The fly fishing season is near. The fishing will open June 1st 2017, and licenses can be purchased online using this link. New for 2017 is that the Fly Fishing Lodge, so Lars and Regina's beautiful cabin in the hart of the fly fishing zone, is for rent again. If this is your first time on this website: let me suggest to have a good look at the fishing reports of the previous years - they hold almost all the information you would need, for instance what fly to use in a certain week of the summer ...

Yesterday the fishing season opened at Kvennan Fly Fishing. Of course we had to try a few casts here and there, even though it was only 5 degrees and windy as hell. We managed to get some nice grayling and a few modest trout, but it was good fun anyway. What worked best was an upstream nymph, but we had a few fish on a Glomma Dog streamer also.

The water level is normal now for the time of the year, but it has been quite high the past weeks (see diagram above). Don't think the level will just drop from now - there still is a lot of snow in the mountains in this area. Not as much as in 2012, but it comes close. So if you are wondering how the fishing conditions the next few weeks might be: have a look at the fishing reports 2012.

The pic below was taken by Marius when we fished the Hodalen lakes early this week. There were plenty of grayling hanging around in a nice pool, willing to chase and hammer our streamers. Fish up to 47 cm, and a nice start of this fly fishing summer in beautiful Norway !

Last Saturday night it rained for many hours, resulting in a swollen river. If the level is over 588,50 I think there is no use in fishing Glomma - better do something else. Try the Hodalen Lakes for instance, they are only half an hour drive from KFF, and they are loaded with grayling, pike, mountain whitefish and some huge brown trout.

You also might try river Grimsa, about an hour's drive from KFF. So that's what we did, and we found the river in perfect conditions for fly fishing. No rising fish yet, well, there were some grayling rising to our fly lines and leaders, trying to chase us away I think. This happens a lot in water with a healthy grayling population: when you arrive at the water there are no rises at all, you make a few casts and suddenly there are a few fish rising.

The pictures show fishing buddy and guide Marius, nymphing a nice stretch in the Grimsa fly fishing zone. We landed about 16 grayling together, most of them 40+ cm and a few 45+ cm. Great but difficult fishing, and we had to work hard to find them in dark, cold and rainy weather.   

I observed some rising grayling in Glomma at Kvennan Fly Fishing, on Thursday and Friday last week. They were rising for midges and needle flies: really small insects. Haven't seen to many larger stoneflies yet, only a few. Mikael from Sweden reported grayling up to 50 cm in the middle part of the fly fishing zone.

Actual fly fishing conditions: the water level is still quite high. I think this is caused by melting snow, since there hasn't been a lot of rain in this area. It is difficult to predict how the water level will be in the next few weeks, we just have to wait and see. What I do know is that this stonefly pattern works like a charm right now.

I got this report by email : "Hello! We were at and fished in Kvennan Fly Fishing Zone between June 2 and June 6, we had very good fishing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Monday the water had risen, and was dirty, so then the fishing was slow, but Tuesday was also good. We landed many nice grayling between 35 - 45 cm, also got a few around 48-50 cm, all the fish we got on the dry fly, Stonefly size 10 - 14, F - fly size 16 and also a part on the Ant and the Griffith's Gnat.  Greetings Michael and Curt."

The water level is rising while it should be falling... Well, what goes up must come down, and sooner or later the fishing will be great again.

Have a look at the picture at the right: these are the results of last year's survey under fishermen in the Fishspot area in Norway. KFF has been doing very good in this research project, I quote :  

"The stretch of river at Kvennan Fly Fishing has a very high number of large grayling, as well as the best reports of grayling catches of all the areas participating in this project." and " The results proved that within rivers with stricter catch limits the chances of catching large fish was much higher" - see the illustration below.

So river Glomma at Kvennan Fly Fishing did very good indeed, and this is the result of 11 years of sound river management with strict rules & regulations ! And thanks to all of you who send in the reports.

The water level in river Glomma at Kvennan Fly Fishing came up on Friday night after some heavy rain showers in the area around Tolga and Røros. Today the level is falling again, and I suppose fly fishing conditions will improve the next days. The water level today is 588,43 - this means 588,43 meters above sea level. The average level should be about halve a meter lower, normal summer level is about 1 meter lower. This water level is measured at Hummelvoll, at a deep and slow flowing stretch of the river. I noticed in the past that 45 cm change in level at Hummelvoll means a change of about 15 cm at a river stretch with fast flow - for instance the upper parts of the fly fishing zone. If the level is about 588,25 there are quite a few spots in the river where you can have good fly fishing. The average water flow for today should be about 75 m3/sec, but it is 144 m3/sec right now.

