there was a much larger one that broke off .... 

After the rain of the last few days the water level in river Glomma at Kvennan Fly Fishing has come up a little bit. Still the weather is unstable, with wind coming one day from the North and the next day from the South. Jurgen D. and his friends from Sweden report nice fishing in the night using green caddis puppa's , they all had nice fishing with grayling up to 45 cm and there were some trout up to 1 kg. Jaap from Holland told me he had difficult but rather good fishing. Not so many fish, but they were of really good size. Mikael and his suns Johan and Martin from Sweden reported a  big grayling for Johan on a Gary Lafontaine sparkle puppa: 47 cm, from the upper part of the fly fishing zone. Johan said it was fighting like a tiger, it took him 20 minutes to land and release it.

Today another video, not much fishing in it but footage from the river and the nature around it. Boring maybe for some, and beautiful for others.

As usual this summer: no major changes in water level, weather or fishing conditions. However, the weather will improve the coming days with nice and warm summer days. Grayling love nice and warm summer days, so I think these days will be great to be in the river.

Last Sunday I fished with my friends Jurgen and Kalle from Sweden. I took them to this special place I know, somewhere around Glomma watershed, and we found a whole bunch of rising large grayling up to 1,5 kg. No need to tell the fishing was great:  good fly fishing + good friends = really good times ! 

Flies that are hot right now : Dynamite Harry, CDC emergers, small streamers (...) , supper pupa in the evening, green puppa in the night, Daddy long legs patterns and ant patterns.

Windy and warm days right now at Glomma river. Fly fishing conditions are not so good in daytime using dries. But they can be nice during the night using caddis & puppa's , or during the day using small streamers, imitating minnows and grayling fry. Nymphing can be successful if you rise the nymph to the surface.

After some serious rain the level in Glomma came up a bit yesterday. We could use a bit more I guess ...
Yesterday I fished with Marius and the picture shows one of the big grayling we landed. This one took a small brown bead head nymph.

Two days ago I guided Joop from Holland. Fishing was not easy, there were no fish rising until 17:00 hours. Searching the water with my parachute ant pattern worked a bit, fishing the water with small streamers worked much better with grayling and trout up to about 40 cm. We haven't tried nymphing.

Due to some very local but heavy rain showers the river came up, and the water was dirty for a few hours. Today the water level has fallen to normal summer level again, and the long term weather forecast is not to bad, so I think the water level will stay stable for a while.

Jaco reported good dry fly fishing on Sunday using #20 may fly patterns, he landed 5 grayling between 40 and 45 cm and some smaller fish in two hours fishing. He also told me a good trick: in this time of the year, watch out for the swallows. If they hunt for insects above the riffles, there may be a Baetis hatch going on. You'll need some tiny may fly imitations in size #20 to #24, olive or yellow body. You might spot rising fish, but the rise form will also be very small, maybe only a bubble, and you need to fish the water with this tiny fly. So difficult but possibly rewarding fishing ...

The last days I've seen some 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 ...

It has been rainy, cold and windy the last week, and the water level in Glomma at Kvennan Fly Fishing is a bit unstable due to some heavy rain showers. The weather will stay cold for some days, but after that the summer should return with sun and warm weather. In the mean time the fishing has not been too bad, we caught a few big grayling on caddis patterns (fished with a bit of movement) and there are reports about good dry fly fishing with bibio patterns.

I guided Jaco from Holland, he wanted me to show him river Grimsa. I have been fishing there for quite a few times now, but I am in no way an "expert" in this beautiful little river. I just happen to know a few nice spots, and so we went there. Jaco landed a nice little trout, and there were a few good sized grayling, but overall the fishing was rather difficult with very, very picky fish. We didn't crack the code which fly to use that day, but there will be other opportunities ...

The weather is nice now, not too much wind, and some sun now and then. On the long term the weather should stay pretty good, and I think the water level will remain stable for some time. So all in all rather good fly fishing conditions.

Bo, Peter and Stefan from Sweden did think it was rather cold last week, but they were pleased with the easy wading and large size of the Fly Fishing zone. Using dry flies they landed grayling up to 45 cm. This was their first time around and they really liked the place, so they said to me. Per and Lars from Hobro, Denmark fished the lower part of the Fly Fishing zone, they landed grayling up to 50 cm on small caddis patterns, higher up in the fly fishing zone they tricked nice grayling between 40 and 45 cm using yellow spinners.