It is also a bit windy these days, and that is quite normal for June. If you check this weather site you'll see that for today there is wind up to 6 mtr/sec. For good dry fly presentation I don't like the wind to be stronger then 4 mtr/sec.

The water temperature has been rising fast the last three weeks: from 3 ° C to 11 ° C. Many times good hatches can be expected when the water temperature is between 12 and 14 degrees. Many times, but not always.

River Glomma takes her time, and she doesn't want to fall as it seems. Fishing conditions are not nearly as good as they can be at this time of the season, but it still is possible to have some nice results , as Bernd shows on the pictures. Have a look at sexyloops.com for his report. I also noticed the gulls hunting for insects above the fast water for the first time this morning, and that tells me the first caddis hatches are on. I've seen some brown #12 caddis. Further more, there are hatches of Baetis Rhodani in the afternoons, and I've seen some larger bugs I couldn't name. Not many fish were rising for them.

At last the river came down to a normal level. Fly fishing and wading is possible at many places now, and there are plenty of insects active. I like to fish the faster flowing sections of the river right now, there will be caddis around. Brown, #12. On the pics Marina from Germany with a fine Glomma grayling, she landed it in the lower part of the fly fishing zone.

Patrick from France reported a 50 cm grayling on a nymph, and Stig from Denmark told me he landed a 50 + cm grayling on a dry caddis pattern.

The weather forecast for the next few days is pretty good indeed. Until Sunday we should have nice summer days without to much wind. After that, next week it cools of a bit, so they say. Not too much wind, and that's really nice, because it has been quite windy the last days. These windy days can make the fishing very difficult, Marius told me about a guiding session with wind gusts up to 10 mts/sec, causing small waves on the river and making dry fly fishing almost impossible.

Good reports from river Glomma at Kvennan Fly Fishing now: during their last day at KFF Bernd and Marina landed 4 grayling measuring 50+ cm, all on dry flies. Robin from Sweden reported his personal best grayling of 48 cm. I guided him and his friend Rikard last weekend.

The little green worm is the caterpillar stage of the autumnal moth that crowded the birch forests last fall. They are back now in unbelievable numbers, eating all the leaves of the birch trees again. I suggest you bring some imitations, they just might come in handy ...

Marius send me this little report about a fishing trip to a nice small river close to KFF :
" Hi Hein, I had a very nice guiding session yesterday with a very enthusiastic young fly fisher named Øystein from Norway. We spend the entire day in the river and we had great fishing for several nice grayling and a few smaller trout. No heavy hatches but just enough caddis and mayflies to make it interesting. Øystein had his biggest grayling ever: almost 1kg, a very happy fisherman indeed. "

We've had a few cold nights in the Northern part of the Glomma valley, it has been below 0 ° Celsius.
The result was that the water temperature in Glomma dropped with a few degrees, and that was not so good for the fishing - there were not many hatches, and so not many rising fish. The weather forecast for today is a lot of rain, but until right now - 12:00 - it is dry. There is not much wind, and fishing will be quite good. Fishermen tell me about picky grayling, that are only interested in perfect presented imitations of (yeah, of what exactly ?) whatever they fancy at that moment. So that can be caddis, brown #12/14, daddy long legs, a size 22/24 midge puppa, a normal bread and butter superpuppa, or a # 14 green mayfly emerger, and so on, and so on .....

I had some time to go exploring with Marius and I landed a very big grayling - my first one of this season. Marius filmed the fight, landing and release of this beauty - "Cool, cool lady !! " 

Twan from Holland emailed me: "Hi Hein, me and my brother were at the fly fishing zone from July 5 to July 8. During these 3 days we landed about 160 grayling with the two of us. A lot of good 40+ cm fish, and for me a personal best of 52 cm !! Best flies were a green F-fly, a white buzzer pattern and a black Klinkhamer. Regards, Twan ".

Marius writes about a day last week: " a few photos of a nice guiding session with Jacob from Denmark. It was a bit difficult today. Not many fish were rising and they would only take very small midges or spent spinners. The fish on the picture took a size 22 emerging midge pattern and put up a good fight. All in all a good day in the river 🙂 "

Robin from Sweden send me this report : "Hi Hein. Just came home from Glomma, just wanted to say that we had a great week. The fishing (or catching as you said) was good most of the days. Some days a little bit harder but not impossible and we trained on the cast you showed us and it gave result. Caught several graylings around 46-48 cm and I also made a new personal record with a 50+ cm (the picture to the right) at one of the places you showed. Also caught some trout, biggest at 45 cm. Maybe we see you again next year. Best regards Robin."

After a lot of rain in the upper parts of Glomma the water level is a bit high now, and it is still rising when I write this. It also has been very windy during the last days, the picture to the right shows what can happen: this poor guy hooked himself in the back of his head ... Marius told me about the little operation he performed, helped by some Scotch for the poor patient. One more reason to always use hooks without barbs !!

Lars from Sweden send me his report : " I spent almost two days in Kvennan, on my way to Hemsila and trout fishing, on June 28-29th and the dry fly fishing was absolutely great with big rising graylings on shallow water and short line fishing, sometimes even sight-fishing. I had a lot of nice fish, all well over 40 cm, and the biggest just above 1 kilo. Fished on small cdc caddis patterns and emergers. Been there for five years and it’s getting better all the time. As good as the world famous rivers in Bosnia I would say! Must thank you for a great job, managing and developing such a great fishery. Back in September!  -  Lars"

This little film I made some weeks ago when fishing with Marius. It involves a really nice trout.

The weather forecast promises us nice weather, but the predictions have been proven wrong so many times this summer. Very often it's just quite cold and miserable weather. There are not many big hatches, I haven't seen a single one this summer, but there is enough going on. Small hatches of all kinds of may flies, caddis in all sizes from #8 to #22, and of course this is prime time for ants, daddy long legs and other terrestrial patterns. Don't forget to try a midge imitation, they will almost always bring up some nice fish. The water level is approaching normal values again, and most good spots in the fly fishing zone can be fished without any problems. The water temperature is rather low all the time. It seldom reaches 14 degrees, and according to my observations the temp should rise from say 12 degrees to 15 degrees for good hatches.

On the picture Marius is holding another huge grayling from the Glomma water shed, 55 cm long and weighting a full 2 kg (!) . This one took a tiny may fly imitation. 

We are halfway the summer fishing season, and river Glomma at Kvennan Fly Fishing reached a normal water level for the time of the year. Also the water temperature is almost normal - maybe a bit low, but that is only good because there will be a few hatches every day. Nothing spectacular, nothing fancy, but a bit of action here and there. Just nice.

Last weekend I guided 4 guys from Sweden. For one reason or another the fishing was really difficult, and the little bit of action we found was concentrated around midday. A good presentation of the dry fly was very important and the first few casts at a new place should be perfect, because more chances were not provided by some very picky grayling. Best flies were CDC emerger patterns.

In the afternoon session we landed about 10 fish between the three of us, and for sure, that was a really thin result. But the guys were happy anyway with the tips & tricks I could give them ...

A small video, this time from river Grimsa. We were there last Sunday and we had a few really good sized grayling. Not much rising fish, in fact I only have seen one rise during the whole day. A bit of nymphing on promising places was all it took ...

Nothing special to write about right now. The water level is a bit high for the time of the year, but that's not a problem at all. More to the South it's another story: at the measuring point just down stream of Koppang (Stai) there is three times the water flow, compared to KFF. To be precise - Glomma at Hummelvoll : 53 m3/s (normal would be about 40 m3/s) and Glomma at Stai 167 m3/s (normal about 75 m3/s).

But it's a lousy summer here in the North, many days it's just cold and rainy weather. During fishing yesterday I have seen only two fish rising, and there were no insects at all on the water. I haven't seen many daddy long legs - crane flies - yet, and the only flies that could bring up a few fish were black foam ants and small zebra (midge) dries. Presented perfectly, of course. Difficult fly fishing ...

Today another little movie - I shot it a few weeks ago. I filmed Jerry from Amsterdam at a nice stretch in the Fly Fishing zone. Jerry works at one of the oldest and most famous fly fishing shops in Holland, and besides that job he is a fine rod builder. And a skillful fly fisherman of course ... Check out the video - play it in full HD !

The fishing conditions should be really great right now if only there were a few more bugs on the water. But there aren't any, so you need to search the water with ants, midges and other terrestrial insect imitations. I guess my best advice for you right now is to concentrate on the upper part of the fly fishing zone. Last night Hakan from Sweden reported difficult fishing but in the afternoon there was some time with a lot of action with good sized grayling hitting his dry flies. Hakan hooked and lost what must have been his biggest grayling ever ... 

Lots of rain during the weekend caused the river to rise. Saturday the fishing was quite good, just before the water went a bit murky. There was a small hatch of caddis going on where I was fishing, and I've seen plenty of nice sized grayling rising. They say it will be dry now for some time, and I guess the water will fall quickly to a normal level again. The fishing is improving, and maybe the best time of the season soon will be here !