I fished a bit for myself last Wednesday somewhere around Glomma watershed, since it was such a beautiful day with lots of sun, 20 degrees and hardly any wind. I had really great fishing using caddis and bibio patterns, and I was lucky enough to find, hook and land my biggest grayling ever on a dry fly. This superb grayling took a bibio - the russian fly, or heather fly. What a fish ! I'm still smiling when I think of her 🙂 )

I guided Alex, Michael and Chris from Germany for an afternoon session this week, they were interested in dry fly fishing since they already landed grayling up to 47 cm on nymphs in the first days of their stay at Kvennan. So I showed them a few spots that always hold nice grayling, gave a bit of instruction exactly how to present the fly, and we all caught a few nice grayling on Griffith Gnat #17 and on some other tiny dries. 

No major changes in the fly fishing conditions. The water level is constant and the fishing is quite good at the moment. I received a fishing report by email yesterday, Nikolaj from Trondheim describes a good day of fishing at Kvennan Fly Fishing :

"Hi Hein, Just wanted to share a fishing experience with you after my day in Glomma this Saturday (20th of August). I went fishing in the middle part of the Fly Fishing Zone. I fished between 10 and 15 o’clock. The first 3,5 hours was kind of slow, but I managed to hook a few fish between 30 and 40 cm, one fish pushing 45 cm. There was virtually no surface activity, but the fish took primarily superpuppa and klinkhammer flies, size 16-18. Nothing special so far, but as always good fishing. However, between around 13.30 and 15.00 - until the rain came, I experienced fishing out of an other world; in exactly the same spot, and with absolutely no surface activity I changed my fly to a “knot-fly”, tiny black midge, hooks size #22 and that was a good choice. I caught 5 fish around 45 cm, one between 45 and 50 and lost one fish that had to be way over 50 cm (I saw it mid-air, but it got off the hook after about 10 minutes on). In about 1 hour and 30 minutes of fishing I was either hooking or playing fish virtually all of that time, fish 45 cm plus does take some time to land in a proper fashion in that fast water, and I was truly stoked. And do I need to mention the 5 fish I didn’t manage hooking, they head and tailed over my fly and I saw they were good size all of them. To be honest, it was freaking amazing. With absolutely no surface activity I found it quite surprising. Fascinating to see a river stretch that from the surface looked dead, housing so many really good sized fish. No pictures, I was too busy fishing. Tight lines ! Nikolaj"

On the photo's is Arnaud from France - he asked me to show him how to fish nymphs really effectively in Glomma, so I guided him. This was a few weeks back. He picked up the technique quite fast, and he landed a nice bunch of good sized grayling.

Yesterday was a very wet day, it rained a lot for many hours. The result is that the water level in Glomma came up sharply, and at this moment - 10:05 - the water is also a bit dirty. I guess the river will clear op again today, and since there is no forecast of more rain, the level will stabilize and the fishing will pick up again. But this morning and afternoon I don't think the fishing will be any good at Kvennan Fly Fishing ... Maybe Vangrofta will be fishable right now, or just go to the Hodalen lakes - there will be action there for sure.

On the pictures is Johnny from Sweden, he booked me to guide him yesterday, and even though the fishing was kind of lousy - because of really pouring rain - Johnny hooked and landed some nice grayling up to 46 cm on dry flies. Griffith Gnat worked just fine, and so did small superpuppa patterns, but only if the fly was presented perfectly. The 46 cm grayling was a new personal best, and this fisherman was quite pleased ...

The water level is back to normal again, the water is clear and the fishing can be good. During the afternoons there can be some rising fish, but there should be a bit of sun to brighten up the day and the mood of the fish... I think what works best right now are Griffith Gnat, Zebra and Dynamite Harry dry fly patterns in small sizes - #16 - #18. The problem is of course the size of these flies, they are very small and difficult to see when the light conditions are not perfect. To make it even more interesting, the grayling are taking these flies very carefully now, hardly showing themselves, often only leaving a bubble. So, quite good dry fly fishing but not very easy ! 

Torsten from Germany reports good dry fly fishing, fishing the water using Zebra #16 . He landed about 15 grayling up to 47 cm yesterday afternoon, after I guided him in the morning to show him some of the best spots for this moment, the right flies and how to fish them. On the pictures my old friend Pieter, we fished a few good places using caddis and bibio patterns, and Pieter landed several good fish between 42 and 48 cm.

Saturday was a rainy day causing the river to rise a bit. The fishing was very good last week - Christian from Sweden wrote me this little report : "Yesterday (Thursday) I had one of my best days here at Kvennan Fly Fishing in September ! Fishing the fast water for the whole day. Around 50 grayling were landed and topped at 45 cm,  and a lot of 40+ fish.  All on dries." Pieter from Holland reported great dry fly fishing in the upper section of the fly zone on Thursday with bibio patterns, landing about 30 grayling all 40+ to 50 cm, on Wednesday he hooked and landed a 52 cm grayling on a Griffith Gnat #17.

In the weekend I guided Marco and Ted from Holland. Saturday the fishing was quite slow during heavy rain, but in the afternoon a few fish were rising and the guys landed some nice fish on bibio and caddis patterns. Today we fished again, and because of the rising water level in the night the fishing was not good at all in the beginning of the guiding session, but in early afternoon there was a small Baetis hatch and we managed to land some good sized grayling.

Again there was heavy rain during the Saturday night, with the obvious result: a dirty and rising Glomma on Sunday. Right now, Monday afternoon, the river is as good as clear again, and the level has stabilized on 587,83 meters above sea level. From tomorrow the water level will fall again, and I expect the fishing to be good - maybe even very good, because of the really fine days the weather gods are promising us now ...

 
Last Friday Greger from Sweden asked me to guide him, and he told me he really would like to learn some new dry fly tricks especially for grayling, as he normally fishes for salmon. After a little practice Greger landed a few good sized grayling, all of them took the small Griffith Gnat. I fished also with Zebra #16 and Dynamite Harry #16 - they both worked fine.
I recommend very small flies right now, you'll need imitations of needle flies, small Baetis patterns such as Iron Blue Dun, and midge patterns. Find yourself a spot in the river with good light from the sun - you'll want the sun to be in your back, present your fly downstream, use fine tippet and make sure to have a total drag-free drift.

"Hi Mr. Van Aar, Just want to say thanks for a great well maintained stretch of Glomma that gave us a pleasant stay and a LOT of fish. An extra joy for us was that we almost only used dry flies to catch fish. And a extra thank you for the recommendation to fish the fantastic river Hola on Sunday then the water in Glomma was bad. In Hodalen we had an enormous amount of Peppered moth and that was quite hard because of that almost all the large flies were left home in Sweden, so that's a lesson to learn for the next time. And for sure there will be a next time. In Glomma we used Dynamite Harry, Klinkhammers, CDC & Elk, Griffins Gnat and a couple more caddis and needle fly patterns. The only thing that wasn't topnotch was one grayling I took upstream a couple of hundred meters from Telneset bridge that was almost without no left side of the mouth and chin. The size was really god though, 9 hg and 43 cm so the fish was in very good condition. That has to be a good over all verdict that only one fish of around 100 showed any signs of injury by a hook. Best Regards - Kristian, Lars and Daniel."

This little report I got yesterday from Kristian from Sweden. The "Peppered moth" Kristian mentions is in fact a "Autumnal moth"  that prefers to live in birch forests. It might be a good idea if you plan to visit us in the next weeks, to bring some large imitations of this insect. Other flies that should be in your box are bibios, small black ants, Griffith Gnat, small super puppa, Daddy long leg, Zebra, Dynamite Harry, cadiis patterns, needle fly patterns. Today's photo's (made by Bjørnar Hansen) show Gudmund from Fishspot, we fished some stretches of the fly fishing zone last Tuesday. The fishing was not as good as last week, but it was still good enough, and especially Gudmund landed plenty of nice grayling on dry flies.

I made a little video last week to show you Glomma at Kvennan Fly Fishing in autumn mood - hope you like it.