The water level has fallen quickly to the normal level for this time of the year. We have had nice sunny days with clear skies for some days now, and of course that means cold nights with temperatures (just) below zero. So the water temperature is falling slowly now, and this is good for the fly fishing conditions.

Yesterday I noticed a pod of really good sized grayling rising for tiny mosquito's in a slow section of the fly fishing zone, but the day before yesterday nothing was going on at this spot. Jerry from Amsterdam is visiting KFF for the second time this summer and reports : " an old fashioned Norwegian day in Glomma with wind, rain, low temperatures and sun shine. A mixed bag, and so were the insects I saw today " and "All days are top of the bill: for two days there was an almost impossible hatch to imitate, but I had great fun.  Yesterday I had my best day ever in Glomma size - wise of the fish. What a terrific day it was !! "

Marius guided a small group of German fly fishermen. In fact a group consisting of three generations fly fishermen of one family: grand father, father and sun. Marius took them to a slow section in the lower part of the fly fishing zone and all of them had some fish and the guys were quite pleased with this day.

During September 21 - 24 and October 5 - 8 some sections of the fly fishing zone will be closed because of a fly fishing competition. More information about this soon.

Patrick from France send me this report :
"Hi Hein, I hope you're fine. After 7 weeks in Norway this year, I send you a small fishing report. First I can say, that it was a good and strange year. Good, because I had a lot of nice fish, trout and grayling. And strange, because from the beginning to the end, there were no insects on the water. No hatching and, of course, no fish rising. But when "the good dry fly" drifted correctly it was always taken. I had an average of about 30-40 fish every day. Sometimes more, sometimes less... I caught some nice trout ( 48 cm, 47 cm and 44 cm) and also grayling. As I told you, the first fish I caught was a 50 cm one on a nymph. I had a lot of grayling between 45 and 50 cm. One afternoon, I had 10 over 45 cm (and a lot of others) in 3 hours. I've lost 2 very big fish (I think trout) with wet fly. Impossible to control these fish even with a tippet 20/100. I felt the fish shaking the head and after a few seconds, it swam downstream and was unhooked. 2 fish did the same thing at a few minutes interval. It doesn't matter, I know where they are, I'll see them next year LOL. Thank you for all you do for Glomma river. The fly fishing zone is really a fantastic spot where we can have a very nice fishing time." (Pat is one of the editors of the terrific French fly fishing website www.gobages.com - 'the rise' ... )

About the fly fishing competition : September 21, 22, 23 and 24 and October 5, 6, 7 and 8 the two sections marked red on the map to the right are closed for fishing. To make sure all goes like planned, we closed down the license sales for those days, and it is not possible to purchase licenses online. But you can get a license at Kvennan Camping (this will be the only place) where Tor Henrik will explain to you exactly where you can fish. If you have any questions call me at (0047) 4682 2513 or mail me at kff@kvennan.com .

In the mean time the fishing is very good at the moment, and if there is not to much wind you can have really, really nice fly fishing!

There are small hatches of tiny may flies now almost every day at certain stretches of the river. I've seen Baetis niger (Iron blue dun) and other species of the Baetis family, green, very very small. And of course lots of rising fish ...

Theo and Nico from Holland booked me for a guiding session last Monday, and after we solved some problems with too slippery plastic soles (I really recommend felt soles, and even better, to put studs in them !) both guys landed some pretty decent grayling on dry flies. The fishing was not very easy because of lousy wind, and this has been a very windy summer. The weather forecast for the weekend and next week are not too bad, and while they say now it will be clouded most of the time, the good thing is that the weather will be stable, and I think that is always good for the fishing.

What's hot and what's not: try small may flies: imitations of the Baetis family in sizes 16-22, midge imitations as Griffith gnat and Zebra midge emerger, medium to small sized (CDC) caddis Marc Petitjean style. Ants and daddy's don't work that good for me now.

A little film I shot together with Marius yesterday, edited it today, online this evening. Right now Glomma @ KFF is offering maybe the best fishing she has to offer, so if you have some free time to waist - get your ... over here right now !

One more thing I should mention - the big grey Autumn moth's are around again, providing big meals for our precious fish. May I suggest you bring some imitations ?

The water level in river Glomma at Kvennan Fly Fishing has been quite stable for weeks now, and it looks like it will stay this way. The fishing conditions are rather good, but the fishing is not easy. Fishing river Glomma is seldom easy ! But if you know what you are doing you can have very good results I guess ...
The flies that work are still the same : Griffith gnat, Zebra midge emerger, small caddis patterns.

A few days ago I visited river Grimsa, together with Jaco from Holland and Marius. All three we landed three grayling up to just over 1 kg, on nymphs and on dry flies. There were not many insects in the water.